Over the past century, mass media has evolved from informational for the public to a monopolistic situation where the public has lost its say in what is aired. Back in early 1900s, newspapers had entertainment, news, information, and public views which in turn earned the public’s interest. As interest grew, of course the companies did as well. At the turn of the century, the U.S. labor movement published hundreds of newspapers in dozens of languages, and regional dailies issued by working-class political organizations and mutual aid societies to national union weeklies and monthlies (McChesney 151). These newspapers practiced a journalism very different from that of the capitalist newspapers, which were produced and sold as commodities, which contended, were poisoning the minds of the public. The old papers gave information, news, and help, and had little for entertainment. This paper will investigate the changes in the media, focusing on newspapers, magazines, and television, and the effects upon public perspective it has had.

In the decades that followed the emergence of radio broadcasting in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s, much of the scholarship on th

A description of mass media in the United States can help to explain much of why they do what they do. There are two categories of media defined as follows: print (newspapers, magazines, etc); and electronic which is the radio, television, movies, and the internet. These media carry messages quickly to a wide range of audiences (Heibert 4-5). With this technology media has conformed slowly over time, and less companies produced because they have either been bought out or fell off the charts as these numbers show (Heibert 4-5). At the end of the twentieth century, about 1,550 daily newspapers were published, which is down from about 2,600 at their peak earlier in the century (Heibert 5).

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the average American spent a few minutes each day reading a daily newspaper, a few minutes more reading magazines, maybe less than an hour reading a book - and no time at all watching movies or television, listening to radio or recordings, or surfing the World Wide Web, none of which existed as a public medium. By the end of the twentieth century, Americans spend more than half their leisure time - activities other than eating, sleeping, or working - on mass media, and the majority of that time is spent watching television. Today the numbers are 3,400 hours a year on media (such as TV, computers, etc), or about 40% of our total time, more than we spent time sleeping (2, 900 hours, 33%) or working (2000 hours, 23%), or all he other things people do (only 460 hours, 5 %) (Heibert 9).

Some questions can be brought to light such as, do the media make things happen, or do they merely report what has happened? Do they make us act? Do they influence people’s opinions? Obviously this cannot be answered with undeniable certainty, but one can argue. In the 1950s, television was still primarily a limited adult activity. Most people’s values had already been shaped by other forces - namely, family, religion, teachers, and print media (Heibert 7). By the end of the twentieth century, social scientists were ready to assign a more direct and powerful impact to television (Heibert 7-8). The most important has been the work of George Gerbner, whose “cultivation analysis” is based on theory that television, as a dominant medium, has a cumulative effect, ultimately creating the culture in which we live (Gerbner 23). Today many experts say it is television - not parents, teachers, or religious leaders - that establishes the values of young children. Many scientific studies have confirmed that for the news and information we need about ourselves, our communities, and our world, we now turn more often to mass media, especially television, than to our families, friends, or neighbors (Bagdikian 23).

Media critic Richard Harwood points out that the “Golden Age” for diversity in Am

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