Thursday, May 03, 2007

French monarchy


According to Starr, "As the french monarchy censored and policed publishing within its borders, so it souhgt to control print communication in its colonies. Printing presses were simply banned in Quebec, so books had to be imported, and there were no newspapers." This quote indicates that the french monarchy were in control of publishing within it's borders. However, the printing press was banned in Quebec and there weren't any newspapers. Books were allowed in Quebec, but they had to be imported from another country. What was the reasoning behind banning newspapers? Newspapers are a form of communication, expression, and news. Without a newspaper, how would people learn about the news? People gain a lot of information by the reading the newspaper and it signified a lot. If there weren't any newspapers in existence, many people were going to be misinformed.

Protestant Leaders


According to Starr, "The Protestant leaders regarded the printing press as a means of propagating the truth and created their own presses to disseminate their beliefs;their was the first transformative movement in history spread, to a large extent. Through the vehicle of print." In this quote Starr is implying that Protestant leaders were the first to spread printing throughout history. The protestant leaders wanted to get their views and beliefs across to the printing press and iniated their own press. Through the press, they encouraged many people to read the bible.

Equal education


According to Starr, "Publishing was associated with capitalism in part because the industry itself was a prime instance of capitalist development. The earliest printed books, like the manuscripts that served as their models, were large, cumbersome folios written in Latin primarily for the clergy, the universities, and higher officials." In this quote, it is implied that manuscripts were written in Latin and it were predominantly for high officials. Why was that so? Personally, I think that this was fair. Society doesn't just consist of high officials. Everyone should have had the right to read a manuscript despite their class.

Why Gloria Swanson Is always broke.



Gloria Swanson is Always Broke is an article basically about how despite Swanson becoming a movie star she was more poor then she was when she started. Gloria used to be content with the simple things in garments and house furnishings but now "All my salary goes for clothes or furniture. I buy much more expensive clothes than I should: much more expensive than I ever did before" Swanson never craved such expensive dresses which she could never afford until after she became a movie star and had to wear them around the set. Swanson became greedy for the finer things in life. Before becoming a movie star Swanson was one of the most contented and happy girls alive but then turned to being pathetic and crying at her poverty. I find it ironic that although Swanson became rich she was however poor. This teaches me one thing that my mother always tell me "Live Within your means."

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Promoting "Lucky Strike" Cigarettes


The rise of public relations industry and the transformation of advertising during the 1920 have had a big affect on changing the United States. This brought a new prospective into many people’s homes and also the way they act. Many people wanted there product to be seen and to be sold the only way they could teach the people about it was through promoting, advertising and also through public relations. In Promoting “Lucky Strikes” To Women in the Late 1920’s: by Edward Bernays he speaks on ways to catch the public attention and also different ways in promoting his product. “He spent his waking hours thinking of ideas that might induce more people to but Luckies. He left the production of cigarettes to subordinates. His field was selling. He seized recklessly, fearlessly any idea he thought would sell Luckies. Some of his selling idea had far-reaching social effects. Maury was eager for publicity and recognized that the publicity would help him. When his story was sent to newspapers, photographers and artist took their cue from Maury, and public soon became more oriented toward slenderness” (Bernays, 11).

Chapter, 10:The Costitution of the Air (1)



Starr,Paul. The Creation of the Mass Media The Constitution of the Air, The Origins of Broadcasting.


"There couldn't have been a more fitting occasion for the debut of American broadcasting than an election night. In the following years, political decisions about the basic structural arrangements and rules of broadcasting, moreover, the age of print-dominated public sphere would begin to wane: Within two decades, according to public opinion surveys, radio would overtake newspapers as Americans primary source of news, and national political leaders would use radio to communicate directly with public, bypassing newspapers, parties and other locally based organizations. In short, the institutional framework adopted for radio would become significant part of the framework politics itself. And because the structure adopted for the radio would later be carried over to television in the United States and other countries, the political decisions made during the 1920s were to have especially significant and long-lasting effects"(Starr,328).


This passage is talking about how people did not feel the need for the newspaper. Radio was booming many people got the news through the airways. Everything broadcast through the airways. Radio was the framework of politics every politician thought that they they could be heard better and reach the community better through the airways. The people who could not make it to the debate had a chance of listening and also hearing the politicians clearly to make their decision. So many of the politicians wanted to be clear and also made sure that the people heard them clearly and what they had to say.

The Early Radio

By the 1920’s radios were beginning to be sold and people were buying them but they needed something to listen to. There was now a need to broadcast to these radios. KDKA was the first radio station and it was located in Pittsburgh and it broadcast the election results. This was a major step in the radio business. Unlike the telegram, which required you to pay money to have a message sent, and then rely on a messenger to deliver your message, the radio was free and was instant. And unlike other new technologies that were very cumbersome and not portable in the early stages of their lives, the radio was in cars and more portable versions by the mid 1920’s. aside from election results, the world series in baseball was broadcast in 1921. The rise of radio commercials and advertising also arise. The radio also began to influence politics as it first covered the 1924 election. It caused politicians to stop and think what they should say since everything now was being broadcast at conventions.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Do They Earn Their Pay?

In the piece "Do They Earn Their Pay" By Robert Eichberg the female radio broadcaster Ida Baily Allen and her advertising schemes over the air in 1934 is discussed. The article begins by discussing how the wages for a radio broadcaster were low. So in order for them to get money they had to seek other alternatives to make money. one alternative was advertising. During her time as a radio broadcaster Ida Baily Allen used a product for 15 cents and used it to her own benefit by telling listeners to send proof of purchases to attain that certain product from the radio station. this tactic was very successful that the cash return for these proof of purchases was 304,500 dollars. soon after Ida Baily Allen used this the station made sales on various products. this is my opinion is the first move in advertising products over the radio.

Why Gloria Swanson Is Always Broke


Hornblow, Arthur. Why Gloria Swanson Is Always Broke Theatre Magazine Company, Vol. 29, No 5. Ed.



" It's mighty hard to wear a robe costing say a thousand dollars, all day long and then go to the dressing room and put on my comparatively poor best. I can understand the poor cloak model who wears wonders creations all day long and then has put on a simple, little cheap dress"...All my salary goes for clothes or furniture. I buy much more expensive clothes than I should; much more expensive than I ever did before. And I am always buying chairs and pictures and things for my home. I used to be quite satisfied with simpler things in garments and house furniture's"... "You see since I've been working for Mr. DeMille I am always broke"( 304).


More money more problems is the basic premise of this articular. That people would do anything to get money and as soon as they get some money they buy things that they cannot afford or don't even need. Before she was an actress she praised the fact that she was poor but content she. She accepted the fact that she did not have much she had no worries. However she started becoming greedy. she could not see herself as being an actress being in the movies having lavish things on the big screen, when she returned home she had nothing. She was no longer content with what she had. She wanted more, furniture, more of everything. She wanted to live the life that she portrayed on the big screens. This article also talks on how the media portrays the untruth of society, and how it brings you down. Because it makes people want things such as money that they don't have and also willing to do anything to be what society will accept.


Radio as an Educational Force


Frank, Glenn. Radio as an Educational Force. Annals of the Academy. January, 1935.


"Radio has given education a new medium. Education must invest radio with meaning. I have been convinced that invention, of radio, the talking film, and television is destined to affect the process and scope of education with quite as revolutionary as followed in the wake of the invention of printing press. Radio, the talking film, television can warm, illumine, and fertilize the routines of education by bringing the fruits of scattered genius into the world around. Radio is indirectly excreting a profound and productive educational influence on American Life. The mechanism of radio itself, entirely aside from any deliberate policy on the parts of the administrators, will tend in time to give u a new kind of statesman and a new kind of voter" ( Frank 119-22).


This article talks about Radio being a very important part of a way to educate people not only in the schools but also in the community around them. Frank touches upon how radio allows to to become a more important consumer and allows you to make your own choices. He goes on saying that radio is going to change the way people view politics and also popular votes. It will give you a chance to hear the side of everything that is going own in everyone and also listen clearer to the way the politicians speak. The listeners, the individual can based for themselves who they think is giving the best answer to fulfill there needs, and that they want to hear.

Chapter 9 "The Path of Nickeldeon"


The Creation of the Mass Media Paul Starr.


"Up to this point, motion-picture exhibitors had relied on vaudeville theaters and other existing venues, but the surging popular demand for the movies created the basis of a new down-market exhibition space. In June 1095, an entrepreneur in Pittsburgh set up a cheap storefront theater for the showing films and called it the "Nickelodeon". Within a year the, hundreds of nickelodeons had sprouted across the country, and by the beginning of 1907, there were 2,500, according to the new entertainment paper Variety" (Starr, 303).


Nickelodeon had a very powerful impact when it first came to play. It was a form of entertainment to lower class people. It was something new, something that they never saw before. The movie business is one of today’s society biggest industries, and many people want to be part of it. The movie is as fascinating and has grown even more just like when it first came out.

Chapter 7 "The rise of Moral Censorship"

In the Creation of the Media, Starr speaks on Pornography filtering the society. This passage spoke on the issue and how it is a disgrace. "Studies of state intervention in the nineteenth century usually emphasize such measures as factory legislation, public health, and social insurance, but there was also increase in moral regulation, particularly relating to sex, popular culture, and the protection of children. IN the United States, these concerns intersected after the Civil War in growing public preoccupation with obscenity- or as we call it, "pornograpy ," a term that had not yet acquired its modern meaning. Like other movements of moral reform, the campaign had a coercive side, aimed at suppressing vice, and a moralist didactic side, aimed at propagating alternatives thought to more wholesome, pure, uplifting" (Starr, 236).

Chapter 6 "The Technology of Civil society



Paul, Starr. A Creation of the Media


"As dynamic this folded, prices for the telephone service fell sharply.
Independent phone companies generally offered lower rates than Bell, and though
Bell cut its rates every where, they were lower where it faced rival. Overall,
from 1895, to 1909, the revenue that Bell received per phone dropped by 55
percent, Bell claimed that the cause of lower rates was primarily improved
efficiency, not competition. Competition created pressure on Bell, however, not
only to become more efficient, but also to adapt equipment, services, and rate
plans to meet demands for low-cost-service. Bell intorduce a less expensive
phone set for rural use, and it expaneded party lines in order to make service
available on cheaper basis"(Starr, 202).


This passage is taking about when the supply is to much the demand goes down. In other ways it is talking about when the competition gets to much the seller needs to lowere its standards to make the costumer happy. The rise of the telephones was booming and everyone wanted to create their own version so everyone started selling it at a lowere price. Bell wanted to keep his costumers and also gained new ones so he had to make improvements like he said it was not based on competition but on how efficient the phone was to his consumers.

CHAPTER 12: LET THE SCREEN STARS TEACH YOU HOW TO MAKE LOVE


John Boles (October 28, 1895 - February 27, 1969) was a United States actor. He was born in Greenville, Texas into a middle class family. He graduated with honors from the University of Texas in 1917 and also married Marielite Dobbs in that same year. Although his parents wanted him to a doctor, John Boles preferred acting and singing and he demonstrated talents for them from an early age. Eventually he became one of the biggest love scene actors of his time and wrote and an article published in The Illustrated Love Magazine, in June 1934. The article titled Let the Screen Stars teach you How to Make Love. The article was an education on how an actor must capture his love scene on camera just as it would appear in real life. John describes how each love scene is different due to the context of the film and who the actress is opposite him. John did love scenes with famous actresses like Margaret Sullivan in Only Yesterday and Irene Dunne in Back Street. John Boles wrote this article to reiterate how important a love scene can be on film and in real life and you must appeal to your partner as she wishes. John Boles career was so successful because he was cast in glamorous roles, and had the most perfected type of tenderness that appealed to a large variety of women.

"Should Radio Be Used for Advertising?" Joseph H. Jackson- Radio Broadcast, November 1922, pp.75-6

Jackson talks about how listening to the radio, like enjoying the sound of soft music is soothing until a whinning voice goes over the music saying, "Good Morning! Have you used Hare's Soap?" in somewhat creates a small problem for people who do like interuptions while listening to the radio.

But advertising on the radio, is a form a letting the public know what's going on in the media world. Such as buying products that are essential or must have, news brackets and well and social events. But as of before, Jackson stated that advertising would clog the airwaves which it has to a point, but advertising really clogging the air waves or helping them make more money?

CHAPTER 11: "THE NATIONAL RADIO HOME-MAKER'S CLUB"


"THE NATIONAL RADIO HOME-MAKER'S CLUB"

A POPULAR RADIO HOST OF THE 1930'S CELEBRATES HOW MONUMENTAL THE RADIO COMMUNITY WAS IN UNITING HOME-MAKERS ALL OVER THE NATION. BY THE 1930'S ABOUT 20 MILLION HOME-MAKERS HAD ONE THING IN COMMON: THE HOME. MOST OF THESE WOMEN WERE STAY AT HOME MOMMIES WHO TENDED TO THE CHILDREN BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY THEY TENDED TO THE HOME. MANY WOMEN TURNED TO THE RADIO AS A SORT OF ENTERTAINMENT WHILE CLEANING THE HOME; BEING THEIR WAS ABOUT 20 MILLION HOME MAKERS TUNING IN EVERY DAY THIS PHENOMENA CREATED "THE NATIONAL RADIO HOME-MAKER'S CLUB." A RADIO HOST AT THE TIME NAMED IDA BAILEY ALLEN DESCRIBES THE RADIO COMMUNITY THAT MORE THEN 20 MILLION HOME MAKER'S TUNED IN EVERYDAY. THE HOME MAKER'S SAW THIS OCCUPATION AS A "WISH"; AND ANY WOMEN WHO HAS THIS SAME WISH COULD SUCCESSFULLY JOIN THIS CLUB. THE CLUB WAS ANNOUNCED OVER THE AIR AND DESCRIBED ITSELF AS DESIGNED TO PROMOTE HAPPIER, BETTER HOMES AND MUTUAL HELPFULNESS. EACH WEEK A MEMBER OF THE CLUB WOULD PROMOTE A "RECIPE" ON HOW TO MAKE TO BEST HOME POSSIBLE. WHETHER ONE WAS RICH OR POOR SICK OR WELL THROUGH ONES RADIO THEY TOO CAN BELONG TO THE CLUB.

The Power of Muckracking????

The moral of Katherine M. Mead's tale on "Henny Jenny" in 1901 was to pin point corruption occurring in the city and the extent reformers used to fight against it. In the tale Jenny, who is a reformer, is on her way to to inform or to help the masses (workers, elites, politicians) to get out of corruption but stumbles upon other important people along the way. The gang includes a doctor, a political candidate, a city developer, a chronic kicker and Jenny herself who all agreed to take part in rousing the masses. However, the last person that they came upon was a boss. The boss in this case and to my insight is symbolic to an oppressor who refuses to let these reformers to go to the masses and tell them about the city's corruption. He may also be symbolic to Capitalism which in the early 1900's took control of the government and the economy. The reformers who may be workers, or just people who are challenging this economic system, and/or helping other workers to rise against the corruption of the system is being led by the boss who ultimately forces them to work on a machine or possibly did something worse. This is explicit at the end of the tale where the boss shows them to a machine instead of showing them the way to the masses to inform people about corruption and "threw them down". This document showed that in some ways, ideally or non-ideally muckracking by reformers helped people to fight against corruption during the industrial period.

Monday, April 30, 2007

Minute Men of the Air

This article "Minute Men of the Air" by William S. Dutton, it describes to us the invention of Mr. Maxim which is the silencer and how it took place in the field of ordinance and electricity and that the public knows of this invention. This article states that Mr. Maxim is one of the world's famous radio amateur.
He told Dutton about a band of brothers that have communion in most of the empyrean spaces. Dutton was amazed by the things the he was hearing from Mr. Maxim. He told the interviewer about "men and boys that could leap all around the world that have wiped out the age old barriers of race, language and distance; who uses their souls, to shoot messages into the infinite and it also challenges the answers of the stars themselves". What this quote means is that it explains that men and boys could move around and they have taken out the barriers that have to do with race and language.
Dutton said that Mr. Maxim told him of heroism in flood and also the disaster of a great emergency system of communication that stands ready to "carry on". This article also states that Mr Maxim told Dutton of a university of the air where there were a lot of volunteers which come in nightly that come to help. This was done primarily for the love of work and the thrill for achievement. Dutton was amazed by how the silencer was built. This article describes how world dominion has been conceived and also the execution of amateurs in the face of laughter. It states that this invention has been built without capital and no knowledge.

“The Future of Radio Advertising in the United States”- By: Roy S. Durstine

The invention of the radio was a massive innovation that should still be astounding people threw the world but does not according to Durstine. “Yet so swiftly do people condition themselves to the miraculous, once it is absorbed into their lives, that tendency is to toss off appraisals of radio with about as much thought as is used in flipping a cigarette end into a fireplace.” Durstine is here describing the common American, who does not appreciate what they have but take it for granted once something new comes along the appreciation of an innovation is treated as if been there and done that phase. The typical radio audience is “a tired, bored middle-aged man or women whose lives are empty and who have exhausted their sources of outside amusement when they have taken a quick look at their evening paper.” The typical radio audience enjoys and appreciates the comfort of radio listening but because of there own stereo type they are not usually the typical public speaker who denounces radio.

“The Impending Radio War”- By: James Rorty

“At the bottom the issue is part of the larger conflict between exploitation for private profit and the increasingly articulate movement for public ownership and operation of essential public services… In this conflict the citadel of radio is the key position, because the control of the radio means increasingly the control of public opinion.”

The on going “Radio War” Rorty is speaking of is the control that private and public business elite have over the information and words being said on the radio. Today’s radio airwaves are protected by SAR which are associates who distinguish what can and cannot be said on the radio; therefore making its listeners only know what they want to know. If you are a radio listener your opinion is being formed for you; the opinions said on the radio are not those of its viewers or even its disc jockeys but the radio “Big Business Elite”. The business elite as well as educators know this and use it to there advantage to promote there ideas and sales in there opinion according to Rorty.

Chapter Nine-

“Whereas newspapers and magazines had begun among the elite and evolved in a more popular direction, movies acquired a lowbrow image at an early point in their history and faced a challenge in achieving respectability.” [Page 296, Paragraph 2, Line 2]

When newspapers became popular only rich elites in society were able to afford them. Having a paper gave you a status in society because of the cost of its information. When movies came out it became affordable to the general public which made the rich elite feel it was not “respectable” because if poor people were able to afford it then it was not special. The image of movies had what you would call low class image and high class didn’t want to associate themselves with something they see as beneath them. To achieve this image movies producers and owners had to reflect an affordable image as well as a “respectable” image to appeal to all classes.

Chapter Eight-

“The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic…The question in every case is whether the words used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent. It is a question of proximity and degree.” [Page 282, Paragraph 1, Line 12]

The First Amendment was taking a beating; moral behavior and free speech was being addressed in courts. The com stock law treated discussion about sex, birth control as an obscenity and not apart of freedom of speech. The Espionage Act was used to stop people from talking about the government and its policies. This censorship was put into place by the government to suppress speech of its citizens that in fact undermined the amendment of freedom of speech. The right of freedom of speech was interpreted by the courts and not based on the constitution itself; leaving its people without its rights to speak freely.

Chapter Seven-

“Deep changes in society are often as important for the reactions they provoke as for the direct effect they produce.”[Page, 233, Paragraph 1, Line 1]

During the 1900s the population was increasing, many immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. Because of the massive migration of new immigrants new societies began to form. This also started conflict between African Americans and northern whites; there was also a conflict between foreign and Native Americans. The immigrants and blacks in society brought about new culture that had to be accommodated by media. Newspapers had to change their format of information to appeal to new citizens of America. Editors, writers, etc had to reform their own moral behavior to write in a non-racist manor to appeal to new audience.

Chapter Six-

“Since organizations with a large stake in an existing technology are likely to try to preserve their investment- in today’s idiom, they are reluctant to “cannibalize” their current business-any policies or legal decisions that give them influence over the new medium may retard its introduction.” [Page 193, Paragraph 1, Line 2]

Because most of the large businesses invested in the telegraph system for communication purposes it became important for the business to preserve the system. These same businesses had no investment in the telephone company so they were not willing to bring in the new technology to replace what they already owned. They were the first ones to try to stop progress; corporate heads did not want to spend money on innovations in the communication sector of there business because all the money invested on the previous innovation in communication would go to waste.