“Plowing Gold from the Wasteland”

Abstract

During the five years of the South Florida land boom, cities grew rapidly and the population skyrocketed. This article examines the three themes used in the northern mainstream press and two Florida newspapers to portray the boom: a vision of paradise, the Everglades as a cornucopia, and easy money on the last frontier. At the same time, naturalists decried the loss of habitat and press organizations sought to establish a code of ethics to limit corporate influence on news content. The results of this study suggest that the press contributed to the land-buying frenzy with numerous promotional articles and avoided any mention of a negative impact on the environment, although that information was available, while viewing the code of ethics as a formality that had little impact on their portrayal of what was occurring in Florida.