Mass Media in the Late 19th Century to the Mid 20th Century - Film, Telephones, Beginnings Of Radio

Largely based on my notes from my Introduction to Mass Media class at Stony Brook University.

Fear, Concern, Threatening

A moral panic occurs when society reacts with disproportionate
______or______ toward a person, group, behavior, or cultural
change perceived as________towards moral values or social order.

Exaggerated, Actual Danger, Perception, Reality

In a moral panic, the reaction to the perceived threat is often_______relative to the_______, focusing more on people’s________of the situation than the_________of it.

Motion Picture Patents Company, West

In 1908, Thomas Edison formed the____________, which was one of the reasons that helped lead to film producers moving to the______coast in order to avoid being harassed by them.

Fatty Arbuckle

An actor that went to trial for the alleged rape and murder of actress Virginia Rappe, who was eventually acquitted. The scandal contributed to public pressure for Hollywood to improve its reputation, helping motivate the creation of the MPPDA in 1922 and contributing to the broader movement that eventually led to the strict enforcement of the Hays Code in 1934.

The Singing Fool

An influential film that became many American audience’s first experience with a talking film. The film's positive reception was also viewed as a signifier that sound films were here to stay.

1939

Film historians view this year as one of the greatest in Hollywood history, featuring films like Gone With The Wind and The Wizard of Oz.

1948 Paramount Decision

This ruling stated that several major studios violated anti-trust laws, and as a result it forced those studios to sell their theater chains and cease block booking practices. This decision helped allow for independent producers having the ability to finally begin to compete with the major studios for audiences and actors, marking the beginning of the end for the Hollywood studio system.

The Comics Code Of 1954

System that governed comic book content in the United States, which was established in response to concerns about the impact of comics on young readers. It is currently essentially obsolete.

Hays Code

Informal name for the Motion Picture Production Code, a set of guidelines
adopted by the American film industry from 1934 to 1968 to self-censor films and prevent external government regulation. The code contained many rules regarding morality and sexuality.

Morally, Happy, Immoral, Unpunished

The enforcement of the Hays Code led to a rise in movies having a_______unambiguous, often________ending, in which_____behavior did not go_______

Montage

A series of separate images or videos that are edited together to create a continuous sequence.

Kuleshov Effect

A film editing technique developed in the early 20th century, in which the audience derives more meaning from the interaction of two back-to-back shots than from one shot in isolation. The effect was popularly demonstrated by intercutting shots of an actor with various meaningful images (a girl in a casket, a bowl of soup, and a woman on a divan).

Johann Philipp Reis

Scientist and inventor who invented the first make-and-break telephone in 1861. The device was the first device to transmit a voice via electronic signals. In addition, he also coined the word “telephone.”

Louis Brandeis

Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court from 1916 to 1939. He is credited with advancing the interpretation that the Fourth Amendment protects an individual's right to privacy from government intrusion, being one of the first legal thinkers to recognize how emerging technologies, such as telephone wiretapping, could threaten personal privacy.

Olmstead vs. United States

Legal case that resulted after federal agents installed wiretaps into the basement and in nearby streets of a suspected bootlegger, in which the courts ruled whether the matter of the wiretapping of private telephone conversations, conducted by federal agents without a search warrant with recordings subsequently used as evidence, constituted a violation of the target’s rights under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.

Had Not

In Olmstead vs United States, the courts ruled that Olmstead’s constitutional rights______been violated by the wiretapping.

Guglielmo Marconi

Italian electrical engineer, inventor, and politician known for his creation of a practical radio wave-based wireless telegraph system. This led to him being largely credited as the inventor of radio. He conducted experiments in 1895 in the “Silkworm Room” in the attic of Villa Griffone, transmitting radiotelegraphic signals beyond a physical obstacle, the Celestini hill, at a distance of about two kilometers.

Italy, British

Marconi’s offer of his wireless telegraphy system is commonly said to have been initially turned down by his own nation______, but was later backed by the__________government, specifically the General Post Office.

Chain Broadcasting

A system where multiple radio stations simultaneously broadcast the same program originating from one central station or network. This method enables a consistent and unified broadcast across various locations, ensuring that listeners in different areas receive the same content at the same time.