How Did Media Change America

From 1890s to 1945, media played an important role to spread news and change Americans’ opinions about different events. I believe that media changed Americans ideas by exaggerating the truth, propaganda and providing information. There are some examples about how media controlled Americans’ thoughts.

Firstly, the Yellow Journalism, which used exaggerations, and emotional ways to provide information to the public, affected Americans a lot. For example, from 1895 to 1898, the tension between Spain and America increased because of Cuba. The war started not only because of the Sinking of the Maine, an American warship, but also because of the New York Journal, an epitome of Yellow Journalism. On the newspaper, it said, “Destruction of the

war ship Maine was the work of an enemy… Naval officers think the Maine was destroyed by a Spanish mine” (The Social Study Help Center) to explain the reason if the sinking of the ship while the New York Times claimed the whole event was just an accident. However, the Yellow Journalism inflamed the situation successfully. Even though people did not find the exact cause of the sinking of the ship, they blamed for Spain. After that, Yellow Journalism took every chance to increase the intension between two countries with the exhortation “Remember the Maine”. Then, after nearly two months, the war started. Because the power of Yellow Journalism was so strong, people called it “yellow press”. It exaggerated the sinking of the ship, led Americans’ into anger, made them believed Spain was the main cause of event and declared a war at last.
In addition, media influenced Americans by propaganda.

During WW1, the United States joined the war after Germany sank Lusitania, a passenger ship carrying military supplies from America. To convince people enter the war and recruit the army quickly, the government used poster propaganda because posters could be produced in huge amount in a very short time in different kinds of languages and put everywhere. James Montogery Flagg’s Uncle Sam “I Want You” poster is a very famous poster not only in the war time but also famous now. In that poster, Uncle Sam is pointing at the viewer with the sentence, “I want you to for U.S, army.” (History on the Net) The poster was very attractive and easy to understand. After looking at this poster, the viewer might think the country needs him so that he would join the army. David H. Mihaly, as one of the viewers of these posters today, said, “These posters inspired you to enlist, to pick up the flag and support your country. They made you in some cases fear an enemy or created a fear you didn’t know you had.” (Cook) This shows that the posters still can inflame people today; this shows that the influence of propaganda posters is huge. As a result, during WW1, these posters must play an important role of pushing Americans enter the war and make them believe that it is worth to do

that.
Also, media gives basic information to the public. During the Great Depression and WW2, President Roosevelt did used media to inform people or encourage people to do something most of the time. The CBS named the broadcast the “fireside chats”. Every time, he would talk to the citizens explained the new policies and gave the, hope through the radio by using simple words. In the second fireside chats, Roosevelt talked about what the government had done or would do and explained these actions or policies, for instance, he said, “The Congress is about to pass legislation that will greatly ease the mortgage distress among the farmers and the home owners of the nation, by providing for the easing of the burden of debt now bearing so heavily upon millions of our people. (Miller Center) This is one part of the New Deal and FDR made it very easy for the citizens to understand. Besides, the number of listeners increased a lot. In addition, the president would encourage people to do something. For example, during WW2, Roosevelt emboldened Americans to but war bonds. Every time, Roosevelt would talk slowly like he was really chatting with people so that people had a good reaction. This affected people so much so that they wanted to write to the White House and express their feelings and thoughts. Some letters were approving and some were thank the president… As you can see, the fireside chats had a great influence on Americans. At first, people might just know a little bit about the policies so that they did not support it, however, after the president explained the policies in a positive way through the media, people would think that they should support the policies so that they would have a better country.
In conclusion, media affected people’s thoughts in many ways, not only through paper, but also through the radio. Frequently, the media will hyperbolize the reality, propaganda and inform people in order to have a reaction that they want to see from the citizens.