Apparatus of Communication - Brecht
From Mmswiki
What does Brecht want the radio to be?
Before I'm going to answer the question "What does Brecht want the radio to be?", I want to clarify the term "Rundfunk" and look at its history as an object of communication, because in my opinion it is essential to really understand the text of Bertold Brecht and its meaning.
What is "Rundfunk" or in English radio/radio broadcasting?
Radio broadcasting exist as sound broadcasting since the beginning of the second half of the last century and it is used for wireless transmission of sound. Radio broadcasting also justified its being to inform and entertain the public. The point of origin for radio broadcasting in Germany was the attempt to transmit music to the German front at World War I. 1925 the "Reichs - Rundfunk - Gesellschaft / Reichs - Sound broadcasting - Community" were founded, which also was a concern for the authors of the Weimarer Republic, both economical and cultural as political. After National Socialist were coming into power the "Reichs - Rundfunk - Gesellschaft" were detached from the "Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda - Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda". To ensure the access to the masses of the listenership, a cheap apparatus was created, the "Volksempfänger", which allowed the cumulation of radio listener to more than 12 Million within the last 10 years. Under these circumstance, the popularity of the media radio, after the World War II had ended, wasn't surprising at all. Beside the war with weapons, the National Socialist were fighting an war through the ethereal body of the communication form radio, while they were sending propagandistic material through it, the whole day, in every country which they have engaged. Beside its journalistic function, mainly for distributing information, formation of opinion and entertainment, the radio broadcasting system under public law of today had played a major role for the development of a political culture in the Federal Republic of Germany.
What does Brecht want the radio to be?
In his essay "The Radio as an Apparatus of Communication" July 1932, Brecht was arrogating to change the sound broadcasting of those days into an apparatus of communication for the public life, because in his opinion the sound broadcasting of those days was nothing more than a apparatus of/for distribution. He wanted it to become even more an apparatus of communication, which is receiving as well as transmitting information, which lets the listener speak as well as hear and which bring the listener into a relationship instead of isolating him. "Any attempt by the radio to give a truly public character to public occasions is a step in the right direction." He is also arguing that the apparatus of communication have to play a educational role. "As for the technique that needs to be developed for all such operations, it must follow the prime objective of turning the audience not only into pupils but into teachers. It is the radio's formal task to give these educational operations an interesting turn, i.e. to ensure that these interests interest people." However his recommendations had only marginal impact on the organization of sound broadcasting or on the transmitting form itself and so it was sinking into oblivion. More than two decades later after Bertolt Brecht wrote his essay, his ideas were gaining advertence again by Hans Magnus Enzensberger, at 1970. He was writing an essay "Baukasten zu einer Theorie der Medien" in which he wanted to develop Brecht's idea further and wanted to adapt it to the sophisticated media situation of those days.
Further questions:
What is the apparatus of communication nowadays? Maybe the Internet? What is communication nowadays? Maybe chatting or blogging?
After searching a bit in the Internet for this task, I found a short blog entry about "The Radio as an Apparatus of Communication by Bertolt Brecht" where the author mentioned that, if you'll change the word radio into WorldWideWeb, you'll get what the Web2.0 is all about. I have found this quite interesting.
Contributer: Sascha Eichler for "Pedagogical Media Theory and Game Based Learning"
