ABSTRACT

The evangelists and proselytisers who appear with the development of each new information and communications technology usually place democratisation and the reduction of inequality high on the list of benefits that their new technologies are likely to bring about. In 1924, just a year after the British Broadcasting Company was established, its first programme organiser, Caractacus Lewis, set out his views about the potential of the newly-developed wireless for social change. He asked:

Does it not mean the breakdown of artificial national barriers and the welding of humanity into one composite whole? Does it not mean that each is given a chance to comprehend the significance of national and international affairs, and that all the evils of jealousy and hatred being thus displayed before the world will no longer fester, but be cleansed by the antiseptic of common understanding and common sense?