Promoting a labor perspective in the American mass media

Unions and radio in the CIO era, 1936-56

Bibliographic Data

ID11268420
AuthorsElizabeth Fones-Wolf (West Virginia University), Elizabeth Fones‐wolf (West Virginia University, corresponding author)
Year2000
Volume22
Issue3
Pages285-307
Publication date2000-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMedia Culture & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0163-4437 • E-ISSN: 1460-3675
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/016344300022003003
OpenAlexW2060584207
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited16

Corporate interests have dominated American radio since the late 1920s, using a commercialized medium to sell business products and ideology. For several decades, organized labor challenged business control of the radio. Unable to compete with business in other areas of the mass media, radio, with its potential for reaching a large audience, held promise for a labor movement hoping to contest business domination of political discourse. This article explores the relationship between organized labor and radio broadcasting from the 1930s to the mid-1950s. During the early part of this period, unions engaged in a fierce struggle for access to radio and began challenging the coverage of labor in the mass media. In the post-Second World War era, organized labor launched an aggressive campaign to utilize radio to promote a working-class political perspective. By the early 1950s, labor's voice was more widely heard on the airwaves than ever before. Organized labor offered at least a modest check on corporate America's command of the mass media

Advertising · Broadcasting (networking · Business · CONTEST · Ideology · Mass media · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Cinema and Media Studies · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Media, Journalism, and Communication History

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