Nellie Bly, pen name of Elizabeth Jane Cochrane, was an American journalist who launched a new kind of investigative journalism. She broke the record of Jules Verne’s fictional character Phileas Fogg from “Around the World in 80 Days” by famously globe-trotting, at 25 and unchaperoned, in 72 days. Bly also faked insanity for an undercover assignment […]
Posts tagged with Nellie Bly
Nellie Bly fakes insanity, exposes women’s lunatic asylum
Posted by: Danielle Roussey | October 12, 2011 | No Comment |Nellie Bly’s story sounds like it should be turned into a box office hit. A striking young woman fakes insanity to expose a mental institution from within. A little “Shutter Island” mixed with, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Credit: Nellieblyonline.com Nellie Bly was the pen name of Elizabeth Jane Cochran. She was given the […]
Teddy Roosevelt: the man who coined the “muckraker”
Posted by: Alex Howard | December 2, 2009 | 3 Comments |When people think of the term, “muckraker,” what comes to mind are some of the people that changed the history of the world forever. Some of those people include Nellie Bly, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Upton Sinclair, and plenty of others. According to the dictionary, a muckraker is someone who seeks to expose corruption […]
Nellie Bly: Pioneer of Investigative Reporting
Posted by: britnipetersen | November 23, 2009 | No Comment |During a time when women were scorned in the workforce and expected to stay at home, one woman, Nellie Bly, was paving her way into becoming one of the greatest reporters of all time. Nellie Bly, or birth name Elizabeth Cochran, started her career as a writer for the Pittsburgh Dispatch in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her […]
Women and Muckraking: what started it all
Posted by: Alex Howard | September 21, 2009 | No Comment |When people think of muckraking, what comes to mind is that term coined by President Teddy Roosevelt. This term has to do with an individual who “rakes the muck” or exposes corruption going on to the public. There were many muckrakers, the majority of them male until reporter Nellie Bly introduced herself to the muckraking industry. Early […]