Radio in Small Nations: Productions, Programmes, Audiences

Richard Hand (Editor), Mary Traynor (Editor)

Research output: Book/ReportBookpeer-review

Abstract

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.
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationCardiff
PublisherUniversity of Wales Press
Number of pages200
ISBN (Print)9780708325438
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jul 2012

Keywords

  • radio
  • laos
  • media for development

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