Radio online 1 - Chloe Cameron

Streaming services are digital audio platforms that enable users to access and listen to audio content at any time. Apple Music, Pandora, and Spotify are examples of well-known streaming services. To understand this transition, it is important to examine radio and streaming services more closely and consider the advantages and disadvantages of each media. This will help to further understand what future remediations could be possible. According to Andrew Bottomley, a radio is any non-music sound medium that has been specifically designed to be listened to by a listener via electromagnetic waves (2020). Thinking about any examples that may come to mind as you contemplate this concept may include broadcast news radio, talk programs, walkie-talkies, amateur radio, podcasts, and/or sports commentary. The list is endless.


The sociability of these audio platforms is a key aspect of radio. The unspoken link that results from radio between the speaker and audience, as previously mentioned by McLuhan, is that which offers a more immediate and private encounter. Due to the same "cloak of invisibility" that has been mentioned earlier in this blog, radio broadcasting, as it may be traditionally thought of, explains the live-ness of the sound because the audience can hear what is being transmitted, when it is, as it is — expanding this once private experience into something that can be shared. When questioning if the radio practice of podcasting is arguably the new talk radio, the research found that “The intimacy of [podcasting] has the potential to make listeners feel things—and emotional resonance affects how people perceive information” (De Maeyer, 2017). This emotional intimacy is the same feeling that talk radio would ignite through two-way communication methods. Talk shows and sports commentary both contribute to the atmosphere of radio and the storytelling element by engaging with the audience through call-ins, music requests, and mentions of game developments. Other sound mediums, such as TV also rely on this same live-ness in some programs, like reality TV or game shows.



Bottomley, A. (2020) Sound Streams: A Cultural History of Radio-Internet Convergence. University Of Michigan Press.


De Maeyer, J. (2017). Podcasting is the New Talk-Radio. The Atlantic. Technology. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/05/how-podcasting-is-shaping-democracy/524028/ 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Group #1 Blog Post 1

Part 1: Jess Beard - 190587910 M. McLuhan. (2013). Radio: The Tribal Drum. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man.  I’m going to start our conversation of streaming services as a remediation of radio using Marshall McLuhan's extensions of man in regards to radio as a medium. McLuhan examines how emerging media influences the ways societies interpret and perceive the information conveyed as well as any consequences. McLuhan argues that the content of a medium is always influenced by existing mediums. Mediums are not just extensions of previous media but of ourselves.  In regards to the radio, McLuhan proposes the theory of the “tribal drum” arguing the aural effects and influences of radio broadcasting on society and culture. McLuhan argues that the transmission of radio has turned society into a single echo chamber embedded into our psyche like no other medium (McLuhan, 2013). We can use McLuhan’s tribal drum to discuss streaming services being a remediation of radio. Radi...
Read more

Radio online 2 - Chloe Cameron

By 1997, the RealAudio technology had mastered the art of programming multiple events, including music, live broadcasts, and sporting events, after numerous iterations of trial and error and constant upgrades (Bottomley, 2020). To give listeners access to a variety of sports content from a single source, AudioNet initially aired programming that was mostly sports-related utilizing RealAudio technology. They constructed a web portal (similar to a search engine today) with additional content like news, weather, entertainment, etc. in order to profit from the undeveloped broadcasting rights. This radio-to-web transfer was a resounding success because it assisted businesses looking to advertise their goods to a larger audience. In a similar manner, using streaming services to reach a larger audience than radio could is sufficient. Early in the new millennium, Pseudo finally debuted as a radio program with a focus on the Internet. It was a location where users could access the specialized c...
Read more

Group #1 Blog Post 2

Jess Beard - 190587910 M. McLuhan. (2013). Radio: The Tribal Drum. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man.  McLuhan argues that the radio is the extension of the central nervous system and is the only media matched by human speech (McLuhan, 2013). Radio became a medium that embellished existing societal functions and continued cultural importance. The same can be said about streaming services. They became a medium that embellished existing social functions and continued cultural importance by extending the previous conditions and acceptances of radio. This is not to say radio has been replaced by streaming services but rather were designed to be better equipped to modern society. This can be noticed with the accessible, free, fast-paced, versatile and personalized nature of streaming services. And in respect to McLuhan’s arguments concerning the tribal drum, streaming services or in his case radio, are very intimate.  Radio is taken more seriously as it affects people more...
Read more