Showing papers in "Journal of Radio & Audio Media in 2015"
TL;DR: This article considers the 2014 podcast Serial within a context of technical change and podcast histories, and argues that Serial is a significant moment in the history of podcasting.
Abstract: This article considers the 2014 podcast Serial within a context of technical change and podcast histories. Building on previous work, the author argues that Serial is a significant moment in the history of podcasting. Recent trends have shifted podcasts from iPods to networked screen-based mobile devices in smartphones and connected dashboards, locations where global brands enjoy a significant advantage. It is in this context that the author places Serial as cultural object.
128 citations
TL;DR: The year 2005 went on to become ‘‘the year of the podcast’’, the emergence of the new medium being solidified in June 2015 when Apple upgraded to iTunes 4.9, the first version of the software to provide fully integrated podcast support; Apple’s new podcast directory made it simple for ordinary users to search for and subscribe to podcasts.
Abstract: Podcasting came of age in 2005, a full decade ago. The roots of podcasting date back to 2000, though, when software developer Dave Winer published RSS 0.92, a new version of the RSS (Rich Site Summ...
66 citations
TL;DR: This research explores how podcast apps promote new instances of listening, arguing that podcatchers reconfigure relationships between listeners and producers, and are also ultimately people-catchers that attempt to aggregate listeners in a fragmented media environment.
Abstract: Mobile applications for downloading podcasts to smartphones and tablets, or podcatcher apps, are some of the most plentiful in various digital software application stores (app stores). The software features, interfaces, and options podcatchers make available give digital soundworks new functionality, materiality, visuality, and aurality. By collecting and analyzing some of the most popular podcasting applications, this article surveys the affordances and restrictions promoted by podcatching app interfaces. Our research explores how podcast apps promote new instances of listening, arguing that podcatchers reconfigure relationships between listeners and producers, and are also ultimately people-catchers that attempt to aggregate listeners in a fragmented media environment by increasing sonic interactivity, encouraging ubiquitous listening, curating and packaging podcasts as visual media, and emphasizing social features that allow users to share podcasts with each other.
51 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore how an informal network of Black podcasters, some of whom refer to themselves as the "Chitlin' Circuit" or "urban podcasters", functions as a contemporary digital iteration of enclaved Black social spaces.
Abstract: This article explores how an informal network of Black podcasters, some of whom refer to themselves as the “Chitlin' Circuit” or “urban podcasters,” functions as a contemporary digital iteration of enclaved Black social spaces. The conversational nature of these podcasts and their use of Black American cultural commonplaces, combined with the intimate qualities of radio-style audio, reproduce a sense of being in Black social spaces such as the barber/beauty shop or church. Mobile technologies not only allow listeners to listen anywhere, but listening via headphones also potentially adds an element of immersion through the practice of sensory gating.
45 citations
TL;DR: The Symposium on Podcasting as mentioned in this paper was the start of what I hope will be a sustained program of research on this subject, and I was excited to learn about this symposium and be asked to serve as the discussant.
Abstract: I was excited to learn about this symposium on podcasting and be asked to serve as the discussant, because it marks what I hope will be the start of a sustained program of research on this subject....
40 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors take the surrealist fictionalized talk radio-style podcast Welcome to Night Vale (2012-present; WNV) as a case study of the revival of the mid-twentieth century radio drama form.
Abstract: This article takes the surrealist fictionalized talk radio-style podcast Welcome to Night Vale (2012–Present; WNV) as a case study of the revival of the mid-twentieth century radio drama form. With affordable digital production tools and the inexpensive distribution of podcasts over the internet, WNV is helping to foster a new wave of creative audio production. Yet, much of this newfound creativity is arriving through a remediation of older radio forms, techniques, and styles. Putting this “new media” in historical and cultural perspective, the author argues, emphasizes the many continuities present during moments of media change, troubling simplistic notions of media disruption.
32 citations
TL;DR: Dan Carlin's Hardcore History as mentioned in this paper is a work of fan fiction and a significant intervention by an amateur, non-historian into a discourse typically dominated by scholars and professionals.
Abstract: This article discusses the podcast Dan Carlin's Hardcore History as a work of fan (non)fiction and a significant intervention by an amateur, non-historian into a discourse typically dominated by scholars and professionals. Frequently listed among the top “Society and Culture” podcasts on iTunes, in Carlin's hands podcasting technology has been used as a means of engaging with history on his own terms in a way that has been quite popular among podcast listeners—a form of do-it-yourself historical expression that provides some insight into how audiences receive and respond to historical discourse.
22 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the double-birth model proposed by Gaudreault and Marion provides a meaningful contribution to our understanding of how wireless telegraphy was developed and eventually re-invented during its early history.
Abstract: This article argues that the “double-birth” model proposed by Gaudreault and Marion provides a meaningful contribution to our understanding of how wireless telegraphy was developed and eventually re-invented during its early history. Drawing from a case study on the role played by Italian “radio amateurs” between 1900 and the early 1920s, we examine how such users shifted the medium's definition, legislation, and identity in the first years after the introduction of wireless technology. The emergence of new potential meanings and applications ultimately rebuilt and redefined this medium, creating space for innovation and multiple “births.”
20 citations
TL;DR: The CBC Radio 3 Podcast as discussed by the authors is an example of the CBC's history with podcasts and argues that, up to this point, the format has frequently extended, rather than disrupted, established broadcasting forms and institutions.
Abstract: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's (CBC) approach to podcasting has typically involved the re-presentation of radio programs that effectively extend and promote the broader CBC Radio service. The lone exception to this is the CBC Radio 3 Podcast. This article details the CBC's history with podcasts in order to argue that, up to this point, the format has frequently extended, rather than disrupted, established broadcasting forms and institutions.
19 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored the situational fit of three media; music playlists, live radio, and podcasting, during public transit in London, UK in December 2013, and found that listeners were more interested in curating their music, and less interested in engaging with social concerns of live radio or the learned address of educational podcasting.
Abstract: Many people wear headphones during movement through their city, and they listen to a variety of sound genres like music, talk, lectures, etc. This study focuses on the pedestrian headphone listener who may spend an hour or more traveling every day. It explores the situational fit of three media; music playlists, live radio, and podcasting, during public transit.A field trial was conducted in London, UK in December 2013. Ten adult iPhone users were exposed to a music playlist on Spotify, live news from London's Biggest Conversation (LBC), and educational podcasts from BBC Radio 4, while simultaneously going about their business in Central London. This study discovered informants were more interested in curating their music, and less interested in engaging with the social concerns of live radio, or the learned address of educational podcasting. Music was felt as relaxing while radio and podcasting were felt as more imposing on their concentration. In sum, the participants found radio and podcasting to have ...
16 citations
TL;DR: The radio industry needs to consider changing its model to one that can compete with other listening options, particularly in regard to listening choices, customization, and access as discussed by the authors, in order to remain competitive.
Abstract: Radio is at a critical juncture in terms of its listeners and future as a viable medium. As the Baby Boomer generation fades away and is replaced by the Millennial Generation and soon, Generation Z, the broadcast radio industry must rethink its place in the market and make a concentrated effort to remain competitive. To remain competitive, it must consider itself to be part of a broader Media Listening Experience (MLE) comprised of streaming, podcast, and satellite listening options. In doing so, the radio industry needs to consider changing its model to one that can compete with other listening options, particularly in regard to listening choices, customization, and access. If radio can strategically redefine itself as both an industry and technology, and flex its strength as a democratic medium available to all, listenership will increase and radio, as one of the original forms of mass media, will thrive.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors trace the historical emergence and development of alternative net radio in Hong Kong and explore its political potential in terms of challenging the political-economic status quo, and discuss the historical legacy of this exemplary station through the lens of recent developments.
Abstract: Over the past decade in Hong Kong, net radio stations have served as alternative media safeguarding freedom of speech. Using the historical case of one pioneering alternative net radio station, the People's Radio Hong Kong (2004–2007), this article traces the historical emergence and development of alternative net radio in this democratizing city. The historical legacy of this exemplary station will also be discussed through the lens of recent developments. This case study aims to contribute to net radio research by exploring its political potential in terms of challenging the political-economic status quo.
TL;DR: This article examined how community radio operates transnationally through a media ethnography of the Latin American Association of Radio Education (ALER) executive secretariat in Quito, Ecuador and found that ALER staff members share a common vision of their work based around four themes: collective self-representations, unity, inclusion, and transformation.
Abstract: This study examines how community radio operates transnationally through a media ethnography of the Latin American Association of Radio Education (ALER) executive secretariat in Quito, Ecuador. Findings show that ALER staff members share a common vision of their work based around 4 themes: collective self-representations, unity, inclusion, and transformation. Having a shared collective conviction in the transformative function of radio shapes how ALER staff conceptualize its journalistic production. This research advances knowledge of how community radio scales-up to the transnational level and the shared values underlying this journalistic practice.
TL;DR: In this paper, the attitude of young adults toward broadcast news sources was investigated. But, the attitude was not significantly influenced by external sources or journalist sources, and the primary exception was stories about social media technology.
Abstract: This experimental study looked at the attitude of millennials—primarily self-identified White college students 18 to 22 years old—toward broadcast news sources. Several radio news stories were created and used as stimulus material (on 2 themes—economy and social media technology). Participants rated their impressions of the reporters, external sources, and stories. Factor analysis yielded 4 factors: source credibility and altruism, and message credibility and importance. ANOVA, MANOVA, and t-tests revealed that young people's attitudes differed little when evaluating external sources or journalist sources. The primary exception was stories about social media technology, when journalist sources were identified by participants as more credible than external sources. Implications for future research and the industry are discussed, as well as limitations pertaining to this study.
TL;DR: Sirius XMU's Blog Radio show is a rich site for exploring the influence of podcasting on satellite radio programming and demonstrates the ways in which radio in the digital age is shaped by podcasting, especially as radio becomes increasingly visual and mobile.
Abstract: Sirius XMU's Blog Radio show is a rich site for exploring the influence of podcasting on satellite radio programming. Bloggers from Web sites such as BrooklynVegan host daily 2-hour shows that also co-exist as playlists or mixtapes posted online and shared by social media profiles. Blog Radio highlights the presence of podcasting aesthetics, including time-shifting and themed playlists, within satellite radio programming, and also reflects SiriusXM's recent efforts to occupy online spaces. Further, Blog Radio demonstrates the ways in which radio in the digital age is shaped by podcasting, especially as radio becomes increasingly visual and mobile.
TL;DR: This article examined the role of satire in broadcast radio's uncertain future and found that satire was a popular and vibrant public mode of cultural subversion during the Golden Age of Radio Satire.
Abstract: Satire is recognized by scholars as having an essential function in a free society. In the 1960s, political and social satire broadcast on over-the-air on radio stations in the United States was a popular and vibrant public mode of cultural subversion. Scholarship has focused mainly on TV, print, and online satire but has yet to examine the form and function of historic radio satire. This exploratory study attempts to bridge this paucity of scholarship with regard to the factors that produced the Golden Age of Radio Satire, and what role satire might play in broadcast radio's uncertain future.
TL;DR: The original Keith's Radio Station was published in 1986 and written by Dr. Michael C. Keith, who entered teaching at a small New England college after ten years in professional broadcasting.
Abstract: The original Keith's Radio Station was published in 1986 and written by Dr. Michael C. Keith, who entered teaching at a small New England college after ten years in professional broadcasting. He wa...
TL;DR: With their country seemingly in free fall and their world spinning out of control, Americans in the thirties sought to lose themselves in entertainment as never before as discussed by the authors. And no form of escape could...
Abstract: With their country seemingly in free fall and their world spinning out of control, Americans in the thirties sought to lose themselves in entertainment as never before. And no form of escape could ...
TL;DR: Results showed most Web sites used for public radio stations were easy to use, provided useful information, gave visitors reasons to return, and had the potential to generate dialogic loops.
Abstract: This study used a content analysis of Web sites for 200 public radio stations to measure how stations are creating opportunities for dialogue and relationship building with listeners and donors. Results showed most Web sites were easy to use, provided useful information, gave visitors reasons to return, and had the potential to generate dialogic loops. Many of the sites could improve by making advertising links open in new windows and by providing more information for potential donors. A longitudinal analysis found significant increases from 2011 to 2014 in the number of sites providing links to Facebook, Twitter, and mobile apps.
TL;DR: In this paper, Benoit's image repair typology is used to study Gracie Allen's public letter, and a total of five implications are drawn, including issues of celebrity roles, the effectiveness of mortification during image repair efforts, and challenges and benefits of humor in an image repair situation, to better understand historical political radio humor.
Abstract: During her fictional 1940 presidential campaign, popular radio star Gracie Allen was the target of criticism after her colleague told a joke referencing First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Allen responded to the criticisms with a public letter. In this analysis, Benoit's image repair typology is used to study Allen's letter. A total of 5 implications are drawn, including issues of celebrity roles, the effectiveness of mortification during image repair efforts, and challenges and benefits of humor in an image repair situation, to better understand historical political radio humor—an under-explored focus of image repair scholarship.
TL;DR: This issue begins with two invited essays, engaging an interesting discussion on sound and listening culture, drawn from Danish as well as Dutch, German, Belgian and United States radio broadcasts, respectively, and extending it into the larger context of radio history internationally.
Abstract: In this themed issue, ‘‘Sound Matters,’’ we ask the reader to rehear the sounds that comprise radio, from a historical lens to the practical exercise of everyday listening and staying connected as a community of listeners. Sound is critical to every aspect of radio programming, be it the subtle intonation of a voice to the inclusion of ambient noise at a particular site or event to the aural representation of diversity as espoused through the needs and interests of listeners living out their lives. This issue begins with two invited essays, engaging an interesting discussion on sound and listening culture, drawn from Danish as well as Dutch, German, Belgian and United States radio broadcasts, respectively, and extending it into the larger context of radio history internationally. Often forgotten are the deep roots of what appear unique trends in contemporary radio practice. Consider that Jacob Kreutzfeldt’s ‘‘Unidentified Sounds: Radio Reporting from Copenhagen 1931– 1949’’ presents a unique listening opportunity from inside the Danish Broadcasting Corporation archive for some early examples of crafting and implications of sound in news stories during the 1930s. Dating back to a similar time period, Karin Bijsterveld and Marith Dieker, in ‘‘A Captive Audience: Traffic Radio as Guard and Escape,’’ investigate how traffic radio has had a significant role in broadcasting, and still does so today contributing to intellectual and sensory sonic navigation research and practice internationally. The original research section takes us around the world for a variety of perspectives on radio. From Italy, Hong Kong, Thailand, Latin America to the United States, one begins to appreciate the diversity of radio, from its early models of conception to its online presence. Gabriele Balbi and Simone Natale, in ‘‘The Double Birth of Wireless: Italian Radio Amateurs and the Interpretative Flexibility of New Media,’’ offer a historical framework for understanding radio as re-invention (as well as media technologies, more generally), ultimately provoking speculation toward potential directions and applications in the future. Dennis K. K. Leung’s ‘‘The Rise of Alternative Net Radio in Hong Kong: The Historic Case of One Pioneering Station’’ depicts the short-lived legacy of the pioneering People’s Radio
TL;DR: In this article, listening is thought of as a discipline, a mindful state of awareness, something to learn, study, and practice, a skill that can be either acquired or lost.
Abstract: I have thought of listening as a discipline, a mindful state of awareness, something to learn, study, and practice—a skill that can be either acquired or lost. I have also questioned these assumpti...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the contexts in which traffic radio acquired its dual role as the motorists' guard and escape, and how it is now seen to contribute to sustainable mobility.
Abstract: Radio finds a highly captive audience in the car. Motorists listen to radio for music and generic news, but also prick up their ears for specific traffic reports, despite the recent rise of navigation technologies with real-time traffic information. Traffic radio helps drivers to prepare for or prevent traffic problems. This essay explores the contexts in which traffic radio acquired its dual role as the motorists' guard and escape, and how it is now seen to contribute to sustainable mobility.
TL;DR: This article explored the emergence in 1946 of O.C.W. Taylor, a Black announcer who integrated radio in New Orleans, allowing them to widely disseminate their progressive stories through the WNOE talk show Negro Forum.
Abstract: Broadcast historiography is inadequate without discussion of relevant Black experiences. This study explores the emergence in 1946 of O.C.W. Taylor, a Black announcer who integrated radio in New Orleans. Taylor opened radio to the voices of local Blacks, allowing them to widely disseminate their progressive stories through the WNOE talk show Negro Forum. African-Americans' voices were no longer limited to Black newspapers. As a result, listeners learned of the challenges and activities Blacks engaged in as they coped with life in the South before the rise of the civil rights movement.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate how urban spaces and their noises were approached by radio reporters in the first decades of public radio production in Denmark, focusing on the period before reel tape was incorporated in production by the early 1950s, and explore how urban space and urban sounds were heard, contextualized, and conceptualized in an era of transmission.
Abstract: This article investigates how urban spaces and their noises were approached by radio reporters in the first decades of public radio production in Denmark. Focusing on the period before reel tape was incorporated in production by the early 1950s, the author explores how urban space and urban sounds were heard, contextualized, and conceptualized in an era of transmission. Observing that urban sounds until the late 1930s were rarely heard in Danish radio compared to German and English broadcasting, the author argues that an urban and auditory aesthetics incorporating noise, heterogeneity, and unpredictability did not really develop in Danish radio until the early post-war years. Yet this study traces early attempts at managing noisy urban conditions in a collection of 22 archived reportages from 1931–1949 and demonstrates how reporters experimented with available technological repositories and developed techniques in order to make sense in and through urban environments. Inspired by Michel Serres' idea of th...
TL;DR: This article surveyed Thai radio listeners and found community radio enormously popular; nearly two-thirds of respondents listen daily, mainly for music and local information programs, and this likely hampered stations' ability to recruit volunteer workers needed for day-to-day operations.
Abstract: Community radio has become an important alternative to mainstream media in many countries. Since 2001 more than 7,000 stations have begun broadcasting in Thailand, making it the global leader in this type of broadcasting. This study surveyed Thai radio listeners and found community stations enormously popular; nearly two-thirds of respondents listened daily, mainly for music and local information programs. However, many listeners did not have a good understanding of community radio, and this likely hampered stations' ability to recruit volunteer workers needed for day-to-day operations. Stations therefore need to educate listeners about this medium in order to build community support.
TL;DR: This paper examined the Kitchen Radio Campaign of 1953 and its attempt to reposition radio's place in the American culture using letters, memos, and scripts from the National Broadcasting Company archives at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Abstract: As television advanced into homes, NBC radio executives sought a way to reposition NBC and build a stronger daytime radio audience. The “Kitchen Radio Campaign” of 1953 was a major Christmas promotion campaign by NBC designed to build the daily “Housewife” audience. Using clever jingles, the spots urged family members to buy a radio for Mom to use while she did her chores. Using letters, memos, and scripts from the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) archives at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, this study examines NBC's Kitchen Radio Campaign and its attempt to reposition radio's place in the American culture.
TL;DR: The significance of capturing and/or editorially weaving a sense of sonic narrative within field pieces, whether that happens naturally during the recording process or is creatively constructed by the producer as artist, is discussed in this article.
Abstract: The author examines the significance of capturing and/or editorially weaving a sense of sonic narrative within field pieces, whether that happens naturally during the recording process or is creatively constructed by the producer as artist. This discussion presents a theoretical and practical understanding of considering intentions and interpretations of field works in various contexts, including purposes for radio, sound, and other applications involving urban soundscapes.