NAEB Newsletter (Mar 1957)

NEWSLETTER NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTERS 14 GREGORY HALL URBANA, ILLINOIS THREE RESEARCH GRANTS AWARDED Three NAEB Research Grants-in-Aid were recently awarded to educational institutions. Ohio State Uni¬ versity was given a grant to study the extent to which parents of children from five to ten or eleven exercise control or supervision over the TV programs their children watch. KUOM, of the University of Minnesota, received a grant to survey audio-visual equipment of Minne¬ sota schools and the audience of Minnesota School of the Air in-school programs immediately before the initiation of ETV. A grant was awarded Michigan State Univer¬ sity to help in research to determine which matched a group controlled situation students will utilize ma¬ terial more thoroughly when the material is pre¬ sented primarily by sight (closed-circuit TV), by sound (radio), and in a control situation (lectures in a classroom). —NAEB— GREETINGS FROM THE PRESIDENT Burton Paulu They used to begin by saying: “Of course I never listen to the radio . . . . ” Later the customary open¬ ing became: “I don’t have a TV set . . . But in either case; such openings usually heralded some ill- informed criticism of broadcasting. It goes without saying that all mass communi¬ cations — including both the older printed and the newer electronic media — should be objectively ap¬ praised. Their faults should be noted, so that im¬ provements may result. Their accomplishments need to be stressed, in order that desirable trends may be encouraged. This requires that thinking, responsible people should intelligently review the true state of broad¬ casting; and the knowledge essential to such informed criticism is usually not possessed by radio and TV “resisters,” who pride themselves on seldom listen¬ ing to the radio and not owning TV sets. NAEB Newsletter Vol. XXII, No. 3 March, 1957 NAEB Newsletter, a monthly publication issued by the National Association of Educational Broadcasters, 14 Gregory Hall, Urbana, III., $5 a year, edited by Mrs. Judith Stevens. Application for 2nd class mail privileges pending at Urbana, Illinois. As NAEB members have learned the hard way, educational administrators and teachers, as well as intellectuals generally, often stand apart from broadcasting. Themselves atypical consumers of radio and TV, they may be unaware of the public’s enthusiastic acceptance of these media. Certainly we in colleges and universities have many such people among our friends. Their frequent complaints about low program standards and advertising excesses sug¬ gest that the faults of the American system may un¬ derlie their attitudes. Actually, these prejudices are characteristic of in¬ tellectuals everywhere. In July 1954, for example, while attending a UNESCO TV conference in London with representatives of a dozen other countries, I was surprised to hear spokesmen from Europe telling similar stories, especially in regard to TV. Yet it is vitally important that serious minded people develop an adequate understanding of broad¬ casting. In the first place, they should appreciate its social and educational potentials. Because they are non-fre.quent users of radio and TV, intellect¬ uals underestimate the attraction of broadcasting for average men and women. The average person’s limited exposure to serious material in all media makes very important the information and ideas he acquires from the entertainment and escape pro¬ grams to which he often devotes upwards of 4-5 hours a day. In addition, intellectuals often need to be in¬ formed about the number, variety and merit of the serious programs which they might enjoy if they NEWSLETTER Page I