Unleash Your Imagination: Conquer the 2025 Creative Writing Practice Exam!

The author suggests that muckrakers shared a commonality in their tactics and tone, linking them to yellow journalism. This connection is significant because muckrakers, while primarily journalistic figures aiming for reform, often employed sensationalist techniques to capture public attention, similar to yellow journalism. They utilized dramatic storytelling, vivid imagery, and sometimes exaggeration to highlight social issues and corruption, compelling readers to respond to the injustices they uncovered.

This emphasis on tactics and tone illustrates how muckrakers sought to engage the public emotionally, creating a sense of urgency around the problems they reported. In doing so, they aimed not just to inform but to provoke action and reform by drawing stark attention to societal issues. This shared approach influenced the way their work was received by the public, allowing them to effectively mobilize support for change.

In contrast, while economic issues, relationships with political leaders, and representations in popular culture may have been important aspects of their work, they do not encapsulate the defining similarities among muckrakers as effectively as their shared tactics and tone in journalism.