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| Monday, 8 March 2004 |
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The first woman news reporter by Dr. Ajantha Hapuarachchi, University of Colombo Every year we commemorate women's day on March 8. Very often we recollect past incidents in relation to women around the world. But how many would know about the first woman in journalism? She is Nellie Bly. Nellie was one of few women who were rousing characters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the 1880s she pioneered the development of "detective" or "stunt" journalism, The forerunner of full-scale investigative reporting. It is interesting to find that this first woman journalist had come to Sri Lanka and even purchased some gem studded jewellery and stayed at the Grand Oriental Hotel. She was fascinated by the gems of Sri Lanka. While she was still doing her early duties, the example of her fearless success helped open the profession to coming generations of women journalists, clamouring to write hard news. When she was born in Cochran's mills Pennsylvania in 1864 or 1867 her name was Elizabeth Cochran. She was also called Lizzie, and her father was an important, wealthy leader of the town.
When Elizabeth was five, the family moved to the nearby town of Appolo and her father died. Elizabeth went to boarding school and when she was 15 she would spend hours reading and writing in the family library. In Elizabeth's day most women of 20 were married or soon would be. She wanted a career. She wanted to become a journalist that she could take decisions. One day she read an article in the 'Pitsburgh Dispatch', titled, "What girls are good for." It made fun of women who were trying to break into the working world of men. They should stay at home and leave work to men; was the notion. Elizabeth wrote an angry letter to the editor. She insisted that women should have chance to do the same kind of work as men, and should be paid on par with men, for the same work. She signed the letter as "Lonely orphan girl," and sent it off. Imagine her surprise when she saw this ad in the paper a few days later. Lonely Orphan Girl "If the writer of the communication signed "Lonely orphan girl" will send her name and address to this office, merely as a guarantee of favour and receive the information she desires". She did not reply and went right to the newspaper office. When she entered the newsroom. rows of men sat at desks. Not a woman among them. Men became aware that a woman had entered, all work stopped and they looked in an inquisitive manner? She met the Managing Editor, George Madden, who had never expected the ad to be answered in person. But he told her that he wanted to publish her letter as an article. And he offered her a job as a reporter. She was surprised and accepted the offer. Madden suggested that she write a series of articles about working women and planned to make her a news reporter. It is reported that she was the first American news reporter. Elizabeth knew she could use material her father had once collected for a study on divorce. She could also interview women and report what they had to say about marriage. At that point Elizabeth became Nellie Bly. She took her pen name from Stephen Foster's song, "Nellie Bly," when she began writing on divorce and on the plight of women and children in factories, in the 'Pittsburgh Dispatch'. In 1887, she feigned insanity, had herself admitted Blackwell's Island asylum, and wrote the inside story of conditions there. As a result of her expose she became famous overnight. Whenever possible, Nellie talked to the women working in the factories she visited. She also talked to working women living in boarding houses. Nellie became the voice of working women. But she did more than give her readers the facts in the workplace. She carried on a crusade in the pages of 'Dispatch'. Most of her readers loved it. Nellie's articles boosted sales of the 'Dispatch'. Whenever her stories appeared, the paper was sold out. George Madden was proud of his female reporter. She next drew public attention by her trip around the world to surpass the record of Jule Verne's imaginary hero; Phineas Fogg. Starting out on Nov. 14, 1889 she outdid Fogg's time, by setting the record of 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes. She was travelling alone - as few women did in those days-especially not to foreign countries. In those 75 days she was to travel through France and Italy, pass through the Suezz Canal, touch shore at Sri Lanka, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan, cross the Pacific Ocean, land in San Francisco and cross the United States by train. On December 10th, 1890, she came to Sri Lanka and stayed at Grand Oriental Hotel. She had written about the taste of our tea and had bought some gem studded jewellery. By then she had joined to the 'World' of Joseph Pulitzer' and suggested she should be called Nellie Bly. Finally she wrote a column in the 'World' and fought for justice and made others aware of the wrongs of the world. Nellie married Robert L. Seaman, a wealthy man. He owned the Iron Clad Manufacturing Company. After she got married she gave up her writing. During World War I she was in Austria and went back to the US and returned to newspaper work. She became a war reporter for the 'New York Evening Journal' - another first for a woman. Nellie died in 1922. She was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in New York city. In 1978, nearly 60 years after Nellie's death, the New York Press Club erected a tombstone on her grave with the words, "in honour of a famous news reporter". In honour of both Nellie and the club's founder, an annual award is given for outstanding work done by a club news reporter. When she died, the 'New York Evening Journal' paid tribute to Nellie Bly as simply "The best reporter in America". Thousands of women have followed Nellie's path in newspaper journalism. |
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