ABSTRACT
As the British Broadcasting Corporation developed it accumulated a great deal of information about the ‘void’ into which it broadcast. At first, knowledge of the audience was acquired more by the accident of observation and correspondence than by a positive attempt to learn about the needs and circumstances of listeners. The idea of leading public taste and opinion was not subject to any considerable contemporary criticism, as such: what was attacked, was the direction which this leadership took, and the style of transmitting this to the audience. The contacts with Government Departments were often necessary to discover the details and demands of various groups. For instance, in the case of agricultural workers, the Ministry of Agriculture would be requested to delegate spokesmen to give talks on farming matters. Both types of information were in demand from many programme departments, but the latter form was hedged by the ruling by control board that research was to be selective, specialised and informal.
