Radio Journal:International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media - Current Issue

According to Wolfgang Welsch, the human environment is subject to aestheticization, or ‘embellishment and styling’, to make it more pleasant to perceive and participate. This cultural trend is reflected most strikingly in contemporary media forms. Radio aestheticization concerns both the arrangement (structure) of programme content and the stylistics of the said content in order to make other media forms, like video games, compelling, immersive and interactive. In the popular video game series Grand Theft Auto (GTA hereafter), the player character can choose to listen to a variety of radio stations while driving. This article argues that the aestheticization of radio in GTA does not merely provide an enjoyable audial background but also co-creates the world of the game by interacting with players’ actions through the broadcast content and building the ambience of the world of the game through the style of this content. The programme flow, as a system of words and sounds, co-operates with the game system, increasing the players’ involvement with the game (the sense of play) and the aural specification of the game world (the sense of place).

This article investigates the complex ecology of podcasting in contemporary China, drawing on 22 in-depth interviews with 26 podcasters, the close reading of two case studies and the mapping of 35 podcasts across different apps and platforms. I examine podcasters’ use of what I call small app infrastructures and other digital platforms to distribute content, build networks and foster community engagement. The research reveals that Chinese podcasters creatively navigate the tensions between their aspirations for autonomy and the constraints imposed by media regulation, censorship and the domination of megacorps and super apps. By highlighting the techno-political contexts of Chinese podcasting and the intricate networks built by podcasters, this study contributes to the growing body of literature on podcasting as a constitutive part of the evolving platform economy and calls for greater attention to podcasters’ efforts to maintain autonomy in an increasingly centralized digital environment.

Documentary podcasts are attracting people’s attention as a form of podcast. These non-fictional aural texts require substantial effort and time to produce, presenting true stories to the audience through the utilization of recording technology and sound design, resulting a distinct aesthetic. Taking Page Seven as a case study, the objective of this article is to examine the process of auditory scene interaction between the audience and the aural text in documentary podcasts. Page Seven was founded in 2012 and is recognized as the first audio documentary podcast in Mainland China. This article posits that documentary podcasts engage the audience’s visual perception in addition to their auditory perception. The realistic soundscape and the listener’s imagination merge to form the auditory scene. By applying the uses and gratification theory and narrative transportation, this study reveals that Page Seven allowed the audience to fulfil multiple needs, including affective needs. This study attempts to explain the communication process of documentary podcasts from three aspects: sensory, imagination and emotion, thereby enriching the cultural landscape within the realm of documentary podcasts.

This article examines the sustainability of community radio, the ‘third pillar’ of Indonesia’s democratic media system, after twenty years of government recognition. It focuses particularly on the strategies adopted by the Indonesian Community Radio Network (Jaringan Radio Komunitas Indonesia, JRKI) – Indonesia’s largest community radio network – to maintain its survival, with a strong emphasis on funding models. This article is based on a review of relevant documents (reports from local and international agencies) and semi-structured interviews with informants from JRKI’s central board and its partners. It is further enriched with a critical analysis of Indonesian broadcast policies and a review of community radio funding models in developed countries. Through its analysis, this article shows that community radio network in Indonesia is facing a managerial and financial crisis, one that leaves its sustainability in question. It also finds that the sustainability of JRKI and its members depends on the political climate and that the organization requires friendly regulations as well as partnerships with local and national public institutions. The recent trend (2015–21) of establishing partnerships with various government bodies has resulted in the association becoming increasingly state-driven in its management.

From the late 1940s to early 1960s, the US radio industry underwent a dramatic transformation. Instead of scripted programming and live musical performances, which characterized the era known as the Golden Age of Radio, stations began to focus on local advertising markets and relied upon recorded music for content. This study explores the programming and scheduling strategies of the major commercial networks in the United States as they dealt with this transformation. Using the theoretical framework of remediation, the analysis provides some context for a contemporary change in electronic media, the transition from linear programming to streaming and on-demand forms of delivery.

Review of: Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting, Josh Shepperd (2023)

Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 244 pp.,

ISBN 978-0-25208-725-7, p/bk, $28.00