Michele Hilmes

A Cultural History of Broadcasting in the United States

Only Connect

Andrew J. Bottomley

Radio today remains the most accessible and widely available communication medium worldwide, despite technological shifts and a host of upstart challengers. Since its origins in the 1920s, radio has innovated a new world of sound culture - now expanded into the digital realm of podcasting that is enabling the medium to reach larger audiences than ever before. Yet radio remains one of the least studied of the major areas of communication arts, due largely to its broadcast-era ephemerality. With the advent of digital technology, radio's past has been unlocked and soundwork is exploding as a creative field, creating a lively and diverse sonic present while simultaneously making critical historical analysis possible at last. This volume offers newly commissioned chapters giving readers a wide-ranging view of current critical work in the fields of radio and podcasting, employing specific case studies to analyze sound media's engagement with the arts; with the factual world of news, talk, and documentary programming; as a primary means of forging community along with national, transnational, and alternative identities; and as a subject of academic and critical research. Its historical scope extends from radio's earliest days, through its mid-twentieth century decades as the powerful voice of nations and empires, onto its transformation into a secondary medium during the television era, and into the expanding digital present. Over the course of 37 chapters, it provides evidence of the sound media's flexibility and adaptation across diverse cultures by examining radio's past and present uses in regions including the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia, Poland, China, Korea, Kenya, Angola and Mozambique, South Asia, and the Caribbean. Contributors include historians and media scholars as well as sound artists and radio/podcast producers. Notably, companion links to digital “quotations” from works analyzed are included in many chapters along with chapter audiographies offering links to further listening. Throughout, The Oxford Handbook of Radio and Podcasting connects radio's broadcast past to its digital present, and traces themes of creativity, identity, community, nation, and transnationality across more than a century of audio media.

The Oxford Handbook of Radio and Podcasting

Andrew Bottomley

Radio today remains the most accessible and widely available communication medium worldwide, despite technological shifts and a host of upstart challengers. Since its origins in the 1920s, radio has innovated a new world of sound culture - now expanded into the digital realm of podcasting that is enabling the medium to reach larger audiences than ever before. Yet radio remains one of the least studied of the major areas of communication arts, due largely to its broadcast-era ephemerality. With the advent of digital technology, radio's past has been unlocked and soundwork is exploding as a creative field, creating a lively and diverse sonic present while simultaneously making critical historical analysis possible at last. This volume offers newly commissioned chapters giving readers a wide-ranging view of current critical work in the fields of radio and podcasting, employing specific case studies to analyze sound media's engagement with the arts; with the factual world of news, talk, and documentary programming; as a primary means of forging community along with national, transnational, and alternative identities; and as a subject of academic and critical research. Its historical scope extends from radio's earliest days, through its mid-twentieth century decades as the powerful voice of nations and empires, onto its transformation into a secondary medium during the television era, and into the expanding digital present. Over the course of 37 chapters, it provides evidence of the sound media's flexibility and adaptation across diverse cultures by examining radio's past and present uses in regions including the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia, Poland, China, Korea, Kenya, Angola and Mozambique, South Asia, and the Caribbean. Contributors include historians and media scholars as well as sound artists and radio/podcast producers. Notably, companion links to digital "quotations" from works analyzed are included in many chapters along with chapter audiographies offering links to further listening. Throughout, The Oxford Handbook of Radio and Podcasting connects radio's broadcast past to its digital present, and traces themes of creativity, identity, community, nation, and transnationality across more than a century of audio media.

Looks at the history of radio broadcasting as an aspect of American culture, and discusses social tensions, radio formats, and the roles of African Americans and women

American Broadcasting, 1922-1952

Radio Voices

Michael Lowell Henry

"NBC: America's Network makes a significant contribution to our understanding of American broadcasting. Hilmes makes a convincing case for the appropriateness of an examination of a single firm, NBC, to illuminate the major themes and events of American broadcast history. In addition, she adeptly synthesizes a strong set of individually-authored chapters on specific historical periods, controversies, and program genres into a coherent whole. The writing is concise and lively and the breadth and depth of the material makes this a exceptional work."—William Boddy, author of New Media and Popular Imagination "NBC: America's Network is an outstanding book about one network across US television history. Hilmes is an excellent editor who brings broad insights about the television industry to bear on this volume. The individual essays present different approaches and methods, and together provide an integrated history of NBC with analysis that respects the medium and the people that worked in it."—Mary Beth Haralovich, co-editor of Television, History, and American Culture: Feminist Critical Essays. "Filled with highly readable essays by the top scholars in the field, NBC: America's Network explores key, often watershed moments in the network's history to illuminate the central role broadcasting has played in constituting public discourse about what is-and what is not-in the public interest. A welcome addition to the history of broadcasting, and essential reading for anyone interested in the transformative role of radio and TV in modern life."—Susan J. Douglas, author of Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination

America’s Network

Jason Jacobs

Traces the history of broadcasting and the infludence developments in broadcasting have had over our social, cultural and economic practices. Examining the broadcasting traditions of the UK and USA, 'The Television History Book' make connections between events and tendencies that both unite and differentiate these national broadcasting traditions.

The Television History Book

Jason Loviglio

Radio’s New Wave explores the evolution of audio media and sound scholarship in the digital age. Extending and updating the focus of their widely acclaimed 2001 book The Radio Reader, Hilmes and Loviglio gather together innovative work by both established and rising scholars to explore the ways that radio has transformed in the digital environment. Contributors explore what sound looks like on screens, how digital listening moves us, new forms of sonic expression, radio’s convergence with mobile media, and the creative activities of old and new audiences. Even radio’s history has been altered by research made possible by digital and global convergence. Together, these twelve concise chapters chart the dissolution of radio’s boundaries and its expansion to include a wide-ranging universe of sound, visuals, tactile interfaces, and cultural roles, as radio rides the digital wave into its second century.

Global Sound in the Digital Era

Radio's New Wave

Matt Hills

Roberta Pearson

In 2014, the UK science-fiction television series Black Mirror was released on Netflix worldwide, quickly becoming a hit with US audiences. Like other beloved British imports, this series piqued Americans' interest with hints of dark comedy, clever plotlines, and six-episode seasons that left audiences frantic for more. In Transatlantic Television Drama, volume editors Michele Hilmes, Matt Hills, and Roberta Pearson team up with leading scholars in TV studies and transnational television to look at how serial dramas like Black Mirror captivate US audiences, and what this reveals about the ways Americans and Brits relate to each other on and off the screen. Focusing on production strategies, performance styles, and audience reception, chapters delve into some of the most widely-discussed programs on the transatlantic circuit, from ongoing series like Game of Thrones, Downton Abbey, Orphan Black, and Sherlock, to those with long histories of transnational circulation like Masterpiece and Doctor Who, to others whose transnational success speaks to the process of exchange, adaptation, and cooperation such as Rome, Parade's End, Broadchurch, and Gracepoint. The book's first section investigates the platforms that support British/American exchange, from distribution partnerships and satellite providers to streaming services. The second section concentrates on the shift in meaning across cultural contexts, such as invocations of heritage, genre shifts in adaptation, performance styles, and, in the case of Episodes, actual dramatized depiction of the process of transatlantic television production. In section three, attention turns to contexts of audience reception, ranging from fan conventions and fiction to television criticism, the effects of national branding on audiences, and the role of social media in de- or re-contextualizing fans' response to transnational programs.

Industries, Programs, and Fans

Transatlantic Television Drama

"This collection explores the current wave of US/UK television dramas, focusing on industry strategies, performance styles, issues of 'quality,' and audience receptions. It covers key programs including Black Mirror, Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones and Sherlock. Issues of national identity, streaming services, and transnational fan cultures are all explored"

Radio is currently a hot topic since radio was the medium that defined and defied American culture in the early 20th century. These essays reveal how radio set patterns for all forms of media that followed it.

Michele Hilmes

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