Examining the emergence of broadcasting in the 1920s through magazine advertising

Abstract

This paper focuses on the emergence of radio receiver technology and its use by the American public as revealed in 1,725 magazine display advertisements in 12 general circulation and women's magazines from 1920 through 1929. It explores how the complicated wireless telephone receiver was adapted to usability for the decidedly nontechnical public. The study also explores how the “new”; radio — broadcasting — became useful to the general public in various aspects of daily life by the end of the decade. From a technical and social novelty in 1920, radio had evolved to a place squarely‐ on the path to social and cultural integration with American society by 1929.