Greed and Gloria

Gloria Swanson was a beautiful woman and a lovely actress. But under all that beauty was a devastated woman consumed with wealth and materialism. It all started after she played a wealthy woman for her first two films, Gloria said "Before I started working I was always broke...But once I met Mr. DeMille I had plenty of money to with what I pleased, but I haven't it anymore." Since Gloria made all of her money, she felt the need to spend it just as fast on clothing, furniture, and any other indulgences she felt necessary. By the end when she had no money left she said, "just for once I might be allowed to play a poor waif on the streets.". At the end she realized that she spent her money on insignificant things instead of saving it for the better things in life. Gloria's life proves to me that wealth does not buy happiness, but it can buy more problems because that is what it she ended up with.

The March of Radio

"Many of the fantasies and anxieties swirling around the explosion of the internet today are more than reminiscent of controversy surrounding radio in its early days." (Kelly) This article discusses the lucrative controversies that surround technology from the past to the present day. Today, the internet is our main source of information one could say. With this access to unlimited amounts of information also comes questions of cultural corruption, violence, and many other indecencies. Is it possible that the radio was looked at the same way. The answer is yes, as the radio's popularity grew and it became an overwhelming tool of communication people felt that corporations and private businesses were going to exploit the public. The same could be sent about the massive amounts of information available on the internet today. With all the negative criticisms there were also positives. First, the internet and radio can bring not only a community but the world together. Today, you can listen to the radio on the internet amazingly. Other positives are the amounts of educational material available to students and other people on the internet while the radio verbally educated the people of its time. Its no wonder these two technologies were compared at some point they were both groundbreaking reaching a new peak in modernity, consumerism, and mass entertainment. (Kelly)

The Press Today

According to Ivy Lee, the nineteen twenties brought about a "chain movement in American journalism." (Lee) Corporations and big businesses brought about new opportunites for smaller independent papers. They felt that by consolidating numerous small papers that they could be more successful. Positive effects of consolidating are no monetary set backs and the chance of a duplicated story occuring are is very margninal. On the other hand, the corporation is in complete control. Know depending on what editor is in charge this could potentially be a huge problem. The editor and corporation could have conflicting ideas about what belongs in this consolidated paper because of the limited space available. Ultimately, I feel as if some independent papers will remain but overtime the emergence of big business has always had an effect on industry and know why not the newspaper business.

The Constitution of the Air Chapter 10

"Many of the choices about radio involved translating basic principles about rights and powers in communication into a new context" (p. 329)
The Radio Act of 1927 was the most famous context in which the rights and powers of radio were addressed. The act had three main aspects. The first was the declaration that there could be no private ownership in the entire spectrum. Although the 1912 act had required a license to use the air, it had been silent on the issue of ownership of the airwaves. The 1927 act was not. Second, the act, in a related decision, mandated that users of the spectrum would operate and receive a license under the public interest standard. Finally, the act put the Federal Radio Commission into place.The FRC was to allocate frequencies according to the "public interest, convenience or necessity," a phrase that originated with an amendment to the Interstate Commerce Act. Yet radio programming is not comparable with the services of a railroad company. Unlike the railroads that the Interstate Commerce Act regulated, the FRC could not regulate individual programs: conceivably, such regulation could amount to nothing more than censorship. Nor could the commission set the rates charged for airtime. The FRC's limited programming authority resulted at least in part from the fear of a federal radio "censor." The creation of an independent radio commission, rather than an augmented authority within the Commerce Department, would limit governmental interference in expression. Therefore, what the public interest meant was left to the FRC to decide.

Chapter 10: The Constitution of the Air

According to Paul Starr, The Creation of the Media, "inconceivable that we should allow so great a possibility for service, for news, for entertainment, for education, and for vital commercial purposes, to be drowned in advertising chatter". (Hebert Hoover Pg. 338)

My opinion about this quote that Hoover said is that he didn't understand what all the talk about advertising was. I think that he also meant that there should be any talk about advertising on the radio. Advertising is a way that radio stations could make money. I also think that advertising on the radio is a way to get people to buy products.

Movies & Conduct

This piece by Herbert Blumer "Movies & Conduct" details the statistical information based on the Payne Fund. The Payne Fund was a fund that conducted studies to see how children were affected by viewing movies in the early 1930's. It was apparent to the American society in the late 1930's that children were indeed affected by the viewing of movies. From these studies that were conducted it was concluded that sleep patterns and school performance were affected negatively as a result to children viewing movies. "He estimates that of the 100000000 weekly admissions to the movies in 1930, 28000000 of this audience is composed of minors . with 29500000 minors enrolled in schools" (Herbet pg 1). according to the information above we see that many children were attending movies. on average a child was viewing a movie once a week. which means that a child was seeing on average 52 movies per year. i can agree with this study. in my opinion it is safe to conclude that children were influenced by these movies. as soon as the inventions of the nickelodeons appeared, patterns in the behavior of adolescents began to change for the worse. i think that this was because of the material that was being presented to them on the big screen. Movies influenced children heavily in the past.