Page 28 RAIN Summer 1986 Thus, communication is not "just another issue"-it is the basis for understanding and responding to all issues. Lack of effective communication is a primary cause of widespread citizen dissatisfaction with many governmental processes and policies. • The single most critical problem ofour times is the lack of systematic vigorous and sustained two-way communication within our democracy. Nearly all the current major concerns in America are communications challenges. The pivotal choice of our times is between effective communication (and informed decision-making) and ineffective communication (and uninformed, ineffective, vascillating decision-making). For example: - The continually spiraling arms race is symptomatic of a vast gap in communications in the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.-both among and between the peoples of these countries about their own, and each other's, national priorities and intentions. -The environmental crisis is, in large part, a communications crisis. We will not eliminate toxic wastes from our world until we can visualize their destructive magnitude and impact. Acid rain, the greenhouse effect, nuclear waste, and the like are severe, growing problems that require mutual understanding between government, industry, and the American public on the relative values of health, jobs, and national security. -The U.S. will not mobilize a large-scale response to poverty at home or abroad unless we continue to see compelling images of human suffering and need. The challenge to achieve sustainable economic develop- ~ent is also a communications challenge. • Our democracy is in a race between communication and catastrophe. We require a new level of communication if we are to respond democratically to the unyielding problems of the nuclear arms race, toxic wastes, resource depletion, etc. Without a quantum leap forward in our collective capacity to imagine and communicate, there is little reason to think America can respond to the ever-proliferating pattern of domestic and global problems. -· •What is required is a broadening, deepening, and intensification ofour democracy. We need a conscious democracy, where citizens deliberately attend to emerging issues and conditions, debate their options, and then, in an ongoing process of social learning, choose their preferred pathways into the future. We currently have a reactive democracy, where citizens are uninvolved and preoccupied until a crisis compels momentary attention and a reflexive, ill-informed response. •What is required is a new national consensus. Without a shared sense of national purpose and vision collectively conceived, we cannot establish clear national priorities. Without broad-based priorities to guide us, we neither can choose among the many competing claims on national resources nor make plans for the future without fear that they will be met by fierce resistance or massive indifference. A new national consensus enthusiastically suppbrted by the American public can only emerge from vigorous and sustained dialogue among the American people. •These challenges demand that we fundamentally reconsider how we want to use broadcast television, our primary tool ofmass social communication. The Immense Power of Television is Being Wasted • Broadcast television is the most potent information source in our country. Surveys show that: - Two thirds of the American people get most of their news from television; roughly one-half receive all of their news from TV. -Ninety-nine percent of all American homes have a TV set (more than have indoor toilets, stoves, or refrigerators). -The average American watches TV more than four hours each day. These data show how television has become the central nervous system of our democracy. If an issue does not appear on television, it-for all practical purposes-does not exist in our social awareness. • On a national basis, 95 percent ofprime-time hours is allocatedfor entertainment programming; less than five percent is devoted to informational programming. Americans are, as a result, entertainment-rich and knowledge-poor. • Leading television journalists are fully aware that television is not meeting the informational needs ofour democracy. " ... we fall far short of presenting all, or even a goodly part, of the news each day that a citizen would need to intelligently exercise his franchise in this democracy... This clearly can lead to disaster in a democracy." -Walter Cronkite, 1976 "If people are given baby food when they are hungry for a meal of information, they will be undernourished and weakened-and then what will become of the country that is the last, best hope of man?" -Charles Kuralt, 1982 • To devote 95 percent ofprime-time television to fantasybased programming is to cripple the capacity ofour democracy to comprehend and respond to critical challenges. We are being lulled into a false sense of security and continuing our steady drift toward collapse. Americans Want a New Generation of Informational Programming •National polls by reputable firms (for example, Gallup, Roper, and Harris) show Americans are dissatisfied with cu"ent progrG.l'rUrJi:ng. -Roughly half of U.S. adults are dissatisfied with current TV programming. -A majority rate news and public affairs programs as the "most enjoyable" on TV. -A majority believes that lack of access to TV for communication about important issues is a serious problem.
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