Question

on may 7, 1933, president franklin roosevelt began his second \fireside chat\ with the following introduction: \on a sunday night a week after my inauguration i used the radio to tell you about the banking crisis and the measures we were taking to meet it. i think that in that way i made clear to the country various facts that might otherwise have been misunderstood and in general provided a means of understanding which did much to restore confidence. tonight, eight weeks later, i came for the second time to give you my report, in that same spirit and by the same means to tell you about what we have been doing and what we are planning to do.\ why did president roosevelt employ this method of communicating with the american people? a he could not compete with popular entertainers for television airtime. b he found that mass media helped gain support for his policies. c he preferred written policy statements over public addresses. d he used radio addresses in order to campaign for reelection

Explanation:

Roosevelt used radio (a form of mass media) to communicate. In his introduction, he mentioned that in the first radio address, it "provided a means of understanding which did much to restore confidence". This implies that mass media (radio in this case) was effective in helping him gain support (restore confidence is related to getting people on board with his actions, which is a form of support) for his policies.

• Option A: Television was not a major medium in 1933. The first commercial TV stations in the US started in the late 1930s - early 1940s.
• Option C: He was using a spoken - word medium (radio), not written policy statements.
• Option D: He was not campaigning for re - election in 1933 (his second term was from 1937 - 1941).

Answer:

B. He found that mass media helped gain support for his policies.