Television camera operator at work.
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Latino Empowerment Through Public Broadcasting

How Latinos have used public radio and television to communicate their cultures, histories, hopes, and concerns.
Print announcement for Florida CB personality "Bow Weevil," featuring a photo of a Black man's face on a drawing of a bowl weevil holding a microphone.
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How Black CB Radio Users Created an Audible Community

CB radio was portrayed as a mostly white enthusiasm in its heyday, but Black CB users were active as early as 1959.
A police officer standing over a victim of the Sharpeville Massacre, South Africa, March 21, 1960

The Etymology of Terror

For more than 150 years after it was coined, “terrorism” meant violence inflicted by the state on its people. How did the word come to mean the reverse?
Screen shot from Oregon Trail gameplay showing Conestoga wagons and people on a western-style main street. Text reads: "Now loading the wagon..."

Let Us Now Enjoy the Incredibly Pure Tale of the Teacher Who Invented The Oregon Trail

He didn’t make a penny.
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers celebrates after an NFL game.
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Aaron Rodgers Isn’t the First Big-Name Wisconsin Anti-Vaccine Voice

But the media is treating him differently than it treated Matthew Joseph Rodermund more than a century ago.
Action shot of the Detroit Lions playing the Chicago Bears in 1934.

How the NFL Popularized Thanksgiving Day Football

The NFL holiday tradition took off in 1934, when the Detroit Lions hosted the unbeaten Chicago Bears in a game broadcast nationally on radio.
Charlton Heston (left), then president of the NRA, meets with fellow leaders Wayne LaPierre (far right) and Jim Baker (center) on April 30, 1999, ahead of the NRA's annual meeting in Denver. Around the same time, leaders discussed how to respond to the shooting at Columbine High School in nearby Littleton, Colo. More than 20 years later, NPR has obtained secret recordings of those conversations.

A Secret Tape Made After Columbine Shows the NRA's Evolution on School Shootings

In 1999, NRA leaders agonized over what to do about Columbine, paving the way for the group's approach to mass shootings ever since.
Front page of the Saturday Evening Post

The Persistence of the Saturday Evening Post

When George Horace Lorimer took over as editor of the Saturday Evening Post, America was a patchwork of communities. There was no sense of nation or unity.
Poster of American flag asking people to pledge allegiance and silence about the war.

World War II’s “Rumor Control” Project

How the federal government enlisted ordinary citizens to spy on each other for the war effort.
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Epistemic Crises, Then And Now: The 1965 Carnegie Commission As Model Philanthropic Intervention

How the commission that led to the creation of the U.S.’s public television and radio systems can serve as a model for countering disinformation today.
Collage: a pair of arms wraps around collections of newspapers reporting on AIDS and plays guitar strings.

An AIDS Activist's Archive

June Holmes was in her late twenties, working as a social worker on Long Island, when she first heard about “this thing called AIDS.”
Label of 16″ transcription disc of the March 13, rehearsal of “Who Knows? Bill Cook Collection, Library of Congress.

Who Knows? Radio and the Paranormal

A radio drama series from 1941 based on Dr. Hereward Carrington's case records of psychic phenomena.
The full chart of television genres from 1945 to present.

Television Genres Over Time

Here’s how the distribution of genres has changed since 1945 up to present.
Photo collage of Republican men, with Donald Trump at the center.

A Short History of Conservative Trolling

On the laughing emptiness at the center of the Republican Party.
Actor Jim Boyd, dressed as a grumpy clown, looks in a mirror.

50 Years Ago, 'The Electric Company' Used Comedy to Boost Kids' Reading Skills

In October 1971, The Electric Company flipped a switch and hit the public TV airwaves, aiming to use sketch comedy and animated shorts to teach kids to read.
Richard Nixon smiles with his arms crossed as he looks off to the side of the camera.

Nixon’s Political Football

Football's uniform appeal during the 20th century made it a popular analogy for candidates trying to relate to voters during the 1972 presidential election.
The cover of the book Her Stories by Elana Levine

Guiding Lights: On “Her Stories: Daytime Soap Opera and US Television History”

Annie Berke reviews Elana Levine's book on a pivotal genre and its diverse fandom.
Two characters from “Grey’s Anatomy" sit against a wall.

How TV Lied About Abortion

For decades, dramatized plot lines about unwanted and unexpected pregnancies helped create our real-world abortion discourse.
Illustration of two women.

Why Norma McCorvey Switched Sides

The perils of turning the plaintiff in Roe v. Wade into a political symbol.
Hands holding a cell phone
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Even Before the Internet, We Forged Virtual Relationships — Through Advice Columns

These communities allowed for blending fact and fiction in creating new identities.
A Black family of four in front of their suburban home.
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The ‘Wonder Years’ Remake Resurrects a 1970 Tactic to Diversify TV Viewing

Putting Black characters in situations familiar to White viewers aims to build empathy and interest.
Black and white photo of Fatty Arbuckle

Fatty Arbuckle and the Birth of the Celebrity Scandal

A murder charge, a media frenzy, a banishment, and accusations of sexual abuse in Hollywood. What can the Arbuckle affair, now 100 years old, teach us today?
Men looking at conservative publications spread across a table

My Father and the Birth of Modern Conservatism

The inspiration for the 1964 “Extremism in the defense of liberty” speech he wrote for Barry Goldwater.
A selection of newspaper covers from the Reveal Digital American Prison Newspapers collection
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Introducing American Prison Newspapers, 1800-2020: Voices from the Inside

This overlooked corner of the press provided news by and for people incarcerated. A newly available archive shows it worked hard to reach outside audiences too.
Booker T. Washington giving his Atlanta speech.

From the Recording Registry

On the anniversary of Booker T. Washington’s historic Atlanta speech, we look back at the rare 1908 recording so that his words would not be lost to history.
Elvis receiving polio vaccine

Elvis Presley Gets the Polio Vaccine on The Ed Sullivan Show, Persuading Millions to Get Vaccinated

In 1956, Elvis Presley was vaccinated backstage at The Ed Sullivan Show in order to encourage teenagers to get the polio vaccination.
Woman wearing red radio hat
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Can Radio Really Educate?

In the 1920s, radio was an exciting new mass medium. It was known for providing entertainment, but educators wondered if it could also be used for education.
Book cover of "Kathy Fiscus: A Tragedy That Transfixed the Nation"

Wellspring

The classic story of the child down the well played out in Southern California at the dawn of television.
CNN studio with monitor in the foreground and anchor at desk in the background.

From TV News Tickers to Homeland: The Ways TV Was Affected By 9/11

There is a long list of ways America was transformed by the terrorist attacks. But the question of how TV itself was changed is more complicated.
Miss America 1992, Carolyn Sapp of Hawaii, is crowned by former Miss America Marjorie Judith Vincent on Sept. 14, 1991.

How a Domestic Violence Exposé Ushered In a New Era for the Miss America Pageant

If the press didn’t know what to make of Miss America 1992 Carolyn Sapp, they really didn’t know what to make of domestic violence.