Introduction: "The story of the century" -- 1. Radio's challenges: public intellectuals and the problem of mass culture. William Orton and the mass-consumption critique ; James Rorty and the mass-production critique ; African American intellectuals and the mass-production critique in action ; Related solutions ; Defenders of the faith -- 2. Radio's listeners: personalizing mass culture. The mass audience listens ; Consumer bargaining ; "When you can't find a friend, you've still got the radio" -- 3. Radio's democracy: the politics of the fireside. Roosevelt on the radio ; Radio democracy: the politics of intimacy ; Radio democracy: the politics of information ; Once and future ideals? -- 4. Radio's champions: strange gods? Radio stars ; Voices of the people ; Power ... corrupts? ; Limited amplitude -- 5. Radio's students: media studies and the possibilities of mass communication. Paul Lazarsfeld and social pragmatism's hope ; Herman Hettinger and commercial pragmatism's faith ; Theodor Adorno's critical theory: a considerably less charitable view -- 6. Radio's writers: a public voice in the modern world. Art of the air ; Public speech, public art, and mass communication ; Modernism on the air ; Muffled voices
Summary
Orson Welles's greatest breakthrough into the popular consciousness occurred in 1938, three years before Citizen Kane, when his War of the Worlds radio broadcast succeeded so spectacularly that terrified listeners believed they were hearing a genuine report of an alien invasion-a landmark in the history of radio's powerful relationship with its audience. In Radio's America, Bruce Lenthall documents the enormous impact radio had on the lives of Depression-era Americans and charts the formative years of our modern mass culture. Many Americans became alienated from their government and economy in
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-253) and index
Notes
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