When I was a kid, whenever there was a need for information, the village chief would take a metal loudspeaker, walk along the village road, and point it at each residential area to make an announcement. One time, while he was holding the loudspeaker, he said, “Hello, hello, tonight, at 8 p.m., invite all the people of Dong village to the meeting hall to receive relief flour…” At that moment, a neighbor sitting in his house called out, “Village chief, please stop by here for a bowl of green tea.” As if by a conditioned reflex, the village chief would pick up the loudspeaker and reply, “Hello, hello, don’t plant yet!”
Of course, that is a somewhat happy story of a time when "grassroots radio" work was still very rudimentary. Then, over time, grassroots information activities gradually developed. Then the commune-level radio system was established across the country, broadcasting information to every corner of the population. In 2016, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 52/2016/QD-TTg on the Regulations on grassroots information activities. In November 2020, the Ministry of Information and Communications continued to issue Circular No. 39/2020/TT-BTTTT on regulations on commune-level radio stations applying information and communication technology. Thus, from the old metal loudspeaker, grassroots radio has now truly become a "station" (with journalistic activities). It is no longer a "regular" station but a "station applying information and communication technology". That is a remarkable development from all perspectives.
For a long time, the local radio station has mainly performed two tasks. One is to "ship" broadcast programs and the other is to produce and broadcast information to serve the propaganda work of the local unit. People have long affectionately called this system "ward loudspeakers". In recent days, the story of "ward loudspeakers" has once again heated up the online community after our beloved Capital issued an order to revive "ward loudspeakers". Someone hinted at "new officials, new policies", they must have been wrong, in the language of netizens, "Maybe not"! "Ward loudspeakers" are not a "new policy", they were born in the smoke of war and in fact, there has never been a time when "ward loudspeakers" were forced to "return to their final resting place".
I am not a fanatic of the “loudspeaker”, but I cannot express my love for those who are rejecting and betraying it. Suddenly remembering this day last year, if there were no “loudspeaker”, the history of the medical industry would have had to dedicate the most heartbreaking pages to write about the Covid-19 pandemic, the most terrible pandemic in human history. However, losing a lot does not mean losing everything. From the battle against the epidemic, life has extracted many good things. The thing that every family “uses”, “looks forward to” every day but few people remember to say thank you… is the “loudspeaker”.
During the pandemic, the “ward loudspeaker” stands tall like a reliable and close fortress. There is no flashy theme song, no male and female voice coordination, no high and low tones, but each word emitted from the ward loudspeaker is valuable information. The ward loudspeaker is so important, but sometimes it has been quite unlucky. It seems that it has been lifted up and put down on the agenda table many times. There was a time when people clicked their tongues at the proverb “It is a pity to abandon it, but a sin to keep it”. A few years ago, somewhere the ward loudspeaker was mercilessly neglected, in a state of “not wanting to leave, not wanting to stay”, there was a time when it was shaky as a test of patience with dedicated people. The cadre in charge of the commune-level radio station is still “part-time”, while the person in charge of the hamlet loudspeaker is of course “carrying the prison and the whole village” throughout the term. There was a time when social media “poked the ribs” of the ward loudspeaker. There was a hundred-episode comedy series called “Ward Loudspeaker”. Many opinions consider it an outdated media legacy. People even use the so-called 4.0 revolution to attribute many foolish things to the ward loudspeakers. In those years, the Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee "oriented" that "Loudspeakers were very effective during the subsidy period, but with the current information technology era, loudspeakers have completed their mission". He also emphasized: "Very costly. Each ward spends several hundred million a year". After that, there was a widespread and quite fierce boycott of ward loudspeakers on... the keyboard. The climax of the crisis was in a meeting at the end of 2017, the Minister of Information and Communications "concluded" that: "Agree with Hanoi's proposal to abolish urban ward loudspeakers". It seemed that the situation at that time was "communicative and favorable" for a quiet departure. The ward loudspeakers are indeed very “lucky”, otherwise if the administrators had not “turned to the wrong box” that day, the ward loudspeakers would have “reached their final resting place” several years ago. I once asked a person in charge of a local radio station: “What crime did the ward loudspeaker commit that caused them to be mistreated?”. He jokingly replied: “Their biggest crime is waking up chronically oversleepers.” Then he explained further: “Each level of broadcasting has its own specific mission, how can we use the “district loudspeaker” to read the announcement of receiving the village’s pension? It’s information, not multi-level marketing!”
It must be said that many information channels are being overshadowed by social networks. It is just that “no one” has been able to replace loudspeakers. Yes, it is true that loudspeakers may not be good, the content may not be attractive, but the key to loudspeakers is the practicality of the problem. Sometimes when faced with a task, people are forced to “force information”, so loudspeakers are the way to go. If you type “loudspeaker” in Google search engine, there are 14,600,000 results, it turns out that “loudspeaker” is still a keyword worth looking up in life.
Many people ask why Western countries don’t have “loudspeakers”? Well, simply because they are Western countries! They like to eat buttered bread, not squash soup with eggplant! Just like during the war, “Western” countries used tanks, firepower, and even Agent Orange, while we chose guerrilla warfare. Each country, each community, and even each family has its own characteristics. When the cultural space, social psychology, and even economic potential are different, it is not necessary to choose the same method. Differences are not used to divide the hierarchy.
Loudspeakers are an information front that still brings important benefits. They are the last official information channel that can reach the “ears” of the people. However, how to use loudspeakers is a story worth discussing. Perhaps “loudspeakers” should stop at providing information that is truly related to the lives of the people where they “reside”. Advertisements, music, arts… are probably more suitable for television and radio than loudspeakers. “Great” missions should be reserved for other mass media. Loudspeakers are innocent. Whether they are useful or annoying depends on how we exploit them.
Illustration: Document
