Radio in Small Nations: Productions, Programmes, Audiences

Since its inception in the early 20th century, Radio has played and continues to play a key role in nurturing or denying - even destroying - people's sense of collective identity; a term which is often perceived as synonymous with national identity. The term 'nation' can refer to land mass, population, cultural viability or colonial past but typically, we understand nation as a location, an ethnicity or language; a community of interest or a community of place. Radio has always had a crucial part to play in both defining and reinforcing national identity. The state-driven public service radio systems of the past imposed the colonial power of 'great' nations. More recently, local and particularly community radio represent emerging and 'small' nations: those covering smaller geographical areas or ethnic/language groups which had previously been ignored. The chapters in this volume combine to provide an historical and contemporary overview of radio in small nations. A number of representative small nations feature: some grappling with new postcolonial identities, others still operating as repressive regimes; some struggling to find a new common purpose in the post-industrial age, others unifying previously ignored ethnic or language groups. While all chapters specifically address the relationship between radio and the small nation in question, each chapter has a slightly different emphasis. As a whole, the collection strives to present diverse voices and diverse themes, held together by passionate and scrupulous research.