RTV Theory and Practice - Special Issue

as In the information societv -'as Orrin Klapp ( 1982) has pointed out ,"the fast horse of information (outstrips) the slow horse of meaning formation , "producing a crisis of meaning, also Known as alienation , existential despair , absurdity , legitimation crisis , identity problem , anomie.etc. (cf . also van Cuilenburg , 1987). Klapp points to the mass media as taKing the place of the infrastructures ("the fabric of friendship , reciprocity, sense of place , roots, etc,") from which meaning grows. With small communities , where people draw much meaning from daily interaction wlth their nelghbors, destroyed by urban mobility , it is the mass media which provide a'vicarious experience from which people đraw meaning through a sort of "emotional hitchhiKing" on the affairs of others, real or fictional, e.g. by following the "lives" of. heroes of television drama . Media-simulated interpersonal communication (cf . Cathcart, Gumpert, 1986) Is another "functional alternative" (Rosengren, Windahl, 19 72) for the social interaction needeđ for meaning formation anđ satisfaction of other needs , including that for companionship. Studies into this issue have found (cf. Turow, 1974; Tramer , Jeffres , 1983) that people taKmg part in phone-in radio programs (which Cathcart and Gumpert, 1986, call "broadcast teleparticipatory media") do so primarily not out of a need for a "forum" for their views , but for companionship and social interaction . Radio is liKely to continue playing that role and providing satisfaction of those needs - which in the future may be still more prevalent than today . GOING ON THE AIR : HOW WIDESPREAD A NEED? It is also liKely that despite the spread of television , it will still be easier in the foreseeable future to use radio to satisfy still other needs: for self-expression, for the defense and promotion of Individual and group rights , and for becoming involveđ In public or political life . In other words - for there to be social access to and participation m broadcasting and for everyone to be able to exercise his/her right to commumcate . The moot guestion here concerns the universality and intensity of that assumed need and desire . When m 1982 "free radio enthusiasts" In ТоКуо found a loop-hoie m the law 12 ) allowing them to set up mim-FM stations, literally thousands of such stations rose and fell