History of the United States II / Unit 9 USH2 1212 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Mass Culture
The idea
The anchor sets itself the task of explaining how radio nationalised and homogenised American culture. Movies, radio and spectator sports reached audiences in every region at once: ninety million moviegoers a week, hundreds of radio stations, and games broadcast into millions of homes. The same stars, songs and slogans reached city and farm. Commercial radio and magazines, the anchor says, turned athletes and actors into national icons, and Digital History notes that immigrants formed much of the early film audience.
In practice
The same film showing in a city picture palace and a small-town theatre in the same week.
Where people slip
The confusion to avoid is seeing only uniformity. A shared national culture carried the new morality of the cities into the countryside, and Digital History describes the decade as one of deep conflict between an urban, modernist culture and a rural, traditionalist one. Mass culture united audiences and divided them at the same time.
Your place on the trail
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