Domesticating the Airwaves: Broadcasting, Domesticity and Femininity

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Description

Using case studies and analytical overviews this book explores the relationship between broadcasting and the intimate domestic sphere into which it is broadcast. It focuses on the period from the 1920s, when broadcasting was established in the UK, to the present day when both domesticity and broadcasting have become areas of anxiety and contestation. The entry of the wireless, and later television, into the home changed men and womens experience of domesticity, offering education and reducing isolation. But broadcasting did not merely change domestic leisure patterns, it actively intervened in constructing domesticity. The supposedly natural relationship between femininity and domesticity has structured the nature of broadcasting, and also the discourses which have emerged concerning the consumption of broadcast media. Contemporary broadcasting continues to be obsessed by domesticity, both in an idealised sense as well as portraying the domestic world as one of turmoil and crisis. This volume demonstrates that the relationship between broadcasting and domesticity is a key, and often neglected, feature of the cultural history of Britain in the last 100 years.

Reviews

This is a rich historical study of the complex and often problematic role that broadcasting has always played in constructing notions of gender and domesticity in British society. Maggie Andrews skilfully examines a number of radio and television programmes from the inter-war years to the present day which focus on domestic ideology and practice. She identifies a raft of cultural factors and, with compelling analysis, demonstrates how these have promoted marked changes to the tone, the style and the substance of broadcast programmes over the period. This is an important book for our time: telling insights about the way cultures both influence and are influenced by broadcasting cannot fail to appeal to anyone with a serious interest in recent British social, cultural and political history -- Dr Paula Bartley, author of Votes for Women
[T]he book remains challenging and consistently engaging. While Domesticating the Airwaves draws its case studies exclusively from British culture, it should have broad appeal to those interested in media and cultural studies, as well as feminist approaches to history. -- David VanderHamm, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill * MakeMag.org *

Author Bio

Dr Maggie Andrews is Senior Lecturer in Popular and Modern History at Staffordshire University, UK with over twenty years of experience in teaching History, Cultural Studiesand Media Studies.