Better Than Magritte: How Drama on the Radio Became Radio Drama

Using British radio and stage drama as its example, this article explores how a new medium took over an old genre and, after attempting to reproduce it closely, gradually modified it into something more suited to its own character. Initial disagreements about the significance of radio's blindness were attributable to the unreliability of pure sound as an epistemological guide. Yet this unreliability is a source of radio's unique dramatic strengths: It is a "theater of the invisible," severing drama's recent connection with spectacle and renewing its pristine association with speech. Radio drama has, in its turn, influenced the conventional theater.     

Aural Atavism: The Witch's Tale and Gothic Horror Radio

This article offers a cultural historical interpretation of The Witch's Tale (1931–38), an early U.S. horror radio drama, and argues that the program's use of the Gothic genre unified its content and form. Its plays emphasized temporality to highlight the Gothic intertwining of the past and present, and offered allegories that while often rooted in the fantastic nevertheless addressed contemporary concerns—gender, Others, and socio-economic anxieties. It used sound to complement its content, evoking the supernatural and monsters, and cuing and sustaining suspense. And it tapped radio's connotation as a supernatural medium to complement and magnify its generic horror.     

Pedagogies of food and ethical personhood: TV cooking shows in postwar Taiwan

Taking one of the most representative subgenres of lifestyle TV, the cooking show, as a case study, in this article, we examine the history and changing cultural meanings of this televisual genre in the context of Taiwan's postwar social history and TV industry. We conduct textual analyses of Taiwanese cooking shows across three different historical stages: Fu Pei Mei's shows (the 1960s–1980s), Chen Hong's shows (the 1990s), and Metrosexual Uber-Chef with Master Ah-Ji (the 2000s), in order to advance a critical exploration of the complex relationships between these popular media texts and their social and industrial contexts. We argue that, in line with the ongoing transformations in Taiwan's society and television industry over the postwar era, the cooking show essentially shifted from educational-cultural to entertainment programming. However, at the same time, the pedagogical function of teaching both cooking skills and life ethics was maintained throughout the different stages, albeit represented very differently in each of the three periods, corresponding with the social and industrial contexts pertaining in each.     

Presenting “The Other Half”: Jacob Riis's Reform Photography and Magic Lantern Spectacles as the Beginning of Documentary Film

This article examines the emergence of the visual documentary genre through the study of Jacob A. Riis's magic lantern spectacles, writings, photographs, audience reception, and critical reviews as published in the press during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. To demonstrate an existing strong connection between Riis's lectures and documentary film, in particular, the article also focuses on a more contemporary idea about documenting society—the concept of documentary modes of representation. The analysis of related primary and secondary sources reveals that despite the limitations of technology, “moving” documentary pictures were produced long before they were part of the film genre, and Riis's work should be viewed as one of the principal antecedents to this visual documentary form.     

Staging peace: Televised ceremonies of reconciliation

The visit of Egypt's President Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem was the model for Dayan and Katz's conceptualization of the genre of media events, as live programs which have the power to transform history. Fifteen years later, a series of televised reconciliation ceremonies, which marked the stages of the peace process between Israel and its Arab neighbors (the Palestinians and the Jordanians), are used to re‐examine the model. We demonstrate (1) how the effectiveness of these ceremonies depends on the type of contract among the three participants—leaders, broadcasters and public—each of whom displays different kinds of reservations, and (2) how the aura of the ceremonies draws on the prior status of the participants (Hussein), but also confers status (Arafat).     

Policy,Pop, and the Public: The Discourse of Regulation in British Commercial Radio

This paper examines the language and practices of regulation that have constructed the idea of British commercial radio. It concludes that the regulator's definitions of its purpose and practice are characterized by variability because of the attempt to draw simultaneously from repertoires of definition established in Britain's public service, commercial, and community traditions. In turn, it is noted that this discourse of regulation does not seem to be shared by those who run commercial radio stations. The paper explores the way that the dominance of a particular public service ideal is negotiated with the increasing influence of commercial orders of discourse, and the marginalization of concepts of community broadcasting.     

Tracing the Conceptions and Treatment of Genre in Anglo-American Cataloging

This study examines the conceptions and treatment of genre in four sets of modern Anglo-American cataloging rules spanning 171 years. Genre-related rules are first identified through “genre(s),” “form(s),” and “type(s)” keyword searches, and manual examination of the contents, then analyzed by level of treatment genre receives and by user tasks, as defined in the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records. While genre is found to be sporadically addressed across the rules, its significance has increased over time. In conclusion, the authors call for a rigorous and functional definition of genre and an integrated approach to genre in cataloging.     

KBOO Community Radio: Organizing Portland's Disorderly Possibilities

Across the radio spectrum, there are relatively few stations in the United States that concentrate on community building and sustainability. One of the country's early community radio stations, KBOO-FM in Portland, Oregon, has been on the air since 1968 and has significantly expanded its signal reach and audience during that time. Preceding National Public Radio, KBOO is the outcome of a Portland grassroots activist movement that initially sought to restore classical music on the local airwaves and eventually concurred on a more radical mission to serve the underserved and to cater to communities at the margins in the metropolitan listening area and beyond. KBOO transmits a potpourri of musical and artistic styles, foreign language programs, and critical news, public affairs, and commentaries—all with a largely volunteer-based governance structure. It also devotes its attention to promoting community-based initiatives. This article focuses on four major community functions served by KBOO community radio: public transmission, radio training, political education and mobilization, and community building and outreach. We conclude with observations about the uses and potential of community radio in developing a rich democratic civil society.     

A Preliminary Discussion of Russian Émigré Materials at the Library of Congress

Materials at the Library of Congress (LC) by and about Russian émigrés take every form and are distributed throughout the library's many custodial divisions, classification schedules, catalogs, and Web pages. Identifying and locating these materials, whether in print, archival, or even digital collections, may require creative thinking and an understanding of the library's sometimes complex organization. The author attempts here to provide a preliminary overview of the library's Russian émigré collections and some guidance for beginning research on these collections. She includes examples as illustrations and inspiration for further research.     

The Evoked Rhetorical Vision of Lake Wobegon: A Textual Analysis of "A Prairie Home Companion"

"A Prairie Home Companion," a live radio variety show produced by Minnesota Public Radio station KSJN, drew weekly radio audiences of 5 million across its thirteen year existence—phenomenal achievement A reprise of the show is presently being broadcast from New York and is heard weekly on over 200 public radio stations. An explanation and textual analysis of the phenomenon is offered using both E. G. Bormann's fantasy theme methodology and Tony Schwartz's resonance theory. 7he analysis concludes that the phenomenon can best be explained by the chaining out of an evoked responsive chord that includes each individual's yearning for the affection, warmth, and support of family and neighbors-perhaps things that each of us, as exiles from different times and places, knows we can never recover.     

Platform,or technology project? A spectrum of six strategic ‘plays’ from UK government IT initiatives and their implications for policy

There is a markedly broad range of definitions and illustrative examples of the role played by governments themselves within the literature on government platforms. In response we conduct an inductive and deductive qualitative review of the literature to clarify this landscape and so to develop a typology of six definitions of government platforms, organised within three genres along a spectrum from fully centralised, through to fully decentralised. For each platform definition we offer illustrative ‘mini-cases’ drawn from the UK government experience as well as further insights and implications for each genre, drawn from the broader information systems literature on platforms. A range of benefits, risks, governance challenges, policy recommendations, and suggestions for further research are then identified and discussed.     

Valerie Geller,Creating Powerful Radio. Burlington,MA: Focal Press, 2007

This essay explores the phenomenon of community radio in Colombia in light of the ongoing internal conflict. Combining a review of the written materials about Colombia's social-political conflict and the history of its radio industry, both in English and Spanish, with first-hand research on the ground in Colombia, I try to demonstrate how community radio is part of a broader movement to democratize society in the face of extreme violence, political repression, and economic dislocation. By using one youth-led radio station in southern Colombia as a case study, I argue that notwithstanding the many problems and drawbacks they face, community radio is playing a role in creating a public sphere.     

Independent Local Radio in the West Midlands

This essay presents the comparative analysis of two Independent Local Radio (ILR) stations in the West Midlands during the 1970s. ILR was a public, community-based, radio service funded by the sale of spot advertising, and the success or the failure of an ILR station depended on the outlook and experience of its management team. BRMB represented the appropriate balance of experience and expertise. It was headed by a managing director with a commercial background and a programme controller experienced in regulated public service broadcasting. Beacon was a station with a management from a commercial broadcasting background, and their approach brought the station into conflict with the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), ILR's regulator. The profit motive took precedence over the fulfilment of its public service obligations, and it was this which caused the IBA to remove the Beacon licence. This essay will, therefore, address two principal questions: why were the experiences of the two West Midlands ILR stations in the 1970s so different and why were they treated so differently by the regulator?     

Radio's Role During Hurricane Katrina: A Case Study of WWL Radio and the United Radio Broadcasters of New Orleans

This narrative case study examines the news and information role played by WWL Radio and the United Radio Broadcasters of New Orleans during the real life drama of Hurricane Katrina. The performance of United demonstrates that media consolidation, deregulation and the threat of emerging technologies do not justify abandoning the idea that broadcasters still have a moral and ethical responsibility to serve the public interests of audiences; that traditional radio should stop looking over its shoulder at threats posed by other media, and instead should make use of the medium's greatest strength—taking care of the communities it serves on the local level. This study provides further proof that traditional radio is still vital, especially in times of disaster and catastrophe; that radio's attention to the local community, and its ability to collaborate among other broadcast outlets in that community, may be two of many distinct factors that keep the public tuned in to the medium.     

Diversity on Display: Framing in the Gay Perspective Radio Program

This study explores the archived content of Gay Perspective, a 1970s radio program in Milwaukee as it frames LGBTQIA+ (queer) rights in a historical context. Gay Perspective was produced by the Gay People’s Union (GPU). The group was considered politically “moderate,” emphasizing educational and legal action through their engagement with radio and magazines. Gay Perspective focused much of its energy on trying to demonstrate the need for rights and attempts to demonstrate how the queer community’s members could be functioning members of mainstream society. Gay Perspective is a cultural artifact that not only allows for the examination of gay identity in a different era, but also demonstrates the struggles social movements face in trying to gain access to media. The program provided a public voice to a radically underserved group, a group that was struggling with its own identity. By trying to build a community through radio, sharing resources and experiences, the program found some limited success in airing the GPU’s message of tolerance. Applying the analysis through 3 frames, Cultured, Diversity, and Assimilation, this article explores how segments of the LGBTQIA+ community framed the discussion of gay rights in the 1970s and discusses how those frames have (and haven’t) changed in 2018.     

Gender Contract and Localization in Early Women's Magazines in Finland Since 1782

The publishers and editors of the early Finnish women's magazines were familiar with Central European, English and Swedish women's magazines. A women's magazine started the history of Finnish magazine publishing in 1782. However, it survived less than 6 months and the next 2 women's magazines appeared only 70 years later. The article asks how the publishers of the first four magazines chose, adopted and localized this particular international magazine genre. Successful localization needs the approval of the content by the readers. Only the fourth women's magazine Koti ja Yhteiskunta (Home and Society) published in 1889–1911 managed to create a permanent readership. The central theoretical concept used to analyze the localization is the gender contract, which defines the rights and duties of women in society and is renegotiated as women's situation is changing.     

The Development and Use of a Genre Statement for Electronic Journals

Summary

The proliferation of electronic resources led the librarians of Cornell University's Mann Library to develop genre statements to aid in their selection decisions. Genre statements, one for each of five classes of electronic information, supplement the collection development policy and assist the genre specialists in selecting titles by outlining general and specific criteria. They also serve as summaries, updated annually, of the present state of the collection of the genre and of future issues to be addressed.     

A pilot study on alienation and anxiety during a rumored plant closing

As deliberative forums proliferate, scholars and practitioners need to establish a shared evaluative framework grounded in a theoretical definition of deliberation, applicable across contexts, and capable of yielding results comprehensible to public officials and key stakeholders. We present such a framework and illustrate its utility by evaluating the Oregon Citizens' Initiative Review (CIR), a public event that serves as both a critical case study and an important practical innovation in its own right. Our analysis shows that the CIR met a reasonable standard for democratic deliberation, and we pinpoint CIR features that both aided and detracted from its overall quality. We also show how we summarized these results to communicate our evaluation efficiently to the Oregon State Legislature. We conclude by making recommendations for future applications of our theoretical model and evaluative framework and offer practical suggestions for future deliberative forums.     

“People in Hell Want Slurpees”: The Redefinition of the Zombie Genre through the Salvific Portrayal of Family on AMC's The Walking Dead

AMC's popular, post-apocalyptic show The Walking Dead follows a clan of survivors as they endure the zombie apocalypse while struggling to maintain their humanity. The characters pursue temporal salvation through four social institutions: family, government, religion, and science/medicine, identified by a preliminary soak. Through content analysis of dialogueic, visual, and nonverbal references to these institutions across seasons 1–3 (N = 35), we find that each respective season proposed, and then rejected to some extent, the redemptive roles of science, religion, and the state—mirroring actual contemporary distrust. Simultaneously, through persistent, underlying storylines, the show reveals a traditional understanding of the centrality of familial relationships to maintaining a liberal society's survival—which we argue redefines the zombie genre away from its leftist roots.