Broadcasting originally meant sowing seeds broadly by hand It is in other words not only an agricultural metaphor it is also one of optimistic modernism It is about planned growth in the widest possible circles the production if the conditions are right of a rich harvest The metaphor presupposes a bucket of seeds at the centre of the activity ie the existence of centralised resources intended and suited for spreading  and reproduction The question to be looked into is why a new technology that transmitted words and pictures electronically was organised in a way that made this agricultural metaphor seem adequate