RTV Theory and Practice - Special Issue

bureaucrats, the dogmatists and all those who were not much in favour of a fuller expansion of se!f-management in our countrv. However, at the present development stage of self-management democracy, it is high time things were radically changed. How do I see the real use of the electronic medium? I see it as a means of communication which is at опе and the same time a microscope, a telescope, a scalpel for vivisection, a dialecticai method of expression, and a socio-psychologicai method of sharpiy analysing research into the essence of the phenomena in order to obtain a more real picture of the world. It is also an informaaonai scientific synthesis and an authentic poetic picture of man’s existence and actions... Radio can only be аИ of these things if it vvorks together with the listener to search for a better reaiity and active participation in its construction. What then stands in the way of a fuiler development of a non-authoritarian method of communication with the man by his set 9 The socio-politicai conditions exist for it. The demand exists ior it. Nonetheless it is rare that the contact establisheđ between the studio and the listener is completeiy successful. Why is this so. According to my experience and knowledge, this is so because there is a traditional way of looking at what should go into the programme and how it should be broadcast to its audience. This traditionalism is reflected in sticking to a tired routine, lack of curiosity, playmg safe, and false conceptions about what is entertainment. These all spoil the quaiity of broadcast communication and this quality is only achieved by genuinely creative radio and television workers or those vvho at least manage to controi their interventions so that an authentic picture of life does reach the listener ог viewer... This traditional way of thinking manifests itself in the same way as it did when the first motor cars were made. The саг bodies were so reminisoent in design of a horse-drawn cart that there was even a place for the whip, as someone is reported as saymg. But тагке demands soon brought their influence to bear on later deveiopment... For years now the same thing has been happening m the routine treading of well-worn paths in radio broadcasting where it was important to transmit the message, stale opinions, conventionai attitudes and familiar truths. However, demands for change in the style of the programmes were not so strongly expressed, so influential, or so effective as m the example mentioned above. But resistance to change was, on the contrary, extremely strong. For this reason radio and television did

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