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Radio's influence can be found in almost every corner of new media. Radio in the Digital Age assesses a medium that has not only survived the challenges of a new technological age but indeed has extended its reach. This is not a book about digital radio, but rather about the medium of radio in its many analogue and digital forms in an age characterised by digital technologies. The context of the digital age reveals new insights about the nature of radio.
In this important addition to the world of radio scholarship, Dubber provides a theoretical framework for understanding the medium - allowing for complexity and contradiction, while avoiding essentialism and technological determinism. Introducing radio as a series of practices and phenomena that can be understood through a range of discursive categories, this book explores the relationships between radio, music, politics, storytelling and society in a new and thoughtful way.
This book will make essential reading for students of media, communication, broadcasting and the digital industries. It offers a timely and comprehensive introduction for anyone who wishes to understand the role of radio in today's media landscape.
List of contents
Acknowledgements vi
Abbreviations viii
1 What is Radio? 1
2 Radio in the Digital Landscape 25
3 Radio and Everyday Life 47
4 The Sound of Music 74
5 Stories in the Air 101
6 Radio and Technology 125
7 Radio in Society 150
8 Don't Touch That Dial (What Dial?) 175
References 183
Index 192
About the author
Andrew Dubber is Professor of Music Industry Innovation at Birmingham City University.
Summary
Radio's influence can be found in almost every corner of new media. Radio in the Digital Age assesses a medium that has not only survived the challenges of a new technological age but indeed has extended its reach. This is not a book about digital radio, but rather about the medium of radio in its many analogue and digital forms in an age characterised by digital technologies. The context of the digital age reveals new insights about the nature of radio.
In this important addition to the world of radio scholarship, Dubber provides a theoretical framework for understanding the medium - allowing for complexity and contradiction, while avoiding essentialism and technological determinism. Introducing radio as a series of practices and phenomena that can be understood through a range of discursive categories, this book explores the relationships between radio, music, politics, storytelling and society in a new and thoughtful way.
This book will make essential reading for students of media, communication, broadcasting and the digital industries. It offers a timely and comprehensive introduction for anyone who wishes to understand the role of radio in today's media landscape.
Report
''Dubber challenges us to reinvent how we think about the media in an age of rapid change. Both broad and detailed with insightful use of relevant examples, Radio in the Digital Age is comprehensive, compelling and accessible with big ideas that confront accepted - and often outmoded - ways of thinking about radio, the media and human communication in general.''
Matt Mollgaard, Auckland University of Technology
''This engaging book combines the author's insider knowledge of, and passion for radio, with a nuanced critique of 'the digital age'. It is all about radio, but recognises that radio is not all there is - which makes it a contribution that should resonate in studies of digital media more broadly.''
Kate Lacey, Sussex University
''Dubber's book is a timely and provocative intervention in the burgeoning field of radio studies. "Something is happening to radio", Dubber claims, and goes on to describe this moving target as vividly and astutely as anyone could hope for. Combining a deep love of radio with sharp appreciation of how it is being shaped by the shifting world of culture, music, industry and twenty-first century life, Radio in the Digital Age is a wide-ranging, up-to-date, and highly readable exploration of this wonderfully protean medium.''
David Hendy, Sussex University
