1920’s
MASS MEDIA
Mass Media
 Before the 1920’s most people did not know much
about what was going on in rest of the country, talk
with people from other regions, or even read the
same news.
 How did each of the following change?
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Movies
Radio
Newspapers/magazines
Movies
 Theaters rose from 5,000 to 22,500
 1929 sold 80 million tickets each week
 Movie making became the 4th largest industry
 Changed from silent movies to “talkies”
Radio
 Began with broadcasting music and baseball scores
 Became a medium for advertising
 1922- 500 stations
 NBC linked stations together
 People all over the country were listening to the same info
Newspaper/Magazines
 Increased in size and circulation
 Went from 14-50 pages
 The number of chains doubled
 People paid to advertise in newspapers
 The more popular a newspaper was the more they paid for the
ad
 Tabloids and entertainment news
 By 1929 200 million magazines sold
 Saturday Evening Post, Reader’s Digest, Ladies Home
Journal and Time
Jazz Age
 Jazz music grew out of African American music of
the South
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Recordings available in 1910 but didn’t become popular until
1920
2/3 of radio airtime was dedicated to jazz
 Some opposed jazz but most came around
Jazz Age
 Harlem was one of the most popular places to listen
to jazz

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Over 500 clubs
Charleston was a popular dance
Became a national fad
 Could be danced with partner, group, or alone

 Jazz inspired other music, paintings, and poems
Lost Generation
 People who were disconnected from their country
and its values
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Pop culture was artless and uninspired
Lived in European cities
Harlem renaissance
 Harlem became a cultural center of the US
 Population rose from 50,000 to 200,000
 James Weldon Johnson-leading writer of the Harlem
group

Executive secretary of NAACP
 Celebrated blossoming of African American culture
 Voice of protest of against the suffering of their
culture