‘Viewers should declare views’

Press, 19 August 1978, Page 13

‘Viewers should declare views’

New Zealanders should make known their views on television programming, the chairman of the Broadcasting Corporation (Mr lan Cross) told members of the Christchurch Rotary club recently. He hoped that those who have fought to protect the environment would turn their attention

to “the environment of the human mind,” Mr Cross said. Broadcasting would then be subject to banners of protest. "I personally, would welcome the sight,” he said. Surveys showed that one in five of the “top problems” cited by Australians involved television; that 44 per cent of American children believed that television was more important to them than their father; and that all those over 10 in New Zealand spent about 22 hours a week, during win-

ter, watching television. In these circumstances, Mr Cross said, the service given by television was an important question. However, Mr Cross expressed dismay at the attention paid to television ratings in the absence of public participation. TV2 had made the significant advances in local programmes and in quality during the last year, he said. But because it had not done as well as TVI in the ratings, it had been criticised and had lost advertisers.

“Voices of ignorance portrayed TV2 as not performing well. Forget about quality, this argument said, cater only to a lethargic mass audience that doesn’t really care,” said Mr Cross. The lack of public participation and the dominance of television in the lives of New Zealanders also gave those who ran television a great burden, he said. “They must ensure that television does not distort the natural course of events,” said Mr Cross.