The Framers of the Constitution purposely left the power to set suffrage qualifications to each State. Suffrage means the right to vote. Franchise is synonym for the right to vote. The electorate is all of the people entitled to vote in given election. The right to vote was limited to white males that owned property in America in 1789 when Constitution can into effect. Today, the size of the American electorate is greater than 230 million people. Nearly all citizens at least 18 years of age can qualify to vote. The history of American suffrage since 1789 has been marked by two long term trends. The first growing federal control over suffrage and second the elimination of voting restrictions.
Suffrage was gradually expanded over a period of nearly 200 years. The growth of American electorate has come in five stages. The first stage happen in the early 1800s. Religious, property, and tax qualifications begin to disappear in every State. Struggling to extend voting rights. By mid-century, almost all white adults males could vote in every State. The second stage following the Civil War, in 1870 15th Amendment prohibits voting restrictions based on race or color. It was intended to protect any citizens from being denied the right to vote because of race or color. Still, for another century, African Americans were prohibited for voting and remained the biggest group disenfranchised citizens, or citizens denied the right to vote, in the nation’s population. The third stage happen in 1920 the 19th Amendment removes voting restrictions based on sex. Women did vote in some elections before Wyoming acted in 1869, however notably in New Jersey, where women could and did vote in all elections from 1776 to 1807. The fourth stage happen in 1965...
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...o the constitution in 1791, made the same point regarding importance of newspaper with its guarantee of freedom of the press. The first regularly published newspaper in America, The Boston News letter, appeared in 1704. By 1775, 37 newspapers were being published in the colonies. Today nearly 10,000 newspapers are published in the U.S, including some 1,300 dailies, more than 7,000 weeklies, and 500 semi weeklies.
Since its advent in the 1920, radio has played a major role in informing Americans. Radios began in 1920 yet still exist today. On November 2 of 1920, station KDKA in Pittsburgh went on the air with presidential elections return. Radio remains a major source of news and other political information. The average person hears is hours of radio each week.
Major news magazines and journals of opinion are important sources of political news and content.
Women's Suffrage in the right of women to share political privileges on equal terms with men, the right to vote in elections and referendums, and the right to hold public office. The women's suffrage was a worldwide issue that had begun a long time before the 19th century. The issues involving women's right to vote was aroused in 1839 when the American Missionary Association began to work to develop education opportunities for blacks and other minorities in the U.S. which begun with the defending of the slaves of the Amistad. (Banner, Lois W. 1,NP)
Women, like black slaves, were treated unequally from the male before the nineteenth century. The role of the women played the part of their description, physically and emotionally weak, which during this time period all women did was took care of their household and husband, and followed their orders. Women were classified as the “weaker sex” or below the standards of men in the early part of the century. Soon after the decades unfolded, women gradually surfaced to breathe the air of freedom and self determination, when they were given specific freedoms such as the opportunity for an education, their voting rights, ownership of property, and being employed.
The 1920's brought many advancements in technology which allowed Americans to entertain themselves at home; the radio was one of them. The radio was actually developed before the 1920's; however, it was banned during World War I and allowed to reappear after the Prohibition ended in 1919 (Events 72). After the Prohibition ended, and radio broadcasting was being brought back to life, many people started up their first stations, like Frank Conrad (Events 72). Frank Conrad's first broadcast consisted of the Presidential Election results (Events 72). As Conrad was one of the first people to broadcast, KDKA was one of the first radio stations to appear in the Unite...
During the late 19th century, women were in a society where man was dominant. Women did not have natural born rights, such as the right to vote, to speak in public, access to equal education, and so forth, did not stop them to fight for their rights. Women's lives soon changed when Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony played a prominent role to help bring about change.
After a long history of struggle for suffrage movements and human rights, within the late 1900s, women became significant electoral voters. Together, people joined forming grassroots movements and non-governmental organizations devoted to improving conditions for women. Initially, politics had been viewed as an exclusive masculine realm, but now all genders and races had basic human rights, including the right to vote.
Wireless communication across the country was something no one ever imagined. The creating of the commercial radio in 1920, created a feeling of belonging to many citizens of the United States. Starting off as a hobby for amateurs, radio quickly expanded. With the creation of NBC, and emerging radio stars like Ernie Hare and Billy Jones radio, families tuned in on a daily basis. Music was brought to lower income families who couldn’t afford to buy a piano. As well as streaming music, radio provided advertising outlets. Promotions regarding cigarettes, automobiles, and soap
the right to vote is a natural right that comes with citizenship. To deny a certain group
In order to completely understand how far society has come and the amount of work that still must be done, in regards to being able to exercise our voting rights, we must first understand some of the voting barriers that minorities had to face in the past. It was not until 1870 that the 15th amendment was passed, declaring it unconstitutional for an individual to be denied the right to vote based on their color, race or previous condition of servitude. However, the 15th amendment only applied to male individuals, it did not guarantee the right for women to vote. Instead female voters had to wait an additional fifty years until they were granted the privilege to vote. In 1920, the 19th amendment was finally passed, stating that regardless of gender every American citizen had the right to vote.
This downward trend of voter turnout can be traced to the reforms of the Progressive era. Turnout in post-Progressive era America remained low, never reaching the levels attained before the Progressive era reforms. This would be expected, since there is little in the political history of these years that would indicate a return to a collectively oriented system of voter participation. Since 1912, only about 50 to 65 percent of Americans have voted in presidential elections and still fewer in other elections: 40 to 50 percent in off-year congressional elections and as few as 10 to 20 percent in primaries and minor local elections, although the exact number depends on how turnout is measured (Greenberg, and Page, 2009). Voter turnout started dropping at the end of the nineteenth century, reaching the 60 percent level by the election of 1912 (Teixeira, 1987). The right to vote, originally quite limited, was
As radio established itself as a primary source for information, it simultaneously grew to be the most popular entertainment medium in the country. Everyone on the home front gathered around the radio in his or her living room to listen to the music and programming offered. Radio served as a crucial element in boosting morale and improving the attitudes of the American public in times of war and chaos. As the war developed, there was an increasing demand for escapist entertainment.
American life was much different with radios starting to become popular and the creations of “talkies”. Radios started to become popular “13,750,000 American households had radios a figure that more than doubled in 1939” (1930s). Most people used it as entertainment and a way to get news in the house without news papers...
In the US, mass media plays a significant role in politics. One of the key roles mass media plays in politics includes the airing of the platforms of various politicians. The media influences the view of people on politics and politicians. As the opinion of individuals is affected, the results of the votes are consequently changed (Holden, 2016).
In trying to attract new audiences, news media have begun to transition from reporting to becoming a form of entertainment. With the meteoric rise of social media’s role as a news source, the fight for an increase of diversity in the media, and the ever-growing desire of immediate content, the future of responsible journalism is more important than ever. Ask yourself, why do I think the way I do? Where do my political views originate? How do I prove them? Most likely, it is due to the biased portrayal of issues in the media and the politicization that accompanies what we consume. Now, compare your views to your preferred news reporting entity. More than likely, they are the same.
The current role of mass media in politics has definitely played a significant role in how view and react to certain events and issues of the nation. Newspapers, magazines, television and radio are some of the ways information is passed onto many of the citizens. The World Wide Web is also an information superhighway, but not all of the sources on the Internet are credible. Therefore, I will only focus on the main three types of media: written, viewed, and audible, and how they affect whether or not democracy is being upheld in the land of the free. The media includes several different outlets through which people can receive information on politics, such as radio, television, advertising and mailings. When campaigning, politicians spend large quantities of money on media to reach voters, concentrating on voters who are undecided. Politicians may use television commercials, advertisements or mailings to point out potentially negative qualities in their opponents while extolling their own virtues. The media can also influence politics by deciding what news the public needs to hear. Often, there are more potential news stories available to the media than time or space to devote to them, so the media chooses the stories that are the most important and the most sensational for the public to hear. This choice can often be shaped,
Through technological advancements the television and internet now deliver the news instantly into our homes, which has inadvertently put pressure on the traditional newspaper to deliver up-to-the minute news. As technology developed swiftly over the 20th century, some academics could see the demise of the newspaper as early as the late 1960s. Marshall McLuhan (HREF1) an academic and commentator on communications technology prophesied “that printed books would become obsolete, killed off by television and other electronic information technology”. To compete with other more sophisticated electronic media systems, and to survive, newspapers joined the technological revolution and many publications went online in the fight to remain the number one information provider (Kesley 1995:16). In contrast, Kelsey (1995) states the main reaso...