Radio reinvented: the enduring appeal of audio in the digital age

摘要

This issue marks quite a departure for AJR as it focuses on one medium - radio - and one that rarely gets to be the centre of academic attention. Radio itself has long been described as the invisible medium, ever present, but in the background of our lives. Radio scholarship has had a similar invisibility, scattered among journals from different disciplines and with only two publications worldwide devoted solely to the discipline: the US-based Journal of Radio & Audio Media (formerly known as the Journal of Radio Studies) and the UK-based The Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media. Radio scholars could find themselves in departments of journalism or media studies, history or creative arts. As a result, this issue requires a broader scope than the lens of journalism to explore current issues in radio. As Mia Lindgren's study in this edition shows, even radio practitioners don't pigeonhole themselves, instead using "a variety of descriptors to reflect their professional role such as 'radio producer, producer, storyteller, writer, facilitator, sound designer, journalism educator, academic, historian'" (p. 67). It is no surprise then that this radio edition looks at radio from a number of perspectives, and it is a special privilege to be able to bring together in this volume a collection of thoughts and reflections by prominent scholars in the radio field. They speak of a medium that is growing in confidence and relevance thanks to the liberation afforded by digital technology and online and mobile delivery systems.