Radiophilia: A New Key Concept in Radio and Sound Studies?
Given radio’s initial rapid and sustained popularity for over 100 years, it may seem surprising that media and cultural scholars have not yet sought to further clarify the affective and emotional attachments formed in relation to the medium, its contents and material forms. While the exact conditions and media assemblages of ‘radio’ may differ across time and place, my recent research has explored radiophilia as a conceptual tool for making sense of the love for, or strong attachments to, radio from its inception to the present (Birdsall 2023). In taking up questions of affect and emotion in relation to radio, I’ve sought to redress a gap in historical radio research, which tends to only point to emotional reactions (e.g., fears, enthusiasm) when first introduced as a ‘new’ technology, rather than in everyday media practices developed over the past century (Tacchi 2009; Kassabian 2013).
In this presentation, I will first outline the framework I’ve developed, which builds on recent work on “affective practice”, envisaged as a means to productively resolve oppositions between affect theory and the history of the emotions (Wetherell 2012; Wetherell et al. 2018). In arguing for a longue durée perspective, my analysis is focused on loving, knowing, saving and sharing as domains of affective practice in relation to radio as a historical and renewed medium. The second part of the presentation will engage this model with several cases explored in the book, with particular reference made to key historical developments in UK radio, audio and podcasting.
Biography:
Carolyn Birdsall is Associate Professor of Media Studies, University of Amsterdam. Her publications include Nazi Soundscapes (2012), “Listening to the Archive” (2019, co-ed. V. Tkaczyk) and “Historical Traces of European Radio Archives” (2022, co-ed. E. Harrison), with her most recent monograph, Radiophilia, appearing with Bloomsbury in September 2023. She currently leads the research project TRACE (Tracking Radio Archival Collections in Europe, 1930–1960), which is funded by the Dutch Research Council (www.trace.humanities.uva.nl).
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