Answer: C. To describe unethical reporting practices during the Gilded Age, and how they are similar to reporting today.
Step-by-step explanation:
This is based on an article about reporting in the Gilded Age by Randall S. Sumpter. Randall talks about how the internet has made the journalism scene so saturated and competitive that reporters sometimes engaged in unethical practices to get by.
Mr. Sumpter then likened this to the Gilded Age where reporters did the same thing because just like now, there was a lot of competition then and journalists did whatever they could - no matter how unethical - to ensure that they were successful.