Broadcast far and wide
Meaning
To disseminate information, news, or a message to a very large audience or over an extensive geographical area.
Origin
The term "broadcast" originally came from agriculture, referring to the act of scattering seeds widely by hand over a large field. This imagery of broad dispersal found a powerful new application with the invention of radio technology in the early 20th century. Engineers and visionaries adopted the word to describe the revolutionary ability to transmit sound and information across vast distances through the airwaves, much like scattering seeds. The natural addition of "far and wide" merely emphasizes and enhances this initial agricultural metaphor, transforming a rural farming term into a dynamic descriptor for the extensive reach of modern mass communication.
Examples
- The urgent weather warning was broadcast far and wide across all television and radio channels.
- Using their social media platforms, activists managed to broadcast their message far and wide, reaching millions of potential supporters.