Overview

In the 1920s, the USDA asked farmers about the impact the new medium of radio was having on their lives. One farmer summed it up this way: 'Radio brought me out of the dark'. """"Out of the Dark"""" is a study of radio's impact on rural America in the three decades between its inception and the arrival of television. The coming of radio broadcasting had a profound impact on the lives of many Americans, but none more so than those who lived in rural America. Radio provided isolated families with something they had never known before - an instantaneous connection with news, entertainment, and the rapidly evolving lifestyles and mores of the entire nation. Drawing upon both new historical sources and contemporary scholarship, """"Out of the Dark"""" presents a comprehensive picture of rural radio and its audience in the United States during the three decades when its influence was at its peak. This study documents the social changes radio helped bring about, such as the effects of advertising and entertainment in creating a more uniform set of values across the nation and, consequently, a stronger national identity. """"Out of the Dark"""" also addresses the political and economic impact the rural audience had on the development of the broadcasting industry and its regulation; the role played by the USDA in the promotion and development of rural radio; and an analysis of how radio entertainment and advertising contributed to the growing demand for consumer goods among rural families, thus speeding their entry into the modern American lifestyle.

Full Product Details

9780817316631

Table of Contents

Reviews

Normal0falsefalsefalseMicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Steve Craig's excellent book on the history of rural radio [is] well-written, readable [and] includes both statistical data and stories that bring rural radio alive. I am guessing that many people with rural roots would resonate to this book even if they don't teach media history as I do. Too often, media historians ignore the history of media outside New York and Washington, DC. This book is a welcome addition to that literature and the overall history of radio. Communication Research Trends

[ Out of the Dark ] vividly illustrates the dramatic social and cultural change radio brought to isolated rural Americans from the 1920s through World War II and the postwar years. Craig brings readers an intimate, detailed understanding of radio's role in shaping rural audiences and general American society during the 20th century. --Louise Benjamin, author of Freedom of the Air and Public Interest: Establishing First Amendment Rights on Broadcasting to 1935

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Steve Craig's excellent book on the history of rural radio [is] well-written, readable [and] includes both statistical data and stories that bring rural radio alive. I am guessing that many people with rural roots would resonate to this book even if they don't teach media history as I do. Too often, media historians ignore the history of media outside New York and Washington, DC. This book is a welcome addition to that literature and the overall history of radio. -- Communication Research Trends

Author Information

Steve Craig is the coauthor of Consuming Environments: Television and Commercial Culture and editor of Men, Masculinity, and the Media.

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