"Short-Term Bursts of Inspiration": The Development of British Women's Alternative Radio

This paper begins with a review of literature and an historical account of the development of alternative women's community radio in the UK. It describes how UK women's radio stations were developed from feminist radio activity in the 70s and 80s. The two short case studies are based on qualitative research in women's community radio stations that have developed in the 90s: Fem FM in Bristol in the southwest and Radio Venus in Bradford in the north of England. Finally it develops a model of alternative women's radio for those who wish to forge a gendered space in a radio environment dominated by male broadcasters.     

ESPN's SportsCenter and Coverage of Women's Athletics: "It's a Boys' Club"

Since the passage of Title IX in 1972, participation in women's sports has grown dramatically. But despite the growing level of participation by female athletes at all competition levels and documented fan interest in women's athletics, coverage of women's sports remains inferior to that given male sports across all media. Tuggle's (1997) study showed that two national highlights programs (CNN's Sports Tonight and ESPN's SportsCenter) devoted only 5% of their airtime to women's athletics. This study is a replication of Tuggle's original study to determine whether the existence of two women's professional sports leagues has resulted in increased coverage of female athletics. Results of the 2002 study show that the answer is no. Indeed there was less coverage of women on SportsCenter during the 2002 study than there was during the earlier examination.     

An Intimate Voice from Afar: A Brief History of New York's Chinese-Language Wireless Radio

Based on original oral history and archival research, this historical study details how the development of wireless immigrant community radio has related to the Chinese American experience. It examines (1) the social, political, and economic conditions in which Chinese- language radio emerged in the diaspora; (2) the development of Sinocast, a Cantonese-language station in New York City, as a case study in immigrant community radio; (3) the change and continuity in Sino- cast's radio programming during the past three decades, with a focus on news, community service, drama, and music programs; and (4) a summary analysis of the implications of Sinocast's experience in reference to recent developments of Chinese American ethnic radio at the turn of the 21st century.     

(Residual) Public Music Radio in the Streaming Era: Listening for Diversity and Frequency on CBC Music

The aim of this article is to assess whether and how the CBC’s music radio programming reflects the corporation’s mandate of showcasing a diversity of music and culture. I argue that a program logic that privileges an international corporate music industry strategy persists (particularly during the peak morning and afternoon drive time programs) and limits the capacity for public radio to imagine and project alternative musical trajectories. My aspiration is to imagine CBC Music’s over-the-air radio as a residual broadcast service, one that presents novel opportunities at a time when digital and online streaming music is dominant.     

Rethinking the hits: Why top 40/chr is no longer the dominant radio music format

After providing glimpses of the external competition problems besetting the Top 40 radio format and later clones, the author focuses on hit music radio's internal problems. They include narrow formatting and audience fragmentation, the continuing inordinate influence of teens on pop music, the self‐referential nature of the symbiosis between record companies and radio music programmers, music testing results that are used to produce a “least objectionable playlist,” and flaws in the original theories underpinning the Top 40 format. An in‐depth reanalysis of the genesis of the limited playlist concept then follows. A song's reliability in producing a desired pleasurable reaction in the listener (because of factors intrinsic to the music) is advanced as a useful factor in choosing music for radio airplay.     

Of “Tomatoes” and Men: A Continuing Analysis of Gender in Music Radio Formats

The 2015 radio controversy “SaladGate” revealed a lack of female music artists gaining airplay. This study expands a previous gender analysis of American music radio into a longitudinal study. A content analysis of 192 stations revealed that airplay is increasing for females. However, most of these gains came from the Top-40 format, echoing concerns about the recording industry’s preference that women become pop stars, leaving all other musical genres to men. The results suggest the existence of a gender order in music radio, one that works hand-in-hand with the music industry to exclude women.     

Women Library Users and Library Users of Traditional Women's Subjects

In the studies of general library use, women use libraries more than men. When use studies of particular subjects are done, women nearly always are more likely to use libraries for information on that subject than men. Yet there are few studies on women's information needs or use studies of traditional women's subjects. When women's subjects are written about in the library literature, the articles are nearly always on collection development, not on information needs. Information on women's subjects is primarily requested in public libraries and is not considered worthy of scholarly concern. Five specific categories of women's subjects: traditional women's subjects like needlework, practical information for the home, information related to a change in life like returning to school or to work, information on women's health issues, and information about parenting are reviewed. Current trends in commercial electronic information systems and telecommunications technology make the issue of information needs research and analysis urgent.     

Documenting the Broad Character of Student Populations in Women's Higher Education

Abstract

The three preceding articles identify the existence of a body of archival recordsof higher education institutions that can support historical investigation into the varied aspects of student life for women. Following a summary of those presentations, the author poses a series of historical questions relating to women's collegiate institutions and student life that scholars and students of women's higher education history might ask to gain a broader view of women's higher learning and “build meaningful contexts in which the evolution of women's higher learning can truly be appreciated.” An examination of the archival records of private, parochial, and public institutions of higher education for women may assist with answering specific and nagging questions and help arrive at a “fuller, more inclusive history of women's higher education.”     

Country Music Radio Part I: the Tale of Two Cities

Almost everyone knows Nashville, home of WSM Radio's "Grand Ole Opry" as "Music City U.S.A." However, Knoxville, nearly 200 miles east, also was important in the development of country music radio. Many of the early and contemporary "Opry" performers began their careers at one of KnoxvilIe's two early radio stations. Despite Knoxville's significant role as a "feeder" of talent to the "Grand ole Opry," Nashville today is the undisputed capital of country music. This paper explores the contributions of both cities to the country music industry of Tennessee, as well as reasons for Nashville's enduring prominence and Knoxville's present obscurity in this activity.     

Mapping the Health Communication Infrastructure in Rural Senegal: an Assessment to Support Cervical Cancer Screening

Cervical cancer is the leading cause of women's cancer deaths in Senegal, but few medical personnel are trained to perform cervical cancer screening. In rural areas, the situation is worse. To remedy this, a collaborative of researchers and stakeholders trained local health-care workers in cervical cancer screening through the “training-of-trainers” method. However, lack of cancer screening knowledge, barriers, and a hard-to-reach population may jeopardize the collaborative's efforts. The purpose of this study is to map the health communication infrastructure by applying communication infrastructure theory to assess general health and cancer screening knowledge, as well as attitudes and barriers toward screening. Results from focus groups and interviews show that women have minimal knowledge of cervical cancer. Moreover, health workers report detrimental attitudes in menopausal women. Our findings identified routes for information dissemination and attitude change including community radio and local health talks.     

Kern,Jonathan. (2008). Sound reporting: The NPR guide to audio journalism and production

This article examines the emergence of local radio in a rural southeastern Turkish city called Sanllurfa in the early 7990s following the end of the state's media monopoly on broadcasting. Informed by a media ethnography conducted there in 2001, this article discusses local debates over the content and quality of local radio and the influence of the state's official cultural policies on the programming decisions of local radio owners, managers, and DJs. This paper also illustrates Turkish young people's local and national radio preferences, their responses to local programming and on-air personalities, and the meaning of music and local radio in their lives.     

Women's surnames and titles: Men's and women's views

This study extended research on women's surname choices and terms of address. Account of unmarried women and men were examined to identify factors and dialectical tensions in their reasoning about married women's surnames. Preferences for and meanings of women's titles, surname preferences for children, and perceptions concerning commitment and love were ascertained. Sex differences were found in the rationales for surname choice. Men and women preferred women and children to adopt male surnames and preferred married women use the title of Mrs. Men and women associated differing meanings with titles of Mrs. and Ms. Finally, men were more likely than women to associate a woman's surname choice with her love for, and commitment to, her partner.     

Qatar's Hidden Women: Symbolic Annihilation and Documentary Media Practice

This article explores how documentary film practice and visual storytelling can be used to help portray Qatari women's narratives, even though many are prohibited by cultural norms from appearing in visual media. We investigate which communication and media practices can provide a work-around, ensuring that women's stories and testimonies are documented. We also explore whether Qatar's social and cultural restrictions result in a form of “symbolic annihilation” for Qatari women, as articulated by Gaye Tuchman, and how this impacts Qatari women's position and visibility in local society.     

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 Post-Nuclear Family and the Depoliticization of Unplanned Pregnancy in Knocked Up,Juno, and Waitress

This essay explores three films from 2007, Knocked Up, Juno, and Waitress, which foreground young women's unplanned pregnancies. These movies depoliticize women's reproduction and motherhood through narratives that rearticulate the meaning of choice. Bypassing the subject of abortion, the women's decisions revolve around their choice of heterosexual partners and investment in romantic relationships. Although they question the viability of the nuclear family for single pregnant women, these films represent new iterations of post-feminism that ultimately restore conservative ideas that valorize pregnancy and motherhood as women's imperatives. We conclude by addressing how these movies present a distorted and short-sighted depiction of the politics of reproductive agency and the challenges that single mothers face.     

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.     

The Invisible Woman?

While the coverage of women's sport in UK media rises to comparable levels to men's sports during large sporting events like the Olympics, academics agree that “routine” women's sports coverage is under-represented. According to the Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation, “81% of people think that the female athletes at London 2012 make better role models for young girls than other celebrities.” This article examines the representation of women in sport and compares routine coverage of women's sports in the UK national press across a week in February 2012, six months before the London Olympics, with coverage in a week in February 2013, six months after the Olympics, to see if there has been an Olympic “legacy” that increased coverage. It also examines coverage at the same time of year a decade earlier, to see how far, if at all, women's sports coverage in newspapers has progressed. The results suggest that there has been minimal change in everyday coverage of women's sports after the Olympics, and that female athletes continue to be hugely under-represented in the UK press.     

Remarks on Radio Localism

Radio stations regularly conduct music research to determine what music they should play. Programming belief is that if they play music that people like better, more people will listen and listen longer, and the station's ratings will improve. This project utilizes Radio &; Records' Callout America® callout research of the top 30 songs on its Contemporary Hit Radio/Pop chart and their published CHR/Pop radio station playlists to compile an average favorability score for the music the station played. These scores were then compared to Arbitron ratings. Analysis found a statistically significant direct correlation between music research scores and Arbitron ratings.     

Buying Time to Start Spanish-Language Radio in San Antonio: Manuel Davila and the Beginning of Tejano Programming

This article reveals how Spanish-language radio started in San Antonio, Texas—as blocks of time bought by Hispanics interested in providing music to San Antonio's Spanish-speaking residents. In particular, this study recognizes the contributions of San Antonio radio pioneer Manuel Davila and his role in starting Spanish-language radio and the Tejano format, drawing from a combination of on-site observation at Davila's station, personal interviews, and the collection of historical data. The article also lays a foundation for critically analyzing the political economy and hegemonic process of maintenance of economic and cultural power possible in the early days of radio broadcasting to compare it to the current corporately dominated marketplace.