Nellie Bly as a Muckraking Journalist

Nellie Bly circa 1890

In an era where female writers were restricted to women’s columns and society pages, Nellie Bly made a name for herself as a successful investigative journalist, whose career directly served to bring about reform and challenge traditional ideas of femininity and class. Insistent that she would not be confined to topics such as gardening and cooking, Bly strived to use her writing capabilities for the betterment of the people, in particular offering a voice to underrepresented women.¹ Nellie Bly lacked all qualifications for professional recognition as a muckraking journalist in the late nineteenth century, however, “she transformed her amateurism from liability to asset, countering bureaucratic and scientific authority with her own truths based on physical sensation.”² Bly’s willingness to participate in acts of stunt journalism considered wildly inappropriate for a middle class woman, ultimately became her trademark reporting style, as she produced articles surrounding her own experiences and observations.³ 

Nellie Bly is often considered the first female stunt reporter, signaling the shift in a new group of newspaperwomen who were able to move from the women’s pages to the headlining stories, covering topics ranging from politics to criminal news.⁴ Nellie Bly’s role as a muckraking journalist brought a new feminine perspective to the news, establishing her role as a reformist and challenger of traditional ideas of gender and class. It was because of Bly that the name “stunt reporting had become synonymous with women's journalism.”⁵