Overheads from Week 7

---

Radio's 'Golden Age,' 1920-40

Key concepts

Public Interest, Convenience and Necessity

Radio Exceptionalism

Key people

Herbert Hoover

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Regulatory Statutes

Radio Act of 1912

Radio Act of 1927

Federal Communications Act of 1934

---

Who owned early radio? 1923: 576 Broadcast licenses

Set makers, dealers: 222 (39%)

Schools 72 (13%)

Newspapers 69 (12%)

Department stores 12 (5%)

Auto, bicycle stores 18 (3%)

Music, jewelry stores 13 (2%)

Churches, YMCA's 12 (2%)

Police, fire, cities 7 (1%)

Hardware stores 6 (1%

Railroads, utilities 9 (1%)

Other commercial 19 (3%)

Miscellaneous 100 (17%)

Broadcast owners in 1930

Commercial stations 92%

Nonprofits 8%

---

Why broadcast regulation?

What was the problem, to be fixed, exactly?

Chaos or diversity?

Technology? Economics?

Commercial v. Nonprofit?

Whose 'Publicity Interest, Convenience and Necessity?"

Scarcity of public resource?

---

Alternative pathways for radio before regulation

Exerperimentation (1890s-1920s)

Mostly telegraph, not voice

Interactive: one-to-one

Amateurs, cystal sets, Boy Scouts

Ships (1910), Titanic (1912)

Licenses, but open access (1912-1927)

'Real Radio' to :'Radio mania'

Novelty to nuisance

Amateurs/hackers?

Diverse range of owners (1923)

Start of scheduled broadcasts, programming

Commercialization, 1922-1934

Growing audiences

Competition for limited frequences, interference

Discovery of selling possibilities

Development of networks (1924)

Emergence of radio as national advertising medium

Industry demands for regulation

"Free" v. paid content through license fees

Herbert Hoover

Establishment of regulatory scheme, 1927-1934

Radio Act of 1927/Federal Radio Commission

'Public interest, convenience and necessity'

National Association of Broadcasters

Reduce number of licenses

Replace "propaganda" stations with "public service" commercial stations

No direct regulation of content, other than through statute ("Equal Time" for political candidates) and Fairness Doctrine.

Sponsor system provided content over networks

Federal Communications Act of 1934

Regulatory model for television after World War II

---

Radio and panic: War of the Worlds, 1938

Pick one:

Demonstrated overwhelming power of radio on human behavior?

Demonstrated limits of power of radio on human behavior?

Important of context in determining impact of media messages: recent news reports of war in Europe, "Scientific" writing on prospects of life on Mars.

Names:

Orson Welles, Hadley Cantril, The Invasion from Mars, 1940.

---

Hope, fear and public opinion

Theories of media effects

Silver bullet, hypodermic

Minimal effects

Presidential election of 1940 study: The Peoples Choice, Paul Lazarsfeld

Media only a part of web of influence: messages just one of many reaching humans and shaping their opinions: personal experience, friends, neighbors, family, other daily conversations, reading.

Individuals "select" messages, perceptions, interpretations

Messages reinforce, not convert

Supported also by studies of "Why We Fight" films

Draftees already patriotic; little influence on opinion

Somewhat more informed about issues, but opinion toward war effort largely unchanged.