Media Influence On Pop Culture

As we read about earlier during the Progressive era, muckrakers became very important to pop- culture by exposing the goings on of corrupt political leaders, the appalling conditions in factories and underhanded dealings of corporations all mostly with good intentions. But what the media soon figured out was that gossip also sold papers by capturing the public's attention, which therefore turned into a huge amount revenue. With the introduction of radio and films during the 1920's and throughout the 1930's the influence of spreading propaganda and news grew to become an even bigger influence on what the public thought about important issues.
From 1941 to 1943, with the use of the cartoons, the children's story writer Theodor Seuss Geisel
(Dr. Seuss), felt the need to express his fears to the world about racism, isolationism, and fascism. The cartoon below shows us the lines of Japanese Americans who lived throughout the United States lining up to receive packages from what was readers were to assume were other Japanese groups. In addition, what the Honorable 5th column sign reminded readers about was the group of sympathizers which had infiltrated during the Spanish-American War. A group which was otherwise known to have caused havoc or fear by creating sabotage, spreading rumors and misinformation, sometimes even spying for other countries (Britannica 1998). The point here, I believe, was how Americans were starting to fear their neighbors and friends, but mostly other races.