Composition: History & Theory: 1920 - 1929
The Media
Description
In The American School From the Puritans to No Child Left Behind (2008), Joel Spring notes that even though complaints came from educators and parents that media was having a negative influence on students, greater control was being exercised over media content. This idea can be traced back to 1914 when the NEA held a discussion in which Peter Olesen claimed that students were “disappointed because the teacher cannot make the subject as interesting as a motion picture show” (361). Advertising grew stronger in order to educate children to be future consumers or consumer citizens. Democracy was gradually being paralleled to the freedom to consume products.
Educators at the time were weary of and felt threatened by the advent of movies, radio, comic books, and, later on, television. They wondered whether “media and pop culture [would] become more influential that schools over the minds of youth” (358). In 1922, the MPPDA (Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America) came under increasing censorship pressure from the federal government and appealed for the support of the NEA (the most influential educational organization at the time) at its annual meeting. Will Hays, the acting president, promised the NEA that he would ensure that while developing entertainment his organization was committed to providing “the highest possible moral and artistic standards” and developing educational value (358). Hays argued that it was the job of the producers to keep out “real evil” content when the movie was being made, not after the fact with government censorship (it was also an economic problem to censor movies before releasing them). In 1928, WW Charters, the Director of the Bureau of Educational Research at Ohio State led the Payne Studies, which was a major contributor to the enforcement of the movie code. The studies showed a negative perspective on the effects of movies on children.
Date of Upload
3/13/09