PRIMARY/BASIC FUNCTIONS OF RADIO

Primary/Basic Functions of Radio

OVERVIEW: Society depends on radio and other media for most of its experiences. It (Radio) should provide facts accurately keep listeners informed serve as moderator and critic events.

Radio presents ideas and actions in the public interests and provides contemporary events, base for the future historical record of the society.

Radio reflects human performance and brings messages into the homes and minds of the listeners.

THREE PRIMARY/ BASIC FUNCTIONS OF RADIO ARE:

1. EDUCATE (EDUCATION)

2. INFORM (INFORMATION)

3. ENTERTAIN (ENTERTAINMENT)

1. Education

Any programme on Radio can have an educational function, e.g. News, travel, documentary, drama, etc.

Use of radio: the education process can be divided into three categories:

FORMAL EDUCATION: In a classroom guided by the syllabus.

NON-FORMAL EDUCATION: Planned educational and informational radio programming that is not part of any formal education syllabus.

INFORMAL EDUCATION: An ongoing process affecting almost everyone and which can be gained from almost all programmes, such as the news, talk-shows, discussions, etc.

2. Information

Presentation of facts without being coloured in any way by any personal attitude or interpretation of the communicator without any intentions to persuade.

Sharing of facts with no persuasion or transmission of values.

The prime function of information is to ensure the welfare of society and the individual.

Mass media (Radio) are a source of most information. Radio is useful in distributing information to the community more especially during times of crisis.

The programmes that fulfil the informational function include: News bulletins, weather reports, market prices.

During times of crisis, Radio plays an informative role and can further restore calm and order because it brings facts, quickly to the listeners.

It is difficult to be purely objective and to present straight facts, more especially in news broadcasts. Information cannot be a bare version of fact without any interpretation.

Point is, the reality against which is placed, is already an interpretation .

Often the informative content is dramatised with elements of entertainment. These elements make news items more appealing.

This results in a crossover between the entertainment and information producing the infotainment function.

A strong element of show business (entertainment) is added to infotainment in order to draw a large audience.

Information receives some form of interpretation with an educational overtones, more especially in developing communities.

3. Entertainment

Intimate companion

Breaking isolation and loneliness

People to wider social life

People listening to the same programme (Sport) and discussing it among themselves at a later stage.

Entertainment aims to provide a release from stress and tension.

It also allows for increased socialising.

It is the gratification received by the listener from the programme.

Entertainment overlaps other functions of radio, e.g. An element of pleasure and amusement, classical example Eugene Terre’Blanche falling from his horse during a protest rally in church square in Pretoria.