DEMOCRACY AND RADIO.

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 14, 16 October 1931, Page 4

DEMOCRACY AND RADIO.

THE fact that the British Cabinet can decide to prorogue Parliament . and appeal to the people for a verdict upon national problems in so short a space as some three weeks is, in itself, a wonderful tribute to the efficiency of modern means of communication as represented by the daily Press and Radio. Such an appeal could not have been made fifty years ago, or even twenty-five years ago. The time factor would have prohibited it. It would not have been possible for the nation’s leaders to propound their policy and secure a distribution and knowledge of that policy by any means in so short a space of time. Laborious coverage by personal travelling of great distances, numerous speeches to relatively limited audiences, and reporting in local papers of limited circulation, would have been necessary to acquaint the electorate with any degree of efficiency with the facts of the situation. To-day the local Press of the past is replaced by mediums possessed of circulations totalling millions. The telegraph enables an ably directed provincia! Press to supplement the national media. Apart from the Press there is Radio, This as a single medium is the most marvellous of all. By it Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, in the past week, has been able to speak directly into upwards of 3,000,000 homes, and in view of the importance of his utterance, it may be estimated that he has spoken directly to possibly 80 per cent. of the total electors of Britain. By the ability thus to place the issues directly before the democracy, radio becomes a striking servant of civilisation. If the voice of the people be indeed the voice of God, then that voice, before the utterance of its judgment, must be acquainted with essential facts. Radio, in providing that medium, brings the individual voter into a position of greater importance than ever before. It will be interesting to see how the voter responds to the responsibility. THIS instance is of outstanding importance in the political field as a test of the efficacy of radio. In the educative field ‘radio, as administered by the British Broadcasting Corporation and its large staff of programme organisers, has been developing an extensive circle of listeners, who derive much food for intellectual thought directly from radio. Last week we announced a further stage in the development of

the same scheme here in New Zealand. To serve the desire for mentaty » thought, important series of talks upon literary and intellectual problems are given in Britain. The Workers’ Educational Association in ~ New Zealand, with its capable staff of tutors, throughout the past four years has been co-operating with the Radio Broadcasting Company in laying the foundation for similar developments here. To build the direct contact between the listener and the tutor, Britain evolved the system of study circles, where groups of listeners could meet, hear the address from the radio, and discuss the matter amongst themselves. Study circles on similar lines are to be formed in New Zealand. Two were in existence throughout last year, and according to the testimony ‘of Mr. N. M. Richmond, of the W.E.A. Association, submitted questions and discussion of a highly informative character. On that experience listeners elsewhere are invited to form study circles in particular relation to the series of talks upon George Bernard Shaw. THE formation of study circles on a large scale throughout Britain establishes in effect an everyman’s university through which cultural progress can be sought and maintained. Possibilities of such work in building an educated democracy, capable of giving decisions upon the momentous questions now awaiting determination in relation to int®national affairs, are immense, and show that radio is predestined to ‘be the greatest single factor influencing the future of humanity in relation to national development and international reactions.