Media Activism from Above and Below: Lessons from the 1940s American Reform Movement

Abstract

Abstract The 1940s was a contentious decade for US media policy. Activists, policymakers, and communication industries grappled over media's normative foundations and regulatory guidelines. At this time, a reform agenda was taking shape at both the grassroots social movement level and inside elite policy circles. This paper examines the tensions within this nascent media reform movement, many of which are still negotiated among media activists today. By recovering contingency and conflict, this research sheds light on larger paradigmatic shifts. It suggests that despite significant reform activism in the 1940s, a commercial, self-regulated media system emerged largely inoculated against further structural challenges. The failures of this reform movement hold important lessons for contemporary activists.