Labor Journalism

Christopher Burnett

Over the last 200 years, the role of labor journalism has evolved with ebbs and flows of the labor movement, both in the United States and throughout the developed world. The rise of factory employment in America early in the nineteenth century resulted in class distinctions not apparent at the founding of the country late in the eighteenth century, and substandard working conditions led to discontent that needed a media outlet. Although expression of some of this discontent was reflected in coverage of the working class in the mid-nineteenth-century penny press, a ready market also existed for serious investigative journalism geared specifically for workers and their political allies. Throughout their history in the United States, three types of labor publications have predominated. The first are trade union periodicals published with union money and circulated mainly to union members. They serve as mouthpieces for union officials. Rather than independent labor publications, ...

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