THE COMMUNITY
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of labour has generated greater competition among employers, leading to better working conditions and reduced working hours as inducements to attract a dis- criminating work force.
With more free time on their hands, and the means to explore new outlets, people are naturally taking a more critical look at their environment, and more interest in its development.
A Need to Know
Curiosity about administrative affairs has, in the past, been inhibited by more than the transient outlook of an immigrant community. The majority of Chinese found ready historical precedents for their aversion to the machinery of government. They were content to concentrate on their primary concern, which was to earn a living in a gregarious and competitive society.
But Hong Kong proved to be too small, too compact and too crowded to sustain this detachment indefinitely. The governmental process was difficult to ignore.
This change of attitude is well illustrated by the fuller treatment of domestic affairs in newspapers which had previously concentrated largely on external issues. Hong Kong's economic dependence on the rest of the world, as a market for its goods, long ago provided the stimulus for the business community to keep abreast of world events. But this limited stimulus no longer satisfied a readership which was becoming less concerned with the vagaries of overseas politics and their impact on the export trade.
Newspapers have always done well in Hong Kong, where the literacy rate- between 80 and 85 per cent of those aged 10 and over-is one of the highest in Asia. The increasing drift from world to local news is a surprising inversion of the progression in most societies from a provincial to an international outlook.
Perhaps even more influential than newspapers in this respect has been the impact of television, which now reaches 725,000 homes in Hong Kong, or 84 per cent of all families. News, topical events and discussion programmes have encouraged viewers to take a greater interest in the policies and actions of their government than ever before.
The government is keenly aware of television's potential as a medium for stim- ulating such interest. Through its own television unit (RHK Television), and with the co-operation of the two commercial television companies, the government now provides more than four hours of viewing each week.
These programmes consist largely of news, commentaries, documentaries, dis- cussions, dramas, and advertisement-type flashes intended to encourage public support for community campaigns. Viewing ratings for some of these programmes are high. It is estimated, for instance, that 79 per cent of all viewers aged 12 or over watch the daily 'Viewpoint' discussion programme on the Chinese channels. The stations themselves devote approximately 15 per cent of their transmission time to news, documentaries, education and discussion programmes.