RTV Theory and Practice - Special Issue

(quoted in Gumpert, 19 76) put out by a New Уогк radio station WEVD for a Chinese disc-jockey: "Applicants must be acquainted with Poon Sow Keng (a Hong Kong rock'n'roll singer ) , be able to report the time , news and temperature in easy going Cantonese, and quote Confucius in the original." 1 1 ) In an typology of "information media" based on the criterion of audience size, Minoru Tamura (1987) distinguishes "mass", "segment" and "personal" media . In this typology , radio and television are classified as mass media only , while in fact they also fit at least two varieties of "segment" media: "small-area media for a general audience" (decentralized, local and community stations) and "wide-area media for a limited audience" (specialized stations oriented towards communities of interest or minorities of vanous kinds scattered over a larger or smaller area ) . 12 ) This is a provision that transmitters used for garage door openers, or for remote control devices for model airplanes , did not require a license . Despite their extremely low power, they could still be used as radio transmitters . covering an area of 0.3 miles , which in the densely populated city could mean an audience of 20 000 listeners . 13 ) What with the inf ormation society already upon us , the right to commumcate has since been extended and reformulateđ by its enthusiasts into the "right to telecommunicate" (Harms, 1985). 14 ) Ronge ( 1987) reports the existence of a sizable group of West Germans who have turned away from big establishment media in favor of intensified participation in interprersonal communication networks encompassing with fellow "drop-outs." The only newspaper many of them are prepared to read is the alternative daily die tageszeitung . References • Abel, J. D. , Ducey , R. V. (1987 ) Gazmg mto the Crystal Ball. The Radio Station Manager's Technological Guide to the Future. NAB, Washmgton. • 'A cable audio service' ( 1987) Telecommunications Update , Vol .111 ,No . 3

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