1.
A UK Research Initiative
By Arun Narang
University of Westminster, London
search Initiative
By Arun Narang

2.
Research Questions |
Does digital technology tear up the old map of ‘Radioness’ or does it reveal new
perspectives on the nature and potentialities of the concept ‘Radio’?
What comparison can be drawn between the characteristics and effects of radio, and of
web audio media?
Are the disciplinary and methodological boundaries of the study of radio and
soundcasting being challenged, just as new technologies break down or redefine
barriers of space and time?
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3. Over View |
Consumption of audio material online has become a significant force in the media
landscape. The delivery form of Radio is mutating. The arrival of digital audio
broadcasting, satellite Radio & Internet Radio have occasioned a moment of particularly
vigorous reflection within the industry and among scholars writing about Radio.
Overviews of Radio underscore the fact the content and uses of the medium are not
fixed and have been subject to changes as a result of economic, technology and other
imperatives. The logical extension & widening of the concept ‘Radio’ reveals new
perspectives on the nature and potentialities of our original broadcast medium. Some
have similarities with analog Radio broadcasting systems; others challenge the idea of
Radio as solely an aural medium or even the concept of broadcasting with its tradition
of linear production and reception, all of which are embedded into the traditional
definition of Radio.
The current proliferation of audio media on different platforms and the multiplicity of
available options for Radio delivery are, from the perspective of traditional Radio,
confusing and disruptive. It would be interesting to examine the concept of Radio
pitched against the emergent forms of adoption, moreover their strategic uses of the
claim ‘Radio’. So we can testify that rather than understanding Radio to mean an
existing industry, Radio can be viewed as a concept that is constructed in any media
form. This is a kind of remediation of one media into another, which can be traced in
media academics. What can be understood is that the new medium draws upon and
then reinforces, a ‘working idea’ of the older medium, in addition to the medium
itself. Therefore it is important to investigate not only ‘what is radio’ but also ‘what
radio stands for?’ in the present media ecology.
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4. Scholar Speak |
Radio can be said to have certain characteristics, but the evidence suggests that radio is
what history says it is: it has no essence since it has already taken, and continues to
take, different forms (Tacchi, 2000). But today the Internet mode of transmission
appears to make this description of radio more real, more actual than rhetorical. Marko
Ala‐Fossi et. al., describe in their article that on the one hand, it seems that Radio as a
distinct medium in its own right is in danger of fragmenting into additional services for
other digital media forms and in this way will face gradual extinction; on the other hand,
the infiltration of Radio‐like services into practically every new delivery platform can be
seen as an evidence of a ‘‘virus‐like’’ capability of transformation and proof of the
vitality of polymorphic Radio media.
A. Black’s describes in his article, ‘Internet Radio’ as a potential new medium distinct
from its predecessor, Black argues that despite apparent common sense of the term
Internet Radio, the ‘Radioness’ of audio streaming is a not a given, “Why should an audio
signal delivered through the Internet be called Radio in the first place? Is it self evident
that making money from the delivery of such signals has anything to do with Radio? Do
listeners to Internet Radio stream count as Radio listeners? Or is Internet Radio a
different medium from Radio and if so why has it borrowed the name? In short, who
gets to decide when a new medium has arrived, where it begins and the old media end
and what it will be called?” On the one hand, Black warns, the association of a potential
new medium with an older one can close off possibilities with respect to the nascent
form, because of the semantics. On the other hand, the new form might lack key
attributes of the medium with which it is being aligned and yet be strategically
positioned such that this loss is explained away or its importance minimized.
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5. Scholar Speak | continued
The literature explains that newer technologies are wrenching out a recognizable,
neatly definable shaped concept from time‐honored medium of ‘Radio’. Radio is what it
is at a given time, in a given context of use and meaningfulness (Tacchi 2000). Scannell’s
conscious approach is helpful in the elucidation of this quality. Paddy Scannell has put
forward an interesting approach that helps us to identify what we might mean by the
meaningfulness in radio, specifically in his book Radio, Television and Modern Life.
Scannell’s phenomenological approach to the way listening to the radio and watching
television is built into our everyday lives really comes into its own as we face the
conceptual challenges of today’s situation. Scannell’s criteria of sociability, authenticity
and sincerity for understanding the relationship we have collectively developed with
radio & vice versa, will aid us in tracing common fundamental characteristics of Radio in
other Radios, about it being a niche medium, systematic grouping of music, liveliness,
intentionality & being inherently interactive.
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6. Key Collectives |
Radio as a traditional broadcasting medium
Key definitions
Nature, potentialities and characteristics
Disciplinary and methodological boundaries
Radio on the net
Technological breakthroughs, their key forms & operations
Nature, potentialities and characteristics
Effects on the original concept
Insights drawn from other disciplines and methodological boundaries
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7. Research methods |
CASE STUDIES
Aim: To study and analyze how by combining music & scheduling automation tools with
the non‐time‐limited, on‐demand resources of the Internet starts to create an
architecture for an ‘Radio‐like’ audio delivery system.
Prospective Cases: Last.fm (London), Pandora (USA), Spotify (Sweden)
QUALITATIVE INTERVIEWS (INDUSTRY)
Aim: To collect rich first hand data how the industry perceives the medium & the
current proliferation. Additionally, to critically examine the industry’s reaction to
disruptive innovations, intention to use certain technologies and systems, and, their
vision ahead.
QUALITATIVE INTERVEWS (SCHOLARS)
Aim: To invite a scholarly approach in analyzing the recent mutating form of ‘Radio’
pitched against various other Radios. To extract their current understanding of the
medium, in comparison to the earlier work.
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