Trusted media sources needed more than ever

THE closing of The Listener — which, of course, we all hope is only temporary — should send a shiver of fear down the spines of everyone who values responsible and independent journalism and intelligent public discourse.

The present crisis increasingly seems like a convenient excuse for owners and managerial types to offload practices and institutions they've long wanted to be rid of: cash, workers, facetoface relationships/teaching/ shopping.

Radio and print journalism ought to be thriving right now, as they did during World War 2, because times of domestic crisis require the blend of reliable information and considered discussion that radio and print journalism are good at.

Other media can inform (sort of) and discuss (sort of), but they are permanently subject to temptations to finance themselves by merely feeding the natural human appetite for distraction. It’s only state ownership that protects Radio New Zealand and its dedicated audience, but also protects the nation as a whole which is — mostly unwittingly — served by there being in this country such good media outlets.

It’s lucky for us that the Otago Daily

Times owns itself.

But really, media such as Radio NZ and the ODT need at this time to be aggressively advertising their superiority as sources of information.

The Listener does (or did not) just serve its writers and readers. People are, for the time being (and until the internet crashes), undoubtedly better ‘‘connected’’ than ever. But it's a form of connection that is not altogether helpful, and is perhaps ultimately a dangerous illusion. It fails us most when it seems to succeed best.

Paul Tankard Dunedin Central

THEY pestered me to renew my subscription, and I was happy to, because The Listener was an excellent magazine. I looked forward to getting it every week. Now they owe me 51 editions which I will never get. More than $160 down the tube. My tough luck. It will be sadly missed.

Thank goodness for the reliable Otago Daily Times. You are doing a great job in these benighted times. I hope you can hang in there for when the advertising starts up again. I’m not on Facebook, I prefer quality, objective journalism. Fact not fiction. Thank you for your continuing publication. It is much appreciated.

G Thompson Alexandra

Yeo cartoon

I MUST say today's (ODT, 3.4.20) cartoon by Yeo, or should I say comic strip, was an absolute delight. What a lovely way to depict those of us who are making the most of the lockdown but still staying in their bubble. The more I see of his cartoons the more they appeal and not just for the subject matter which never offends, but also for his precise drawing style. Good news is priceless at present.

N A Idour Maori Hill

School broadcast

SCHOOLS are closed and the government is looking at using one of the television channels to bring the classroom to children who do not have the internet.

In the early 1950s we had Broadcast to Schools. In my Oamaru classroom a mantel radio was switched on and we attempted to follow the broadcast from station 4YA in Dunedin. Reception was patchy even when the tallest lad clutched a wire from the radio and acted as a human aerial. Subjects included social studies, science and singing lessons.

Broadcast to Schools continued from the 1930s to the early 1980s.

Graeme Clode St Kilda

BIBLE READING: The Lord by wisdom founded the earth. Proverbs 3:19.