COMS 200 Lecture Notes - Face The Face, Mass Distribution, Conventionalism
Document Summary
Mass media and the star system jib fowles. 1870 1920: americans fascinated with entertainers. People moving to large cities were mainly either small-town, farm-raised. Immigration peaked in 1914 (1,218,000 new citizens) Wages rose, average hours of weekly work in manufacturing industries dropped. Development of leisure activities (libraries, city parks) entrepreneurs. Baseball brought to urban centres salaried players, formation of interurban leagues. Rural areas = strong social emphasis on conventionality, fellow feeling, cohesion. Cities = greater extent of impersonality and normalness. Urbanites stripped of supporting prescriptions (religion and community pressure) People left behind rural life and its highly prescriptive protestant ideology, but also left behind its sturdy framework of purpose. Due to growing anxiety and depression, self-help manuals and behavioural guides emerged strengthening of character. Later, other books focusing on development of personality emerged. People wanted to take a more accommodating path, one that emphasized charm.