The commercialization of the radio and its popularity throughout the 1930s radically changed how Americans were engaged in current events. As radios were commonplace in nearly every American home, they provided a broadcasting network that politicians could use to communicate with all of America. Franklin D. Roosevelt certainly took advantage of this during his presidency and gave approximately 30 speeches to Americans on a variety of topics, ranging from fascism in Europe to unemployment.
Roosevelt gave his speeches into a microphone at a desk in the White House, unfortunately not beside a fireplace, using a conversational and informal tone. He wanted to use simple language so that all of America could clearly understand his message. In particular, he addressed the listener as “[his] friend” so as to seem like he was speaking directly to them.
Consequently, the vast majority of America enjoyed his speeches and found them to be very persuasive. If Roosevelt told the public to have confidence in the future of America, they would be more willing to spend their money. If Roosevelt wanted people to have faith in the security of banks, they would listen to him and slowly start to trust banks again.
Roosevelt’s fireside chats significantly proved to be an effective mechanism for boosting American morale throughout the Great Depression.
Sources:
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2008-10-19-0810190058-story.html
https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/fireside-chats
Roosevelt gave his speeches into a microphone at a desk in the White House, unfortunately not beside a fireplace, using a conversational and informal tone. He wanted to use simple language so that all of America could clearly understand his message. In particular, he addressed the listener as “[his] friend” so as to seem like he was speaking directly to them.
Consequently, the vast majority of America enjoyed his speeches and found them to be very persuasive. If Roosevelt told the public to have confidence in the future of America, they would be more willing to spend their money. If Roosevelt wanted people to have faith in the security of banks, they would listen to him and slowly start to trust banks again.
Roosevelt’s fireside chats significantly proved to be an effective mechanism for boosting American morale throughout the Great Depression.
Sources:
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2008-10-19-0810190058-story.html
https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/fireside-chats
This post gave a really nice overview of Roosevelt's fireside chats! Something else that I found was interesting was that apparently he started using the radio as a different way to spread information rather than the newspaper. At the time his opponents controlled the newspaper, so instead of risking the spread of misinformation Roosevelt instead chose to speak directly to the American people.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fireside_chats
I really like how you described the cause and effect of the fireside chats on the American public. Upon further research, I found that as soon as the US joined World War II, Roosevelt began having fireside chats every three months. He made his chats so regular because he wanted to keep the public informed with the war's progress. As Arynn noted, Roosevelt was very frustrated that the press was putting out false information, telling a reporter, "It's up to you fellows. If you fellows give the country an exceedingly correct picture, I won't go on the radio." In a sense, he used the radio to block and correct the misinformation spread by various news sources.
ReplyDeleteSource: https://www.whitehousehistory.org/the-fireside-chats-roosevelts-radio-talks
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