mass media and public opinion

rally to restore sanity

On October 30th, popular satirical news host and Comedy Central star Jon Steward called for people of all shapes, sizes, colors, and political parties to meet outside the Washington Monument in his "Rally to Restore Sanity", an effort to poke fun at the Fox News watchers who like to ignore the fact that we're ALL descendants of immigrants, that a very, VERY tiny percent of the Muslim population supports Al Queda, that marijuana is not bad for you (mmmkay?), and any other stupid crazyness they loudly spout from their mouths. Thousands came together with hilarious signs protesting hate, ignorance, and insanity.

. impact on public opinion

The rally was televised, talked about on the radio, and hundreds of pictures were uploaded to the official RTRS website. The practice of introducing media to the masses (the use of mass media, if you will), swayed minds and opinions all throughtout the country and the world.

 

Both the Industrial Revolution and America expanding from the Atlantic to the Pacific set the way for advertising. After all, how would possible customers in the west know what can be purchased from the east? Thanks to these needs, the demand for newspapers that ran throughtout the country rose, and advertising agencies were happy to oblige.

By the time the ole 20th century reared it's head, advertising was to thank for four percent of the national income. It spread from newspapers to magazines, and finally to radio, mainly the first commercial radio station KDKA. By 1920 came 'round (what an awesome year) more than ten million buckaroos were spent on radio advertising alone. From then until 1929, cash spent on advertising went from $2.282 billion to $3.426 billion.

Advertising gave new rise to newspapers, magazines, and radio, and allowed something remarkable to be invented: a device that can transmit both sound AND picture. Most believed it to be a stupid fad that would never outdo the radio. They were almost right, because by 1945 there was only about seven thousand sets and nine broadcasting stations. But in 1946 the first sports game was televised, and it was time to push the television as THE means of spreading information.

In 1947, new, better programming is what was "in". The television became immensly more popular, and everyone agreed that this thing might be here to stay. In '48, the Ed Sullivan Show went on air, and advertising revenues for this box went up 515% from the year previous. As more and more programs aired, the telee came synonymous with American culture.