Divided Airwaves

Abstract

The electronic media's role in divided Berlin and Germany has been at issue since 1945. Early Soviet control of the city's single radio station led American and British authorities to establish their own (RIAS and NWDR, the latter, renamed SFB, now operated by West Berlin and expanded to include television). SFB and, still more, RIAS program for West Berliners but, through a policy of free flow of information, seek to sustain a sense of identity and political community between East and West. The GDR has sought unsuccessfully to use carrots and sticks to stop what it sees as the western media's violation of its national sovereignty. Available data indicate that information flows in Berlin and Germany constitute a one-way street rather than a basis for reintegration based on mutual adjustment.