Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (75Th, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 5-8, 1992)
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 349 610 CS 507 957 TITLE Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (75th, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 5-8, 1992). Part III: Media History. INSTITUTION Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. PUB DATE Aug 92 NOTE 301p.; Some illustrations may not reproduce clearly; a few pages (particularly in the second paper) have marks which may affect legibility. For other sections of these proceedings, see CS 507 955-970. For 1991 Proceedings, see ED 340 045. PUB TYPE Collected Works Conference Proceedings (021) Historical Materials (060) EDRS PRICE MFO1 /PC13 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Broadcast Industry; Censorship; Communications Satellites; Content Analysis; Emergency Programs; Females; Foreign Countries; *Global Approach; Homicide; Periodicals; Photography; *Programing (Broadcast); Propaganda; World War II IDENTIFIERS Birth of a Nation; Canada; Journalists; *Media History; Political Cartoons; Womens Organizations ABSTRACT The Media History section of the proceedings contains the following nine papers: "'This Is a Test': The Evolution of the Emergency Broadcast System" (Larry G. Burkum); "Radio Homemaker Programming: Old Time Radio's Ingredient for Attracting Women Listeners" (J. Steven Smethers and Lee Jolliffe); "Her Amplified Voice: Gender, War Propaganda and Canadian Motherhood, 1939-1943" (Barbara M. Freeman); "The Attempt to Censor Racist Speech: The NAACP's Protests against 'The Birth of a Nation,' 1915-1916" (Hosoon Chang); "A Look at Factors Leading to the Murder of a Broadcast Journalist" (Mary K. Sparks); "Timothy H. O'Sullivan: His Role in the Great Surveys of the American West" (John Anderson); "Fact or Fiction? The Mystery of Magazine Content Quality in 1905" (Louise Williams Hermanson); "Global Television and Global Community: The Utopian Rhetoric of Satellite Communications Policy, 1961-63" (Michael Curtin); and "Get Thee to the Kitchen! The First Wave of the Women's Movement in the 19th Century Political Cartoons of 'Puck,' 'Punchinello,' and 'Harper's Weekly'" (Elizabeth Fakazis). (RS) *********************************************************************** Atprocw,Lxonb supuileo oy huica are tne best mat can be made lc * from the original document. * *********************************************************************** PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR EDUCATION IN JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION (75th, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 5-8, 1992). Part III: Media History. "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION MATERIAL HAS Office of Educahonat Research BEEN GRANTEDBY and Improvement I EDUCATIONAL RESOURCESINFORMATION I:ALA,. CENTER (ERIC) etus document has been reproducedas recen,e0 Iron, the DerSOnor organization Originating it O Minor changes have beenmade to .morove reproduction quality TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION Points of new or opinions statedin this floe, CENTER (ERIC)." ment do not necessarily represent OE RI position or ooliCY official r! 2 "THIS IS A TEST": THE EVOLUTION OF THE EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM LARRY G. BURKUM School of Journalism Michigan State University 305 Communication Arts Building East Lansing, MI 48824-1212 517/353-6430 Larry G. Burkum is a doctoral student in the Mass Media Ph.D. Program in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University and a graduate assistant in the School of Journalism. A paper presented to the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Montreal, August 1992. "This is a test": The Evolution of the Emergency Broadcast System I. INTRODUCTION On August 5, 1963 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS) "to fulfill national security requirements while at the same time providing for transmission of vital information to the public."1 EBS provided a means for the President and other Federal officials to communicate with the public preceding, during and following a national emergency, especially an enemy attack. EBS replaced the CONELRAD (Control of Electromagnetic Radiation) system, which the FCC established on April 10, 1953 to prohibit the use of radio transmissions for navigation.2 This paper will examinw the following research question: Why did the FCC establish EBS to replace CONELRAD? II. LITERATURE REVIEW AND JUSTIFICATION Previous research has examined the relationship between the broadcast industry and the government and its agencies.Most of this research deals with the regulation of the industry or issues Fe d eral Communications Commission, Annual Report of the Federal Communications Commission for the Fiscal Year (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1963), 34. 2Federal Communications Commission, Annual Report of the Federal Communications Commission for the Fiscal Year (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1953), 26. 1 2 relating to such regulation) But little, if any, research exists on the Emergency Broadcast System. A search of several communication and law journals failed to locate any articles on EBS.4 Broadcast hi3tory texts at best provide few details on EBS or CONELRAD.5 Head and Sterling include only a brief mention of EBS in a footnote.6 This lack of research is surprising because of the longevity of EBS and the earlier CONELRAD system, and the systems' importance to the Cold War. The recent breakup of the Soviet Union, plus the upcoming 30th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, makes the topic especially timely. EES is noteworthy as one of the few remnants of the Cold War. 3For example: Edward F. Sarno Jr., "The National Radio Conferences," Journal of Broadcasting 13 (Spring 1969):189-202; Richard J. Meyer, "Reaction to the 'Blue Book,'" Journal of Broadcasting 6 (Fall 1962):295-312; P. J. Feldman, "The FCC and Regulation of Broadcast Indecency: Is There a National Broadcast Standard in the Audience?" Federal Communications Law Journal 41 (July 1989):369-400; and J. Schement and L. Singleton, "The Onus of Minority Ownership: FCC Policy and Spanish-language Radio," Journal of Communication 31 (Spring 1981):78-83. 4The followingsources were consulted for research related to EBS and CONELRAD: Journalism Ouarterly, Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Journal of Communication, LegalTrac, Journalism Monographs, Journalism Abstracts, American History Abstracts, ERIC. sSee for example Erik Barnouw, A History of Broadcasting in the United States, Vol. III: The Image Empire, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970); Christopher H. Sterling and John M. Kittross, Stay Tuned: A Concise History of American Broadcasting, 2nd ed. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1990). 'Sydneyney W. Head and Christopher H. Sterling, Broadcasting In America: A Survey of Electronic Media, 6th ed., (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990), 63. 3 III. METHOD This research project consisted of a historiographical analysis of published documents related to the development of the Emergency Broadcast System. These included annual reports of the Federal Communications Commission, Department of Defense, and Office of Civil Defense. Personal papers of President John F. Kennedy were also consulted, as were historical accounts of the cold war. Print media reporting about the EBS, principally from The New York Times and Broadcasting magazine, was also examined. Early examination of EBS documents led to the hypothesis that EBS was created in response to the Cuban Missile Crisis. based on the fact that the Executive Order creating EBS was signed on February 26, 1963, just four months after the crisis.7 However, this hypothesis was soon discounted as further investigation made it clear EBS evolved out of CONELRAD, and was, in fact, a continuation of the national civil defense alerting system. It also became clear that to understand the origin of EBS, one must first examine the origin and development of CONELRAD. Preliminary investigation of FCC records determined a time- line for CONELRAD and EBS. Based on this, a search of the "New York Times Index" and the corresponding weekly issues of Broadcasting magazine produced several articles about CONELRAD and EBS. This evidence was then corroborated with historical 7President, Executive Order No. 11092, 26 February 1963, in Federal Communications Commission, Basic Emergency Broadcast System Plan, June 28, 1967, pp. 23-25. 4 accounts of the Cold War during the late 1950s and early 1960s, the time period covering the transition from CONELRAD to EBS. This evidence, as well as President Kennedy's personal papers, biographies of Kennedy written by former staff members, and published public opinion research, produced patterns of attitudes and policies regarding civil defense. Inferences drawn from this evidence then produced plausible explanations for the government's change from CONELRAD to EBS. IV. EXAMINATION OF THE EVIDENCE A. Creation of CONELRAD Section 606 of the Communications Act of 1934 authorizes the President of the United States to exercise certain emergency powers in time of war. He may, among other things, authorize the use or control of any station or device, its apparatus and equipment by any department in the government under such rules as he may prescribe with just compensation to the owners./ Congress amended the Communications Act on October 24, 1951 to clarify the scope of the President's emergency powers contained in Section 606 (c)/. The new law authorized the President to shut down radio facilities to prevent an enemy from /Communications Act of 1934 (PublicLaw 416), 73d