THE RADIO AND YOUTH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24408, 20 September 1940, Page 4

THE RADIO AND YOUTH

Members of the Otago Education Board, in associating themselves with the protest, which the Hawke’s Bay and Auckland boards are making to the Government concerning the type of serials broadcast from radio stations in the .Dominion, appeared to be far from familiar with the nature of the entertainments that were the subjects of complaint. This is not to their literary discredit. The serials to which attention has been drawn by the Hawke’s Bay Education Board do not reflect a dis 7 criminating standard in those whd» comprise their radio audience. It is not, however, concern with the artistic taste of adult radio listeners that has provoked this protest. The Education Boards are concerned, and rightly, with the emotional effect upon school children of radio broadcasts of a quality by no means superior to that of the “ blood and thunder ” stories of an older generation, the presentation of which through the new and all-pervading agency of the radio emphasises their sensational characteristics. If the members of the Education Boards have taken the trouble to consult teachers in regard to certain types of radio “ thriller ” which are broadcast, they wjll have learned that these are generally condemned by them. Late hours, lack of preparation of the small amount of homework , which is now given in the schools, and the inability of children to concentrate are the familiar obstacles with. which teachers have to contend in the present day. And while it is to be recognised that the distractions which produce these conditions in modern youth are many, the radio is at least one of the principal agents. There is no reason why the serials provided—if serials there must be —should be of a character which arouses their condemnation among educationists. As a medium of entertainment the radio can have a most valuable place in the community life. But broadcast serials that are calculated to excite and influence young minds adversely appear to have obtained an undesirably prominent position among the items offered for the delectation of the public.