The Media Industry In The 1920's

By the early 1900s, innovations in the media brought new ways for Americans to entertain themselves. Americans soon replaced their books and newspapers for radios and televisions. Americans were now able to listen to radios podcast and watch shows in the comfort of their own homes. They idolized the new celebrities and movie stars, who greatly influenced cultural advancement. These new innovations brought cultural reform and controversy to the changing society. Many people believed that these new television shows were immoral, scandalous, and promoted extravagant behavior in youth. Such people pushed for Congress to make laws and regulations on the media industry. The media industry fought back against these lawsuits causing the late 1920s to be filled with many debates over “censorship,” in movies, Senator Henry L. Myers was among many of the leaders who made an effort to censor motion pictures. His speech “Motion Pictures

Myers also argued that censorship was needed because motion pictures installed criminal behavior in the youth “I believe that a great deal of the extravagance of the day, a great deal of the disposition to live beyond one's means, yea, a great deal of the crime of the day comes from moving pictures. Through them, young people gain ideas of fast life, shady ways, laxity of living, loose morals.” (175) With the things they saw in movies, the youth were compelled to copy what they saw. He gives a story explaining the murder of civilian by four youths, whom were copying a robbery that they saw in a movie. They had hide in a civilian's car prepared to scare him with a pistol, when the civilian came near one of the youth jumped out and fired. The victim dropped, dead panicked with fear the youths fled in the victim's car. Senator L. Myers uses this account as an example of the bad influence that the media has on youth, and as a reason why censorship was need. It was needed to protect the minds of the youth from bad morals, and corrupt