"THE STRANGLING CITY": AN EXPERIMENT IN TWO-WAY TELEVISION.

This article reports on a pilot study in a new use of television. From the point of view of the broadcasting industry, the technique represents an approach to the related problems of determining community needs and developing more interesting treatment of public affairs. From the point of view of social research, it suggests an economical and fast way to administer and collect large numbers of interviews, with some obvious limitations and some not so obvious methodological advantages. On February 7 and March 15, 1963, a two-program series, "The Strangling City," was aired in Chicago, Illinois, dealing with the transportation problem in the Chicago metropolitan area. The series treated the issue from the point of view of the commuter himself rather than the transportation authority, and was promoted as an experimental attempt to establish large-scale, two-way communication between the station and its viewers on an issue of immediate concern. The general design was that the first program asked questions of commuters viewing at home. Answers were recorded on a pre-coded ballot and returned by mail. The second, follow-up program presented an overview of results and their implications.