Mothers Need To Know Better: Radio, the Department of Health, and improving the Nation

Abstract

When radio broadcasting first crackled onto the airwaves it was met with great enthusiasm from the wider public. Although we may now associate it more with late night talkback sessions and music’s top forty, educational broadcasting was a key feature of early radio and helped to establish a deeply ingrained listening culture within New Zealand. Educational broadcasts helped to legitimise radio as more than just a source of light entertainment. Women were a key target for many radio-based educational efforts, viewed as both the main consumers of broadcast content and in the greatest need of instruction within the domestic sphere. Health and the idea of ‘scientific motherhood’ were a key component of these efforts. When World War Two required the Department of Health to adopt new methods of connecting with the public, radio was deemed the most effective option. Women were responsible for the health of the family, and there was already a well-established culture of educating women within the domestic sphere via the radio.