RTV Theory and Practice - Special Issue

gratifications sought in media content . In some societies - vvhere groups are no longer fixed in tradition and take on a discretionary quality - the reverse is also true: međia are needed to help create anđ reinforce the group's freely chosen identity and therefore to be instrumental in fulfilling a deeply felt need , serving practically as an extension of the reference group . Monocentric, uniformistic communication is unable - largely by đesign - to respond to many of these needs . Even today, in the age of narrowcasting , commercial television of whatever description has so far-found it impossible - given the need to reach considerable audiences to attract sufficient advertising revenue - to diversify its content enough to tailor it to the needs of smaller groups. 1( - > ) Public service television , operating under the obligation to cater for all interests and tastes , can devote only a limited amount of its programming to minorities - certainly not enough to provide the gratifications and satisfy deep-seated psycho!ogical needs mentioned above . It remains to be seen what effect continuing diversification and multiplication of channels will have in this sphere . Radio's forte - in addition, of course , to being a f ast source of news, of continuing importance today (cf . a symposium in European Journal of Communication , Vol. 2, No. 2, 1987 on the dif f usion of news about the assassination of Olof Palme ) has been its ability to adjust its contents to the needs of territorial communities and communities of interest , by way , of course , of decentralization and specialization 1 1 . There is and will continue to be a role for it in early identification and satisfaction of such needs . As with indiviđual and group identity , local and commumty stations serve the purpose of either reflecting the life and experience of the local community , ог of helping recreate that community , by restoring social bonds đestroyed by the disintegration caused by the ''system society" (Hagerstrand , 1986 ) and by the destruction of local cultures , due in part to the invasion of the "delocal" (centralized , national) and "postlocal" (international) međia culture (Julkunen , Sarmela , 1987).This latter case may be regardeđ as a variety of the "privatization" effect of mass communication , taking the form of a "longing for ап mtimate and humane medium . for something more understandable and familiar to listen to (Hartikainen, 1981: 3), offenng a pool of ехрепепсе shared with other members of the commumty , and psychological security. The need for this is likely to grow even further m the future ,