Propaganda, Communication and Public Opinion 9781400878642

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Propaganda, Communication, and Public Opinion

Propaganda,

Communication, and Public Opinion A Comprehensive Reference Guide

BRUCE LANNES SMITH, HAROLD D. LASSWELL, AND RALPH D. CASEY

PRINCETON PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS 1946

Copyright, 1046, by Princeton University Press Printed in the United States of America by Princeton University Press at Princeton, New Jersey

London:

Geoffrey Cumberlege,

Oxford

University

Press

PREFACE T H I S Reference Guide is a continuation of the work begun in Propaganda and Promotional Activities: An Annotated Bibliography, compiled by Lasswell, Casey, and Smith and published by the University of Minnesota Press in 1935. The present volume consists of four introductory essays and an annotated bibliography. The purpose of the essays is to survey briefly some aspects of the currently available scientific knowledge concerning the effects on world society of communication, and particularly of one special kind of communication: deliberate propaganda. ("Propaganda" is here taken to mean the calculated selection and circulation of symbols, with a view to influencing mass behavior.) The purpose of the bibliography is to show in detail where most of the scientific information can be found, who its authors are, and (so far as space permits) what questions it has sought to answer. It is believed that the titles of the introductory essays are self-explanatory. A brief explanation of the bibliographic section may be in order.

Scope of the Bibliographic Section On this occasion, as in 1935 when the previous book was published, it has been necessary to curtail our selection of material severely. In the available space we can include only the most representative titles from the great stream of writing on the subject by advertisers, educators, journalists, lawyers, political leaders, psychologists, public administrators, public relations counselors, and the several varieties of social scientists: anthropologists, economists, historians, political scientists, sociologists, and others. As before, the bibliography is limited, in principle, to objective studies and analyses rather than examples of propaganda; but every effort has been made to include titles from every field in which conscious promotion is prominent, and from every scientific discipline which has contributed to its objectified analysis. Although it has been necessary to represent many such fields and disciplines by citing only their most characteristic documentation, the goal throughout has been inclusive scope and adequate sampling. Titles Included The titles here listed are: (1) Books, periodicals and articles which appeared between mid-1934 (when the previous bibliography went to press) and about March 1943. (2) A very small number of leading titles which were inadvertently omitted from the previous book. (3) A special

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PREFACE

list of "Outstanding Titles on the Art and Science of Popularization" (see p. 122 below). (4) A special list of "One Hundred and Fifty Outstanding Titles on Propaganda, Communication, and Public Opinion" (see p. 121 below). Plan of Classification With certain alterations among the subclasses, the plan of classification adopted in the previous volume has proved to be reasonably serviceable as a tool of research. Consequently, the main classes in the present book are the same as before, but subclasses have been altered to conform with shifts in the focus of attention of investigators, or for the sake of greater simplicity. Obviously, the overlapping of subjects complicates the problem of arranging titles according to a logic useful to all readers. To save space, each citation has been entered only once—at the point where it seemed to fit the main plan of classification most neatly. Cross References and Indexes To offset the limits imposed by any one system of classification, recourse may be had to the rather detailed Table of Contents, and to the Author and Subject Index. In addition to the names of authors of titles listed in the bibliographic section, the Index includes the names of translators, authors of forewords, and authors cited in the annotations. The indexing of subjects will be found to be much more comprehensive than in our previous volume. Identification of Authors and Observational Standpoints The activities, connections, and backers of a writer are of the highest importance in evaluating his analytic contributions in a field as highly controversial as that of propaganda, communication, and public opinion. It would be advisable to have a vita or life sketch of each of our 3,000 or more authors, so that the reader might bear in mind the social strata, the income groups, the skill groups, the attitude groups, the nationality groups, the educational groups, whose standpoints may have been adopted or whose interests may have been served by these writers. Space and the compilers' time being severely limited, the preparation of such identifying data has proved to be impossible. However, an effort has been made to provide clues to sources from which the reader may obtain further information. In the annotations, the nationalities and the principal occupations of writers have been indicated briefly, and in a number of cases other data indicating their observational standpoints have been given. In addition, initials have been placed after the names of authors of the "One Hundred and Fifty Outstanding Titles" (see p. 121, below) and also after

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PREFACE

the names of authors of titles in Part ι and Part 4, the Parts in which the major theoretical and historical treatises and monographs are listed. These initials indicate that the author in question is listed in one or more of the following readily accessible directories: CB '40, '41, '42, '43 = Current Biography for the indicated year (up to May 1943) D = Directory of American Scholars (1942)

ESS = Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences W == Who's Who in Americay 1942-1943 It is hoped that this feature, together with the introductory essays, the intensive indexing, and the relatively full annotations, may enable the reader to use this volume not merely as a list of readings but as a kind of treatise and reference guide in its own right—at once comprehensive in scope and specific in its citations of articles, books, and authors. Authorship The selection and annotation of nearly all titles in the bibliography sec­ tion of this volume was carried out by Bruce L. Smith, with occasional suggestions or editorial revisions by his two colleagues. He also chose the select list of titles on "The Art and Science of Popularization." Responsi­ bility for the selection and annotation of the "One Hundred and Fifty Out­ standing Titles" is equally shared by the three compilers. The essays on "The Science of Mass Communication," while signed by individual writers, are to a great extent the product of joint planning. B R U C E LANNES S M I T H Defartment of Economics, New York University HAROLD D. LASSWELL Director of War Communications Research, Library of Congress R A L P H D. CASEY School of Journalism, University of Minnesota

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS T H E making of a book like this is not without its fatiguing moments. They have been lightened by Ralph D. Casey and Harold D. Lasswell with more than ten years of discriminating scientific advice and with every sort of personal kindness; by George Biderman, Elinor Hopkinson, Morris Janowitz and Edith C. Strickland with assistance and many valued ideas; by the staff of Princeton University Press, with expert technical and editorial counsel; and by a charming and infallible secretary, Viola C. Johnson. B. L. S.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface

ν viii

Acknowledgments T H E SCIENCE OF MASS COMMUNICATION : FOUR ESSAYS

Introduction

ι

Communication Channels, by Ralph D. Casey

4

The Political Communication Specialist of Our Times, by Bruce Lannes Smith

31

Describing the Contents of Communications, by Harold D. Lasswell

74

Describing the Effects of Communications, by Harold D. Lasswell

95

BIBLIOGRAPHY

One Hundred and Fifty Outstanding Titles on Propaganda, Communication, and Public Opinion

121

Outstanding Titles on the Art and Science of Popularization

122

Organization of Bibliography

126

General Bibliography

129

Author and Subject Index to Bibliography

393

The Science of Mass Communication: Four Essays INTRODUCTION WRiTER once dreamed of a Utopia in the year ten thousand, in which speech no longer exists and people merely read one another's Lthoughts. 1 In the meanwhile we are compelled to rely upon the "clumsy vehicle of words." It staggers the imagination to think of the daily flow of words. An all-inclusive census of the stream of public communication would survey all programs of all broadcasting stations in the world, all issues of all newspapers and periodicals, all newsreels, documentary and feature films, all posters, leaflets, emblems, insignia, all trade books, textbooks and lesson guides, to say nothing of all speeches, songs, theatrical performances, ceremonies, lectures, formal discussions, demonstrations and celebrations, and architectural and monumental expressions. The control of public communication is one of the policy objectives of a multitude of governmental and private groups and persons. Every government on the globe, whether despotism or democracy, whether at war or at peace, relies upon propaganda—more or less efficiently harmonized with strategy, diplomacy, and economics—to accomplish its ends. Private individuals and associations—political parties, pressure groups, trade associations, trade unions, and other organizations—may be prevented by the government from resorting to violence and in consequence be made particularly dependent upon propaganda. Not all use of language is propaganda. When language is used in negotiations between diplomats, employer-employee representatives, and other accredited agents, the act is one of diplomacy', not propaganda. Propaganda is language aimed at large masses: it sends words, and other symbols such as pictures, through the radio, press, and film, where they reach huge audiences. The intention of the propagandist is to influence mass attitudes on controversial issues. The use of language in diplomacy is to conclude agreements or to expose their impossibility. Again, when words are used in teaching how to read, write, and figure, the process is not to be confused with propaganda} rather it is education-, primarily concerned with transmitting skill or insight, not attitude. (The definition of education may be extended to include the transmission of noncontroversial attitudes as well as skills.) When language is used only to affirm loyalty to an accepted

A

1

Will N. Harben, "In the Year Ten Thousand," Arena (November, 1892).

2

SCIENCE OF MASS COMMUNICATION

symbol or institution, again the act is not propagandistic; it is part of the ceremonial life of those involved. We are not justified in making the hasty assumption that whatever appears in the channels of mass communication, even in a despotism, is propaganda. Some of it is wholly artistic and self-expressive and is not deliberately slanted toward strengthening or weakening controversial attitudes. Propaganda is one means by which large numbers of people are induced to act together. In a relatively free society, each step of the process can be more readily observed. Initiatives may arise anywhere, ranging from simple local matters like paving the street to complex global problems of permanent peace. Many initiatives die away, leaving no discernible change. Others culminate in reform or even revolution. When societies are despotically run, public initiatives are not so freely tolerated, and criticism of a given group (party, government, church) may be treason. In a despotism there is propaganda—but it is monopolized as far as possible in the hands of the despot. The content and control of propaganda are directly related to social structure. (By "structure" is meant the basic values of a given society and the pattern followed in distributing them. Among the most distinctive values are income; physical safety; respect; and power, by which is meant the making of important decisions.) Propaganda at once reflects, criticizes, and partially modifies the social structure. Where power, income, and other values are held in a few hands, the means of communication will be owned or regulated by the few and hence subject to the conceptions of interest and sentiment current among them. When the social structure is more democratic there is easier access to public media for every constituent group of society, and the channels of communication reveal a broad variety of interest and sentiment. In every society, however, limits are put upon the public media by the attitudinal standards of the community as a whole, which include morality, loyalties, expectations. Propaganda must necessarily adapt itself to the accepted attitudes and vocabulary of public life. Successful propaganda in America will speak reverently of the Constitution, of the Bill of Rights and of the Declaration of Independence. Only in a late stage of internal reintegration would it be possible successfully to abandon this vocabulary. Much of the literature of propaganda is devoted to strategy and tactics. Like other instruments of policy (war, diplomacy, economics), propaganda is bound by the strategic principles of precaution, concentration, and surprise. According to the principle of precaution the propagandist is careful to lull the unfavorable elements into passivity, until they are no

INTRODUCTION

3

longer able to block the attainment of his objective. In conformity with the idea of concentration, the successful propagandist reinforces those who are predisposed toward his goal, nullifies the unfavorable, seeks to win the neutral or indifferent. Within this framework the propagandist weighs and balances his tactical decisions about the use of slogans and symbols. If scientific and objective, he pretests and postaudits his assumptions about the relative advantages of repetition and variety, universal and local symbols, truth and deception, optimism and pessimism, public or private appeals, presentations of himself or opponent as strong or weak, presentation as moral or immoral. All principles of propaganda depend upon certain assumptions about the nature of the process of communication. In the introductory essay to the authors' earlier book, Propaganda and Promotional Activities: An Annotated Bibliography, a cursory view was given of the meaning of the term "propaganda" and of the nature of propaganda strategy and technique as then understood. The authors believe that the usefulness of the present volume will be greatest if special attention is directed to the structure of the emerging science of communication. In recent years the expansion of scientific observation on the behavior of animals, infants, primitives, the psychopathic, and the average citizen has continually redefined the laws of psychology, and this in turn has modified the principles of propaganda activity. It is beyond the scope of the following essays to review this entire development. It is, however, timely to consider the field of scientific work most immediately related to propaganda, namely, the direct study of mass communication. As developed in the past few years, the scientific study of communication centers around the four successive phases of any act of communication: In what channels do communications take place? Who communicates? What is communicated? Who is affected by the communication and how? Hence four essays have been presented in the present work. One is devoted to each of the divisions of the field mentioned above: channels, communicators, contents, effect.

COMMUNICATION CHANNELS BY R A L P H D. CASEY HREE major trends have shaped the character and ordered the development of American communications. The first has been the rise of democracy. The second is the technological and industrial revolution that has taken place in this country in the past hundred years. The third is the urbanization of America. The assumption that the communication channels have been molded by these three influences can be tested in the case of the newspaper, with incidental reference to other communication agencies. The news and editorial pattern of daily newspapers is a reflection of the character of a population which reads and buys them. Ours is a land whose culture is largely dominated by the democratic middle class. Its tastes, interests, and demands have shaped the communication channels. The type of content, the range of the circulation, and the influence daily newspapers and even the popular magazines enjoy are linked with the democratic movement which goes back at least to the Jacksonian era.

T

The Democratic

Movement

When the common man won the ballot and created the free public school, influences were set at work which altered the press through the succeeding century, just as they changed government, society, education, the arts, and other phases of life. It was in America that elementary education first became universal. Democracy enfranchised new classes and enlarged the literate public. The acquisition of both letters and political power whetted the appetite of artisans, mechanics, and farmers for reading matter directed at their interests, and stimulated their curiosity about life and affairs. The cheap popular press was born to meet these needs and in the following decades the press has responded to the changing social interests and intellectual standards of its mass audience. In the 1830's the New York Sun and the New York Herald boldly challenged the post-Revolutionary tradition of a "class" journalism, largely founded on political party subsidy and published for politicians, well-to-do traders, business men, and well-bred planters. Benjamin Day, the founder of the Sun·, projected his popular penny newspaper into a field theretofore dominated by the "respectable" six-cent dailies which filled their columns with matters of political and factional controversy and which were "beyond the interest, understanding and means of the plain people." Day introduced news of police courts and crime and as he won

COMMUNICATION CHANNELS

S

readers he and his followers, notably James Gordon Bennett, greatly increased the volume of local news. They also developed the universally understandable "human interest" story—the tale of persons "interesting merely as human beings, and not for their connection with either significant or sensational news." 1 All this was revolutionary in the journalism of that day. « ··•* ! When Bennett founded the Herald in 1835, he publicly proclaimed his paper free from the support of every political clique or faction. As significant as the creation of a new reading public was the break of the penny press with the established tradition of newspaper dependence on political favor and patronage, and the substitution of advertising and to some extent mass circulation revenue to provide the financial support of newspapers.2 The success of the popular papers was immediate. Within four years the Sun, primarily designed as it was to interest "mechanics" and other workers, could boast of a circulation of 30,000 copies a day. Imitators sprang up in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and elsewhere. Here was a press which based its strength upon the broad base of mass readers and the advertising such circulation could attract. Here was a press which dared to free itself from political power and which could afford to be independent of special interests. Though the pioneers in this democratic movement may not have been fully aware of the implications of their work, they ineluctably molded the press along democratic rather than "class" lines.8 The democratization of journalism in the great cities, while producing popular, well-balanced and sober newspapers, also led in its extreme form to the exploitation of a circulation area hitherto unsought by the popular newspapers. The "yellow journals" of Hearst and Pulitzer reached down in the 'nineties to a substratum of readers. Again, in the 'twenties the 1

See Frank Luther Mott, American Journalism, p. 243. Walter Lippmann's remarks on this epoch of American journalism are pertinent here: "It could be demonstrated, I think, that however much the laws may seem to grant political freedom, they are ineffective until a country has for some considerable time accustomed itself to newspapers which are highly profitable and immediately powerful because of their skill in enlisting, in holding, and in influencing a great mass of readers. When there is no prosperous and popular press the liberty of publication is precarious. Publications are likely to be either controlled or venal, or else they eke out a miserable and fairly negligible existence. It will be found, I think, that the area of free publication in the world today is on the whole coterminous with the area in which commercial newspapers circulate widely." See " T w o Revolutions in the American Press," Yale Review, March, 1931, pp. 433-441. 8 ". . . almost without exception the penny papers published paragraphs from time to time setting forth their creed, which may be summarized as follows: ( 1 ) T h e great common people should have a realistic view of the contemporary scene, and this in spite of taboos; ( 2 ) abuses in churches, courts, banks, stockmarkets, etc., should be exposed; ( 3 ) the newspaper's first duty is to give its readers the news, and not support a party or mercantile class; and ( 4 ) local and humaninterest news is important. T o these doctrines Horace Greeley later added, when he founded the penny Tribune, the reformer's ideal of social amelioration." Mott, ibid., pp. 242-243. 2

6

SCIENCE OF MASS COMMUNICATION

tabloids tapped lower levels of taste and intelligence than other papers cared to reach. The "yellows" and the "tabs" exploited the ignorance, repressions, and emotions of the masses. It should be recalled, however, that Pulitzer—and also Hearst in his early days—did advocate and sup­ port popular causes, even though they were guilty of playing upon the passions of readers. But while the democratization of journalism reached its nadir in the periods of extreme sensationalism, both the "yellows" and the "tabs," each in their own era of apparent popularity, were compelled to modify the extremes of their editorial methods. There were editorial practices to which Demos would not eternally respond. The "yellow" press, in the sense that the term was used in the early 'nineties, does not survive today.4 Even the revival by the tabloids of a slavish appeal to the morbid and sen­ sational carried within itself "the seeds of its own dissolution."5 Throughout the heyday of sensationalism, both in the 'nineties and early twentieth century, there always were sober and intelligent newspapers. The "yellow" and tabloid press has never been the dominant pattern of American journalism the country over. The 'thirties brought in as sober and as seriously intelligent a press as we have had in our history, with a broadly based and democratic circulation. That the democratic movement has been a more important influence than any other in shaping editorial practices is seen in the desire of publish­ ers to appeal primarily, not to minority groups, but to the average public, albeit a public with needs, demands, and viewpoints widened by expanding educational opportunity6 and economic pressure. Publishers and controllers of other communication channels are acutely aware of the fact that in an economy in which the communication agencies are operated for profit, with commercial advertising as the chief revenue producer, appeals to sections of society that have the greatest numbers will still ensure the greatest sta­ bility for the agency and the greatest income for the communications chan* Robert E. Park, " T h e Yellow Press," Sociology and Social Research, September-October, 1927, p. 11. 6 See Lippmann, ibid.: "As the readers of this [sensational] press live longer in the world, and as their personal responsibilities increase, they begin to feel the need of being genuinely informed rather than of being merely amused and excited. Gradually they discover that things do not happen as they are made to appear in the human interest stories. The realization begins to dawn on them that they are getting not the news but a species of romantic fiction which they can get much better out of the movies and the magazines . . . the most impressive event of the last decade in the history of newspapers has been the demonstration that objective, orderly, and comprehen­ sive presentation of news is a far more successful type of journalism today than the dramatic, disorderly, episodic type. . . . " β The number of pupils enrolled in secondary schools in the continental United States in 1890 was 357,813. The number enrolled per 100 population, 14 to 17 years of age inclusive, was 7. The number enrolled per 100 population in 1940 was 73· See Statistical Abstract of the United States, 194*·

COMMUNICATION

CHANNELS

7 nel entrepreneur. The result is that newspapers and periodicals of today remain the journals of the average man, and the radio and motion picture direct their appeal to mass constituencies. "The average man's interests, his pleasures, his good deeds—his evil deeds," are mirrored in the popular printed media of 1945 and to a considerable extent in the other channels as well. The radio and the motion picture arrived on the scene when the democratic movement was running full tide. Neither had roots in the past. No background of "class" tradition guided their behavior or restricted their operation. If they were uncouth in their beginnings, it was a reflection of the lusty and confident democratic period that gave them birth. The nickelodeon was the progenitor of the movie theater, and any man, no matter what his status, could pick up the first radio broadcasts on a cheap crystal set. Most of the faults which we deplore in the communications media, and many of the strong points which we applaud, are the results of the effort of those who control and manage the communication channels to satisfy the great majority, rather than the select minority. Some may prefer a level of communication agencies which appeals only to the "wisest and best"j others may show that the communication agencies do not yet approach real democratic fulfillment. The fact remains that democracy has made a powerful impression on the agencies that carry news, ideas, opinions, counsel, and entertainment to the ultimate reader or listener. 7

Technological and Economic Change The technological and economic changes in the past half century have been no less influential on the newspaper and periodical as well as on the younger instrumentalities, the radio and motion picture. "Inventions point the way we are going," remarked Professor Ogburn. " W e adopt them for the immediate use we make of them. But, once adopted, there are hundreds of social effects, as distinct from uses, that flow more or less inevitably."8 Fundamental changes in the pattern, circulation, and influence of the newspaper have come about as a result of more than a hundred years of technological progress. It has increased the scope, range, and speed of the 7 This is not to say that newspapers are edited and radio programs are planned without regard for special levels of interest and intelligence within the public. See the section on "Departmentalized News and the Small Publics" in Helen McGiIl Hughes' article, " T h e Social Interpretation of News" in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, January, 1942. New York supports "class" newspapers; the New York Times for one. Radio stations attempt to build their fare for all classes of listeners; in the case of the radio stations supported by universities and colleges, most of them make little effort to escape intellectual class consciousness. T h e names of "class" periodicals with national circulation will occur at once to the reader. Documentary films are usually aimed at discriminating movie-goers. 8 William F. Ogburn, Machines and Tomorrows World, p. 1.

8

SCIENCE

OF MASS

COMMUNICATION

distribution of symbols. It has improved the efficiency of the agencies of mass impression and greatly expanded the contacts between individuals and groups. It has brought the motion picture, the radio, television, and facsimile transmission into being within the last half century. Prior to the invention of new printing machines, the discovery of the telegraph, and the construction of railroads—all sired by technology— newspapers were relatively insignificant in news volume and circulation, and they were costly in terms of average income. Printing presses before 1814 could produce only a few hundred impressions an hour; the use of steam-powered presses in the same year quadrupled the output. The advent of penny newspapers in 1833 led to further significant developments in printing machinery. Hoe took type from the flatbed press and put it on a revolving cylinder. This development of the rotary press, the invention of stereotyping with the attendant multiplication of plates by a quick process, and the successful use of typesetting machines revolutionized the news pattern and the economy of American journalism. As new printing machinery duplicated thousands and later tens of thousands of copies of a newspaper at high speed, inventions in electrical transmission provided arteries which carried the blood of the news into the heart of the printing press. News in increasing quantity and speed could be transmitted from the far corners of the globe when the telegraph, cable, and telephone arrived on the scene, to be supplemented later by wireless, radio, and other devices. In brief, technology provided the means by which millions of widely scattered persons could share information and ideas about matters of general interest. Technological communication devices are the channels for symbols that knit together social groups and widen and deepen social life.9 They affect many aspects of life, creating new problems in the domestic field and in international relations.10 But, in addition to these effects, technology has made a significant impress on the economy of communications. Today's use of machines in all lines of production is a commonplace, in the communications industry no less than in other lines of enterprise. Machines that transmit symbols represent a generous investment of capital. The glamorous days of the pioneer printer who could drive into a village with a press mounted on a buckboard and a "shirt-tail full of type" and start a newspaper overnight are long past. A heavy item of capital expense is now required in publishing even a nonmetropolitan daily, and in a 9

See the comment of Malcolm M. Willey and Stuart A. Rice, Communication Agencies and Social Life, "Introduction." 10 The use of radio by the Great Powers in fomenting international discord and carrying on propaganda is an obvious example.

COMMUNICATION CHANNELS

9 11

country shop the machine inventory alone may involve a sizable outlay. A few years ago the late William Allen White wrote: "In the last 50 years the cost of printing machinery—by that I mean press, linotypes, stereotypes, and photoengraving machinery—has risen so that a publisher has to be a capitalist with real standing at the town or city bank. For instance, the machinery to publish a paper in a village of 1,000 would cost, if bought new, $3,000 or $4,000. The machinery necessary to print a decent little daily newspaper in a town of 10,000 would cost between $25,000 to $40,000. The machinery to publish a daily newspaper in a town of 50,000 would cost nearly $100,000 and as towns grow into cities these figures advance until the publisher of a daily newspaper in a town of half a million needs an investment in machinery and working capital of two or three million dollars if he expects to compete with an established daily. . . ." Mr. White's estimate of the cost of equipping even "a decent little daily newspaper" rises proportionately in the case of the metropolitan paper. In a city of 500,000 population, $1,000,000 will be invested in presses by a dominant daily journal. Stereotyping equipment will cost between $75,000 and $100,000. Thirty-five typesetting machines will total $280,000. A good engraving camera runs to $5,000. This incomplete list of items of equipment gives some picture of investment costs for the reproduction of newspapers. Back of presses and other equipment on a metropolitan daily newspaper is the "technology" of news production and transmission, a veritable web of telephones, telegraph wires, wireless, cable, radio, telephoto, printer teletypewriters, photoengraving equipment, and so on. Add to this a distribution system that requires a fleet of fast trucks and the use of railways and sometimes airplanes for delivery of newspapers to subscribers. And printing machinery has its counterpart in apparatus for broadcasting and motion picture production. Industrial Trends and Communications Technology has led to industrial changes which have exerted still another pressure on the newspaper and periodical and molded the radio and motion picture. Industrialization stimulated the growth of cities and made it possible for the metropolitan newspaper greatly to increase its circulation and volume of advertising. The past fifty years have been marked by the organization of huge units of production and distribution to facilitate mass manufacture of commodities and to ensure the widest dissemination of machine-made, standardized products. The growth of big producing com11 More than fifteen years ago Frank Parker Stockbridge estimated that the average investment in country weeklies then ran well over $15,000 "and it is increasing all the time." See "SmallTown Papers," Saturday Evening Post, February 25, 1928.

10

SCIENCE OF MASS COMMUNICATION

panies and the spread of banking, jobbing, and retail chains—these trends have been characteristic of the era. As private business enterprises, the communication agencies have not been immune from economic changes. As William Preston Beazell, formerly of the New York World, has remarked: The newspaper "touches upon and is touched by too many aspects of business to have escaped so pervasive an influence."12 Increased business costs in other sectors of the industrial world have been paralleled in the field of communications. Newspaper production outlays have made steep ascents since the middle of the last century. Greeley founded the New York Tribune in 1841 with $3,000. Ten years later it was necessary to set aside a sum of between $50,000 and $75,000 to establish the New York Times and the paper was capitalized at $100,000. Increasing costs of production—equipment, materials, and salary outlays— caused steady advances in capitalization from that time forward. E. W. Scripps and other publishers were able to establish papers as late as the turn of the century on a relatively modest expenditure, but the New York Herald was sold for $5,000,000 in 1924 and a few years later the ScrippsHoward interests laid down a like sum for the New York World. The Kansas City Star was sold in 1927 for $11,000,000. A similar curve appears in a comparison of early and current capitalization in other communication channels. The Kinetoscope Company, which distributed Edison's Kinetoscope machine and his early films, was a modest enterprise. Films for the early peephole shows in shooting galleries and arcades were sold outright to exhibitors for prices ranging from $10 to $25 a film.13 The cost of an average screen feature production forty years later averaged between $170,000 and $250,000, with all companies producing pictures which greatly exceeded the latter figure. More than forty pictures cost more than $1,000,000 each during the boom season of 193 6-193 7.14 Leo C. Rosten reported that the movie industry has "a capital investment in the United States alone of approximately two billion dollars—in movie production, theatres, and distribution."15 The gross assets of the eight major producer-distributor-exhibitor motion picture companies in 1939 approximated, respectively, $90,000,000, $150,000,000, $60,000,000, $150,000,000, $40,000,000, $10,000,000, $15,000,000, and $i2,ooo,ooo. ie In the early days of radio, an independent radio station of sufficient power to enable it to blanket a local community could be built at compara12

"Tomorrow's Newspaper," The Atlantic Monthly, July, 1930. Howard T. Lewis, The Motion Picture Industry, p. 3. 14 Louis R. Reid, "Amusement: Radio and Movies" in Harold E. Stearns (ed.) America No