In 2018, the BBC announced plans to replace their long-established ‘iPlayer Radio’ service with a new platform called BBC Sounds. The new service was promoted as a single space where listeners can consume BBC radio, music and podcasts, creating a single point of interaction between audiences and content. This is, however, far more than an exercise in reframing public service radio content in a new app; it is also a practical application of these policies through the commissioning of content made for online, specifically, younger, audiences. This shift happens not only at a time where traditional broadcasters are exploring ways to re-engage younger listeners but as commentators search for the ‘Netflix of Podcasts’ This article explores the manner in which the BBC Sounds project is a response to current trends in the radio industry and to which it recognizes podcasting as an audio medium that is distinct from but institutionally connected to radio.
{"title":"Radio, music, podcasts ‐ BBC Sounds: Public service radio and podcasts in a platform world","authors":"Richard Berry","doi":"10.1386/rjao_00016_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/rjao_00016_1","url":null,"abstract":"In 2018, the BBC announced plans to replace their long-established ‘iPlayer Radio’ service with a new platform called BBC Sounds. The new service was promoted as a single space where listeners can consume BBC radio, music and podcasts, creating a single point of interaction\u0000 between audiences and content. This is, however, far more than an exercise in reframing public service radio content in a new app; it is also a practical application of these policies through the commissioning of content made for online, specifically, younger, audiences. This shift happens\u0000 not only at a time where traditional broadcasters are exploring ways to re-engage younger listeners but as commentators search for the ‘Netflix of Podcasts’ This article explores the manner in which the BBC Sounds project is a response to current trends in the radio industry and\u0000 to which it recognizes podcasting as an audio medium that is distinct from but institutionally connected to radio.","PeriodicalId":38660,"journal":{"name":"Radio Journal","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91397906","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Radio is hailed as Africa’s medium of choice in the global communication age. Introduced as a colonial tool of information, education and entertainment in the early 1930s, radio broadcasting was mainly in colonial languages as colonial administrators perceived local language broadcasting a threat to their empire building and ‘civilization’ agendas. The fortunes of local language broadcasting did not dramatically change in the independence era when broadcast media were in the firm control of the state. From the beginning of the twenty-first century, however, mostly resulting from a more liberalized media environment, local language broadcasting has undergone unprecedented growth. Drawing on written archival material, including internal communication among policy-makers, audience letters, key informant interviews and findings from a recent audience study, this article charts the progressive development of local language radio broadcasting in Ghana, and engages with the role played by early audiences and broadcasters in indigenizing broadcast content.
{"title":"Indigenizing radio in Ghana","authors":"S. Akrofi-Quarcoo, A. Gadzekpo","doi":"10.1386/rjao_00018_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/rjao_00018_1","url":null,"abstract":"Radio is hailed as Africa’s medium of choice in the global communication age. Introduced as a colonial tool of information, education and entertainment in the early 1930s, radio broadcasting was mainly in colonial languages as colonial administrators perceived local language broadcasting\u0000 a threat to their empire building and ‘civilization’ agendas. The fortunes of local language broadcasting did not dramatically change in the independence era when broadcast media were in the firm control of the state. From the beginning of the twenty-first century, however, mostly\u0000 resulting from a more liberalized media environment, local language broadcasting has undergone unprecedented growth. Drawing on written archival material, including internal communication among policy-makers, audience letters, key informant interviews and findings from a recent audience study,\u0000 this article charts the progressive development of local language radio broadcasting in Ghana, and engages with the role played by early audiences and broadcasters in indigenizing broadcast content.","PeriodicalId":38660,"journal":{"name":"Radio Journal","volume":"40 1","pages":"95-112"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89962199","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
At the turn of the millennium, scholars and pundits reflected on how communication systems could shape events and societies, often while basking in the perceived glow of the then-novel Internet. Others pled for reasoned engagement with the interplay between communication infrastructures and the social life of knowledge, a much-needed corrective in a moment of rampant breathless digital utopianism. This article explores the interplay between communication infrastructures and the social life of knowledge through specific sociotechnical arrangements, low-power FM (LPFM) radio and large-scale commercial Internet-based ‘platforms’, both of which exist in our historical present. In particular, I use the formation of LPFM, which occurred at the same time that commercial Internet traffic picked up steam, in order to ‘excavate the future’: I return to a not-so-distant past to consider what might yet be. The article’s central claim is that the case of LPFM is even more relevant now than at its inception, in a context where behemoth commercial Internet ‘platforms’ have come to dominate electronic communication.
{"title":"Not entirely analog(ous): Low-power FM radio as community, relations and knowledge in context","authors":"Christina Dunbar-Hester","doi":"10.1386/rjao_00013_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/rjao_00013_1","url":null,"abstract":"At the turn of the millennium, scholars and pundits reflected on how communication systems could shape events and societies, often while basking in the perceived glow of the then-novel Internet. Others pled for reasoned engagement with the interplay between communication infrastructures and the social life of knowledge, a much-needed corrective in a moment of rampant breathless digital utopianism. This article explores the interplay between communication infrastructures and the social life of knowledge through specific sociotechnical arrangements, low-power FM (LPFM) radio and large-scale commercial Internet-based ‘platforms’, both of which exist in our historical present. In particular, I use the formation of LPFM, which occurred at the same time that commercial Internet traffic picked up steam, in order to ‘excavate the future’: I return to a not-so-distant past to consider what might yet be. The article’s central claim is that the case of LPFM is even more relevant now than at its inception, in a context where behemoth commercial Internet ‘platforms’ have come to dominate electronic communication.","PeriodicalId":38660,"journal":{"name":"Radio Journal","volume":"2015 1","pages":"13-28"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86201521","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study focuses on user-generated content (UGC) via Facebook and mobile texting selection and allocation for broadcast. Based on the premises of Gatekeeping theory in traditional mass media content selection, this study asks how social media messages, solicited by the radio station, are filtered out for the programmes. Based on semi-structured interviews with the Italian commercial radio station’s staff, participant observation and a content analysis of the UGC messages, the study scrutinizes institutional decision-making processes. The radio station’s selection of UGC exhibits efforts to maintain control over the streams of incoming UGC content. As expected, UGC manual content selection or automated content matching is geared towards efficiency. Also, in this study only 33 per cent of messages have been selected for broadcast. UGC gatekeeping has also presented evidence of displacement of control within the radio station. Rather than shifting control to audiences, radio stations displaced control to technology-assisted gatekeeping. While the study showed a ‘widening’ of the gates in terms of content (there was no differentiation in selecting messages directed to the radio station or to the overall audience members), shift of control to the audiences remains an ideal rather than reality.
{"title":"User-generated content gatekeeping on the radio: Displacing control to technology","authors":"Asta Zelenkauskaite","doi":"10.1386/rjao_00002_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/rjao_00002_1","url":null,"abstract":"This study focuses on user-generated content (UGC) via Facebook and mobile texting selection and allocation for broadcast. Based on the premises of Gatekeeping theory in traditional mass media content selection, this study asks how social media messages, solicited by the radio station,\u0000 are filtered out for the programmes. Based on semi-structured interviews with the Italian commercial radio station’s staff, participant observation and a content analysis of the UGC messages, the study scrutinizes institutional decision-making processes. The radio station’s selection\u0000 of UGC exhibits efforts to maintain control over the streams of incoming UGC content. As expected, UGC manual content selection or automated content matching is geared towards efficiency. Also, in this study only 33 per cent of messages have been selected for broadcast. UGC gatekeeping has\u0000 also presented evidence of displacement of control within the radio station. Rather than shifting control to audiences, radio stations displaced control to technology-assisted gatekeeping. While the study showed a ‘widening’ of the gates in terms of content (there was no differentiation\u0000 in selecting messages directed to the radio station or to the overall audience members), shift of control to the audiences remains an ideal rather than reality.","PeriodicalId":38660,"journal":{"name":"Radio Journal","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88914436","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article considers the radio programme for kindergarten-aged children that the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) launched during the Second World War and continued to broadcast until 1985. Kindergarten of the Air, thought to be the ‘first of its kind in the world’, was to inspire interest from, and similar programmes throughout, the British empire and beyond. The article examines the imperial and international broadcasting networks that enabled the exchange of ideas and initiatives within the field of educational broadcasting, and the export of one of Australia’s most successful radio initiatives, while also considering the willingness of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to be influenced by a dominion broadcaster.
{"title":"Kindergarten of the Air: From Australia to the world","authors":"Bridget Griffen-Foley","doi":"10.1386/rjao_00004_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/rjao_00004_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article considers the radio programme for kindergarten-aged children that the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) launched during the Second World War and continued to broadcast until 1985. Kindergarten of the Air, thought to be the ‘first of its kind in the world’,\u0000 was to inspire interest from, and similar programmes throughout, the British empire and beyond. The article examines the imperial and international broadcasting networks that enabled the exchange of ideas and initiatives within the field of educational broadcasting, and the export of one of\u0000 Australia’s most successful radio initiatives, while also considering the willingness of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to be influenced by a dominion broadcaster.","PeriodicalId":38660,"journal":{"name":"Radio Journal","volume":"96 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83371908","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study examines news production and newsroom culture in radio stations in Ghana’s Northern Region. It explores the dynamics of news production and delivery in indigenous language newsrooms. Through in-depth interviews with eight indigenous language news presenters and journalists, the study critically explores the intricacies of news production, drawing attention to how news production is contextualized within this society. Through an oral epistemological approach, I argue that news journalists and presenters draw on orature and oral epistemologies to build their news-presenting personas and personalities in a way that positions them as frame sponsors who intentionally set the agenda for news content by unilaterally selecting specific stories to air. This study presents novel ways to conceptualize framing and agenda-setting while demonstrating the usefulness of customizing theory for specific sociocultural contexts. The study presents theoretical and practical implications to bridge the gap between theory and praxis while rethinking news production in Global South contexts such as Ghana.
{"title":"Journalistic griots: The marginalization of indigenous language news and oral epistemologies in Ghana","authors":"W. F. Mohammed","doi":"10.1386/rjao_00007_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/rjao_00007_1","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines news production and newsroom culture in radio stations in Ghana’s Northern Region. It explores the dynamics of news production and delivery in indigenous language newsrooms. Through in-depth interviews with eight indigenous language news presenters and journalists,\u0000 the study critically explores the intricacies of news production, drawing attention to how news production is contextualized within this society. Through an oral epistemological approach, I argue that news journalists and presenters draw on orature and oral epistemologies to build their news-presenting\u0000 personas and personalities in a way that positions them as frame sponsors who intentionally set the agenda for news content by unilaterally selecting specific stories to air. This study presents novel ways to conceptualize framing and agenda-setting while demonstrating the usefulness of customizing\u0000 theory for specific sociocultural contexts. The study presents theoretical and practical implications to bridge the gap between theory and praxis while rethinking news production in Global South contexts such as Ghana.","PeriodicalId":38660,"journal":{"name":"Radio Journal","volume":"103 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78414265","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In 1899 radio pioneer Nikola Tesla claimed to have received a wireless transmission from the planet Mars, which not only confirmed the existence of intelligent life but also invited a response. The public was immediately captivated by the idea that Mars was attempting to communicate with the Earth, and this widespread fascination reflected not only a belief in the existence of extraterrestrial life but also a notion of radio as a transnational medium that could potentially unite the world by making terrestrial borders obsolete. It may seem strange, therefore, that this fascination culminated in Orson Welles’ famous radio adaptation of H. G. Wells’ novel The War of the Worlds, in which radio was represented not as a medium of interplanetary communication but rather as an emergency broadcast system that warned Americans of an extraterrestrial invasion. Through a closer examination of the history of the idea of interplanetary communication, this article explores how radio was initially conceived as a medium that transgressed social, political and linguistic boundaries and how this utopian promise was later displaced by the idea of radio as a medium that served to construct and reinforce national borders and identities.
1899年，无线电先驱尼古拉·特斯拉声称收到了来自火星的无线传输，这不仅证实了智慧生命的存在，而且还要求得到回应。公众立刻被火星试图与地球通信的想法所吸引，这种广泛的迷恋不仅反映了对外星生命存在的信念，而且反映了无线电作为一种跨国媒介的概念，这种媒介可以使地球的边界过时，从而有可能将世界联合起来。因此，这种迷恋在奥森·威尔斯(Orson Welles)改编自h·g·威尔斯(h.g. Wells)小说《世界大战》(The War of The Worlds)的著名广播作品中达到顶峰，这似乎有些奇怪。在这部作品中，无线电不是作为星际通信的媒介，而是作为一种紧急广播系统，警告美国人外星人入侵。通过对星际通信理念的历史进行更深入的考察，本文探讨了无线电最初是如何被视为一种超越社会、政治和语言界限的媒介，以及这种乌托邦式的承诺后来如何被无线电作为一种用于构建和加强国家边界和身份的媒介的理念所取代。
{"title":"Martian channels: Imagining interplanetary communication at the dawn of the radio age","authors":"A. Enns","doi":"10.1386/rjao_00005_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/rjao_00005_1","url":null,"abstract":"In 1899 radio pioneer Nikola Tesla claimed to have received a wireless transmission from the planet Mars, which not only confirmed the existence of intelligent life but also invited a response. The public was immediately captivated by the idea that Mars was attempting to communicate\u0000 with the Earth, and this widespread fascination reflected not only a belief in the existence of extraterrestrial life but also a notion of radio as a transnational medium that could potentially unite the world by making terrestrial borders obsolete. It may seem strange, therefore, that this\u0000 fascination culminated in Orson Welles’ famous radio adaptation of H. G. Wells’ novel The War of the Worlds, in which radio was represented not as a medium of interplanetary communication but rather as an emergency broadcast system that warned Americans of an extraterrestrial invasion.\u0000 Through a closer examination of the history of the idea of interplanetary communication, this article explores how radio was initially conceived as a medium that transgressed social, political and linguistic boundaries and how this utopian promise was later displaced by the idea of radio as\u0000 a medium that served to construct and reinforce national borders and identities.","PeriodicalId":38660,"journal":{"name":"Radio Journal","volume":"33 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87908638","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study examines true crime podcasts with a critical/cultural lens to explore how podcasts are impacting the true crime genre, public opinion and the criminal justice system. Four in-depth qualitative interviews with true crime podcast producers offer insight into both the political economy of podcasts and effective audience engagement. Ultimately, this study argues that true crime podcasts are impacting the criminal justice system in unprecedented ways and that the future of this emerging media could challenge both criminal justice and media reform. Practical implications for genre-specific media are also discussed.
{"title":"True crime podcasting: Journalism, justice or entertainment?","authors":"Kelli S. Boling","doi":"10.1386/rjao_00003_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/rjao_00003_1","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines true crime podcasts with a critical/cultural lens to explore how podcasts are impacting the true crime genre, public opinion and the criminal justice system. Four in-depth qualitative interviews with true crime podcast producers offer insight into both the political\u0000 economy of podcasts and effective audience engagement. Ultimately, this study argues that true crime podcasts are impacting the criminal justice system in unprecedented ways and that the future of this emerging media could challenge both criminal justice and media reform. Practical implications\u0000 for genre-specific media are also discussed.","PeriodicalId":38660,"journal":{"name":"Radio Journal","volume":"42 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73298871","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Community radio represents an opportunity for audiences to play a lead role in the production, dissemination and ownership of media channels and content. The active participation of audiences is one of the primary differences between community radio stations and their commercial and state-run counterparts. The role of participation though is complicated in environments where community radio acts as an instrument for development, as is the case in India where community radio licenses are held by either educational establishments or non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Discussions around defining, encouraging and evaluating participation are extensive, yet little has been written about what defines meaningful participation from the perspective of community members. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in India, this article explores what makes participation meaningful and who is able to engage in this meaningful participation with community radio stations. Applying this perspective to community radio, encourages a more qualitative, holistic view of the benefits and outcomes of those who participate. Considering meaningful rather than maximalist or minimalist allows space to explore the impacts of participation in environments where it may be limited or restricted by structural factors. Engaged, invested audiences who regularly and meaningfully participate in their stations can help ensure that community radio remains a collaborative and powerful force within the global media landscape.
{"title":"‘Meaningful participation’: Exploring the value of limited participation for community radio listeners","authors":"Bridget Backhaus","doi":"10.1386/rjao_00008_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/rjao_00008_1","url":null,"abstract":"Community radio represents an opportunity for audiences to play a lead role in the production, dissemination and ownership of media channels and content. The active participation of audiences is one of the primary differences between community radio stations and their commercial and\u0000 state-run counterparts. The role of participation though is complicated in environments where community radio acts as an instrument for development, as is the case in India where community radio licenses are held by either educational establishments or non-governmental organizations (NGOs).\u0000 Discussions around defining, encouraging and evaluating participation are extensive, yet little has been written about what defines meaningful participation from the perspective of community members. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in India, this article explores what makes participation\u0000 meaningful and who is able to engage in this meaningful participation with community radio stations. Applying this perspective to community radio, encourages a more qualitative, holistic view of the benefits and outcomes of those who participate. Considering meaningful rather than maximalist\u0000 or minimalist allows space to explore the impacts of participation in environments where it may be limited or restricted by structural factors. Engaged, invested audiences who regularly and meaningfully participate in their stations can help ensure that community radio remains a collaborative\u0000 and powerful force within the global media landscape.","PeriodicalId":38660,"journal":{"name":"Radio Journal","volume":"74 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83982376","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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