RADIO GROUP LISTENING

Press, Volume C, Issue 29469, 22 March 1961, Page 23

RADIO GROUP LISTENING

Four Topics This Year Instead of discussions on a number of related themes, the group listening programme arranged this year by the adult education department of the University of Canterbury and the New Zealand Broadcasting Service will cover four separate topics. The aim is to interest more diverse audiences and provoke sharper argument both in the broadcast discussion and those which follow in listeners’ homes. There will be two speakers in each programme instead of a panel.

The idea of group listening is now fairly well known and has become a regular feature of the early-winter broadcasting programmes in this country. Friends (who often take the opportunity to invite in neighbours or visitors from other places) form a group. On registration with the adult education department they are supplied with background material and headings for discussions. Aft el each weekly broadcast they reach their own conclusions and send them in for comparison with the findings of other groups.

In this year’s programmes to be broadcast on April 20, 27 and May 4 and 11 Mr J. M. Caffin and the Rev. Father G. H. Duggan will discuss censorship of literature; Messrs G. A. Shouksmith and P. A .Velvin will discuss the extension of retail shop trading hours over weekends: Mrs Eileen Saunders and Mr C. S. L. Keay will discuss whether, in a hungry and under-developed world, too much money and brainpower is being devoted to space research; and Dr. P. J Lawrence and Dr. J. J. Small will discuss state aid to private schools.

The adult education department is already receiving enrolments for the course.