Radio Critics and Popular Culture

Radio still remains an important form of media, with millions listening to it daily. It has been reborn for the digital era, and is an area where there is great interest in its development, role and form. Attempting to fill the gap in research on British radio criticism, this volume explores the development and role of radio criticism in the discourse around radio in Britain from its birth in the 1920s up to present day. Using a historical approach to explore how, as radio emerged, the press provided coverage which helped shape and reflect radio's position in popular culture, Paul Rixon delivers an interesting and engaging exploration that provides a cultural perspective on radio, with a specific focus on newspaper criticism. Radio Critics and Popular Culture is an innovative and original addition to existing research and will be invaluable for those interested in the way that British radio has evolved.

Attempts not to just to focus on radio and its related criticism, but to align it, to add it to, to intertwine it, to other histories and media forms Offers a wider analysis of how the output of the critic relates to the wider context within which they work Uses the structure of the book to reflect on particular historical moments or phases in the development of radio criticism, radio, newspapers and journalistic practice

Auteur

Paul Rixon is Reader in Radio and Television at the University of Roehampton, UK.

Contenu

1. Introduction.- 2. Approaching the Study of Radio Critics and Radio Criticism.- 3. Radio in the Britain in the 1920s: Narratives of Spectacle and Concern.- 4. Rise of a Medium; Arrival of the Radio Critic.- 5. The Critic, Newspaper Radio Criticism and the Heyday of Radio.- 6. From the Swinging Sixties to Thatcherism: the Decline of Radio Coverage.- 7. The Digital Age: The Press, Radio, Radio Critic and the Public.