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Electronic Mass Media: Retail Distribution

Eli M. Noam

in Media Ownership and Concentration in America

This chapter examines the electronic mass media of retail distribution—radio, television, cable, and direct broadcast satellites. These media consist of two major segments; there are local retail ... More

This chapter examines the electronic mass media of retail distribution—radio, television, cable, and direct broadcast satellites. These media consist of two major segments; there are local retail media and national wholesale networks. Retail media distribute content directly to audiences. Examples are local radio and television stations and cable distribution systems. In contrast, wholesale networks bundle programs created by content producers and distribute them to retailers. Examples are radio and television networks, cable channels, and program syndicators. Radio has become the poster boy for media concentration. Most public discussions of media trends refer to the developments in radio and its lessons for public policy. No media industry in the United States has changed more in ownership than local radio stations. The level of local television station concentration is the lowest among all of the eight local mass media analyzed.Less

Jazz Goes to War Compliance and Defiance, September 1939 to August 1942

Michael H. Kater

in Different Drummers: Jazz in the Culture of Nazi Germany

Nazi faithfuls who might have thought that jazz music had vanished from the Reich could be proven wrong just a few weeks into World War II. These Nazis were deploring a state of affairs which, ... More

Nazi faithfuls who might have thought that jazz music had vanished from the Reich could be proven wrong just a few weeks into World War II. These Nazis were deploring a state of affairs which, unbeknownst to them, was in perfect accord with Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels's own directives. For the sake of social peace, but initially also because the war had been planned as a short interlude, Goebbels conjured up a myth of continuity, of normalcy, from peace to wartime. By blanking out the unaccustomed consciousness of stress and pain, the hardships of this new war could be more easily legitimized. Toward that goal, cultural events of all kinds, in content and in form not significantly different from their prewar proportions, would help the propaganda machinery that was busily at work on so many other facets of the nation's collective life.Less

Alternative Radio and the Internet

Chris Atton

in An Alternative Internet: Radical Media, Politics and Creativity

Radio as a contemporary public medium tends to be considered primarily in terms of its industrial and cultural arrangements. Radio broadcasting may be categorised into five types: public service ... More

Radio as a contemporary public medium tends to be considered primarily in terms of its industrial and cultural arrangements. Radio broadcasting may be categorised into five types: public service broadcasting, commercial radio, state radio, community (or micro) radio and pirate radio. The case study of Resonance FM in this chapter suggests a number of ways in which radical artistic production may be developed through alternative radio. Resonance FM is a UK station broadcasting to central London and began broadcasting in 1998 under the British government's Restricted Service Licence scheme (RSL). Resonance FM, in common with many radio stations (commercial, public service, state and alternative), has begun to employ the Internet to supplement its analogue or digital transmissions. This chapter explores radio on the Internet and the implication of the Internet for an analogue-based station such as Resonance. After discussing the features and characteristics of Internet radio, the chapter asks what happens to radio when it is transmitted through the Internet.Less

Mixed Signals: Developing Bilingual Chicano Radio, 1960s-1980s

Dolores Inés Casillas

in Sounds of Belonging: U.S. Spanish-language Radio and Public Advocacy

This chapter focuses on development of Chicano radio stations. In 1972, late senator Ted Kennedy sponsored the first bilingual community radio station, the KBBF-FM or La Voz del Pueblo (The People's ... More

This chapter focuses on development of Chicano radio stations. In 1972, late senator Ted Kennedy sponsored the first bilingual community radio station, the KBBF-FM or La Voz del Pueblo (The People's Voice), which broadcasts from Santa Rosa, California to ten northern California counties. Its development paved the way for two other key bilingual community radio stations—Radio Cadena (Yakima, WA) and Radio Bilingüe (Fresno, CA)—to join the increasingly diverse FM airwaves. These community-based bilingual radio stations gave voice to uncounted rural community Chicanos who strove for a representation of their experiences within U.S. borders, as well as in their everyday Spanglish language.Less

National Horizontal Concentration

Eli M. Noam

in Media Ownership and Concentration in America

The large number of mergers in information industries raises the question of whether the information sector as a whole, and which of its constituent industries, has become more concentrated and by ... More

The large number of mergers in information industries raises the question of whether the information sector as a whole, and which of its constituent industries, has become more concentrated and by how much. This chapter examines these issues and investigates horizontal concentration on a national level. To determine whether horizontal concentration has increased, Herfindahl-Hirschmann Index figures for specific industries and sectors are analyzed. The industries of electronic mass media distribution encompass radio stations, television stations, direct broadcasting satellites, and cable television. As can be seen in the chapter, all industries involved have increased in concentration after 1996, and basically have increased in concentration since 1984. This chapter also analyzes ownership concentration trends in the film industry, music industry, print and publishing, consumer electronics industry, computer and software industry, telecommunications industry, information technology, and Internet sector.Less

Local Media Concentration

Eli M. Noam

in Media Ownership and Concentration in America

Where companies compete against each other across the country, one must analyze an industry's market structure on a national scale. But in other situations, the relevant geographic markets are not ... More

Where companies compete against each other across the country, one must analyze an industry's market structure on a national scale. But in other situations, the relevant geographic markets are not national or international but local. This chapter examines local media concentration trends for several local media over a period of twenty years. The relevant industries of local mass media that are analyzed are: radio stations, television stations, newspapers, city magazines and periodicals, and cable television operators. The following, also considered, are also local distribution media, although of a different kind and dynamics: local wireline telephone networks and cellular mobile networks. Here, the local market is defined as the city itself. Since there are many hundreds of cities large and small in the United States, and it would be impractical to seek the media concentration trends for each, thirty markets are chosen to be representative of their categories. All of the seven local media are then averaged by using weights based on their revenue volumes.Less

Radio, Resistance, and War in Magdalena Medio

Clemencia Rodríguez

in Citizens' Media against Armed Conflict: Disrupting Violence in Colombia

This chapter focuses on the AREDMAG (Asociación Red de Emisoras Comunitarias del Magdalena Medio, or Magdalena Medio Community Radio Stations’ Network), one of the most notable community media ... More

This chapter focuses on the AREDMAG (Asociación Red de Emisoras Comunitarias del Magdalena Medio, or Magdalena Medio Community Radio Stations’ Network), one of the most notable community media initiatives in Colombia. AREDMAG is a network of fifteen community radio stations spread throughout the region. The chapter describes the historical context of AREDMAG within the region of Magdalena Medio. It discusses the birth and evolution of the network and analyzes the role that these brave community radio stations play in a region where political assassinations, kidnappings, and disappearances have reached some of the highest rates in the world.Less

Introduction: Public Advocacy on U.S. Spanish-Language Radio

Dolores Inés Casillas

in Sounds of Belonging: U.S. Spanish-language Radio and Public Advocacy

This introductory chapter presents Governor Bill Richardson's announcement of his U.S. presidential candidacy through a Spanish-language radio station. This declaration set the stage for the ... More

This introductory chapter presents Governor Bill Richardson's announcement of his U.S. presidential candidacy through a Spanish-language radio station. This declaration set the stage for the contested public courtship of what the English-language media termed the “Latino vote.” On that note, the book highlights how U.S. Spanish-language radio, across the twentieth century, has capitalized on the conversation around immigration. Spanish-language radio stations, on both commercial and community bandwidths, organize the majority of their daily programming around the ongoing politics of citizenship, immigration, and the fate of immigration reform. They mediate the sensitive relationship between Latinos as listeners and the various manifestations of state or government power.Less

Black Propaganda: Machinery, Method, Message and Reaction

Tim Brooks

in British Propaganda to France, 1940-1944: Machinery, Method and Message

This chapter concentrates on black propaganda in order to assess its contribution to the overall propaganda effort for France. It also describes the machinery for the production of black propaganda, ... More

This chapter concentrates on black propaganda in order to assess its contribution to the overall propaganda effort for France. It also describes the machinery for the production of black propaganda, the methods of distribution, the messages it carried and reactions to it. It was reported that the production of ‘black’ leaflets diminished considerably in April 1944. Black propaganda could not be distributed in the same way as white propaganda. Aerial leaflets were definitely distributed using black techniques, both unchanged and miniaturised, specifically ‘for infiltration purposes’. As with the other elements of Political Warfare Executive (PWE)'s black propaganda work, the material available concerning rumours is patchy. Black leaflets, including the distribution of white leaflets using black techniques, had a potentially disruptive effect on the Germans or Vichy authorities. The contribution made by PWE's black radio stations broadcasting to France is more easily assessed.Less

Editing the Nation: How Radio Engineers Encode Israeli National Imaginaries

Danny Kaplan

in Radio Fields: Anthropology and Wireless Sound in the 21st Century

This chapter explores music-editing practices in Israeli radio, with particular emphasis on how radio engineers encode national imaginaries. Drawing on an ethnographic study of Israeli public and ... More

This chapter explores music-editing practices in Israeli radio, with particular emphasis on how radio engineers encode national imaginaries. Drawing on an ethnographic study of Israeli public and commercial–regional radio during a decade of privatization reforms, it considers how radio sound is self-consciously “crossed” in editing practices with shared public events. Such crosses are used by radio stations across Israel within their broadcasts to intentionally shift “the national mood” by evoking well-rehearsed narratives of nation and self. By deciding not only which songs to play but also how to link them with concurrent public events, music editors transform into engineers of the collective mood. This chapter underscores the role of radio engineering as “a bottom-up practice of nation-making” in Israel.Less

Community and Indigenous Radio in Oaxaca: Testimony and Participatory Democracy

Lynn Stephen

in Radio Fields: Anthropology and Wireless Sound in the 21st Century

This chapter examines how radio, and in particular the personal testimonials it broadcasts, is intertwined with the enactment of participatory democracy. To this end, the chapter analyzes the 2006 ... More

This chapter examines how radio, and in particular the personal testimonials it broadcasts, is intertwined with the enactment of participatory democracy. To this end, the chapter analyzes the 2006 women's march in Oaxaca, Mexico, that took over state-owned and commercial radio stations. It asks why community and indigenous radio suddenly spread across the area after the march and how new opportunities for participatory democracy in Oaxaca relate to the postmarch integration of testimonial speech genres. It highlights the potential of broadcast community radio to become a political force based on its ability to provide a forum for expanding the speech genre of personal testimonial that emphasizes inclusive political participation and emotional expressions. The chapter considers how the antihegemonic or empowering potentials of radio broadcasting are shaped by direct action and language ideologies or communicational style.Less

Rias Berlin and the June 17, 1953, Uprising in East Germany

Nicholas J. Schlosser (ed.)

in Cold War on the Airwaves: The Radio Propaganda War against East Germany

This chapter examines the June 17, 1953 uprising in East Germany and the decisive role RIAS played in those turbulent events. RIAS's participation in the uprising is a testament to the complex ... More

This chapter examines the June 17, 1953 uprising in East Germany and the decisive role RIAS played in those turbulent events. RIAS's participation in the uprising is a testament to the complex interplay between the American radio station and the government of the German Democratic Republic. Throughout the revolt, RIAS was an influential political actor whose staff sought to shape the course of events in large part by trying to establish an explanatory narrative for the uprising. RIAS's commentators repeated a range of themes and ideas they hoped would explain the events, often as those events were unfolding. The ultimate expression of this approach was the declaration, in the moment, that the June 17 uprising was a popular cry for German reunification.Less

The Dirty Thirties — Left Wing, Right Wing, Imperialists and Spies

Paul French

in Through the Looking Glass: China's Foreign Journalists from Opium Wars to Mao

The “dirty thirties” of fascism vs socialism, war vs peace, and civilisation vs barbarism in China are described. The Japanese invasion of Manchuria was the point at which the true extent of Japanese ... More

The “dirty thirties” of fascism vs socialism, war vs peace, and civilisation vs barbarism in China are described. The Japanese invasion of Manchuria was the point at which the true extent of Japanese aggression towards China was realised. In the early 1930s, it was far from clear, despite the annexation of Manchuria and Japanese machinations in Inner Mongolia and other border regions, that Shanghai and the whole of China would be pitched into all-out war. The 1932 Shanghai War, later known as the First Shanghai War, started after a Japanese-inspired provocation. Virtually the entire China press corps moved to Shanghai for the duration of the First Shanghai War. An account of the strange death of Gareth Jones is given. The Xian Incident and the kidnapping of Chiang Kai-shek in late 1936 were the major news stories and pivotal moments for China. The Osborn Radio Station was China's first wireless station.Less

Radio

in Los Angeles in the 1930s: The WPA Guide to the City of Angels

This chapter describes the history of radio broadcasting in Los Angeles. Radio broadcasts are as popular in Los Angeles as elsewhere, perhaps more so. Most homes have radio sets, and the proportion ... More

This chapter describes the history of radio broadcasting in Los Angeles. Radio broadcasts are as popular in Los Angeles as elsewhere, perhaps more so. Most homes have radio sets, and the proportion of automobiles equipped with radios is also high. Radio's early history in Los Angeles was one of hit-and-miss, of trial and error—the identical experience of radio throughout the United States in the days of crystal sets and earphones. Radio broadcasting began in Los Angeles in 1922, when four stations were established. Three of them—KNX, KFI, and KHJ—dominated local broadcasting from the beginning and continue to do so today, each representing a major national chain.Less

Sounds of Surveillance: U.S. Spanish-Language Radio Patrols La Migra

Dolores Inés Casillas

in Sounds of Belonging: U.S. Spanish-language Radio and Public Advocacy

This chapter focuses on Spanish-language radio stations' discussions of the immigration and immigrant experience. Radio stations routinely feature a live call-in segment with a guest expert—doctor, ... More

This chapter focuses on Spanish-language radio stations' discussions of the immigration and immigrant experience. Radio stations routinely feature a live call-in segment with a guest expert—doctor, social worker, nutritionist, or the occasional politician—to explain these topics. Depending on the particulars of the radio show, listeners receive an hour or two of current and free legal updates as they sympathetically listen to the legal plights of others. Hence, they make sense of revisions to already intricate legal forms, complain about periodic increases in filing fees, share their frustrations with long bureaucratic waits, or ask whether to report to a Department of Homeland Security regional office on the U.S. or Mexico side of the border.Less

Drugs, Violence, and the Media of the People in the Colombian Amazon

Clemencia Rodríguez

in Citizens' Media against Armed Conflict: Disrupting Violence in Colombia

This chapter focuses on southern Colombia and the municipality of Belén de los Andaquíes. It traces the history of this region and documents how, since colonial times, extractive economies and ... More

This chapter focuses on southern Colombia and the municipality of Belén de los Andaquíes. It traces the history of this region and documents how, since colonial times, extractive economies and consecutive waves of immigrants have encoded the region in the popular imagination as an empty frontier without an identity of its own. Since the mid-1970s, the region has seen the arrival of coca economies, drug traffickers, and left-wing guerrilla organizations. In this complex scene of warring factions, state neglect, drug economies, and stunning natural wonder, a community radio station and children’s audiovisual school create communication spaces that are able to counter the impact of armed violence on civilians.Less

From the Studio to the Street: Producing the Voice in Indigenous Australia

Daniel Fisher

in Radio Fields: Anthropology and Wireless Sound in the 21st Century

This chapter explores how Aboriginal radio producers at FM stations in urban Australia negotiate tensions between their understandings of the voice as a technologically malleable site of expressive ... More

This chapter explores how Aboriginal radio producers at FM stations in urban Australia negotiate tensions between their understandings of the voice as a technologically malleable site of expressive practice and as the foundation of indigenous identity and political agency. Aboriginal Australians have been producing radio and building radio stations for just over thirty years. Today many Aboriginal radio stations foster collective reflection on the voice as both social and technical facts, amenable to extensive expressive manipulation, governmental development, and intra-Aboriginal reflection. This chapter examines how the politics and significance of vocal sound emerged from the streets of Brisbane as much as from the studio. It considers how the techniques of radio and its globally mobile musical content make the sounds of Aboriginal voices provocative and problematic. It frames radio as a site of cultural production to show how indigenous radio stations figure as institutions that enable insight into the emergence of a local “voice consciousness.” Finally, it discusses the ethnography of voice mediation.Less

Clarke's Two Vitamin Cs For Successful Living

Francio Guadeloupe

in Chanting Down the New Jerusalem: Calypso, Christianity, and Capitalism in the Caribbean

This chapter introduces one of the many disc jockeys working in SMX: DJ Fernando Clarke. Clarke is one of the many DJs working on PJD2, the oldest and most popular radio station in SMX. The chapter ... More

This chapter introduces one of the many disc jockeys working in SMX: DJ Fernando Clarke. Clarke is one of the many DJs working on PJD2, the oldest and most popular radio station in SMX. The chapter first describes the kind of work the disc jockeys in PJD2 do, and then focuses on Clarke's celebrity status. It reveals that Clarke does his best to promote his “Christian partying man of the people” image, even though it does not fit well with other aspects of his life. From there, the chapter introduces the Saturday calypso ritual and the marriage between the biblically derived ontological idea of the sinful nature of man and the contextual importance of tourism.Less

Reconsidering Muslim Authority: Female “Preachers” and the Ambiguities of Radio-Mediated Sermonizing in Mali

Dorothea Schulz

in Radio Fields: Anthropology and Wireless Sound in the 21st Century

This chapter explores the role of broadcast radio in widening public discourses of Islamic moral renewal in Mali. It considers the debates among Muslims over radio-mediated sermonizing, and ... More

This chapter explores the role of broadcast radio in widening public discourses of Islamic moral renewal in Mali. It considers the debates among Muslims over radio-mediated sermonizing, and especially gender-specific forms of spiritual and moral authority, and links the terms of public debates around Islam with the recent proliferation of private FM radio stations. It also notes the increasingly prominent public presence that radio practice implies for Muslim women, specifically female “radio preachers.” Rather than view such media effects as evidence that media use results in “resistance” by oppressed Muslim women or a “democratization” of religious interpretation, the chapter suggests a less instrumentalist notion of radio technology.Less