Abstract
AbstractThe publicity of journalism has long been central to anti-corruption politics in the United States. This article explores relations between journalism and corruption in early twentieth-century Chicago and shows how newspapers could be used by corrupt politicians to consolidate and even constitute their power. By examining the three-term mayoralty of William Hale ‘Big Bill’ Thompson, the article considers a range of media strategies, from press-baiting to propaganda and boosterism, that fuelled public controversies about press hypocrisy and limited journalism's anti-corruption potential. Thompson's Chicago sheds light on broader debates about the politics of journalism in capitalist societies with commercial media environments; it also helps illuminate wider histories of corruption in America.
Highlights
The rise of the muckrakers in the early twentieth century made journalism a key mechanism for combating corruption in the United States
The publicity of journalism has long been central to anti-corruption politics in the United States
This article explores relations between journalism and corruption in early twentieth-century Chicago and shows how newspapers could be used by corrupt politicians to consolidate and even constitute their power
Summary
Historians have long explored the emergence of ‘print-capitalism’ and more recently seen modern America as a ‘media nation’.14 New histories of American newspapers stress their commercial and transnational production and consumption, but struggle to find clear links between their economic interests and editorial content.[15] Beyond the United States, much scholarship suggests that historical changes in media technologies and communications had complex political consequences, which could subvert or confound journalistic intentions.[16] In these contexts, Thompson’s Chicago reveals a range of relations between press, state, and capital in a booming global city in the early twentieth century.
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