Suds

Two of radio's best researchers last week published an authoritative study of radio (Radio Research, 1942-1943, by Dr. Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Dr. Frank N. Stanton; Duell, Sloan and Pearce, $5). It was designed for serious students of radio, but some of its findings are of interest to laymen. Most interesting: daytime serials (soap operas).

Some findings:

P: Soap operas are a major form of entertainment for the less-educated segment of U.S. women. (Soap operas are the daily radio fare of about half of U.S. women.)

P:Soap operaddicts are, among other things, considerably less likely to vote than nonaddicts.

P: A large proportion of soap operaddicts take the serials seriously, try to apply what they hear in them to their own lives.

P: Most soap-opera characters are about midway in the U.S. social scale, almost never include factory workers, miners, skilled or unskilled laborers.

P: The problems these characters confront are almost entirely created and solved by themselves; they seldom encounter real obstacles. In fact, "the typical radio-serial situation [can be compared to] a stagnant lake which is troubled by a stone thrown into it."

P: In general, serials try to show that ordinary people can do almost anything better than trained specialists.

Conclusion: "Producers of radio serials take pride in asserting that they give their audience exactly what it wants to get. . . . The consequence of such neglect is art that fails to entertain and that misleads instead of educating; education that bores and discourages because it is dry and lifeless ; entertainment that detracts from the aims and real satisfactions of life."

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