"Radio Activity" - Theoretical perspectives on the Interplay of Radio, Participatory Practices and Technology

“Radio Activity”

Theoretical perspectives on the Interplay of Radio, Participatory Practices and Technology

Nele Heise, M. A.

Radio 2013The Radio Conference: A Transnational Forum 2013

July 11, 2013 | Bedfordshire (UK)

The “active audience” and “audience activity” (Cognitive) processes of selection and interpretation of media content (e.g. uses & gratifications, cultural studies tradition) meaning making and appropriation as co-construction; satisfaction of certain need

Participatory Turn: rise of a participatory culture (Jenkins), connected with emergence of “personal media” (Lüders 2008), practices of “produsage” / “prosumption” (Bruns 2010) and implementation of interactive features and new feedback channels (e.g. social media)

Shifting attention to means of production and the role of technological infrastructure

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Active audiences and the media

“Anyone who looks to things more closely, cannot possibly overlook the obvious matter, namely technology”.

(Walter Benjamin, 1932; cited in Werber 2003)

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Participation and (Media) Technology

It’s the technology stupid!

(Arrangements of) media technologies (Carpentier 2011b): large-scale, vertically structured mainstream media arrangements vs. small-scale, horizontally structured alternative or community media arrangements (organizational); cultural (“production culture” related with certain technologies)

AIP model (Carpentier 2011a): being in operational reach of technologies as a precondition to produce, distribute and receive content (Access), to create socio-communicative relationships to (co-)produce, select and interpret content (Interaction), as well as to take part in co-deciding processes of media production (Participation)

Agency: Participation requires certain technical skills and competences; motivation and interests; attitudes towards technology (e.g. Chung 2007; Correa 2010)

Affordances (Zillien 2008) and „moulding forces of media“ (Hepp 2012): material structure has a certain structuring effect since it open or restricts vertain options of usage

Participation and (Media) Technology

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Radio communication

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“the radio has only one side where it should have two. It is an apparatus of distribution (…) –– here is a suggestion for changing the function of the radio: transform it from an apparatus of distribution into an apparatus of communication. (…) This means making the listener not only listen but also speak; not to isolate him but to place him in relation to others.”

(Brecht 1932; cited in Werber 2003

“Recent discussions about media and technologies as tools that can challenge passivity and consumption and allow for participatory culture are not new and were going on with local educational radio in the 1930s”

(Gregory 2013, p. 1)

Radio as „participatory medium“• Cognitive aspects: high mental involvement (Forsslund 2012), community-

building aspects, „media memories“ (Kaun/Stiernstedt 2012)

• various forms of listener involvement (e.g. call-in’s, talk back; Orians 1991) as well as participation models and notions of alternativity: e.g. educational radio, community radio and free radio stations (Vogel 1991, Kleinsteuber 2012)

• Historical dimension: processes of making the active radio audience through certain principals: mode of address, model listener, audience research, and the audience as producers/product (Forsman 2013); various contributions of specialized users: amateurs, fans, hackers (Santos 2012), e.g. definition of “amateurism” in the “early radio” era (Driscoll 2013)

Radio, Activity and Participatory Practices

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Today: Diversification of “radio” and broadcasting due to

• Emergence of supplementary services in the modes of “audio” reception (mobile usage, usage on demand) and emergence of new media repertoires (Hasebrink/Domeyer 2012); greater control over reception (Albarran et al. 2013)

[user perspective]

• emergence of new broadcasting formats (e.g. Social Radio), additional distribution and feedback channels (e.g. mobile apps, social network sites)

[producer perspective]

• emergence of “personal media” (Lüders 2008), e.g. podcasts as radio-like media; new universal distribution platforms (e.g. Soundcloud, Mixcloud)

[“produser” perspective]

Radio and “radio like” formats

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“Once it was your radio station, broadcasting on your frequency. Now that brilliant invention, podcasting, gives radio to us. And we have found more uses for it than you did.”

(Rosen 2006)

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The case of podcasting

The case of podcasting

Disruptive technology developed in an open source environment; intersection of forms of amateur/hobby, Pro-Am and professional media communication and a type of audio processing/presentation

Different forms refer to uses in the sense of „personal media“ (niche formats, special interest) and/or mass media (providing content as podcast)

Self-definitions: notions of „doing radio“ (Markham 2011), „Radio Universal“ (Pritlove 2013) “radio-like” communication

Open format which enables different participatory practices and interactional roles (live-streaming and interaction with the chat room) relevance of community building, orientation and collaboration (self-referenciality); cooperation with users (amateurs, hackers, fans)

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Promoting Standards and Infrastructure

Podlove Initiative: Podlove Podcast Publisher / Web Playercollaboration with audio services and software providers, developers, designers, fans, hackers, consumers and podcasters to enhance production/consumption (via open source programming, crowdfunding)

Heise | Radio Activity 10Picture: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7376/8719225214_54196d8113.jpg

Podlove Web Player as used by

„Bildsprache Podcast“

Engaged listeners and hobby culture

Shownot.es: group of „engaged listeners“, collaborative transcription of podcasts, meta-data (additional information, links, chapter marks); developers of a specialized technological infrastructure intersection of hobby and hacker users

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Aggregation Curation Collaboration

Hörsuppe: „forecast“ and program guide, aggregator, curation, personalized live feed, archive, news, information portal

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Podcastideen: crowdsourced Tumblr with ideas for new formats, exchange (opinions, ideas), search for supporters and collaborators

Crowd-sourced map of German podcasts and modified Wii controller (both by R. Stockmann)

Identification and disruption

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USERPRODUCER

(Arrangements of) Media Technologies

Access Interaction

Participation

AffordancesPurposes(s)

Functionality Design

AppropriationUsage Practices

Negotiation

AppropriationUsage PracticesNegotiation

Contexts: natural order, structural agents of social nature, cultural/situational contexts

Production CulturesInstitutional logicsNorms / valuesRole perception MotivationsCultural resources

Reception CulturesMedia Repertoires

Norms / valuesRole perception

MotivationsCultural resources

Conceptual dimensions

Previous research suggests

• a consideration of technological aspects (e.g. affordances) and their influence on “participatory practices”

• an examination of different arrangements of media technologies and their relation to media participation (e.g. openness)

• a differentiated conceptualization of “radio” and other audio media from the producer and user perspective (mass media vs. “personal media”, broadcasting vs. narrowcasting, mass markets vs. niche communication) as well as their intersection from a “produsage” perspective

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Outlook

AssumptionDifferent types of “radio” or “audio communication” facilitate different participatory practices which require access todifferent (arrangements of) technologies and technical agency

will be empirically examined within my PhD project with regard to three case studies: “traditional” radio station, podcasts and amateur radio

… but this will be my next presentation

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Outlook

Nele Heise, M. A.

Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research, [email protected]

hamburgergarneleh.wordpress.com @neleheise

http://de.slideshare.net/garneleh

Thanks* for your attention!

* My Radio 2013 participation is kindly funded by the Graduate School for Media & Communication Hamburg

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