Quiet talks with simple folks - abstract

ABSTRACT

The availability of cheap, transistorized radio receiving sets in Jamaica created opportunity for using radio as a means of communicating with poor country folks. A large number of these people are unable to read and understand the daily newspaper. They cannot afford and do not own television sets. This barred easy communication by the written word or by using a combination of images and sound as in television. The small transistor radio joins the machete as an essential ingredient in the field of small cultivator; it forms the constant general backdrop to domestic chores for the 'housewife'. This opportunity for mass communication has been used for 21/2 years in weekly broadcasts about health problems. A broadcaster-school teacher and a doctor have combined to create a programme called "At the Clinic". These are taped recordings in the doctor's office of unrehearsed interviews between the patient, the broadcaster and the doctor. The broadcaster and the doctor try and work within an general framework but 'listening ability' ultimately determined the shape of each programme since the first objective to be achieved is to hold the listener's attention. Subjects covered ranged from "the immediate treatment of a burn" and "the boy who swallowed a common pin" to "problems of a 14-year-old ganja smoker." Some limitations of radio as a health educating medium are discussed. The difficulty of evaluation remains (AU)