36:083 The Cultural History of Radio

Prerequisite: 36:048 The Rise of Electronic Media

Description

This is a Communication Studies context course, which aims to foreground the situatedness of communication practices. As an advanced level course, students have already had intermediate course experiences in Comm Studies, and with the prerequisite, have had some background in the history of broadcasting.

This course investigates the historical development of U.S. radio from the 1920s through the present. Students study the way that radio institutions, texts and audiences shaped, and were shaped by, the specific historical contexts in which they developed. Course assignments and readings focus on the cultural role of radio in the U.S., with some attention to international developments and relations with other industries such as the movies, the press and the recording industry.

Objectives

At the end of the semester, students should be able to do the following

• Identify different interpretations of radio's role in U.S. history
• Discriminate between different radio formats and genres
• Evaluate the cultural role of radio at different historical moments
• Design and propose a research project on the cultural history of radio

Possible Texts

Barlow, W. (1999). Voice over: The Making of Black Radio.

Douglas, S. J. (1999). Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination. New York, Times Books.

Hilmes, M. (1996). Radio Voices: American Broadcasting, 1922-1952. Minneapolis, Univ. of Minnesota Press.

Hilmes, & Loviglio (2001) Radio Reader.

Assignments

• Reading responses and quizzes to evaluate understanding of historical context
• Listening exercises to expose students to different radio genres
• Review of radio literature
• Research proposal

Workload

75 pages of reading per week; outside reading for research project

Other resources:

Wendy Hilton-Morrow's Cultural History of Radio Syllabus: http://twist.lib.uiowa.edu/radiohist/Schedule.html

E-Mail the Department of Communication Studies: commstudies-inquiry@uiowa.edu - Page updated March 29, 2006
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