Americanization through Media

The role of newspapers are crucial in obtaining and distributing information, endorsing opinion and promoting political campaigns. One important role it designed to address in the 1920's is setting new standardization for immigrants in the American society. Robert E. Park proposes that through advertising, immigrants can move from the ghetto, where there are mostly assimilated, and move into a mainstream ideal American society. Through the businesses and goods reflected in advertisements, immigrants can learn the cultural and moral values set by America which can ultimately teach these immigrants on what is supposed to be the "American Dream". Park offers a statement that corresponds with this theory; "Americans may even go one step farther. By encouraging the foreign-language press to emphasise the immigrant heritages congenial to ours, by showing it the friendly side of America, it is possible to hasten its development into an instrument of Americanization". Park shows that through this article, the art of persuasion can be accomplished through media, and to help integrate people from different morals, values, customs, traditions, and beliefs in to an American society, is the best from of persuasion.