Agencies of mass communication that have influenced
American economic and political development.
During America’s first years as a nation, newspapers were
the only form of communication. In addition to reporting
general news, they helped to stimulate agriculture and business by providing information about new farming techniques
and business news. By the late 1880s, foreign newspapers
stimulated immigration by publishing ads from railroad
companies and investors for cheap land. Foreign workers, enticed by these ads, provided the labor for the Industrial Revolution. Information about government land policies including the Homestead, Timber and Stone, and Timber Culture
Acts was published in newspapers in the East and Midwest
and encouraged farmers to move westward, resulting in the
settling of the West and the use of millions of acres of land for
crops or grazing. Editors addressed important economic issues of the post–Civil War period like the tariff and the use of
silver as a medium of exchange.
The biggest influence the media had in the late nineteenth
century was the result of a newspaper war involving two publishers, Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. Each
newspaper attempted to generate more public sensation than
the other. Hearst began a series of articles depicting the brutality and outrages committed by the Spanish against the
Cuban people. As tensions among the American people
against Spain escalated, President William McKinley dispatched the USS Maine to Havana’s harbor, where an explosion sank the ship. Hearst claimed that divers had confirmed
the cause of the explosion was a mine—this long before the
invention of scuba gear, before which diving was impossible.
Consequently, the United States declared war on Spain, and
in the process of the Spanish-American War became an imperial power by ruling foreign peoples and controlling foreign markets. The United States acquired former Spanishheld territories the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico, and
Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Businesses turned their attention
to foreign markets as never before.
During the Progressive Era—a period between 1900 and
the beginning of World War I during which most middle- and
upper-class Americans sought to address social and economic
problems—many newspapers sponsored the development of
urban areas by encouraging changes in transportation patterns, sanitation systems, and bridges and levee projects. City
planning spread across the country as a result of newspaper
editors’ realization of the importance of clean, orderly communities. Newspapers also promoted the development of social programs, the construction of hospitals, and the establishment of universities, and they attracted potential investors
to their communities.
The advent of radio extended the influence of the media
throughout the country. Most of the first radio stations were
owned by newspapers, which adopted the new technology to
maintain their competitive advantage in disseminating the
news and limit access to the market by competitors. The
radio became very important during the Great Depression as
Americans listened to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fireside chats; the subject of the first one was the announcement
of a four-day banking holiday to address the lack of confidence in banking institutions. Radio provided news, music,
and other entertainment and was influential in establishing a
sense of group identity among Americans. Eventually radio
spawned an entire new industry, as entertainment broadcasts
became part of the regular programming. Advertisers used
radio to reach national audiences and increase their market
share.
Television, which became a part of people’s lives in the
1950s, has had a much greater influence than radio ever had.
In addition to stimulating employment through the development of new jobs, television created a homogenous society
whose members wanted what they saw portrayed on commercials and in programs, from clothing to toothpaste. The
instantaneous dissemination of news about a new product or
problem with a company could create a buying or selling
frenzy on Wall Street. The role of the media in providing information as well as the continued display of new products
will continue to influence the economic future of the United
States.
In 2003 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
loosened requirements that had restricted ownership by the
same company of both newspapers and television stations in
the same market area. Opponents contend that presentation
of news by a limited number of companies eliminates the responsibility of media to provide all sides of the story. Proponents argue that the Internet and talk radio provide such a
balance. By July 2003, a month after FCC announced the new
rule, members of Congress were threatening to overturn the
ruling through a resolution of disapproval.
—Cynthia Clark Northrup
References
Alexander, Alison, James Owers, and Rod Carveth. Media
Economics: Theory and Practice. Hillsdale, NJ: L. Erlbaum
Associates, 1993.