On Air: Methods and Meanings of Radio

(Paperback)

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Description

It reaches millions of people every minute of the day, it costs us virtually nothing and yet we take it entirely for granted. Superseded by television as the primary source of entertainment and information, radio still has a unique place in the mass media spectrum.

While the textual properties and reception of film and television have received considerable critical attention, until now radio has only really been considered in terms of its history and its modes of production. 'On Air' adopts a wide-ranging theoretical and critical approach. It provides an in-depth examination of radio's codes (speech, music, noise and silence),and the conventions of using these codes and the dominant modes of reception. The text offers a vocabulary and methodology for analysing radio programmes, drawing on work by both media theorists and professional broadcasters in Britain, Australia, and North America. Written by an academic and a practitioner, 'On Air' provides a critical overview of radio for media students, as well as suggestions for practical activities, a time-line of major events in the history of radio, and a glossary of key terms.

Reviews

makes important contributions to the study of the mass media today user-friendly..easy and a thought-provoking read would serve as a valuable resource tool in any media student's library, from Bombay to Bundaberg. Australian Journalism Review

Author Bio

Martin Shingler is Senior Lecturer in Radio and Film Studies at the University of Sunderland, UK. He is the co-author of two books, On Air: Methods and Meanings of Radio, with Cindy Wieringa, (1998) and Melodrama: Genre, Style& Sensibility, with John Mercer (2004). He has also published essays on the Hollywood film star Bette Davis in the books Hollywood Spectatorship, eds. Melvyn Stokes and Richard Maltby (BFI, 2001) and Screen Acting, eds. Alan Lovell and Peter Kramer, (1999), and in Screen, the Journal of American Studies, the Journal of Film& Video, Theatre Annual and Film History. He has edited a dossier on Bette Davis for Screen (2008) and an edition of the Radio Journal (2008). He is co-editor, with Susan Smith, of the BFI Film Stars series, and author of 'Star Studies: A Critical Guide' (BFI, 2012).