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Listening to Youth? BBC Youth Broadcasts during the 1930s and the Second World War

Bibliographic Data

ID4493856
AuthorsMelanie Tebbutt (0000-0002-8376-8175, Manchester Metropolitan University, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume84
Pages214-233
Publication date2017-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory Workshop Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1363-3554 • E-ISSN: 1477-4569
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/hwj/dbx042
OpenAlexW2612608662
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited4

This article explores the largely neglected history of BBC youth broadcasting in the 1930s and 1940s, particularly from the mid 1930s, when a broad youth movement drew together many voluntary youth organizations in humanitarian and political projects. A novel youth consciousness embraced a radical younger generation of middle-class literary intellectuals and artists who, disconcerted by the popular appeal of fascism in Europe, wanted to know more about the everyday lives and views of ‘ordinary’ working-class people. During the same period, the introduction of BBC audience research stimulated greater receptiveness to the idea of capturing ‘different’ voices, including those of youth and encouraged progressive programme producers to give young people a voice in the new public sphere of broadcasting, unusual in a period when children’s education and the workplace were dominated by adult-centred approaches and assumptions. These programmes, despite their limitations, recognized young people as protagonists with valid voices and stressed the importance of youth developing critical understanding in order to play an active and participatory role in society. Their emphases on audience participation and interactivity and their efforts to listen to young people and shape a public space in which they could express their own views and passions as critical and autonomous thinkers are part of the archaeology of youth programming. They also connect with our globalized world, in which the skills of critical thinking, debate and participation are so vital and where the importance of asking young people about what they think, what they feel, and actively listening to what they have to say is still so often ignored.

Active listening · Aesthetics · Appeal · Art · Citizen journalism · Literature · Media studies · Passions · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Public sphere · Sociology · Youth studies · Gender Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Law · Themes in Literature Analysis · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics

  • Rhoda Power, BBC Radio, and Mass Education, 1922-1957

    Open Access•Laura Carter•Revue française de civilisation…•2021

  • Babel

    Open Access•H Sen•The Indian Economic & Social…•2026

  • Being Boys

    Sarah Mill, Sarah Mills•Contemporary British History•2013

  • School Broadcasting in the United Kingdom

    David Crook•Journal of Educational…•2007

  • The State and Educational Change

    Graham Mcculloch, Gary Mcculloch et al.•History of Education Quarterly•1996

  • Listening Publics

    Open Access•Michael Pickering•European Journal of Communication•2014

Unique citing works2
Citations per year0,4
Citation span2021 - 2026 (6)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 1
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