During the late 19th century, well into the 20th century, the Gilded Age was in full swing. The exploitation and corruption of the era motivated the emergence of a group of investigative journalists, called muckrakers. These muckrakers sensationalized social, economic, and political corruption in America and brought the issue to public attention. By looking at a common story woven into the history of muckraking – poverty – one can see the style of muckraking and how it affects society has changed dramatically over time. At first, muckrakers were effective, as they targeted the white, middle-class population; a population capable of implementing changes. However, with the spread of multimedia news, individuals from all socioeconomic backgrounds have access to news, and due to biases in broadcasting, people are becoming news-weary. Therefore, the reputation and credibility of modern muckrakers are becoming increasingly weak. At the beginning of the 20th century, the country began to go through political and economic change. When Theodore Roosevelt took office in 1901, he became the first progressive president, and therefore the first president to truly control the economy. Even as Roosevelt began to fall apart, most of the scandalous publications occurred in magazines, such as McClure's Magazine, or novels, such as Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. Sinclair's novel revealed the horrors of the meat industry and the poverty of the workers. The book sparked anger and concern regarding factory safety and ultimately contributed to the creation of the Pure Food and Drug Act, although from a financial perspective it had little effect at the time. The book ends with multiple chapters praising socialism and how it is the only right form of economy due to the extreme poverty of the working class and corruption in politics. To demonstrate the poverty of the people, Sinclair writes things like this