The developing power of broadcasting

Abstract

Before the invention of printing, in the 15th century, the instruments by which minds were influenced and social changes made were teaching and talking. Print may not have lessened talk but, after its first halting century, it lessened the influence of the spoken word. The age of the pamphlet led to the age of the news sheet and so to the newspaper m the 19th century. Within our generation, the newspaper, influenced no doubt by the popularity of films, changed its appeal and the press-photographer became a necessary worker in every modern news office. Broadcasting, the first method of one-way mass communication between mankind, attained a rapid popularity, far more rapid than printing, and after ten years it has become an important public influence, which no nation has ignored. Mr J M Keynes broadcast a talk from London on the importance of spending, rather than saving, in a period of economic depression. So great an effect was produced in the fall in Savings Certificates that Sir Josiah Stamp was called some days afterwards to broadcast a talk on the advisability of saving ? even during a depression. The result in increased Savings Certificates was immediate. It is doubtful if such clear and quick results would have followed articles in any newspaper by these economists.