Fireside chats

Roosevelt believed that his administration's success depended upon a favorable dialogue with the electorate, possible only through methods of mass communication, and that it would allow him to take the initiative. The use of radio for direct appeals was perhaps the most important of Roosevelt's innovations in political communication. Roosevelt's opponents had control of most newspapers in the 1930s and press reports were under their control and involved their editorial commentary. Historian Betty Houchin Winfield says, "He and his advisers worried that newspapers' biases would affect the news columns and rightly so." Historian Douglas B. Craig says that Roosevelt "offered voters a chance to receive information unadulterated by newspaper proprietors' bias" through the new medium of radio. Roosevelt first used what would become known as fireside chats in 1929 as Governor of New York. Roosevelt was a Democrat facing a conservative Republican legislature, so during each legislative session he would occasionally address the residents of New York directly. His third gubernatorial address—April 3, 1929, on WGY radio—is cited by Roosevelt biographer Frank Freidel as being the first fireside chat. He closed the entire American banking system on March 6. On March 9, Congress passed the Emergency Banking Act, which Roosevelt used to effectively create federal deposit insurance when the banks reopened. At 10 p.m. ET that Sunday night, on the eve of the end of the bank holiday, Roosevelt spoke to a radio audience of more than 60 million people, to tell them in clear language "what has been done in the last few days, why it was done, and what the next steps are going to be". The term was coined by CBS broadcast executive Harry C. Butcher of the network's Washington, D.C., office, in a press release before the address of May 7, 1933. The title was picked up by the press and public and later used by Roosevelt himself, becoming part of American folklore. ==Presentation==

of the fireside chat on the State of the Union (January 11, 1944), The radio historian John Dunning wrote that "It was the first time in history that a large segment of the population could listen directly to a chief executive, and the chats are often credited with helping keep Roosevelt's popularity high." He resisted those who encouraged him to speak on radio more frequently, as shown in his response to Russell Leffingwell after the address of February 23, 1942: The one thing I dread is that my talks should be so frequent as to lose their effectiveness. ... Every time I talk over the air it means four or five days of long, overtime work in the preparation of what I say. Actually, I cannot afford to take this time away from more vital things. I think we must avoid too much personal leadership—my good friend Winston Churchill has suffered a little from this. Gallery File:FDR-June-28-1934.jpg|Fireside chat on the merits of the recovery program File:FDR-September-30-1934.jpg|Fireside chat on government and capitalism File:FDR-April-28-1935-side.jpg|Fireside chat on the WPA and the Social Security Act File:FDR-September-6-1936.jpg|Fireside chat on drought conditions and labor File:Radio-Press-Fireside-Chat-1939.jpg|Radio press at fireside chat File:Newsreel-Press-Fireside-Chat-1939.jpg|Newsreel cameras at fireside chat File:FDR-September-11-1941.jpg|Fireside chat on maintaining freedom of the seas The black armband signifies his mourning the death of his mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt. File:FDR-Map-1942.jpg|Fireside chat on the progress of the war File:FDR-December-24-1943.jpg|Fireside chat on the Tehran Conference and Cairo Conference File:FDR-January-11-1944.jpg|Fireside chat on the State of the Union ==Chronological list of addresses==

Roosevelt's radio audiences averaged 18 percent during peacetime, and 58 percent during the war. The fireside chats attracted more listeners than the most popular radio shows, which were heard by 30 to 35 percent of the radio audience. Roosevelt's fireside chat of December 29, 1940 was heard by 59 percent of radio listeners. His address of May 27, 1941, was heard by 70 percent of the radio audience. In advance of the address Roosevelt asked citizens to have a world map in front of them as they listened to him speak. "I'm going to speak about strange places that many of them never heard of—places that are now the battleground for civilization," he told his speechwriters. "I want to explain to the people something about geography—what our problem is and what the overall strategy of the war has to be. ... If they understand the problem and what we are driving at, I am sure that they can take any kind of bad news right on the chin." Sales of new maps and atlases were unprecedented, while many people retrieved old commercial maps from storage and pinned them up on their walls. This level of intimacy with politics made people feel as if they too were part of the administration's decision-making process and many soon felt that they knew Roosevelt personally. Most importantly, they grew to trust him. The conventional press grew to love Roosevelt because they too had gained unprecedented access to the goings-on of government. While many people revered Roosevelt for giving the speeches, there are some who have seen them as more detrimental than beneficial. A major criticism given about the fireside chats was this: "It can be argued that it is impracticable, that it rests on false assumptions about the nature of the American people, public opinion and Congress, and that the benefits of such a course are likely to be out‐weighed by the evils." Fireside chats are a way to address the public directly, but besides that there is no way to control what the public does with that information, or how they use it. Another major critique among the usage of fireside chats is that by using them, one is more likely going to appeal to one side of an issue, essentially alienating anyone who is not in agreement. "The President may appeal successfully to a minority, even a majority, for its support, but if he does so by simultaneously creating a bitter, recalcitrant opposition that denies his authority and would resort even to violence to resist his policies, can one say that this is a successful President?" ==Legacy==

Every U.S. president since Roosevelt has delivered periodic addresses to the American people, first on radio, and later adding television and the Internet. The practice of regularly scheduled addresses began in 1982 when President Ronald Reagan started delivering a radio broadcast every Saturday. Currently, presidents use newer and more advanced forms of communication using specific social media outlets to project to bigger groups of people. Recent presidents also use news broadcast stations to their benefit to communicate more efficiently with bigger audiences. President Barack Obama used the social media network Twitter for the first time in 2009 to address the public, much like Roosevelt did while giving his famous fireside chats. Accolades The series of Roosevelt's 30 fireside chats were included with the first 50 recordings made part of the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. It is noted as "an influential series of radio broadcasts in which Roosevelt utilized the media to present his programs and ideas directly to the public and thereby redefined the relationship between the President and the American people." ==See also==