A review of radio coverage of health-related topics in the 20th century

American Journal of Health Studies, Summer-Fall, 2005 by Alan J. Sofalvi

Abstract: Radio has been an important mass medium since its inception. The purpose of this study is to examine how radio broadcasts were used to disseminate health messages during the 20th century. The main focus is on radio coverage of health topics before television became the dominant medium. Published reports of the time and media histories were the major sources of information. Radio's depictions of health messages in entertainment and educational programming were examined. Implications are discussed for the use of radio by health educators in the 21st century.

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It is generally accepted that radio broadcasting began in the United States in 1920 (Miller, 2003; Potter, 2001; Hilliard & Keith, 2001; Sterling & Kittross, 2002). This medium "made America into a land of listeners, entertaining and educating, angering and delighting, and joining every age and class into a common culture" (Lewis, 1992, p. 26). The purpose of this study is to describe radio coverage of health topics in the 20th century, focusing on radio programming from the 1920's through the 1950's, to provide insight into how radio educated (and sometimes angered) Americans about health topics.

HOW RADIO WAS USED TO DISSEMINATE HEALTH MESSAGES/PROMOTE HEALTH FROM THE 1920'S-1950'S

In the early 1920's, radio in general was said to benefit people's health because it helped hospitalized patients deal with loneliness and boredom (Seeley, 1922) and "radio entertainment provided for the drug addict inmates of Riker's Island ... had a beneficial effect upon the discipline of the institution" ("Radio helps drug addicts," 1925, p. 9). From the 1920's through the rest of the 20th-century, radio programs were developed for educational purposes (Sterling & Kittross, 2002). The New York Academy of Medicine stated in 1945 that "from the beginning, those especially interested in education saw in the radio a very potent instrument ... (a) means for 'spreading knowledge'. Educators began to broadcast as soon as 'live' microphones were open to them" (p. 4).

Radio programming designed to disseminate health information also began in the early 1920's (Laine, 1938; New York Academy of Medicine, 1945). Criticism of the paucity of health-related coverage began soon after the advent of radio broadcasting. According to one source, "one possibility in radio broadcasting which has not been developed nearly as much as is warranted by its importance is the dissemination of information regarding health" ("Broadcasting health," 1922, p. 7). The New York Academy of Medicine made a similar criticism in 1945 by pointing out that "the development of the commercial broadcast far outpaced that of the educational broadcast, and among the latter the health education program lagged behind all the rest" (p. 5).

In 1935, Turner, Drenckhahn and Bates reported that dramatization was the most popular type of radio broadcast when it came to presenting health information, especially among children (p. 594). The New York Academy of Medicine (1945), however, was critical of these attempts at drama:

   It is in the utilization of this technique
   that radio health education miscarries
   most grievously. In most instances the so-called
   drama is not dramatic, but consists
   merely of a motley of situations represented
   in excited chatter. When, as rarely
   happens, the composition is truly dramatic,
   it is almost entirely devoid of health
   education (p. 26).

Willey and Young (1948) stated that, in terms of radio programming, "the responsibility of those sponsoring health education programs is to foster receptive attitudes and constructive health habits for a healthy individual and a healthy nation" (p. 308). While that may have been the goal, Galdston (1945) believed that the health-related programming of early radio generally fell short in these areas because objectives were not clearly identified, and that the broadcasts of the time were typically overloaded with information:

   Our tendency has been to "throw the
   whole book" at the radio listener. We appear
   to labor in the belief that if we can
   pour into the ears of our listeners all that
   we know, say about cancer or tuberculosis
   or ... nutrition, we have done our best
   to educate the public (p. 43).

RADIO'S IMPACT UPON LISTENERS

One of the earliest reports of radio having an impact on individual behavior came in 1926, when an Alabama man entered a physician's office asking if anyone "'inspected the health of school-children'" ("Radiating health," 1926, p. 240). When the physician questioned the man to determine how he learned about the inspections, the man replied:

   Well, some time ago I bought me one of
   these here radio outfits ... and I heard Mr.
   Herbert Hoover in Washington deliver a
   speech on medical inspection of schoolchildren.
   He said that every community
   ought to have some one in it to examine
   the health of their children, to find out if
   there was anything the matter with them
   This struck me as a pretty good idea; so I
   thought to myself, 'The next time I am in
   Andlusia I will find out if there's any of
   these here health doctors who examines
   school-children', and so I have come to
   invite you out (p. 142).