Radio Research as Critical Archival Studies: Cross-Sector Collaboration and the Sound Record

摘要

Radio studies occupies an unusual position within film and media studies. As Journal of Radio & Audio Media Editor, Anne MacLennan (2016) has noted, the area is often recognized as a euphemism for media history. It's a small sub-discipline that has already been legitimated, yet at the same time has difficulty maintaining visibility within broader media studies discourses. Fewer graduate programs are supporting radio or media history research, with notable exceptions, leading to fewer media historians rising to replace a previous generation that has recently retired. But the work continues and has undergone several recent changes. Radio studies often receives the most traction when it's associated with contemporary debates in media research, such as sound studies, or as Michelle Hilmes has proposed (Hilmes, 2013), further unification of sound analyses into categories such as "sound work." This strategy has experienced some degree of success. National conferences such as the Society of Cinema and Media Studies have recently recognized multiple sound-based and history projects with major awards, and radio researchers are well recognized by colleagues working on television and digital media.