The Payne Fund Studies were a series of studies conducted to determine the effects of movies on the behavior of children and adolescents. They were paid for by The Payne Fund, a private foundation, and performed in the late 1920s and early 1930s. They have been criticized as lacking scientific rigor but were the first attempt to rigorously study the media. They were politically significant and were instrumental in the enforcement of the
Hays Code
The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the ...
. They are credited with contributing to the demise of
Pre-Code
Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines, popularly known ...
film-making in Hollywood.
Reception
Newspapers including Cleveland's ''
The Plain Dealer
''The Plain Dealer'' is the major newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. In fall 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily and 15th on Sunday.
As of Ma ...
'', New Orleans ''
Times Picayune
''The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate'' is an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana, since January 25, 1837. The current publication is the result of the 2019 acquisition of ''The Times-Picayune'' (itself a result of th ...
'', ''
Chicago Daily News
The ''Chicago Daily News'' was an afternoon daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, published between 1875 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois.
History
The ''Daily News'' was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Doughert ...
'', ''
Atlanta Journal
''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...
'', ''
Saint Paul Dispatch
The ''Saint Paul Dispatch'' was a daily newspaper in Saint Paul, Minnesota from 1868 until 1985.
Founding
Harlan Page Hall founded the ''Saint Paul Dispatch'' on February 29, 1868. Hall was born in 1838 in Ravenna, Ohio, where his father publish ...
'', the Philadelphia ''
Record'' and ''
Public Ledger'', the Boston ''American'' and New York's ''
Daily News'', ''
Daily Mirror
The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print c ...
'', and ''
Evening Post'' all lambasted the studies.
[Black, p. 154]
References
Sources
*Black, Gregory D. ''Hollywood Censored: Morality Codes, Catholics, and the Movies''. Cambridge University Press (1996);
*Rodman, George, ''Mass Media in a Changing World: History, Industry, Controversy'', 2nd ed., McGraw Hill;
External links
Payne Fund studies summary
Psychological testing
Film organizations in the United States
{{psych-stub