Undercover Reporting

Merle Linda Wolin, then the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner's first and only reporter covering Los Angeles's Hispanic community, went undercover as an undocumented sweatshop worker from Portuguese-speaking Brazil, under the name Merlina de Novais.  Over five weeks, she worked three different jobs, even though she had minimal sewing skills.  She spent the better part of a year reporting the story, including the court proceedings over a suit she brought against one of the employers who refused to pay her. 

Charles Chapin, editor of The Chicago Times, hired Nell Cusak to investigate female working conditions in Chicago's factories.  This 21-part series (published under the byline Nell Nelson) was based on the author's experience working undercover in several Chicago factories.  Nelson named specific factories and managers she encountered, detailing the working conditions after spending only a brief time in each factory. 

Reporters going undercover as factory workers in order to expose awful working conditions from 1888 to present.

'Miss Brody, an able and experienced reporter, started out with $10 in her purse, with a frock that costs $6, and with a small handbag as her only luggage--she visited cities, with one exception, strange to her--the comedy and the tragedy, the lesson and the promise to her experiences are vividly and enlighteningly told in this series of articles'