RTV Theory and Practice - Special Issue

educational structure of listeners, work in various shifts, the expansion of social interests to a broader section of the population and also the fact - which we consider a weakness of Radio Zagreb’s morning programme that the majority of Usteners are located in highly urban environments. But, to return to the dilemma of active ог passive listening. The Soviet author Serkovin is quite right when he claims that »attention has a whole range of properties, whose effect is usually shown as important for the efficient functioning of mass communications and propaganda media. These properties show a far-reaching influence on the character of registering information which is given, on the course of its assignment of meaning and the clarity of its recall. If these properties are ignored in communications, there will be either a serious reduction of its effectiveness ог complete absence of the results of efforts invested.« 1 Speaking further of the orientation of attention, this Soviet author stresses that it implies »specific faculties of the human psyche to select activites in the broadest sense of the word, independent of whether that choice was made consciously or unconsciously and how it is maintained during a certain period of time... Attention can be oriented to the content information arbitrarily in order to tell the importance and meaning of information. The French, who traditionally give more importance to newspapers than radio and television, changed that habit in obtaining their daily portion of information on the day of President Kennedy’s assassination. According to the study made by the social psychologist Stezel, 70 рег cent of Parisians heard about the assassination half an hour after its occurrence. About half that number heard the news over the radio. In other words, people directed their attention to seeking certain information, making a choice from among a series of possible, usual or essential activities: they listened to the radio in expectancy of news which could remove their personal tension, arising after the first, incomplete communication...« 2 In our own experience we too can fmd sufficient examples of the orientation of the reader’s attention, as well as confirmation of the indispensable role of radio in exceptional circumstances. Meanwhile, the question occurs for us whether it is possible to fix the listener’s attention when nothing exceptional is happening, especially whether it is possible to do this in the early morning hours?

1. Ј. A. Serkovin: »Problem pažnje u masovnim informadonim procesima«, RTV-TEORUA 1 PRAKSA, br. 6 2. Ibid.