Radio: Radio reached its zenith of popularity in this decade. By 1939 about 80 percent of the
population owned radio sets. Americans loved to laugh at the antics of such comedians as Jack
Benny, Fred Allen, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Amos and Andy, and Fibber McGee and
Molly. The soap opera dominated the daytime airwaves. Our Gal Sunday began each episode
with the question, "Can a girl from a little mining town in the west find happiness as the wife of
a wealthy and titled Englishman?' Many a woman's ear was glued to her radio every day in
hopes of learning the answer. The heroics of the Lone Ranger, the Green Hornet, the Shadow,
and Jack Armstrong, all-american boy, thrilled listeners both young and old and sold countless
boxes of cereal. News broadcasts by commentators like H. V. Kaltenborn and Edward R.
Murrow kept the public aware of the increasing crisis in Europe. Franklin Roosevelt used the
medium in his "Fireside Chats" to influence public opinion. One of the most dramatic moments
in radio history occurred on May 6, 1937, when the German airship Hindenburg burst into
flames as it was about to land in Lakehurst, New Jersey. The horror of the incident was
conveyed live by the reporter Herb Morrison. His reaction to what was happening in front of
him still enthralls today. On October 30, 1938, a twenty-three-year-old Orson Welles broadcast
on his Mercury Theater of the Air the H.G. Wells’ story “War of the Worlds”. Despite the
disclaimer at the end of the program, the tale of a Martian invasion of Earth panicked a million
listeners who mistook the play for a newscast. Such was the influence of radio in this its golden
age.
Magazines: The 1930s were a heyday for magazines. In 1935 there were 6,546 in the United States—half monthlies and one-quarter weeklies. Pulp fiction, comic books, and the new animated cartoons with synchronized sound were also popular. In the 1930s newspapers and radio were radically restructured, both in their operational foundation and in their content. Federal regulations governing mass media were established and remained in place, with little alteration, until the 1980s. Journalistic ethics and business protocols developed in the 1930s continued to govern mass media in the postwar era. The decade gave American mass media a distinct character.
More on Mass Media: In many ways the American mass media as we know it is a product of the Depression. Mass media provided the Depression-era public with projections of their thwarted ambitions and expressions of their deep frustrations. Mass media was foremost entertainment, even in radio and newspapers, which were well suited for communication of news or other vital information. 5 Like other businesses in the Depression, the mass media were forced to scale down and pay close attention to what the public wanted. Some newspapermen continued to fulfill their journalistic responsibilities to inform and educate the public. Others, such as William Randolph Hearst, understood that sensationalism—not detailed news presentation and analysis—sold papers. Hearst survived the Depression, but many of his idealistic competitors did not. Like other big businessmen, Hearst, David Sarnoff of RCA, Henry Luce of Time> William Paley of CBS, and other magnates of the communications field saw the Depression as an opportunity to expand their holdings, driving competitors out of business. The economics of the Depression and the psychological impact of the downturn on the public thus combined to strip the educational and informational potential from the mass media and turn them almost exclusively toward entertainment. In the early part of the decade the NBC-red network broadcast no news programming; educational radio was virtually nonexistent; pulp fiction presented lurid sex and violence; and newspapers focused on sensational events, simplistic presentation of news, and comic strips. All were well-loved by the public; all were highly profitable; all provided a temporary escape from the misery of the period. Mass media in the early 1930s thus pandered to the lowest—and sometimes the worst—common denominator of the American public. While the mass media in the 1930s were diversionary and entertaining, quite often that entertainment was implicitly political. Comedy, the most popular genre on radio during the decade, often got its laughs with the plot line of a poor person disrupting the social occasions of the rich.
Magazines: The 1930s were a heyday for magazines. In 1935 there were 6,546 in the United States—half monthlies and one-quarter weeklies. Pulp fiction, comic books, and the new animated cartoons with synchronized sound were also popular. In the 1930s newspapers and radio were radically restructured, both in their operational foundation and in their content. Federal regulations governing mass media were established and remained in place, with little alteration, until the 1980s. Journalistic ethics and business protocols developed in the 1930s continued to govern mass media in the postwar era. The decade gave American mass media a distinct character.
More on Mass Media: In many ways the American mass media as we know it is a product of the Depression. Mass media provided the Depression-era public with projections of their thwarted ambitions and expressions of their deep frustrations. Mass media was foremost entertainment, even in radio and newspapers, which were well suited for communication of news or other vital information. 5 Like other businesses in the Depression, the mass media were forced to scale down and pay close attention to what the public wanted. Some newspapermen continued to fulfill their journalistic responsibilities to inform and educate the public. Others, such as William Randolph Hearst, understood that sensationalism—not detailed news presentation and analysis—sold papers. Hearst survived the Depression, but many of his idealistic competitors did not. Like other big businessmen, Hearst, David Sarnoff of RCA, Henry Luce of Time> William Paley of CBS, and other magnates of the communications field saw the Depression as an opportunity to expand their holdings, driving competitors out of business. The economics of the Depression and the psychological impact of the downturn on the public thus combined to strip the educational and informational potential from the mass media and turn them almost exclusively toward entertainment. In the early part of the decade the NBC-red network broadcast no news programming; educational radio was virtually nonexistent; pulp fiction presented lurid sex and violence; and newspapers focused on sensational events, simplistic presentation of news, and comic strips. All were well-loved by the public; all were highly profitable; all provided a temporary escape from the misery of the period. Mass media in the early 1930s thus pandered to the lowest—and sometimes the worst—common denominator of the American public. While the mass media in the 1930s were diversionary and entertaining, quite often that entertainment was implicitly political. Comedy, the most popular genre on radio during the decade, often got its laughs with the plot line of a poor person disrupting the social occasions of the rich.
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