Who Run the World (of Journalism)? Girls!!!!: My Reflection on Learning About Girl Reporters

The first presentation given during our second EOTO really caught my attention. From the pop of the Barbie pink background to the empowering topic of girl reporters, I soaked it all in. I have always been passionate about the role of women in pop culture and the media in general, but I didn’t know much about how they have historically contributed to the world of journalism.

They completely redefined what being a woman embodied through stunt journalism. They were brave, resilient, and intelligent, accomplishing massive feats to simply get the story. They did all of this while being “unapologetically female” in the face of naysayers namely old white men at the time who couldn’t imagine a woman outside of the kitchen.

They completely turned the world of journalism upside down as they introduced a new way of writing by tackling serious subjects they had first-hand experience with such as abortion and harassment. They wrote with color and raw emotion that some will argue is all yellow journalism, but it resonated with the readers and it is the reason I am able to learn about them as a young female journalism student in 2023. 

The presenters then went into a little bit of detail about some of the first girl reporters and even mentioned one of the writers I studied which was a nice little crossover. When talking about girl reporters or stunt journalism Nellie Bly comes to mind, so it was only fitting that the next group of presenters solely focused on her life and career. I didn’t know much about the journalist before seeing these presentations, so this was my first opportunity to be able to learn just how impactful the woman was.

Her biggest stunt journalism piece was when she got herself committed to the Blackwell Insane Asylum and wrote her exposition "Behind Asylum Bars" about the horrendously poor environment and treatment of those living there. I had heard a little bit about this whole story, but what I found even more interesting was that she inspired a season of one of my favorite television series.

The creator of American Horror Story, Ryan Murphy, admits that he based season two of the show titled Asylum on the expose along with other retellings of insane asylums of the time. Sarah Paulson portrays a character named Lana Winters who the audience comes to find is a stunt journalist trying to get a story about the true treatment of patients, just like Nellie Bly. There were, of course, some supernatural elements in the show and a storyline about conversion therapy because they also made the reporter a lesbian, but the foundation of Winters was heavily influenced by Bly.

Nearing the end of her career Bly became the face of women's suffrage as that's what she focused on writing about as the fight for the 19th Amendment grew stronger. I believe she is one of the first feminists in the field of journalism, which is so inspiring. I am so grateful to the age of girl reporters that has allowed me to follow my passion all these years later. 

Life as a Journalist Sure Can be (Winifred) Sweet: A Deep Dive into an Impactful Woman of Print Journalism

Winifred Sweet Black Bonfils was born on October 14th, 1863 in Chilton Wisconsin, the fourth of five children. She was the child of a politically ambitious military general named Benjamin Sweet who brought many notable political figures into their home. Sweet liked to listen in to her father's conversations, sparking her first interest in local and international political affairs. 

The family moved to Chicago in 1867 where Sweet attended private school and her father became the United States pension agent for the city. Throughout her younger years, Sweet was intrigued by one of her father's political friends. A friend her father once predicted would become president someday. Her father's prediction became reality in the election of 1880 when James A. Garfield became president. This election was Sweet's first participation in a newsworthy event and the first taste of her later career. 

In 1882, the stunning "blue-eyed redhead with a seventeen-inch waist," had graduated high school. She pursued acting as her first career and traveled with a small theater company throughout Canada, New York, and the South. She came to find out that life as an actress just starting out was nowhere near what she imagined. She received only a few small roles and grew extremely bored with the career path quite quickly. 

In 1886 Sweet was twenty-three and found herself among those of New York's literary circle when she was invited to stay with Mary Mapes Dodge, the editor of the children's magazine St. Nicholas. She fell in love with the life of Dodge's literary friends and was commonly found eavesdropping on her their conversations about current political and social issues. These were the moments when Sweet started to consider journalism as a career. 

In 1889 Sweet arrived in San Francisco to visit her brother-in-law after his wife and her sister suddenly passed away. She made the decision right when she got there that this was the city for her and she never wanted to live anywhere else. When she got a spare moment, she marched into the offices of William Randolph Hearst's San Francisco Examiner on Montgomery Street.

The fiery young woman introduced herself as a woman with broad newspaper experience and exclaimed she was pretty much overqualified for the job. It is believed that this was probably one of her best acting jobs. The managing editor fell for her performance and hired her on the spot. 
In January of 1890, only a few months after being hired at the Examiner, Sweet showed she was game to do anything for the sake of getting a story. Heavily inspired by Nellie Bly, she wrote under the pseudonym "Annie Laurie." Sweet looked towards the world of stunt journalism that was sweeping across the demographic of girl reporters at the time. 

Sweet's first stunt was to get herself admitted to the San Francisco Receiving Hospital, where it had been rumored that the medical staff was negligent and even sometimes abusive in its patient care. Her acting background came in handy after a few falls and stumbles and a dramatic faint on a crowded street corner. She managed to get herself picked up by an ambulance and taken to the hospital, where she took mental notes on how the staff and doctors treated her. 

An accusatory exposé titled "A City's Disgrace" appeared on the front page of the Examiner on January 19th, 1890. As a result of the exposé, city officials worked to improve healthcare services and called for a makeover of the ambulance service for San Francisco. She was making people listen to her writing. She was changing her city for the better. Her investigative news story not only helped improve hospital visits for citizens but became her initiation into the world of "yellow journalism." 

The undercover story soon became "a Hearst trademark," with Sweet taking charge of a series of fascinating assignments. She went on to write about the "lepers on the Hawaiian island of Molokai, polygamy among the Mormons in Utah, and an investigation of the juvenile court system in Chicago." She also became the first woman to report a prize fight and the second to interview a president. 

Nearly blind and barely able to move due to diabetes, she continued to work into her '70s. She died in 1936 but was lovingly remembered by the Examiner and the city of San Francisco as a whole. Stories about her were run on the front page days after her death. In her final interview, for Time magazine, Black expressed her love of the newspaper and those she worked with. "I'm proud of being, in a very humble way, a member of the good old newspaper gang—the kindest-hearted, quickest-witted, clearest-eyed, most courageous assemblage of people I have ever had the honor and the good fortune to know."