Letter: Smug to shun TV

Thursday 01 May 1997 23:02 BST

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Smug to shun TV

Sir: It is ironic that I read about the planned White Dot campaign, to turn television off for a week and make us all better people (report, 26 April), while visiting Paris for a conference on young people and the media.

We suffered the trials of such a campaign in 1992 (the Great New Zealand Television Turn-Off Week) and it didn't do any thing at all to change television. All it did was increase the smugness of those participating. Turning off television does nothing; teaching about it, in a critical sense, in schools and universities does much more.

I hope British viewers have the sense to ignore this intrusion into their lives.

GEOFF LEALAND

Senior Lecturer in Film

and Television Studies

University of Waikato

New Zealand

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