The Woman Who Pioneered Investigative Journalism.
Nellie Bly, born as Elizabeth Cochrane, was a pioneer in investigative journalism. She was famous for being the first journalist to go undercover as a patient in a mental institution on Blackwell island in the year of 1887. Nellie was only 23 years old at the time but she paved a way of respect for women investigative journalists. She got her start at the Pittsburgh dispatch where she eventually got an assignment from Joseph Pulitzer to go undercover. Committed to her role, she practiced mimicking insanity in order to be convincing. She checked into a boarding house under the ruse of Nelly Brown, a traveler from Cuba, and her ranting and raving indeed scared the residents so badly that she was arrested and court ordered to the insane asylum. She spent 10 weeks there, under deplorable conditions. The food that was served was so rancid and spoiled that it was hardly edible. The temperature was freezing with insufficient means of the residents staying warm and the bathing water was freezing and dirty. Harrowing first hand accounts were taken by Bly from women residents there. Heinous stories of beating and torture.After he 10 weeks were over, she published her story in New York World.
The writer of the article used descriptive language and context to draw in the readers.
She gathered knowledge from other sources and put it into her own words using strong pictorial language to entice the reader to imagine the horrific conditions of the insane asylum.
Bernard, Diane. “ She Went Undercover To Expose An Insane Asylums Horrors. Now Nelly Bly Is Getting Her Dues”.” The Washington Post. July 28th 2019. Nellie Bly exposed a New York insane asylum’s horrors. Now she’s getting a memorial on Roosevelt Island. - The Washington Post
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