Characteristics of Radio as Mass Media
You probably know the story of
Sanjay in the Mahabharata who described the
war to Dritharasthtra who could
not see. Sanjay could ‘see’ the war with his
divya drishti or his divine eye.
Probably you can call Sanjay as the first ‘radio
broadcaster’.
Suppose you are in a far flung
area near the Himalayas on 26th January. You have
a radio with you and you tune
into the running commentary of the Republic Day
Parade. You would know exactly
what is happening in Rajpath in Delhi. The
commentator (like Sanjay in the
Mahabharata) will describe the details of the
parade and as you listen, your
imagination takes you to the Republic Day Parade.
So that is radio for you.
Wherever you are, you can listen to the near by radio
station. You can listen to music,
news and other programmes. Now that you have
commercial radio stations, you
can listen to round the clock chatting and music.
And if you tune into All India
Radio, almost every hour, you can listen to news and
other programmes.
OBJECTIVES
After studying this lesson, you
will be able to do the following :
explain the
concept of radio broadcast;
describe the
characteristics of radio broadcast;
enumerate the
functions of radio broadcast;
list the
limitations of radio broadcast.
9.1 TERMS USED
IN BROADCASTING
Let us first understand some of
the common terms used in the medium of radio.
Audience: The group of
people whom radio or media reaches for a particular
programme.
MASS
COMMUNICATION
Characteristics
of Radio
Listener/s: A person or a
group of people who form the target audience of
radio programmes.
Broadcaster: a person who
presents or announces programmes over radio
for the public.
Broadcasting: any
communication or transmission of any message or signal
to the public through electronic
apparatus.
Tuning into
radio: You
have to switch on your radio and tune into the station
you want to listen to.
Live broadcast: It means a
programme being broadcast directly without
any pre-recording or the sounds
made at the moment of broadcast.
Pre-recorded
programme: The
programme recorded on magnetic tape,
phonographic discs or compact
disc for broadcasting it later.
Script : The written copy
of the words to be spoken during a radio programme.
9.2 OBJECTIVES
OF RADIO
In the first module, you have
learnt about the role of mass media. There, we were
referring to different forms of
mass media like the print media (newspapers,
magazines etc.) and electronic
media (radio, television etc.) These media have
functions which are common.
Have you heard an advertisement
on a popular brand of soap or shampoo ? What
does it communicate? Through that
you have come to know about the brand
name of the soap or shampoo. You
are informed or told that such and such a
product is available in the
market.. That advertisement would also tell you what
benefits the brand offers.
Let us take another example. The
water supply department makes an announcement
on radio that there will be no
water supply in your village or town the next day
morning. So you get ready to face
that situation.
Or a message on radio tells you
that the following sunday is ‘polio immunisation’
day. If you have a small child in
your home, with that information received through
radio, you decide that the child
should be taken to be given polio drops.
You might have heard rural
programmes on agriculture on radio. Experts who
take part in that programme may
explain what precautions are to be taken for a
MASS
COMMUNICATION
Characteristics
of Radio
crop during a particular season.
You learn to do a particular agricultural practice
using that information.
Now think of the three examples
given above. In the first case, you come to know
about the availability of a
particular brand of soap or shampoo. It is for you to
decide what you want to do with
that information. It just informed you.
In the second and third example
of the announcements about water supply and
polio immunization also, you are
given information. You would agree that this
information is of great use.
When it comes to the fourth
example of a particular agricultural practice, the
information can educate a farmer
who has no formal education or training in
agriculture.
Let us take the example of
‘Gyanvani’. This is a radio station through which
educational programmes are broadcast
for the benefit of learners.
Now what do you understand from
these examples about the role or function of
radio?
Firstly, radio
informs
Fig. 9.1:
Listening to radio in a rural setting
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COMMUNICATION
Characteristics
of Radio
Secondly, radio
educates
Fig. 9.2:
Students listening to an educational programme on radio
Radio stations broadcast film
songs. Don’t you tune into film songs on radio
for entertainment? Even the
casual comments and announcements on radio
entertain us.
So radio also
entertains
Fig. 9.3:
Listening to music while driving
Characteristics
of Radio
People tune into radio basically
for these three things — for information, education
and entertainment. As radio is
not expensive, for a large number of people in our
country, radio continues to be
the only source of information, education and
entertainment. Those who cannot
read or write or cannot see listen to radio news
for getting informed about what
is happening around them.
However, the three objectives of
radio are interrelated.
Activity 9.1
Tune into your
favourite radio station. Listen to the programmes
over a period of
two or three days. Make a list of them and find out
if they were a
source of information, entertainment or education.
9.3
CHARACTERISTICS OF RADIO
(i) Radio
makes pictures: Remember
the example of the running commentary
on radio of the Repubic Day
Parade in Delhi? As you heard the commentary,
you could visualize or ‘see’ in
your mind what was being described. You
could actively ‘see’ pictures in
your mind of the parade even as you listened
to the sounds of bands playing
patriotic tunes or the sounds of marching and
commands. You use your power of
imagination as you follow the running
commentary.
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COMMUNICATION
Characteristics
of Radio
(ii) The
speed of radio : Radio
is the fastest medium. It is instant. As things
happen in a studio or outside,
messages can be sent or broadcast. These
messages can be picked up by
anyone who has a radio set or receiver which
is tuned into a radio station. If
you have a television set and cable or satellite
connection you may be using a
remote to get your favourite channel. These
days if you have a satellite
connection, you can also receive radio signals of
various AIR stations. Otherwise
your normal radio set gives the meter or
frequency on which various radio
stations operate. You are tuned into that
station and listen to news that
happened a few minutes earlier. On the other
hand, a newspaper gives you the
previous days’ news. Of course television
can also cover events instantly.
But television is a more complex medium
where you need light and cameras
for any coverage.
(iii) Simplicity
of radio: Compared
to all other media, radio is simple to use.
As mentioned in the previous
sections, radio needs very simple technology
and equipment.
(iv) Radio is
inexpensive: As
it is simple, it is also a cheaper medium. The cost
of production is low and a small
radio can be bought for as low a price as say
fifty rupees.
(v) Radio
does not need electric power supply: You can listen to radio using
dry battery cells even if you do
not have electric power supply or a generator.
So in a country like ours, where
electricity has not reached everywhere,
radio is a great blessing.
(vi) A radio
receiver is portable: Don’t you move your radio set at home from
the living room to the kitchen or
as you go out some where? You can’t do that
very easily with television. This
facility of moving an object which is called
‘portability’ gives radio an
advantage. These days if you have a car and a
radio in it, you can listen to it
as you drive or travel. Can you think of watching
television, when you drive ?
(vii) One
does not have to be literate to listen to radio : Unless you are
literate, you can’t read a
newspaper or read captions or text on television.
But for listening to radio, you
need not be literate at all. You can listen to
programmes or news in any
language on the radio.
(viii)For a majority
of Indians in the rural areas, radio is the only source of news
and entertainment . Radio news
can be heard anywhere using an inexpensive
receiver. Even the most
economically backward sections can afford to use
the medium of radio.
• Radio is the
best medium of entertainment. It provide healthy
entertainment to the listeners.
• There is plenty
of music of different types available to people.
• The popular
types of music are classical, light classical, light, devotional,
folk and film music.
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COMMUNICATION
Characteristics
of Radio
9.4 LIMITATIONS
OF RADIO BROADCAST
So far, we have learnt about the
main strengths of radio as a medium of mass
communication. Now let us
understand the limitations of radio.
a. A one chance
medium : When
you read a newspaper, you can keep it with
you and read it again. You have
the printed word there and unless the paper
is destroyed it will remain with
you. Suppose when you read a news item,
you do not understand the meaning
of certain words. You can refer to a
dictionary or ask someone who
knows to find out the meaning.
Now think of radio. Suppose you
are listening to a news bulletin in English
and you hear words that you don’t
understand. Can you refer to a dictionary
or ask someone else for the
meaning? If you stop to do that, you will miss the
rest of the news. You have to
understand what is being said on radio as you
listen. You have only one chance
to listen. What is said on radio does not
exist any longer; unless you
record it. The words have momentary life. After
it is spoken, it disappears
unlike a newspaper or a printed book. So that is
one of the greatest limitations
or weaknesses of radio . It’s momentary nature
or to put it differently – radio
is a one chance medium. A listener has just
one chance to receive the message
and understand it.
b. Radio has no
visual images: Let
us consider a news item on radio and the
same item on television. For
example, the news about the devastating cyclone
Nargis that hit Myanmar in May
2008. Radio news talked about the intensity
of the cyclone, the number of
deaths, details about property destroyed etc.
However in the case of
television, it showed the actual cyclone hitting the
country, visuals of properties
destroyed, rescue operations and many more
details which could be seen. Now
compare the two. A natural disaster like a
cyclone when seen on television
is more effective than what you hear on
radio. It is said that “a picture
is worth a thousand words”. It is also said that
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Characteristics
of Radio
‘‘seeing is believing’’. So when
you see something, it is more believable than
what you hear. So having no
visuals is a major limitation of radio.
c. Messages on
radio are easily forgotten: The problem of not having visuals
leads to another limitation of radio.
What is seen is often remembered and
may remain with us. For example
if you have seen the fine visuals of the Taj
Mahal in Agra, it will remain in
your memory. But what you hear is normally
forgotten fast. Probably you may
remember what you have heard in a class
room if you found it interesting.
But can you recall all the head lines of a news
bulletin you heard on radio?
Normally, you don’t. So this is another limitation
of radio. Messages heard on radio
are easily forgotten.
d. Poor
performance on the part of announcers : Presenters or participants
in a radio programme can be
boring or uninteresting that it can result in
listeners switching off their
radio sets. So listeners’ interest depends up on
how information or messages are
presented.
e. Radio broadcasts are of no use
to people who have no sense of hearing
especially those with hearing
disabilities.
Characteristics
of Radio
Objectives of radio
to inform
to educate inter
related
to entertain
Charactersitics of radio
radio makes
pictures
fast medium
simple medium
inexpensive
medium
portable medium
Limitations of radio
one chance
medium
lacks visual
images
messages on
radio are easily forgotten
not useful for
those with hearing disabilities
