tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/radio-2585/articlesRadio – The Conversation2024-03-19T04:45:36Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2260132024-03-19T04:45:36Z2024-03-19T04:45:36ZWhat’ll happen when Facebook stops paying for news? Here’s what happened when radio stopped paying for music<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582727/original/file-20240319-22-xag9u9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1502%2C732%2C3364%2C1769&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio?</p>
<p>It can’t be because of the money.</p>
<p>In Australia they are paid at rates so low they come close to making streaming services look generous. By law, no radio station can be made to pay more than <a href="https://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca1968133/s152.html">1%</a> of the station’s gross revenue for all of the music it plays, even if it is an all-music station. By the time the labels have had their cut, the artists get <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/3172/Sub28_CRA.pdf">a lot less</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansards%2F27117%2F0048%22">Legislation</a> now before the Senate would remove the ceiling, allowing radio stations and the representatives of musical artists to negotiate freely, with a final decision made by a tribunal in cases where they can’t reach agreement.</p>
<p>It’s a bit like the legislation set up to arbitrate disputes between platforms such as Facebook and <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/by-industry/digital-platforms-and-services/news-media-bargaining-code/news-media-bargaining-code">news organisations</a> about the amount to pay for news.</p>
<p>The parallels tell us an awful lot about where the power lies in disputes between platforms and providers. Here’s a hint: it doesn’t lie with providers, whether they provide music, or news, or, for that matter, fruit to Coles and Woolworths.</p>
<h2>Radio pays little for music, and always has</h2>
<p>Here’s what happened with radio.</p>
<p>Legislation dating back to 1968 has given Australian radio stations a blanket right to play whatever music they want so long as they negotiate a payment rate with the relevant collecting society.</p>
<p>If the station and collecting society can’t agree on the rate, the decision is made by an <a href="https://www.copyrighttribunal.gov.au/">independent tribunal</a>, but, for commercial stations, the tribunal is limited to awarding no more than 1% of the station’s gross revenue, and for ABC stations, a mere <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582675/original/file-20240318-26-prqomy.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=1">half of one cent</a> per Australian resident per year.</p>
<p>The attorney-general introduced the ceilings to “<a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/agispt.20210216043919">allay the fears</a>” of radio stations and initially promised a review after five years, a provision he later <a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/agispt.20210216043919">dropped</a> from the final draft of the legislation. A half a century of inflation has rendered the ABC’s ceiling of half a cent per person worth a fraction of what it was.</p>
<h2>The ABC pays half a cent per person</h2>
<p>The ceilings only apply to radio stations and only to the recordings. Television stations (including ABC stations) pay much more per track. </p>
<p>And composers, who are paid separately with no legislated limit, get much more. </p>
<p>This means the composers of <a href="https://youtu.be/PQCH1-ffP-g?si=RhF2m5hjQjJvPUVq">You’re the Voice</a> get paid quite well, but the performer, John Farnham, does not.</p>
<p>The record industry has tried time and time again to remove the ceiling. </p>
<p>In 2010 it even went to the High Court, arguing along the lines of the case depicted in the movie <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/mar/19/its-the-vibe-25-years-on-how-the-castle-became-an-australian-classic">The Castle</a> that the constitution prevented the Commonwealth from acquiring property other than “on just terms”. </p>
<p>The High Court said “<a href="https://eresources.hcourt.gov.au/showCase/2012/HCA/8">no</a>”, no property had been acquired. </p>
<p>Now, independent Senator David Pocock is trying again. </p>
<h2>‘Fair pay for radio play’</h2>
<p>Pocock’s <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=s1386">Fair Pay for Radio Play</a> bill would remove the ceilings, allowing the radio industry and the record industry to negotiate “<a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansards%2F27117%2F0048%22">a fair rate</a>” subject to adjudication by the Copyright Tribunal.</p>
<p>The radio industry says, if that happens, it will play <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/committees/commsen/27539/toc_pdf/Legal%20and%20Constitutional%20Affairs%20Legislation%20Committee_2024_03_07.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf#search=%22committees/commsen/27539/0000%22">less Australian music</a>. It would also ask to be freed from the legislated requirement to play Australian music.</p>
<p>The recording industry talks as if the radio industry is bluffing. </p>
<p>Annabelle Herd, head of the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia, told the Senate hearing </p>
<blockquote>
<p>even if the radio networks stopped playing all Australian music, they would still have to pay to play UK music, Canadian music and music from pretty much every other country in the world. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s a point she might not want to push too far.</p>
<p>In 1970 that’s exactly what happened. In response to what it felt was an over-large demand from the Phonographic Performance Company, the commercial radio industry said no, and refused to play any of its music.</p>
<p>Instead, it played records from independent Australian labels who didn’t charge and got their records pressed in <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/3160/1970_RECORD_BAN.pdf">Singapore</a>, and American music, lots of it.</p>
<p>While the industry couldn’t play music from the UK, Canada and a bunch of other countries that were signatories to the relevant copyright treaty, it could play music from the United States, which didn’t charge, and hadn’t signed the treaty.</p>
<h2>When radio called the labels’ bluff</h2>
<p>A disc jockey quoted at the time said he didn’t think the average listener would <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/110321578">notice</a>, and there’s nothing on record to suggest the average listener did.</p>
<p>The Beatles album <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/album/let-it-be-mw0000192939">Let it Be</a> was released on May 8. The <a href="https://www.nfsa.gov.au/latest/radio-100-1970-record-ban">record ban</a>, as it was called, came into force on May 16. <a href="https://www.nfsa.gov.au/latest/radio-100-1970-record-ban">The Long and Winding Road</a> cracked the top five just about everywhere it was released, apart from Australia.</p>
<p>Five months later, the record companies caved. The only thing the radio industry offered it was a <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/3160/1970_RECORD_BAN.pdf">guaranteed number of advertisements</a> per week. Which had been the radio industry’s point all along. The record companies needed radio play for exposure. Without it, people were unlikely to buy their discs.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/facebook-wont-keep-paying-australian-media-outlets-for-their-content-are-we-about-to-get-another-news-ban-224857">Facebook won't keep paying Australian media outlets for their content. Are we about to get another news ban?</a>
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<p>It’s possible to stretch parallels too far, but when Facebook temporarily stopped linking to pieces from Australian news sites in 2021, traffic to those sites slid <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2021-03-03/facebook-news-ban-australian-publisher-page-views-rebound/13206616">13%</a>.</p>
<p>The common theme is that – as unfair as it seems – platforms have an awful lot of power over providers. If Coles and Woolworths say no, fruit growers won’t be able to distribute their product; if radio stations say no, artists won’t be as widely disseminated; and if Facebook and its ilk say no, news sites will get fewer clicks.</p>
<p>Facebook has been paying millions of dollars to Australian news sites since the <a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/news-media-bargaining-code">news media bargaining code</a> began in 2021. In February it said when the agreements expire, it will <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-02/facebook-google-news-media-deal-media-pay-meta/103534342">pay no more</a>.</p>
<p>The code allows the government to force Facebook to pay, but only if it continues to link to news, and it has given <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2024/02/update-on-facebook-news-us-australia/">every indication</a> it won’t.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226013/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Martin is Economics Editor of The Conversation. </span></em></p>Put to the test in 1970, Australia’s radio industry abandoned the record labels that wanted them to pay more. The labels backed down.Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2240532024-03-13T12:38:21Z2024-03-13T12:38:21ZHow AI is shaping the music listening habits of Gen Z<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581018/original/file-20240311-22-us2x6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C16%2C5339%2C3565&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Listening to music from a device creates a protective bubble that can counteract a lack of personal space at school or home.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/physeline-michel-a-member-of-the-haitian-female-soccer-team-news-photo/1213010698?adppopup=true">Pierre Michel Jean/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For four years, we’ve been teaching a class on music and the mind. We’ve asked the students at the start of each semester to complete a short, informal survey on their music education and favorite songs and artists. </p>
<p>Our students’ musical education backgrounds always range from none to more than a decade of lessons and ensembles. But we’ve watched the list of favorite songs and artists get longer and more varied each year. When we ask the entire group about certain songs, it is often the case that no one, save for the person who included it, has heard it.</p>
<p>The findings from these informal classroom surveys are consistent with recent research showing diverse and eclectic musical preferences among adolescents. In a study on <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1056542">the listening habits of Los Angeles middle school students</a>, we found that they appreciate artists representing a range of genres, from the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-korean-boy-band-bts-toppled-asian-stereotypes-and-took-america-by-storm-97596">K-pop supergroup BTS</a> to the heavy metal band <a href="https://systemofadown.com/">System of a Down</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-team-of-musicologists-and-computer-scientists-completed-beethovens-unfinished-10th-symphony-168160">to Beethoven</a>.</p>
<p>But what happens when, as we’ve observed, young people don’t know what their peers are listening to? And does it matter that teens aren’t necessarily choosing the music they’re using to understand themselves and the world, let alone that no humans are selecting songs they’re exposed to?</p>
<h2>A shared soundscape goes private</h2>
<p>For centuries, the only way to experience music was to see it live – at small, private performances, in community gatherings or in large concert halls.</p>
<p>Radios and record players transformed how people interacted with music. But because these devices were initially stationary, there was still a social element to listening. You might gather in a friend’s basement to hear hits on the radio, throw a listening party when a new album was released, make a mixtape for your beau or belt out a favorite song on the car radio with your best friend. </p>
<p>Introduced in 1979, <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/walkman-invention-40-years-ago-launched-cultural-revolution-180972552/">the Sony Walkman</a> marked another major turning point in how people listen to music. It became a lot easier for music to be a deeply private and personal experience – even more so with the introduction of the iPod and, later, smartphones. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Photo from the 1950s of three teenage girls relaxing on a carpet listening to records." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581077/original/file-20240311-89474-dtltg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581077/original/file-20240311-89474-dtltg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581077/original/file-20240311-89474-dtltg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581077/original/file-20240311-89474-dtltg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581077/original/file-20240311-89474-dtltg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581077/original/file-20240311-89474-dtltg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581077/original/file-20240311-89474-dtltg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Friends used to get together to listen to music far more often than they do today.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/1950s-three-teen-girls-talking-listening-to-music-playing-news-photo/563940019?adppopup=true">H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Listening to music this way isn’t always about what’s pulsing through your headphones. It can also <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02911">cultivate agency</a>: No matter where you are, you are your own DJ, controlling what gets played and when. And if you choose to keep it private, no one can hear it but you. </p>
<p>Particularly for adolescents, this is a big deal. <a href="https://oshkoshnorthstar.org/4858/columns/why-are-teenagers-dependent-on-headphones/">It creates a protective bubble</a> that may counteract a lack of personal space at school or at home.</p>
<p>Young people listen to a lot of music <a href="https://doi.org/10.4103%2Fnah.NAH_65_16">throughout the day</a>, whether it’s while doing homework, training for sports, eating or even sleeping. There’s an <a href="http://st.markgroves.de/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/The-role-of-music-2.pdf">element of mood regulation at play</a>: Songs can divert unpleasant emotions or elicit positive ones, and also encourage reflection during difficult experiences.</p>
<h2>I got ‘algo-rhythm’</h2>
<p>Making a playlist used to mean playing tapes and recording individual songs onto another tape, or waiting for the radio to play a song, hitting “record” on your cassette player to capture it, song by song, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/history-of-mixtapes-future/">until you had a mixtape of your favorite tunes</a>.</p>
<p>Now, listening <a href="https://www.ifpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/IFPI-Engaging-With-Music-2023_full-report.pdf">often happens via streaming</a>, where artificial intelligence and social media platforms team up to suggest playlists for you. </p>
<p>While you explore and share music on social media, <a href="https://neemz.medium.com/the-inner-workings-of-spotifys-ai-powered-music-recommendations-how-spotify-shapes-your-playlist-a10a9148ee8d">AI tracks the activity</a> and compares it to data from other listeners; in this way, it hones its predictions about what you might like to hear in the future. </p>
<p>AI is being put to work to know not only what a user wants to hear, but also to predict the next big hit that everyone will listen to. Until recently, AI’s power for predicting hits relied largely on song characteristics like <a href="https://newsroom.spotify.com/2022-11-30/learn-about-those-music-genres-you-may-not-have-heard-of/">bounciness, positiveness and danceability</a>, and hovered at around 50% accuracy.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/frai.2023.1154663">Other studies</a> have analyzed physiological responses to music, like heart rate, which can be gleaned from the biodata on teen’s smartwatches, <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/heres-how-ai-can-predict-hit-songs-with-frightening-accuracy/">to predict top hits</a>.</p>
<p>These studies add to existing concerns about the mining of personal information and data, and there have long been fears that <a href="https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/35791">AI can’t be trusted and will end up manipulating people</a>. When it comes to the way AI influences your listening habits, you might wonder whether you like a song because you truly like it, or whether you only enjoy it because AI has fed you enough similar songs that familiarity has bred appreciation.</p>
<p>Some listeners feel that algorithmic curation causes them to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/i-almost-feel-like-stuck-in-a-rut-how-streaming-services-changed-the-way-we-listen-to-music-219967">stuck in a listening rut</a>. Their playlists are populated with songs and artists they’ve never heard of before, yet they all sound eerily similar.</p>
<h2>The upside to AI</h2>
<p>In the past, being in a listening rut was something a teenager may not have even noticed.</p>
<p>Exposed to a steady diet of the same songs regularly playing on the radio – and later, <a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96869060">on MTV</a> and VH1 – adolescents’ musical consumption was dominated by the “Top-40” artists. Their palettes were sculpted by a widely shared, if perhaps narrow, repertoire of musical knowledge.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two young women and one young man pose in front of screaming fans." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581003/original/file-20240311-18-gp310p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581003/original/file-20240311-18-gp310p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581003/original/file-20240311-18-gp310p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581003/original/file-20240311-18-gp310p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581003/original/file-20240311-18-gp310p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581003/original/file-20240311-18-gp310p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581003/original/file-20240311-18-gp310p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jennifer Lopez, Justin Timberlake and Halle Berry appear at MTV Studios in New York’s Times Square for a taping of ‘TRL’ during the network’s ‘Spankin’ New Music Week’ in 2002.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/jennifer-lopez-justin-timberlake-and-halle-berry-during-news-photo/107285046?adppopup=true">KMazur/WireImage via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>AI-generated playlists have disrupted this, and the two of us don’t see that as necessarily a bad thing. A stunning range of music is available to young people, and no longer do radio DJs, ratings and record companies serve as gatekeepers. </p>
<p>Spotify currently <a href="https://gist.github.com/andytlr/4104c667a62d8145aa3a">lists thousands of genres</a> and creates more each year so that, <a href="https://newsroom.spotify.com/2022-11-30/learn-about-those-music-genres-you-may-not-have-heard-of/">as the company explains</a>, they are more “recognizable, representative, and holistic to our listeners and communities.”</p>
<p>Like receiving a cherished gift you never knew you wanted, young people can be exposed to great music – with its accompanying cultural traditions – that they would be less likely to have discovered on their own, whether it’s <a href="https://medium.com/@khushibagwar092/indian-90s-pop-culture-861ad6250d3d">Indian pop music</a>, <a href="https://www.masterclass.com/articles/japanese-rock-music-guide">Japanese rock</a> or <a href="https://www.africanmusiclibrary.org/genre/Juju">Afro-juju</a>, a style of Nigerian popular music.</p>
<p>If teens think their AI-influenced playlists are dull, they still have the ability to search for new music. Just because algorithms and AI can suggest songs, it doesn’t preclude listeners from researching and discovering music on their own, or sharing playlists with friends and relatives.</p>
<p>Anything that exists, they can find. The store is always open.</p>
<h2>Identity, community and music</h2>
<p>Back to our college class: We noticed little overlap among the students. But instead of consuming only from a menu of industry megastars, our students showed a willingness to listen to a variety of genres and subgenres that AI will offer up. </p>
<p>When asked to reveal the most recent song or piece that they had listened to on a specific week, 6% had listened to R&B singer SZA, 2% to singer Renée Rapp, 2% to pop sensation Taylor Swift and 2% to pop rockers The 1975.</p>
<p>The remaining 80-plus selections featured a panoply of genres: <a href="https://electronicmusic.fandom.com/wiki/Computer_music">computer music</a>, rock, pop, rap, country, reggaeton, film music, heavy metal, indie and Latin ballads. </p>
<p>As young people transition from childhood to adulthood, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REP6ZNV0OR4">two seemingly opposing processes become paramount</a>: forming a unique identity, while at the same time becoming part of a community. Music listening and preferences play an important role in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mblJUqyizwg">this process</a>.</p>
<p>AI-generated playlists have the potential to challenge this transition. </p>
<p>So does AI make it easier to differentiate the self, but harder to bond with others? Or does it, instead, offer a broader spectrum for self-exploration and communal connection? </p>
<p>The truth is, no one really knows. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/chatgpt-is-confronting-but-humans-have-always-adapted-to-new-technology-ask-the-mesopotamians-who-invented-writing-199184">Fears of new technologies</a> are commonplace. For example, as scheduled network TV <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-decade-in-television-betteryet-more-atomizedthan-ever-11576620996">fell out of favor</a>, a lot of common ground for discussion and connection disappeared with it. Will 50 million Americans ever again tune in to watch the series finale of a sitcom, <a href="https://theconversation.com/4-reasons-why-well-never-see-another-show-like-friends-123411">as they did for “Friends” in 2004</a>?</p>
<p>If AI is, indeed, contributing to the transformation of adolescents’ communal listening experiences, then AI playlists are more than just a convenient way to discover your next workout tune. They are a revolution worth paying attention to.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224053/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beatriz Ilari received funding from The Fender Play Foundation to carry out the study with Angeleno adolescents that is mentioned in the article. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lynne Snyder does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the past, adolescents’ musical palettes were dominated by the Top-40 artists, creating a widely shared – if perhaps narrow – repertoire of musical knowledge.Beatriz Ilari, Professor of Music Teaching and Learning, University of Southern CaliforniaLynne Snyder, Doctor of Musical Arts Student, University of Southern CaliforniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2168152023-12-25T21:07:30Z2023-12-25T21:07:30ZHalf-watched TV and part-heard radio: summer Test cricket is steeped in nostalgia, but these ‘traditions’ have short histories<p>As the old year passes and a new one arrives, three notable sport events occupy the languid vacation hours. Melbourne’s Boxing Day and Sydney’s New Year’s Test matches are spliced by the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.</p>
<p>Unlike the race, a set-piece seasonal spectacle notable mainly for its <a href="https://cyca.com.au/event/2023-rolex-sydney-hobart-yacht-race-official-spectator-vessel-the-jackson/">Rolex-sponsored</a> affluence, picturesque helicopter shots, and (seemingly) AI-generated reporting, the cricket stirs strong emotions.</p>
<p>Many people are seduced by the nostalgic notion that no Australian summer is complete without two metropolitan Test matches played on green fields. Much of the experience involves half-watched television and part-heard radio broadcasts.</p>
<p>But anyone who messes with these <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674559561&content=toc">national treasures</a> risks accusations of the greatest national sin – being <a href="https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/un-australian-national-identity-twenty-first-century/">un-Australian</a>.</p>
<h2>Adored matches with short histories</h2>
<p>Like many “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/invention-of-tradition/B9973971357795DC86BE856F321C34B3">traditions</a>”, the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-25/boxing-day-test-match-tradition-has-short-history-at-mcg/8135852">Boxing Day Test</a> at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) is quite recent – in fact, barely 40 years old. </p>
<p>It is the product of jet travel, global year-round tour schedules and, especially, the needs of commercial television.</p>
<p>Kerry Packer grasped the lucrative potential of large, captive audiences on vacation. Acquiring the <a href="https://www.foxsports.com.au/the-sideline/the-packer-revolution/news-story/18ef12781ed1cd7c5f93f43b64e5061c">broadcast rights</a> in 1979, he set about maximising their value for Channel Nine. Before then, Boxing Day Tests in Melbourne were intermittent, with three in the 1970s even being staged in Adelaide.</p>
<p>Fairly regular Tests at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) in January and February began in the late 1960s, but it was not until the late 1990s that they settled on the first week of the year. Patriotic television <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1I4anHgXnQ">advertisements</a> substantially created this misleading picture of time-honoured festive <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqWzzj_HxUY">cricket rituals</a>.</p>
<h2>An evolving game with a crowded calendar</h2>
<p>In the midst of this orgy of cricketing nostalgia and overindulgence of food and liquid, purists find the mounting threats to the five-day format unpalatable.</p>
<p>It is hard to imagine today that <a href="https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/rewind-to-1971-the-birth-of-the-one-day-international-464234">one-day cricket</a> was once regarded as the “fast food” version of the game. </p>
<p>But that was before we got the memo from, in particular, the men’s and women’s <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/if-the-ipl-rises-we-rise-how-lachlan-murdoch-was-sold-on-cricket-s-showbiz-behemoth-20230331-p5cx1l.html">Indian Premier League</a>.</p>
<p>Here, players are literally bought and sold in a sporting meat market, along with megabuck franchises. Cricket contests are shrunk to 20-over “big bashes” of barely three hours’ duration, the senses bombarded with music, dance, programmed crowd stimulation and loud advertisements.</p>
<p>This Twenty20 form of the game has mushroomed around the world, including in the <a href="https://www.playthegame.org/news/the-saudis-in-sport-ambitions-much-larger-than-sportswashing/">sportswashing</a> capitals of the Middle East. It has been joined recently by a newer, fast-paced variation called <a href="https://www.thehundred.com/">The Hundred</a> to compete with the slower, longer one-day and Test forms of the game.</p>
<p>After more than a century in the Olympic wilderness, cricket is also returning to the fold at the <a href="https://olympics.com/en/news/cricket-olympics-los-angeles-2028-inclusion-reactions-india">2028 Los Angeles Games</a>, courtesy of some heavy lobbying by India. It may well feature at the <a href="https://www.cricket.com.au/news/3732578/cricket-included-olympics-2028-los-angeles-icc-2032-brisbane">2032 Brisbane Games</a>, where its famous venue, the Gabba, will be rebuilt.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/F1I4anHgXnQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Television ads for text cricket in the 1980s were big on patriotism (and jingles).</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Consequently, the global cricket calendar is becoming even more congested. A clear case is the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-22/australia-india-twenty20-hard-to-fathom-marnus-labuschagne/103138994">Twenty20 series</a> that took place in India within four days of the month-long men’s 2023 World Cup.</p>
<p>The teams that played in the one-day <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2023/11/19/photos-head-breaks-india-hearts-as-australia-win-sixth-world-cup-title">final</a>, Australia and India, faced off again in the Twenty20. But half the Australian team returned home, and only one of the Indian one-day team participated.</p>
<p>Such time pressures and competition variations encourage more players and coaches to specialise in different cricket formats. The money is comparatively easy in the short form of the game, while the physical and mental health toll can be reduced by <a href="https://johnmenadue.com/t20-blessing-or-curse-to-cricket/">opting out</a> of Test and even one-day cricket altogether.</p>
<h2>Suffering in the name of tradition</h2>
<p>The Australian cricketers who do play in future Melbourne and Sydney Tests may find they will move west to Adelaide or Perth, or north to Brisbane. As Cricket Australia goes to tender for its new <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/pitch-battle-why-boxing-day-new-year-s-tests-are-up-for-grabs-20230901-p5e19j.html">seven-year broadcast contract</a>, it has made clear that no venue has a guaranteed Test match.</p>
<p>Of course, such matters are being raised in a play for more cash. But with expensive new stadia to fill and state governments offering juicy inducements to snag a prestigious Test match, Australia’s two largest cities may be dismissed on these crucial days.</p>
<p>There is also the problem of the frequently sodden Sydney, with <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-11605239/Cricket-fans-call-New-Years-Test-taken-AWAY-Sydney-wet-weather.html">agitation</a> that the key New Year’s Test should be moved from one of the <a href="https://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/cricket-weather-reality-check-sydney-is-as-wet-as-manchester/535863">wettest cities</a> where elite cricket is played.</p>
<p>To preserve the heritage value of the New Year’s Test, must bored, damp spectators sit in the stands? Or TV viewers be forced to watch images of a covered pitch and listen to droning fill-in commentary?</p>
<p>As the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1440783320941284">COVID pandemic</a> lockdown showed, sports like cricket now resemble continuous-process manufacturing industries, or global just-in-time operations where the “product” is assembled via intricate logistics.</p>
<p>The lines between tradition and progress constantly shift in these hyper-commercial cricketing times. One casualty may be the largely illusionary sense of continuity proffered by Australia’s Boxing Day and New Year double bill.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216815/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Rowe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Summer in Australia is often set to the soundtrack of a Test cricket match. That sentimentality can get in the way of seeing cricket for what it is: a hyper-commercial cash machine.David Rowe, Emeritus Professor of Cultural Research, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2013412023-09-21T21:56:09Z2023-09-21T21:56:09ZCanada’s participation in the world’s largest radio telescope means new opportunities in research and innovation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548371/original/file-20230914-8809-zchqj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2000%2C1000&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An artist's impression of the Square Kilometre Array Observatory, the largest of its kind in the world.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://skao.canto.global/v/SKAOLibrary/album/G20QH?viewIndex=1&column=image&id=m02qd2lp390bd092m1d4a9734g">(SKAO)</a></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/canadas-participation-in-the-worlds-largest-radio-telescope-means-new-opportunities-in-research-and-innovation" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Canada is about to <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/national-research-council/news/2023/01/canada-announces-intention-to-become-full-member-of-international-skao-radio-astronomy-project.html">become a member</a> of the <a href="https://www.skao.int/en">Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO)</a> — the world’s next giant radio telescope. This is a win for all Canadians, not just astronomers. </p>
<p>SKAO is a radio telescope made up of thousands of individual elements over vast areas. Its two remote sites are located, in partnership with <a href="https://www.skao.int/en/partners/429/local-and-indigenous-communities">local and Indigenous communities</a>, in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Karoo">Karoo desert region of South Africa</a> and the traditional lands of the <a href="https://research.csiro.au/ska/location/">Wajarri Yamaji in outback Western Australia</a>. </p>
<p>An international partnership that will operate the observatory includes 16 countries located on five continents.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/Cl895XftKK6","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<h2>Radio observations</h2>
<p>Observing the sky with radio telescopes is not just (or even mostly) about looking for aliens. Electromagnetic radiation at radio wavelengths is produced by some of the most interesting and mysterious objects in the universe. These range from the supermassive black holes at the hearts of distant galaxies to pulsars that spin at dizzying rates like the fastest lighthouses, to the baffling explosions that produce <a href="https://www.dunlap.utoronto.ca/observational-research/time-domain-science/fast-radio-bursts/">fast radio bursts</a>. </p>
<p>To detect these faint signals when they reach Earth, we need many sophisticated antennas spread over large geographical areas, and located in places far from human-generated interference. </p>
<h2>Canadian involvement</h2>
<p>Canadian scientists are involved in many international projects, including the <a href="https://home.cern/science/accelerators/large-hadron-collider">Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland</a> and <a href="https://www.snolab.ca/">SNOLAB underground laboratory in Lively, Ont.</a>. </p>
<p>The Canadian Astronomical Society makes recommendations on telescope participation through a <a href="https://casca.ca/?page_id=11499">decade long range plan</a> in which the professional astronomy community considers its priorities. Full participation in the SKA was the highest priority among large projects of the most recent plan <a href="https://casca.ca/?page_id=11499">that covers 2020 to 2030</a>. </p>
<p>Canada has already been a key partner in <a href="https://www.skao.int/en/partners/prospective-members/388/canada#__otpm0">the SKA project for over 20 years</a>, making contributions to both the technical and scientific designs. There is no other existing or planned telescope like the SKAO, and not participating would have meant that Canadian astronomers would miss out. </p>
<h2>Canadian leadership</h2>
<p>Canadian astronomy, despite its small size, is a world leader. We already conduct research with radio astronomy facilities such as the <a href="https://chime-experiment.ca/en">CHIME</a> experiment near Penticton, B.C., <a href="https://almaobservatory.org/en/home/">Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array</a> in Chile and the <a href="https://science.nrao.edu/facilities/vla">Jansky Very Large Array</a> in New Mexico. Participation in the SKAO will allow us to keep making new discoveries, thanks to one of the largest Canadian investments in astronomy to date.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="a blue-lit circular device" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548372/original/file-20230914-19-joy01g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548372/original/file-20230914-19-joy01g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548372/original/file-20230914-19-joy01g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548372/original/file-20230914-19-joy01g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548372/original/file-20230914-19-joy01g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548372/original/file-20230914-19-joy01g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548372/original/file-20230914-19-joy01g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research where the Higgs boson was detected in 2012.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Canada’s membership in the SKAO will allow Canadian companies to bid on shares of the work to be done for this billion-dollar mega science project. <a href="https://www.skao.int/en/partners/prospective-members/388/canada#__otpm5">Technologies developed for the project</a> will include computer hardware for digital signal processing and antenna dishes that can be mass produced of composite materials. These technologies may have applications in other industries. There is also the opportunity to strengthen Canada’s innovation culture and international reputation as a technology leader. </p>
<p>Once at full operation, the SKAO will produce a data firehose: <a href="https://www.skao.int/en/explore/big-data">300 petabytes</a>, or about half a million typical laptop hard drives, per year. Developing the computer hardware and software for processing the SKA data will be another technological win for Canada: the algorithms and know-how needed can be adapted for big data applications elsewhere, from climate modelling to epidemiological research.</p>
<h2>Future generations</h2>
<p>SKAO is not just another radio telescope. Construction will be <a href="https://www.space.com/square-kilometer-array-observatory-construction-begins">completed in 2029</a>, with significant Canadian contributions. Membership in SKAO will also attract and train the next generation of Canadian scientists and engineers. </p>
<p>The excitement of space attracts many youth to STEM careers, and those who choose to study astronomy will have the opportunity to work with cutting-edge hardware and vast amounts of data. Some of those graduates will go on to work in astronomy research, while others will apply their skills to careers in finance, health care or environmental monitoring and protection. This will help build Canada’s capacity for innovation in a technologically driven future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201341/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pauline Barmby receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Canadian Space Agency and was co-chair of the Canadian Astronomical Society’s 2020 Long Range Plan panel.</span></em></p>Canada’s partnership in the world’s largest radio telescope, located in South Africa and Australia, creates new opportunities for research, but the benefits go beyond astronomy.Pauline Barmby, Professor, Physics & Astronomy, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2119662023-08-22T17:49:23Z2023-08-22T17:49:23ZAs Canadian wildfires rage, Facebook’s news ban reveals the importance of radio<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/as-canadian-wildfires-rage-facebooks-news-ban-reveals-the-importance-of-radio" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Amid the wildfire crisis in the Northwest Territories and the Aug. 16 order to evacuate its capital city, Yellowknife, the outcry over Meta’s Canadian news block has reached new heights. The issue has become even more pressing as evacuees face challenges getting essential updates. </p>
<p>I was visiting Paulatuk, a remote part of N.W.T, almost 900 kilometres northwest of Yellowknife when the evacuation order was issued. </p>
<p>I was aware of the news ban on Facebook but I was also able to turn to CBC North’s radio broadcast for updates. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/mediacentre/program/cbc-radio-one-north">CBC North</a> moved its broadcast base from Yellowknife to Calgary to provide continued coverage throughout the unfolding situation. </p>
<p>Based on my recent personal experience in the region, I was reminded that although social media has been vital for disseminating crisis information, AM and FM radio still play an essential role. As well, there is a necessity for a diversity of media sources, especially in moments of crisis. </p>
<h2>‘Reckless’ news-blocking in a crisis</h2>
<p>Following the order to evacuate Yellowknife, many expressed their frustration with the news ban and called on Meta (formerly Facebook) to revoke its embargo of news in Canada so evacuees could access and share real-time updates in a rapidly evolving emergency. </p>
<p>News organizations reflected on the urgency and published a flurry of articles with headlines like “<a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/canada-demands-meta-lift-reckless-ban-on-news-to-allow-fires-info-to-be-shared-1.6525390">Canada demands Meta lift ‘reckless’ ban on news to allow fires info to be shared</a>” and “<a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/meta-news-blocking-reckless-during-wildfire-evacuations">Government calls on Meta to reverse ‘reckless’ news-blocking as wildfires force evacuations</a>.”</p>
<p>Meta’s Canadian news embargo is the corporation’s response to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/c-18-your-questions-answered-1.6925260">Canada’s Online News Act</a>, which passed in June. The <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/online-news.html">federal government legislation may require large social media platforms to enter into revenue-sharing agreements with Canadian news publishers</a>. </p>
<p>This new law has been divisive, with <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/don-t-be-intimidated-canada-pass-bill-c-18-the-online-news-act/article_3919b0f7-68ea-5393-bae0-21d170e59134.html">some lauding it as vital for preserving quality journalism</a> and others arguing it’s a misguided approach, <a href="https://www.mcgill.ca/maxbellschool/max-policy/c-18">advocating alternative methods to achieve similar goals</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1693837916710269236"}"></div></p>
<h2>Social media plays a vital role</h2>
<p>Meta’s news block is significant because it affects both Facebook and Instagram. </p>
<p>Although Meta has claimed “<a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2023/05/metas-position-on-canadas-online-news-act/">users don’t come to us for news</a>,” there is little doubt that social media is an indispensable tool for many to stay connected on current events and to share information among friends and family — especially during emergencies.</p>
<p>Studies have shown that <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003043409">social media is vital for disseminating crucial information to the public</a> during crisis situations. The ongoing block on news in Canada has made this sharing difficult. </p>
<p>Even with declared states of emergency in both the Northwest Territories and British Columbia, Meta has made no changes to its policy.</p>
<p>News and critical updates are still accessible by going directly to news publishers’ websites. For example, the Cabin Radio website, based in the Northwest Territories, remains a dependable and <a href="https://cabinradio.ca/143992/news/yellowknife/guide-to-financial-assistance-and-other-supports-for-nwt-evacuees/">frequently updated information source for citizens</a>, even though it is blocked on Facebook and Instagram. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People in a long lineup with luggage in a parking lot." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544003/original/file-20230822-25-4ikzip.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544003/original/file-20230822-25-4ikzip.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544003/original/file-20230822-25-4ikzip.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544003/original/file-20230822-25-4ikzip.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544003/original/file-20230822-25-4ikzip.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544003/original/file-20230822-25-4ikzip.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544003/original/file-20230822-25-4ikzip.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People without vehicles line up to register for a flight to Calgary in Yellowknife on Aug. 17, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Bill Braden</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Free-to-air’ broadcast radio</h2>
<p>Other citizens have resorted to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/nwt-wildfire-evacuation-meta-blocking-news-1.6939286">taking screenshots of news stories and then sharing these with their social networks on Meta’s platforms</a>.</p>
<p>In more extreme scenarios, such as when fires disrupt critical infrastructure, including telecommunications, <a href="https://cabinradio.ca/140733/news/environment/wildfires/communications-down-in-a-dozen-nwt-communities/">internet accessibility is compromised in many communities</a> (except perhaps for those with satellite-based services). This underscores <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1550147719829">the fragility of internet-dependent communications during emergencies</a>.</p>
<p>In the realms of engineering and emergency planning, the term “<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/steveandriole/2021/07/16/too-many-single-points-of-failure-threaten-our-digital-infrastructures----theyre-multiplying/?sh=109cd0761317">single point of failure</a>” describes situations in which an entire system stops working when a lone component fails. Relying exclusively on social media or the internet exposes us to a kind of single-point of failure in our emergency communications system.</p>
<p>In fact, reading about the Meta news block may lead people to mistakenly assume that social media is the <em>only</em> source of information on the current wildfire situation in N.W.T. and Kelowna. </p>
<p>It’s not. We should not overlook the significance of “free-to-air” broadcast radio in delivering reliable and trustworthy information to citizens.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Cranes feed on a beach in a hazy smoke." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544007/original/file-20230822-23-9p1541.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544007/original/file-20230822-23-9p1541.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544007/original/file-20230822-23-9p1541.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544007/original/file-20230822-23-9p1541.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544007/original/file-20230822-23-9p1541.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544007/original/file-20230822-23-9p1541.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544007/original/file-20230822-23-9p1541.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Heavy smoke from nearby wildfires fills the sky as sandhill cranes feed with houseboats in the distance in Yellowknife on Aug. 15, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Angela Gzowski</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Variety of media sources</h2>
<p>Broadcast radio has persevered, ensuring critical updates reach citizens. </p>
<p>During emergencies especially, “free-to-air” radio is a dependable and easily accessible source of timely information, particularly when internet and phone networks falter and when people are on the move, travelling between urban centres where there may be no internet service.</p>
<p>It’s not a matter of choosing between one or the other, but rather ensuring we don’t underestimate the lasting relevance of free-to-air radio as a form of “<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1572329">complementary redundancy</a>.” This concept underscores the importance of relying on a blend of highly reliable systems like broadcast radio combined with the internet and social media. </p>
<p>The two systems can work hand-in-hand. The internet and social media may be somewhat less reliable during a crisis, but can nonetheless be exceptionally effective at sharing a rich variety of media content, including maps and interactive exchanges of information. This includes user-generated updates when there are no reporters or local media on the scene.</p>
<h2>Highly reliable news source</h2>
<p>As we look forward, we should not let our reliance on social media overshadow the continuing significance of free-to-air broadcast radio as a cost-effective, highly reliable information source. </p>
<p>AM radio, in particular, continues to <a href="https://www.agcanada.com/daily/potential-loss-of-am-radio-in-vehicles-a-concern-for-farmers">play an important role for farmers and others in remote areas</a> for market and weather reports, as well as emergency updates. </p>
<p>Recent decisions by several automobile manufacturers <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/05/13/am-radio-electric-cars/">to phase out AM radio from cars</a> has some lawmakers in the United States concerned. And as a result, a new <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/1669">bipartisan bill to ensure AM radio remains a standard feature in all new cars has been proposed</a>.</p>
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<p>We’ve come to rely on social media as a vital source of information during emergency events.</p>
<p>But Meta’s continued ban on news in Canada during the wildfire events in the Northwest Territories and British Columbia serves as a reminder of the enduring value of free-to-air broadcast radio, even in the digital age.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211966/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gordon A. Gow receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).</span></em></p>Social media has been vital for disseminating information during crises, but with Facebook’s ban of news in Canada, old-school media, especially radio, is critically important.Gordon A. Gow, Professor, Sociology/Media & Technology Studies, University of AlbertaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2073102023-06-20T01:39:56Z2023-06-20T01:39:56ZWhat’s a fair price to pay for music? In Australia, musicians aren’t getting paid as much as overseas artists for songs played on the radio<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532526/original/file-20230619-25-q6o53b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5607%2C3732&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> </figcaption></figure><p>The Australian recording industry recently announced a campaign called <a href="https://www.ppca.com.au/news/radio-fair-play">Radio Fair Play</a>. </p>
<p>The campaign argues “artists and rights holders aren’t getting paid fairly for songs played on radio”, in reference to the license fees radio stations pay for the use of songs in their broadcasts.</p>
<p>In Australia, sound recording license fees are collected by the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia (PPCA) who distributes the revenue as income to record labels and artists. <a href="https://www.ppca.com.au/about-us/radio-cap">PPCA claims</a> Australian radio pays between just 10 and 27% of the commercial rates paid elsewhere in the world and artists here are being considerably underpaid.</p>
<p>It seems like a simple argument - “pay artists fairly”. But there are more factors at play than just whether radio stations will pay higher fees. </p>
<p>For starters, standing in the way is a 55-year-old Australian law that currently protects commercial radio and the ABC from paying more. </p>
<h2>What are radio caps?</h2>
<p>Formal recognition of economic rights in sound recordings didn’t exist in Australia until the introduction of the Copyright Act in 1968. Prior to this, only songwriters received royalties when their music was played on the radio.</p>
<p>Parliamentary negotiations leading up to the Copyright Act were dominated by the broadcasters and record companies, and focused on two crucial points of contention: who do the broadcasters have to pay? And how much do the broadcasters have to pay?</p>
<p>The Labor opposition supported the legislation of sound recording rights for all parties - record labels, broadcasters and performers. However, the governing coalition was dramatically split in its support. While the Liberals were keen on the proposal, the Country Party held serious concerns that license fees would severely impact regional radio, a position that threatened to dismantle the coalition. </p>
<p>In the end, the Copyright Act 1968 included an economic right for sound recordings, but in order to keep the government intact and appease the broadcasters, limitations on license fees were also legislated.</p>
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<p>“Radio Caps” place an upper limit on annual license fees for the use of sound recordings, such as songs. Commercial stations are capped at no more than 1% of their gross revenue, while the ABC pays $0.005 (half a cent) multiplied by the total population of Australia. </p>
<p>PPCA argues these laws are unfair, “unique to sound recordings” and puts Australia in a position that is “out of step” with the rest of the world. </p>
<p>They have a point. The rate for sound recordings is currently set at 0.4%. In comparison, songwriting royalty rates for Australian commercial radio, which have no such statutory cap, are set at a much higher rate of up to 3.76%. </p>
<p>If the caps are scrapped, the market could determine what the music is worth and, effectively, the size of the revenue pool. Labels and artists expect their share of the pool, which is determined according to their proportion of airplay, to receive a significant boost. </p>
<p>Paying artists more for the use of their music on radio is a great concept, but the Radio Fair Play campaign cannot result solely in “better deals” for record companies and artists. It must be fair for all musicians, as well as the listeners, consumers and communities who rely on broadcast radio. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-is-one-of-few-countries-that-doesnt-pay-session-musicians-ongoing-royalties-our-music-industry-suffers-as-a-result-185022">Australia is one of few countries that doesn't pay session musicians ongoing royalties. Our music industry suffers as a result</a>
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<h2>Is it as easy as removing the caps?</h2>
<p>PPCA have “fought for decades” to remove these caps. Their claims have been supported by a number of independent reviews, and in 2006 the Australian government announced the caps would be abolished - but this has never happened. </p>
<p>If PPCA want to be successful this time around, they will need to have broader support across not only the music industry, but the wider community as well.</p>
<p>This campaign must address the potential effects of higher license fees on regional radio, such as redundancies and closures. The demise of local regional print journalism has been well documented, and radio is one of few remaining media that offers communities a local voice.</p>
<p>There are a number of solutions that have already been proposed for the struggling regions, such as new media monopoly laws, government advertising subsidies, and startup funding for new communications technologies. </p>
<p>But concrete plans to support these communities need to be designed and implemented by industry and government <em>before</em> regional media receive another shattering blow in being forced to pay a higher proportion of their revenue in music licensing. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/regional-journalism-is-dying-advertising-subsidies-wont-help-181255">Regional journalism is dying: advertising subsidies won't help</a>
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<h2>More than just an ‘artist’ issue</h2>
<p>There is another issue for performers that needs to be addressed as well. New laws that aim to grow the royalty revenue pool should also remunerate musicians that are currently not being supported by license fees. </p>
<p>While the Copyright Act 1968 offered no economic rights to performers <em>at large</em>, there has since been global advancements in intellectual property rights and equitable remuneration. </p>
<p>From the late 90s, session musicians on sound recordings have received a share of broadcast license fees all around the world - except in Australia, where session musicians get no royalty payments at all.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-is-one-of-few-countries-that-doesnt-pay-session-musicians-ongoing-royalties-our-music-industry-suffers-as-a-result-185022">Australia is one of few countries that doesn't pay session musicians ongoing royalties. Our music industry suffers as a result</a>
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<p>This issue is absent from the Radio Fair Play campaign. If the recording industry believes fixing one anomaly is important, they should also support fairness overall.</p>
<p>It will take a unified approach and some bold reform to ensure there is a whole-of-industry solution that covers all of the issues and equitably remunerates all of the players. Australia painted itself into a corner in 1968, and now there’s quite a lot of renovating to do.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207310/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rod Davies is a freelance musician and a member of MEAA/Musicians Australia, which is part of a coalition campaigning and working on behalf of musicians for equitable remuneration.</span></em></p>Australian radio pays between just 10 and 27% of the commercial rates paid elsewhere in the world – artists here are being considerably underpaid.Rod Davies, Lecturer in popular music and songwriting, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2047342023-05-04T12:12:53Z2023-05-04T12:12:53ZJerry Springer may have perfected the art of chasing ratings, but his predecessors laid the groundwork<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523877/original/file-20230502-3336-4e90m3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C3%2C2118%2C1383&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jerry Springer was the ringmaster of a trashy but very successful circus. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/jerry-springer-speaks-to-guests-during-his-show-december-17-news-photo/51096066?adppopup=true">Hulton Archive/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/06/05/93844948.html?pageNumber=137">In a widely quoted New York Times column</a>, the paper of record called his TV program “an electronic peepshow.” The Times’ media critic, Jack Gould, accused him of “making a commercial virtue of cheap sensationalism” and exploiting the worst in human behavior, just to get ratings. </p>
<p>But this was not a critique about controversial talk show host Jerry Springer, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/arts/television/jerry-springer-dead.html">who died on April 27, 2023</a>. It was a column about an equally controversial talk show host named <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/joe-pyne-first-shock-jock-180963237/">Joe Pyne</a>, who pioneered an opinionated and confrontational style of program, first on radio and then on TV, where he insulted callers and argued with guests. </p>
<p>Gould wrote the article on June 5, 1966. </p>
<p>In other words, we’ve been here before. </p>
<p>The death of Springer has prompted many comments about his role in America’s toxic media culture. Writing in The Guardian, Michael Carlson noted that while Springer was not the first to try this formula, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/apr/28/jerry-springer-obituary">he elevated it to an art form</a>, leading to “the rise of so-called reality television, in which contestants chosen for their exhibitionism tried to outdo each other in humiliations and conflicts created and scripted by the producers.”</p>
<p>But I think it’s important to put Springer’s passing in perspective and consider him in the context of some decadeslong media trends. </p>
<h2>Misplaced nostalgia</h2>
<p>As far back as the 1930s, parents were complaining that some radio programs were <a href="https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Site-Early-Radio/Archive-Radio-Guide-IDX-Site/IDX/1938/Radio-Guide-38-12-17-OCR-Page-0005.pdf#search=%22mrs%20con%22">setting a bad example for their kids</a>. </p>
<p>When television came along, those complaints intensified. In 1961, Federal Communications Commission Chair Newton N. Minow <a href="https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Magazines/Archive-BC-IDX/61-OCR/1961-05-15-BC-OCR-Page-0056.pdf#search=%22vast%20wasteland%20television%22">gave his “vast wasteland” speech</a>, in which he criticized television executives for endless hours of “game shows, violence, audience participation shows, formula comedies, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder … private eyes, gangsters, more violence, and cartoons.”</p>
<p>There are fond recollections of a time when the media were kinder and gentler, when <a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/955/fairness-doctrine">the fairness doctrine</a> kept the nation’s airwaves from descending into partisan chaos. Even Minow has continued to insist that <a href="https://wtop.com/entertainment/2021/02/newton-and-nell-minow-reflect-on-tvs-vast-wasteland-fairness-doctrine/">the fairness doctrine served a positive purpose</a> because it ensured that both sides of issues were heard. </p>
<p>But as media historian <a href="https://theconversation.com/american-broadcasting-has-always-been-closely-intertwined-with-american-politics-94392">Michael Socolow has pointed out</a>, the fairness doctrine was never a magic answer. </p>
<p>When I wrote my book about talk shows, “<a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Icons_of_Talk.html?id=bCzuAAAAMAAJ">Icons of Talk</a>,” I explored how the genre had gradually evolved from informative – and, let’s be honest, sometimes dull – discussions between the host and experts to a more combative style championed by Pyne and his radio successor, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/03/nyregion/bob-grant-a-pioneer-of-right-wing-talk-radio-dies-at-84.html">Bob Grant</a>, a hard-right conservative who frequently insulted liberals, Black people, welfare recipients, feminists, gay people and anyone who disagreed with him. </p>
<p>Controversial programs, including “The Joe Pyne Show,” were on the air while the fairness doctrine was in force, and so were Grant and others of his ilk. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man gestures while speaking into microphone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523885/original/file-20230502-3972-471vls.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523885/original/file-20230502-3972-471vls.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523885/original/file-20230502-3972-471vls.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523885/original/file-20230502-3972-471vls.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523885/original/file-20230502-3972-471vls.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523885/original/file-20230502-3972-471vls.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523885/original/file-20230502-3972-471vls.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">FCC chair Newton N. Minow decried the ‘vast wasteland’ of television programming in 1961.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/minow.jpeg">AP Photo</a></span>
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<p>Similarly, while the FCC used to exert tighter control over offensive language, making it more difficult for DJs to push the envelope, a Los Angeles announcer named Bill Ballance was able <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/576168610/?terms=%22Bill%20Ballance%22%20%22topless%20radio%22&match=1">to debut “topless radio” in 1971</a>. It was a call-in format in which listeners, mostly women, revealed intimate details of their sex life to Ballance.</p>
<p>Critics called the show obscene, and some people wrote irate letters to the FCC. But the show proved wildly popular, <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/371361730/?terms=%22Bill%20Ballance%22%20%22Topless%20radio%22&match=1">becoming No. 1 in its time slot in Los Angeles</a>, and imitators cropped up around the country. (After receiving thousands of complaints, <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/74659606/?terms=%22Bill%20Ballance%22%20%22Topless%20radio%22%20%22FCC%22&match=1">the FCC finally took action in 1973</a>, warning stations broadcasting “topless radio” to stop airing “prurient trash.”) </p>
<h2>Fighting for eyeballs</h2>
<p>While Socolow is right that there never were any “good old days,” it’s worth noting that in the period from the 1920s through the 1960s, controversial programs were still the exception. </p>
<p>This was the era prior to deregulation, and the FCC played a more active role in approving or denying broadcasting licenses. Most station owners tried to avoid getting bad publicity that might upset the FCC and also alienate potential advertisers.</p>
<p>But then the media landscape changed. </p>
<p>By the time Springer hosted his first television show in 1991, the deregulation of broadcasting was well underway. For better or worse, the fairness doctrine was gone, and one-sided, partisan talk radio programs with outspoken hosts were proliferating. There was also more competition. </p>
<p>When I was growing up in the 1950s, there were only a handful of TV channels on the air. But by the late 1980s, the number of broadcast channels had steadily increased, and cable TV was experiencing dramatic growth, giving viewers even more choices. (Not everyone was impressed with all of those options; Bruce Springsteen’s 1992 song “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAlDbP4tdqc">57 Channels and Nothing On</a>” reflected the opinion that more didn’t always mean better.)</p>
<p>Given all of the competition, this meant even greater pressure on program hosts to get good ratings to generate revenue for their station. With so many programs, holding the audience’s attention was a challenge.</p>
<p>Even the news departments, historically immune from ratings pressures, were affected: News segments were shortened because <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/718945856/?terms=viewers%20%22shorter%20attention%20spans%22">people’s attention spans were becoming shorter</a>, and news anchors were expected to be more personable. The serious and dispassionate style of anchoring, personified by Walter Cronkite, was <a href="https://www.nexttv.com/news/changing-face-tv-anchors-171088">replaced with conversational banter</a>. </p>
<p>Springer, a former newscaster and politician, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Icons_of_Talk.html?id=bCzuAAAAMAAJ">initially tried a traditional and issues-oriented daytime talk show</a>. But when ratings sagged, he gradually transitioned to a program guaranteed to attract more attention.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The first episode of ‘The Jerry Springer Show’ included a sober discussion with former National Security Council staffer Oliver North.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The revamped “Jerry Springer Show” was proudly lowbrow, an often-chaotic and always-combative show that was cheap to produce and had a simple formula: Viewers could be voyeurs, watching as the guests fought. </p>
<p>A guest might confront their spouse’s paramour, or reveal having a second family. Accusations flew, people screamed at each other and sometimes the set turned violent, with the Springer security force always primed to break up the fights. The studio audience cheered it all on, gleefully shouting “Jerry! Jerry!” as Springer stood by, calmly observing the chaos, the ringmaster of his trashy but very successful circus. </p>
<p>His show became the program the critics loved to hate. But as with Ballance, it became a ratings juggernaut. It was syndicated across the country and aired for 27 years. At its height, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/arts/television/jerry-springer-dead.html">“The Jerry Springer Show” attracted as many as 8 million viewers</a>. </p>
<p>When criticized, Springer defended his show, which also opened the door for other equally outrageous daytime tabloid programs to flourish. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/04/27/1172435531/jerry-springer-dies-obituary">As he told media critic Eric Deggans in 1997</a>, the show had a positive purpose. </p>
<p>“When TV is at its best, it’s like a mirror. … If this does nothing more than get people to sit around the dinner table and discuss this, it’s done some good.” </p>
<p>In reality, the Springer show was never about “TV at its best.” It was all about getting big ratings. </p>
<p>As a media historian, I’m aware that there have been many other outrageous programs on the air. But I must admit I don’t understand the fascination with watching people at their lowest moments.</p>
<p>Chances are the next Jerry Springer will have to be even more outrageous, someone who does something different from what has already been done before. Tabloid, sensationalist programs have been written off before, and yet they keep attracting viewers. </p>
<p>Until audiences decide they no longer want to buy what this type of program is selling, it’s only a matter of time before the next Springer emerges.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204734/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donna L. Halper does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the competitive media landscape of the early 1990s, seizing audience attention was a priority. What better way to do it than with a cheaply produced show that appealed to viewers’ basest instincts?Donna L. Halper, Associate Professor of Communication, Lesley UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2046692023-05-02T12:14:13Z2023-05-02T12:14:13ZJerry Springer and the history of that [bleeping] bleep sound<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523632/original/file-20230501-344-ywvubi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C25%2C4234%2C2808&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Security guards separate guests on an episode of 'The Jerry Springer Show' titled 'I am pregnant by my half-brother.'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/security-guard-steve-wilkos-and-another-guard-separate-and-news-photo/534247502?adppopup=true">Ralf-Finn Hestoft/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/arts/television/jerry-springer-dead.html">Jerry Springer’s death</a> on April 27, 2023, writers have been working through the cultural significance of his eponymous daytime talk show. </p>
<p>For 27 years, Springer’s circus of sensationalism was a remarkably durable and bankable commodity. Helping to normalize outrageousness in culture, it taught content creators that <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2023/04/jerry-springer-obituary/673885/">shamelessness is a lucrative industry</a>. </p>
<p>It’s been framed as a harbinger of “‘anything goes’ reality television” or “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/28/entertainment/jerry-springer-column/index.html">trash TV</a>” and decried for setting a “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/arts/television/jerry-springer-dead.html">new standard for tawdriness</a>” and for providing audiences with the “guilty pleasure” of “<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/jerry-springer-dead-79">chair-throwing</a>.” </p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.bellisario.psu.edu/people/individual/matthew-jordan">as a media historian</a> interested in the ways that sound structures our experience of TV shows and films, when I think of “The Jerry Springer Show,” I think of the sounds – the studio audience chanting “Jerry! Jerry!,” the boxing bell ringing when fists start flying, and the sonic dissonance between the <a href="https://youtu.be/h85gAOSmL9U">heavy metal-tinged theme song</a> and the soothing, paternal tone of its host.</p>
<p>But one of its most iconic sounds was added in post-production: <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/1000Hz.ogg">the 1000 hertz censor bleep</a>, which became more prevalent as the behavior on the show grew more profane.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">An episode of the ‘The Jerry Springer Show’ features all the sonic hallmarks of the program – a chanting crowd, the slap of hand to skin and a cascade of bleeps.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>The origins of bleeping</h2>
<p>The history of broadcasters’ bleeping out profanity reveals a lot about our culture’s ongoing negotiation of a murky concept. </p>
<p>While the First Amendment protects political speech, <a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1143/profanity">it does not protect profanity</a>, and in 1964 the Supreme Court gave the <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/obscene-indecent-and-profane-broadcasts">Federal Communications Commission the authority to police language in broadcasting</a>. </p>
<p>Yet using sounds to mask offensive language predates the FCC and dates back to a 1921 radio speech on Newark, New Jersey’s WJZ by vaudeville actress <a href="https://wfpp.columbia.edu/pioneer/ccp-olga-petrova/">Olga Petrova</a>. Petrova was famous for her outspoken advocacy for feminism and birth control, and station managers worried that she might violate the 1873 Comstock Act, which prohibited the distribution of obscene materials, <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2013/8/27/4545388/curses-the-birth-of-the-bleep-and-modern-american-censorship">including information about contraception</a>. So the radio engineers created a mechanism for masking her words with music from a phonograph when she dared speak her mind – and they ended up needing to use it <a href="https://worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/History/Tower-in-Babel-Barnouw.pdf">several times</a>. </p>
<p>By the time <a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1091/radio-act-of-1927">the FCC was established in 1934</a>, studio engineers were regularly masking profanity, as the industry was always trying to stay one step ahead of the censors and stay in the good graces of advertisers. Further innovations, like the seven-second delay, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast_delay">aided the policing of live talk shows</a>, allowing engineers to cover dirty words before they reached the audience’s ears.</p>
<p>Just exactly who deployed the bleep tone first is unclear, but engineers had long used the 1000 hertz sine wave tone to test equipment connections, so it was at their fingertips. By the mid-1960s, the bleep tone was heard everywhere, so much so that bleeping was used in FCC deliberations as a verb <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b5179471&view=1up&seq=1581&q1=bleep">to define the practice of masking profanity</a>. </p>
<h2>Bleeping’s feedback loop</h2>
<p>Yet by 1970, bleeping out words on TV news was viewed as a potential problem, with some regulators wondering if it unnecessarily tempered the way people actually behaved.</p>
<p>FCC chairman Dean Burch, for example, thought the commission should reconsider its use: “If a man stands up and calls me a dirty son of a bitch, I wonder whether we are giving the viewer the full flavor of the news if we quote him as saying, ‘<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1970/09/12/archives/burch-backs-the-survival-principle-for-tv-fare-fcc-chairman.html">You’re a dirty bleep, bleep, bleep</a>.’” </p>
<p>Nonetheless, most broadcasters tended to err on the side of caution. <a href="https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/is-free-speech-possible-on-tv/docview/133441026/se-2">Bleeping out profanity became</a> so common in U.S. broadcasting that it inspired George Carlin to satirize the practice in his <a href="https://youtu.be/8dCIKqkIg1w">Seven Dirty Words You Can’t Say on TV</a> monologue. </p>
<p>After the FCC came down on Pacifica Radio for broadcasting the bit, Pacifica sued the FCC and the case made it to the Supreme Court, which, in its decision, <a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/113/federal-communications-commission-v-pacifica-foundation">granted the FCC limited power</a> to protect the public from profanity, especially during the daytime when kids might be listening. </p>
<p>Afterward, bleeping became more commonplace on radio and television. </p>
<p>Yet for audiences yearning for counterculture programming that seemed more real, focusing attention on profanity by bleeping it created a feedback loop that made cursing – and the rebels who did it – more appealing to audiences, piquing their interest about what the bleep concealed. </p>
<p>At the same time, networks pushing for deregulation wanted to show that they could self-censor and that FCC oversight wasn’t necessary. By the early 1980s, a new radio format based on shocking public sensibilities, the “shock jock,” had emerged. Radio performers like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/27/arts/don-imus-dead.html">Don Imus</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Howard-Stern">Howard Stern</a> found that audiences would tune in to hear profane behavior <a href="https://worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/History/Listening-In-Susan-Douglas-1999.pdf">and would return daily to see just how far the performers would go</a>. </p>
<p>Industry programming followed the ratings. </p>
<h2>Springer’s brand of profane realism</h2>
<p>By the time Springer’s show began in 1991, a paradoxical mix of deregulation and self-censoring had settled over the industry, producing edgy shows with lots of bleeps. </p>
<p>Audiences experienced bleeped performances as more authentic. Provocateurs like Madonna knew cursing drew attention, and she has repeatedly used the self-promotional technique ever since her <a href="https://youtu.be/iOwHJZtLgZ8">infamous spot on “The Arsenio Hall Show” in 1990</a>, when she talked about giving good [bleep]. It was <a href="https://ew.com/article/1990/07/27/arsenio-hall-stirs-trouble/">the highest-rated Arsenio show ever</a>. </p>
<p>Springer quickly learned that booking guests who required bleeps boosted ratings.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Man holding fist to face looking contemplative." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523648/original/file-20230501-18-nmpd8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523648/original/file-20230501-18-nmpd8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523648/original/file-20230501-18-nmpd8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523648/original/file-20230501-18-nmpd8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523648/original/file-20230501-18-nmpd8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523648/original/file-20230501-18-nmpd8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523648/original/file-20230501-18-nmpd8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Jerry Springer saw the show’s violence and profanity as ‘the price of reality.’ But the ratings boost certainly didn’t hurt, either.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/talk-show-host-jerry-springer-pauses-to-listen-to-his-news-photo/534247576?adppopup=true">Ralf-Finn Hestoft/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>As the show found its niche, it shifted so that it was no longer Springer confronting racists, deviants or polygamists. Instead, guests involved in relationship betrayals or with simmering resentments would confront one another. As the frequency of the bleeps and fights increased, the ratings began to soar. By 1997, it often <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/04/27/jerry-springer-tv-show-ratings/">matched “The Oprah Winfrey Show” at the top</a> of the ratings leaderboard.</p>
<p>In one “Final Thoughts” segment in 1995, Springer defended his fight-inducing exploitation of raw emotion, calling it “the price of reality, this loss of civility, as we take entertainment to the edge of real life and real people.” The bleeping became central to the aesthetic, a Pavlovian signal to audiences at home that the explosive behavior was “real.” </p>
<p>In fact, media researchers have shown that bleeping words actually draws attention to them and that audiences perceive the frequency of profanity <a href="https://doi.org/10.1207/s15506878jobem4804_3">to be higher when words are bleeped</a>. </p>
<h2>That [bleeping] reality TV sound</h2>
<p>By the turn of the century, the show’s sound mix was set, with audiences chanting “Jerry! Jerry!” whenever the bleeps started flying. By the show’s third decade, in episodes like “<a href="https://youtu.be/OX1fx9EflAo">You slept with my stripper sister</a>,” everyone seemed to be in on the pro wrestling nature of the spectacle. </p>
<p>In case they weren’t, the bleep sound was often accompanied by a boxing bell, cuing everyone that [bleep] was getting real.</p>
<p>Toward the end of the show’s run, the meaning of the bleep sound became more comedic. Where audience reaction shots once revealed them gasping, now they were laughing. </p>
<p>The bleep sound, a standard effect heard across the burgeoning reality TV format, had great comedic impact in shows like “The Osbournes,” where Ozzy would stumble around muttering profanity that had to be bleeped. It’s telling that the bleep <a href="https://www.academia.edu/79850481/Go_Bleep_Yourself_Why_Censorship_is_Funny">became a sound effect used in scripted comedy as well</a>, exploited in shows like “Arrested Development” and “South Park” for maximum effect. </p>
<p>Today, when broadcasters want to censor profanity on live shows, like they did during the Oscars after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock, they tend <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sY-Lr5daIk">to mute the sound rather than bleep over it</a>. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, even if what counts as profanity keeps shifting, the meaning of the bleep sound is universally understood: It means profanity is happening. And like <a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1359/potter-stewart">the definition of obscenity</a> given by Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart way back in 1964, people know it when they hear it.</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This piece has been updated to correct the year the FCC was created.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204669/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Jordan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As ‘The Jerry Springer Show’ climbed the ratings ladder, the censorship bleep, which masked the slew of insults lobbed by warring guests, became a star of the show.Matthew Jordan, Associate Professor of Media Studies, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2045092023-04-27T12:31:02Z2023-04-27T12:31:02ZSaving broadcasting’s past for the future – archivists are working to capture not just tapes of TV and radio but the experience of tuning in together<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522861/original/file-20230425-18-ro9r4q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C6%2C4479%2C2984&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How will we preserve technologies so deeply embedded in daily life? </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/retro-old-tv-receiver-and-outdated-broadcast-radio-royalty-free-image/1141288438?phrase=radio%20and%20television%20old%20fashioned&adppopup=true">BrAt_PiKaChU/Istock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>We’ve lived with broadcasting <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/history-of-commercial-radio">for more than a century</a>. Starting with <a href="https://eh.net/encyclopedia/the-history-of-the-radio-industry-in-the-united-states-to-1940/">radio in the 1920s</a>, then <a href="https://dp.la/exhibitions/radio-golden-age/radio-tv">television in the 1950s</a>, Americans by the millions began purchasing boxes designed to receive electromagnetic signals transmitted from nearby towers. Upon arrival, those signals were amplified and their messages were “aired” into our lives.</p>
<p>Those invisible signals provided our kitchens, living rooms and bedrooms with access to jazz clubs, baseball stadiums and symphony halls. For a century, they have been transporting us instantly to London, Cairo or Tokyo, or back in time to the old West or deep into the imagined future of interplanetary travel. </p>
<p>The reception of those radio, then television, signals didn’t just inform us, they shaped us. Everyone experienced broadcasting individually and collectively, both intimately and as members of dispersed crowds. </p>
<p>Radio and television fostered an ephemeral and invisible public arena that expanded our understanding of the world – and ourselves. Whether it was the final episodes of <a href="https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/GangBusters.pdf">radio serials like “Gangbusters”</a>, or <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/M-A-S-H">television’s “M*A*S*H</a>” or “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Seinfeld">Seinfeld</a>,” Americans often marked the passage of time by shared broadcast experiences. </p>
<p>Even today, more <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/02/13/for-world-radio-day-key-facts-about-radio-listeners-and-the-radio-industry-in-the-u-s/">Americans use standard AM/FM radio broadcasting</a> <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/tiktok-now-150-million-active-users-us-ceo-tell-congress-rcna75607">than TikTok</a>. At a time when most Americans get their <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/local-tv-news/">news from local TV stations and broadcast television</a> networks, and radio remains pervasive, it might seem frivolous to express concern about preserving technologies so deeply embedded in daily life. </p>
<p>Yet a media evolution is occurring, as paid subscription video streaming and audio services climb in popularity, and fewer Americans are <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/186833/average-television-use-per-person-in-the-us-since-2002/">consistently tuning in to broadcast media</a>. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite reports on the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination of President John F. Kennedy.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Demise of shared moments</h2>
<p>The broadcasting era is becoming eclipsed by new media technologies. In the era of TV and radio dominance, “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/mass-media">mass media</a>” was defined by shared experiences. </p>
<p>But now, new media technologies – cable TV, the web and social media – are changing that definition, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2011.01616.x">segmenting what was once</a> a huge, undifferentiated mass audience. All those new media fragmented what were once huge collectives. Bottom line: We’re not all watching or hearing the same thing anymore.</p>
<p>With fewer Americans simultaneously sharing media experiences, the ramifications of this evolution stretch beyond the media industries and into our culture, politics and society. </p>
<p>The shared moments that electrified and unified the nation – from <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-fireside-chat-provided-a-model-for-calming-the-nation-that-president-trump-failed-to-follow-133473">President Franklin Roosevelt’s fireside chats</a> to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-jfk-media/how-the-jfk-assassination-transformed-media-coverage-idUSBRE9AK11N20131121">TV news coverage of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination</a> and up through the <a href="https://archive.org/details/911/day/20010911">Sept. 11, 2001, attacks</a> – have become more rare. Even national events, such as a presidential election, are different today in that our collective experiences now seem more individualized and less communal. People get their news about presidential elections from sources with radically different perspectives on what used to be shared facts.</p>
<p>The very idea of collectively tuning in to history as it happens has been altered, as the profusion of channels and platforms now funnels audience members into self-segregated affinity groups where messages are shaped more for confirmation than enlightenment.</p>
<h2>How to remember</h2>
<p>As we move into this new media world, broadcasting risks being relegated to the rustic past like other old media such as the rotary telephone, the nickelodeon, the 78-rpm phonograph and the DVD. </p>
<p>That’s why, from April 27-30, 2023, the Library of Congress is hosting a conference, titled “<a href="https://radiopreservation.org/2023-conference/">A Century of Broadcasting</a>,” that invites scholars, preservationists, archivists, museum educators and curators, fans and the public to discuss the most effective ways to preserve broadcasting’s history.</p>
<p>The goal of the conference, convened by the Library of Congress’ <a href="https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-plan/about-this-program/radio-preservation-task-force/">Radio Preservation Task Force</a>, is to begin envisioning the future of this technology’s past. As a <a href="https://cmj.umaine.edu/faculty-staff/michael-j-socolow/">radio historian</a> and member of the Radio Preservation Task Force, I was invited to serve on the <a href="https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-plan/documents/23-LOC-conference-program.pdf">conference organizing team</a>. <a href="https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-plan/documents/23-LOC-conference-program.pdf">Panels, papers and presentations</a> will look at how broadcasting is currently being archived, and how we, as a society, can think more systematically and formally about how we’ll remember broadcasting. While the task force is primarily concerned with broadcasting’s inception as radio, aspects of television’s past will be included as well. </p>
<p>Preserving radio – and TV – is not as simple as storing machines or tapes. To understand broadcasting history, preservationists must try to describe an experience. It isn’t enough to show somebody the printed script from a 1934 Jack Benny radio program, or <a href="https://www.si.edu/object/archie-bunkers-chair-all-family%3Anmah_670097">the theatrical stage set</a> used when “All in the Family” was taped before a live studio audience in 1973. To comprehend what Jack Benny, Gracie Allen or Jackie Gleason meant to the people of the United States involves trying to imagine, and almost feel, an experience.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">A recording of the Jack Benny radio show of Jan. 1, 1955, titled “Jack Doesn’t Have a Script.”</span></figcaption>
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<h2>‘Essential’ first step</h2>
<p>The Radio Preservation Task Force seeks to go beyond the big corporate commercial collections that already exist. <a href="https://www.loc.gov/rr/record/recnbc.html">NBC’s radio and TV archives</a>, as well as the <a href="https://invention.si.edu/rca-corporation-records-1887-1983-bulk-1914-1968">Radio Corporation of America’s</a> and others, are already well-preserved and housed at repositories like the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution. </p>
<p>The Radio Preservation Task Force is concerned with the diverse universe of broadcasting, including the many types of stations and networks that defined American broadcasting. </p>
<p>“Millions of Americans listened to college, community and educational radio stations that were less famous than CBS and NBC but still played an important role in daily life,” notes University of Colorado <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/cmci/people/media-studies/josh-shepperd">scholar Josh Shepperd</a>, chair of the Radio Preservation Task Force. “<a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/idx/j/jcms/18261332.0062.701/--presencing-through-preserving-sound-history-at-historical?rgn=main;view=fulltext">Preservation projects associated</a> with the Radio Preservation Task Force have revealed to us that <a href="https://www.wyso.org/hbcuradioproject">African American radio stations</a> played an important role in helping catalyze the Civil Rights Movement by fostering and inspiring community.” </p>
<p>Shepperd added that “those are just two examples of often-overlooked but essential components of our nation’s broadcast history.” </p>
<p>At the “<a href="https://radiopreservation.org/full-conference-schedule/">Century of Broadcasting” Conference</a>, scholars will examine such varied topics as how gender roles were performed on the air and how Spanish-language radio maintained listener identity with the community while broadening outreach. The conference also includes discussion of international and global radio communities, with scholars presenting on broadcasting history from France, Germany and Latin America. </p>
<p>“There’s even a panel on preserving the history of unlicensed and illegal ‘pirate’ radio,” says Shepperd. </p>
<p>Our media remains so atmospheric – it’s everywhere, all the time – that we too rarely pause to concentrate on how it evolves and how those transformations ultimately influence us. </p>
<p>Radio and TV might not technically be “endangered” right now; after all, we all still use telephones even if they look completely different and serve functions largely unimaginable 40 years ago. </p>
<p>Yet moving beyond the broadcast era holds important ramifications for all of us, even if we cannot precisely discern them in this moment. Recognizing the need to preserve radio and TV’s past marks an essential first step, so that the future will be properly informed about how we lived and communicated for over a century of American history.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204509/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael J. Socolow is a member of the Library of Congress Radio Preservation Task Force, and was on the conference organizing team for the "Century of Broadcasting" conference. </span></em></p>Scholars, preservationists, archivists, museum educators and curators, fans and the public are meeting in late April in the nation’s capital to figure out how to preserve broadcasting’s history.Michael J. Socolow, Associate Professor of Communication and Journalism, University of MaineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2018622023-04-05T20:51:06Z2023-04-05T20:51:06ZHow the Online Streaming Act will support Canadian content<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519204/original/file-20230404-404-nq3k5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C0%2C997%2C666&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Online Streaming Act aims to level the playing field between streaming giants and legacy Canadian radio and television broadcasters.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After two-and-a-half years of debate in Canada’s Parliament, two proposed versions of the bill (<a href="https://www.parl.ca/legisinfo/en/bill/43-2/c-10">C-10</a> and <a href="https://www.parl.ca/LegisInfo/en/bill/44-1/c-11">C-11</a>) and <a href="https://sencanada.ca/en/sencaplus/news/the-online-streaming-act-in-the-senate/">careful scrutiny by the Senate</a>, the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/modernization-broadcasting-act.html">Online Streaming Act</a> is close to becoming law. </p>
<p>Once it receives <a href="https://sencanada.ca/en/about/procedural-references/notes/n6">royal assent</a>, the bill will trigger significant — and for some, long-awaited — changes to Canada’s <a href="https://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/B-9.01/">Broadcasting Act</a>, which was last updated in 1991.</p>
<p>The Online Streaming Act aims to <a href="https://www.thewirereport.ca/2023/01/12/online-streaming-act-will-modernize-broadcast-laws-crtc-commissioner/">adapt Canadian broadcasting regulation for the 21st century</a>. It does this by accounting for digital technologies and the diversity of the Canadian population. Few could argue with the necessity of updating broadcasting legislation that was last changed <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/internet">before internet use became widespread in Canada</a>. But <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/online-streaming-act-cancon-future-1.6749795">some fear the bill will have negative impacts</a> on freedom of expression for digital content creators and the variety of content Canadian audiences see.</p>
<h2>What the act will and won’t do</h2>
<p>The Online Streaming Act aims to <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books/reviews/article-the-failure-to-protect-canadian-culture-in-the-digital-age-makes-for/">level the playing field</a> between streaming giants like Netflix and Spotify and legacy Canadian radio and television broadcasters. In this sense, the bill serves as a legislative counterweight to the thus far <a href="https://doi.org/10.22230/cjc.2020v45n3a3901">under-regulated world of digital platforms</a> in Canada.</p>
<p>Like their legacy counterparts, online streaming services may need to register with the <a href="https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/home-accueil.htm">Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission</a> (CRTC) once the Online Streaming Act is law. This is a major incentive for regulating online broadcasting since streaming services will be required to contribute financially to the <a href="https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/cancon/mandate.htm">CanCon (Canadian Content) system</a>. This is a regulatory framework that supports the production of content <a href="https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/cancon/c_cdn.htm">certified as Canadian</a>. </p>
<p>The objective is to financially support cultural production by Canadians which would otherwise be hard to sustain given the small Canadian market. This cultural policy measure also aims to amplify homegrown content to strengthen a sense of what it means to be Canadian. For example, <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/hockey-night-in-canada"><em>Hockey Night in Canada</em></a>, which has served as a national symbol since the 1930s.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519200/original/file-20230404-572-x0olw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A smart phone showing app logos for online streaming services." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519200/original/file-20230404-572-x0olw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519200/original/file-20230404-572-x0olw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519200/original/file-20230404-572-x0olw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519200/original/file-20230404-572-x0olw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519200/original/file-20230404-572-x0olw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519200/original/file-20230404-572-x0olw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519200/original/file-20230404-572-x0olw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Under the act, online streaming services will need to obtain a licence from the CRTC to operate in Canada.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like other sectors of the economy, Canadian cultural industries need a boost from policies like CanCon quotas set by the <a href="https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/cancon/c_system.htm">CRTC’s regulatory framework</a>. What underscores these measures is a desire to grow cultural industries and uphold a sense of national identity.</p>
<p>Online streaming services will be required to feature a certain amount of Canadian content and to increase its <a href="https://cmf-fmc.ca/now-next/research-reports/discoverability-toward-a-common-frame-of-reference/">discoverability</a>. This does not mean that Canadian audiences will be force-fed Canadian content or that barriers will be placed onto the licensing of international content. In conventional broadcasting, Canadian content quotas serve as a discoverability measure, ensuring that minimum amounts of Canadian programs are broadcast to the public.</p>
<p>Canadians may see more Canadian music or shows pop up in the feeds of their favourite streaming service. However, the Online Streaming Act does not define discoverability and leaves it up to the CRTC to set parameters and targets. This could be difficult because of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/205630511881918">multifaceted nature of discoverability</a>, which involves a combination of user interface, software design, algorithmic governance and individual choices.</p>
<p>There has been confusion about <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLQ0ZffdKjo&t=17s">whether the Online Streaming Act opens the door to censorship on social media</a>. The current version of the bill clearly specifies that non-commercial user-generated content posted to social media platforms will be excluded from the regulatory framework. Government intervention, beyond banning things like <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/department-justice/news/2021/06/government-of-canada-takes-action-to-protect-canadians-against-hate-speech-and-hate-crimes.html">hate speech and harassment online</a>, would be anti-democratic. </p>
<p>The House of Commons <a href="https://openmedia.org/press/item/mps-remove-user-protection-amendment-from-bill-c-11">recently rejected the Senate’s proposal</a> to cast a wider net with this exemption. In the spirit of the act, Parliament has maintained the possibility of regulating commercial uses of social media. The act clearly distinguishes between social media posts made by the average Canadian and other uses like commercial TV broadcasts made available on YouTube. </p>
<h2>Why regulate online broadcasting?</h2>
<p>When it was <a href="https://lop.parl.ca/sites/PublicWebsite/default/en_CA/ResearchPublications/201139E#a2">introduced in 1932</a>, the Broadcasting Act <a href="https://cbc.radio-canada.ca/en/your-public-broadcaster/history">established the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)</a> and created a regulatory framework for radio communications. The aim was to create a country-wide communication system that would connect Canadians from coast to coast and develop a sense of shared national identity.</p>
<p>This <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/nationalism-and-ethnicity-cultural-nationalism">cultural nationalist</a> approach to broadcasting regulation addressed different geo-political challenges facing the young Canadian nation. Namely, Canadians’ consumption of and association with American culture and the lack of a unifying sense of Canadian-ness.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519201/original/file-20230404-543-k992e9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C0%2C4486%2C2997&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A hand holding a remote in front of a TV" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519201/original/file-20230404-543-k992e9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C0%2C4486%2C2997&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519201/original/file-20230404-543-k992e9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519201/original/file-20230404-543-k992e9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519201/original/file-20230404-543-k992e9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519201/original/file-20230404-543-k992e9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519201/original/file-20230404-543-k992e9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519201/original/file-20230404-543-k992e9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Canadians may see more Canadian music or shows pop up in the feeds of their favourite streaming service.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Broadcasting Act of 1958 introduced Canadian content regulations for private broadcasters. Since then, <a href="https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/cancon.htm">CanCon regulation</a> has developed into a complex system overseen by the CRTC. It has the twinned objective of financially supporting Canadian media and of ensuring that they will be seen and heard by Canadians. </p>
<p>This is done by mandating private commercial broadcasters to finance agencies like <a href="https://cmf-fmc.ca/">Canada Media Fund</a>, <a href="https://telefilm.ca/en">Telefilm Canada</a>, and the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/funding/music-fund.html">Canada Music Fund</a> and by setting Canadian content quotas for television and radio broadcasts.</p>
<h2>A step in the right direction?</h2>
<p>Although it aims to regulate the brave new world of online broadcasting, the Online Streaming Act reproduces the regulatory logic and framework that Canadians have known since the 1930s.</p>
<p>The act will <a href="https://cjc.utpjournals.press/doi/10.3138/cjc.2022-0006">reproduce a settler colonial framework</a> that <a href="https://theconversation.com/online-streaming-act-claims-to-level-the-playing-field-but-for-whom-179051">fosters systemic inequities</a>. Canadian cultural policy has been developed to serve the needs of a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10286632.2015.1043294">settler-colonial nation state</a> who has deployed strategies to develop a sense of Canadian cultural identity based on “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/sunday/june-25-2017-the-sunday-edition-with-michael-enright-1.4171552/canada-had-three-founding-peoples-not-two-1.4171577">two founding nations</a>.”</p>
<p>Bias in favour of white Anglo- and Franco-colonial heritage is still evident in cultural policy today, including in the Online Streaming Act. Whereas the Act includes important measures that will support Indigenous languages and content produced by BIPOC creators, it reinforces the dominance of anglophone and francophone content. </p>
<p>This logic is particularly evident in the act’s emphasis on the protection and promotion of French content. This reiterates the dominance of <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/official-languages-act-1969">Canada’s official languages</a> and could exclude members of other minority communities. As with the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/corporate/transparency/open-government/standing-committee/dm-transition-material-2021/indigenous-languages-act.html">Indigenous Languages Act</a>, the Online Streaming Act’s approach is aspirational when it comes to supporting First Nations, Inuit, and Métis cultures. However, Canadian heritage programs still view supporting official bilingualism as more important than supporting other Canadian languages. </p>
<p>The Online Streaming Act is a step in the right direction. It could create a more equitable broadcasting landscape, but it is not enough. In order to truly modernize broadcasting policy, Canadians need to revisit fundamental assumptions about what Canadian culture is, why it matters and how we should foster and safeguard it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201862/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mariane Bourcheix-Laporte has consulted for the CRTC on research related to the Online Streaming Act.</span></em></p>The Online Streaming Act is set to soon become law in Canada. The act is a step in the right direction, but more needs to be done to support BIPOC content.Mariane Bourcheix-Laporte, PhD Candidate, School of Communication, Simon Fraser UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2016882023-03-17T15:54:30Z2023-03-17T15:54:30ZWales Broadcast Archive: UK’s first national archive shows importance of preserving our audiovisual history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516021/original/file-20230317-2393-28331k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=44%2C0%2C5000%2C3308&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hundreds of thousands of hours of broadcasting history are available for the first time. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Library of Wales</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This month’s launch of the <a href="https://www.library.wales/national-broadcast-archive">Wales Broadcast Archive</a> marks a major step forward in the curation of our collective audiovisual heritage. Housed at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, the archive features a cornucopia of material dating back to the early days of broadcasting in Wales, including film, radio and video. That it is the first of its kind in the UK, however, raises important questions about access to our audiovisual history. </p>
<p>As Unesco <a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/days/audiovisual-heritage?TSPD_101_R0=080713870fab2000502fe465bc04f6b27c52c9a0193e80a672ab1f5e21b1a4c85415302e3aabbd9b0810cf430e143000feeb184c026bc21a1537bc94124a8c96ed03ccb6d0f06a7ece1443260cacbf0531925b304c6ee161f47d82620e01e8ca">remarked</a> on the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage last October:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Audiovisual archives tell us stories about people’s lives and cultures from all over the world. They represent a priceless heritage which is an affirmation of our collective memory and a valuable source of knowledge, since they reflect the cultural, social and linguistic diversity of our communities.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>More often than not, access to broadcast archives has been restricted to those working within the industry or academic researchers. Last year, though, the <a href="https://bbcrewind.co.uk/">BBC opened up</a> part of its digitised archive online, allowing the public to access some of its hidden gems.</p>
<p>However, the new Wales archive is unique in that it brings together the archives of its three major broadcasters - BBC, ITV and S4C. It contains material reflecting all aspects of life in both the English and Welsh languages. It is a unique source of information which will give historians and others an insight into the history of the nation.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1636005548112871427"}"></div></p>
<p>As well as preserving our broadcast heritage in its original and digitised form in Aberystwyth, people around Wales will be able to access around 500,000 hours of archive footage in dedicated “clip centres” housed across the nation. For the first time, members of the public will be able to see historical footage of their local areas and hear voices from years gone by.</p>
<p>Although the Wales Broadcast Archive is unique within the UK, there are similar institutions further afield. One such organisation is the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, <a href="https://www.beeldengeluid.nl/en">Beeld en Geluid</a>, which opened in 1997. It provided a useful model for the establishment of the Welsh archive. As a heritage institute, it preserves the audiovisual material of the Netherlands, with material from the country’s various broadcasters under one roof.</p>
<h2>Technology and storage challenges</h2>
<p>Of course, archives are not without their problems or their gaps. Very early television programmes, for example, are now lost forever. The technology simply didn’t exist to record in the pre-war and immediate post-war period. Nothing survives from the BBC’s pre-war television service at <a href="https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/birth-of-tv/ally-pally/">Alexandra Palace</a> – apart, that is, from some fascinating film shot on a home movie camera by one of the corporation’s engineers, Desmond Campbell, which is held by the <a href="http://bufvc.ac.uk/archives/index.php/collection/857">Alexandra Palace Television Society</a>.</p>
<p>As Dick Fiddy, a consultant at the British Film Institute, <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/_/m6AMngEACAAJ?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi3q4GL5t79AhWFRkEAHY32DVMQre8FegQIDRAD">noted</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The early technical difficulties associated with the recording of live television programmes, and the later injudicious wiping and junking policies of the major British broadcasters, has meant that hundreds of thousands of hours of precious television material is missing from the official UK television archives.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Over the years, many broadcasters have had to dispense with their audiovisual material simply for storage reasons. Film and videotape can take up a lot of floor space, let alone audio recordings. When one considers the huge amount of broadcasting hours that are chewed up every week, it is easy to see how physical material can mount up over time.</p>
<p>So, broadcasters have had to adopt selection policies, making decisions on what material or programmes might be historically important in the future. As you can imagine, this has not been an easy task. Often, entertainment programmes such as quiz shows, variety or local chat shows were deemed to have no intrinsic value and were overlooked for archival purposes. </p>
<p>Archivists are also faced with an ongoing dilemma. They need to be preserving material for future generations while also ensuring that the producers of current programmes have the necessary audiovisual archives at their disposal. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man in a wheelchair and a man standing wear sets of headphones. Both are in a large room and are looking at a screen." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516023/original/file-20230317-1658-1a8ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516023/original/file-20230317-1658-1a8ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516023/original/file-20230317-1658-1a8ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516023/original/file-20230317-1658-1a8ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516023/original/file-20230317-1658-1a8ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516023/original/file-20230317-1658-1a8ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516023/original/file-20230317-1658-1a8ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The public can also access the new archive in dedicated ‘clip centres’ throughout Wales.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Library of Wales</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The question now is whether the other UK nations should follow suit. While a similar model could be adopted in Scotland, in England the issue of whether the archives should house an English or British archive would need to be overcome.</p>
<p>Our collective audiovisual heritage provides a key to understanding ourselves as a society. It provides an additional access route into our past which complements that provided by the written record. </p>
<p>After all, archives are witnesses to history. They allow us to see how we lived, how we dressed, how we talked, how we were entertained, and how and when we watched or listened together. They also allow us to reflect and to learn. The Wales Broadcast Archive will do this and I, for one, am celebrating its arrival.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201688/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jamie Medhurst has received funding from the AHRC, The Leverhulme Trust, and the British Academy in the past</span></em></p>The Wales Broadcast Archive in Aberystwyth brings together the archives of the BBC, ITV and S4C under one roof.Jamie Medhurst, Professor of Media and Communication, Aberystwyth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1978282023-02-13T16:37:25Z2023-02-13T16:37:25Z100 years of the BBC in Wales: an uneasy start and unclear future<p>Three months after the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/timelines/">BBC’s first transmission from London</a>, public service broadcasting in Wales began at 5.00pm on February 13 1923. The small studio above a cinema in the centre of Cardiff also served audiences in the west of England. This may explain the very limited amount of Welsh language material broadcast at the outset.</p>
<p>To ensure the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/British-Broadcasting-Corporation">British Broadcasting Company</a>, as it was then known, was in no doubt about the existence of the native language and culture of Wales, <a href="https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/755550d6-e5e4-3448-a161-d220d4a48103">Cylch Dewi</a> (a group of cultural nationalists) <a href="https://academic.oup.com/manchester-scholarship-online/book/24026/chapter-abstract/185414557?redirectedFrom=fulltext">arranged</a> the first wireless broadcast of a Welsh-language religious service from Swansea on February 22 1925. By the mid-1920s, they were producing programmes of their own for the BBC, following consultations with E.R. Appleton, Cardiff’s station director. </p>
<p>Concerns about the effect of the wireless on life in Wales, however, were widespread in the early years of broadcasting. In 1927, a report commissioned by the Welsh Board of Education, entitled <a href="http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/wales1927/index.html#03%E2%80%8B">Welsh in Education and Life</a>, was published. It contained a damning attack on the BBC:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Wireless is achieving the complete Anglicisation of the intellectual life of the nation. We regard the present policy of the British Broadcasting Corporation as one of the most serious menaces to the life of the Welsh language.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The BBC’s regional scheme had been devised by Peter Eckersley, the BBC’s chief engineer and Sir John Reith, the corporation’s director general. It included Wales as part of the so-called “west region”. This uneasy marriage with Bristol and the west of England from 1930 onward resulted in increased pressure from many parts of Welsh society (most notably the University of Wales and local authorities) for the BBC to recognise Wales as a nation with its own cultural and linguistic needs. </p>
<p>In 1932, one correspondent writing in the Plaid Cymru newsletter, Y Ddraig Goch, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=mb2rDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT37&lpg=PT37&dq=%22The+majority+of+the+material+broadcast+is+alien+to+our+traditions,+damaging+to+our+culture,+and+is+a+grave+danger+to+everything+special+in+our+civilisation%22&source=bl&ots=t6XNYhV1im&sig=ACfU3U1Ew_mrw0xyThoW3AbtD9uKBU3SAA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiJnYHkx5L9AhX6QUEAHSueDlkQ6AF6BAgJEAM#v=onepage&q=%22The%20majority%20of%20the%20material%20broadcast%20is%20alien%20to%20our%20traditions%2C%20damaging%20to%20our%20culture%2C%20and%20is%20a%20grave%20danger%20to%20everything%20special%20in%20our%20civilisation%22&f=false">stated</a>: “The majority of the material broadcast is alien to our traditions, damaging to our culture, and is a grave danger to everything special in our civilisation.”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1625074882877825024"}"></div></p>
<p>With the opening of the Penmon transmitter on Anglesey in the north of Wales in February 1937, the corporation fully acknowledged Wales as a separate “region”. The <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Broadcasting_and_the_BBC_in_Wales/R7kVAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0&bsq=broadcasting%20and%20the%20bbc%20in%20wales">historian John Davies argued</a> the establishment of the “Welsh region” was an important concession to nationalist sentiment. He compared it with the <a href="https://law.gov.wales/ecclesiastical-law-and-church-wales">disestablishment of the Church in Wales</a> from the Church of England in 1920. These events enhanced a sense of nationhood and a belonging to an entity called “Wales”.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A graphic featuring the text " src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509749/original/file-20230213-3390-uhtmw5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509749/original/file-20230213-3390-uhtmw5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509749/original/file-20230213-3390-uhtmw5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509749/original/file-20230213-3390-uhtmw5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509749/original/file-20230213-3390-uhtmw5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509749/original/file-20230213-3390-uhtmw5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509749/original/file-20230213-3390-uhtmw5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Amgueddfa Cymru/National Museum Wales</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>John Davies <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Broadcasting_and_the_BBC_in_Wales/R7kVAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0&bsq=broadcasting%20and%20the%20bbc%20in%20wales">also argued</a> the establishment of the Welsh region had wider repercussions: “In the history of BBC broadcasting in Wales, the importance of the victory won in sound radio can scarcely be exaggerated. All the subsequent recognition of Wales in the field of broadcasting (and, it could be argued, in other fields also) stemmed from that victory.” </p>
<p>From this point onward, the BBC played a major part in Welsh life. It informed, educated and entertained in Welsh and English, initially on radio and then, from 1952, on television. </p>
<p>The creation of BBC Cymru Wales came in February 1964 as a result of the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/37146240_%27You_Say_A_Minority_Sir_We_Say_A_Nation%27_The_Pilkington_Committee_on_Broadcasting_1960-2_and_Wales">report of the Pilkington committee</a> on broadcasting. This was a government-appointed committee that considered the future of broadcasting in the UK. It laid the foundation for a regular television service in Wales. Ultimately, it led to the creation of national radio stations Radio Wales and Radio Cymru in the late 1970s, which continue to broadcast to this day. </p>
<h2>Future</h2>
<p>In December 2022, the <a href="https://museum.wales/cardiff/whatson/11771/BBC-100-in-Wales/">BBC 100 in Wales exhibition</a> opened at the National Museum Cardiff and will run until April. The exhibition to celebrate the corporation’s 100th anniversary was developed in conjunction with a group of young people to examine how the future may look for the corporation. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">BBC 100 in Wales opened at the National Museum Cardiff in December 2022.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/bbc-at-100-the-future-for-global-news-and-challenges-facing-the-world-service-192296">global</a> broadcasting landscape is ever-changing and the BBC is having to adapt to this. Challenges come from streaming services, other broadcasters and, not least, from a government that has called the very nature of <a href="https://theconversation.com/bbc-licence-fee-could-scrapping-it-be-the-end-of-public-service-broadcasting-in-the-uk-175292">public service broadcasting and the licence fee</a> into question. </p>
<p>In December 2021, the Welsh Labour government and Plaid Cymru announced a new <a href="https://www.gov.wales/co-operation-agreement-full-policy-programme-html">co-operation agreement</a>, which outlined several policy commitments over the next three years. Among them was the creation of a new shadow broadcasting and communications authority, which would draw up plans for the devolution of broadcasting and communications powers to the Senedd. A <a href="https://www.gov.wales/expert-panel-devolution-broadcasting-announced">panel</a> has been established to consider the way forward in this area. </p>
<p>How this might work in reality is, as yet, undetermined. Which aspects of broadcasting would be devolved remains unclear, as are the possible implications for the BBC and other broadcasters. There is also uncertainty over whether the Welsh government would even be able to persuade the UK government’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport to devolve such powers.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1625072297156677634"}"></div></p>
<p>There are many factors which have played a part in creating, defining and maintaining a feeling of “Welshness” in Wales, as well as a sense of belonging. There is no doubt about the part the BBC has played. </p>
<p>Penblwydd hapus, BBC Cymru.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197828/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jamie Medhurst receives funding from Arts and Humanities Research Council; The Leverhulme Trust</span></em></p>The BBC is celebrating 100 years of broadcasting in Wales.Jamie Medhurst, Professor of Media and Communication, Aberystwyth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1962712023-01-24T13:23:42Z2023-01-24T13:23:42ZDevice transmits radio waves with almost no power – without violating the laws of physics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505483/original/file-20230119-19742-3pzdvg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C12%2C4031%2C3005&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">This experimental setup shows an ultra-low-power wireless communications device that could one day be used in tiny remote sensors.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Zerina Kapetanovic</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A new ultra-low-power method of communication at first glance seems to violate the laws of physics. It is possible to wirelessly transmit information simply by opening and closing a switch that connects a resistor to an antenna. No need to send power to the antenna.</p>
<p>Our system, combined with techniques for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1109/JSAC.2018.2872615">harvesting energy from the environment</a>, could lead to all manner of devices that transmit data, including tiny sensors and implanted medical devices, without needing batteries or other power sources. These include sensors for <a href="https://www.usenix.org/conference/nsdi17/technical-sessions/presentation/vasisht">smart agriculture</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-021-00683-3">electronics implanted in the body</a> that never need battery changes, better <a href="https://doi.org/10.4018/JGIM.2020100108">contactless credit cards</a> and maybe even new ways for <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/smallsat-institute/sst-soa/communications">satellites</a> to communicate. </p>
<p>Apart from the energy needed to flip the switch, no other energy is needed to transmit the information. In our case, the switch is a transistor, an electrically controlled switch with no moving parts that consumes a minuscule amount of power.</p>
<p>In the simplest form of ordinary radio, a switch connects and disconnects a strong electrical signal source – perhaps an oscillator that produces a sine wave fluctuating 2 billion times per second – to the <a href="https://academy.wedio.com/what-is-a-transmitter/">transmit antenna</a>. When the signal source is connected, the antenna produces a radio wave, denoting a 1. When the switch is disconnected, there is no radio wave, indicating a 0.</p>
<p>What we showed is that a powered signal source is not needed. Instead, random thermal noise, present in all electrically conductive materials because of the heat-driven motion of electrons, can take the place of the signal driving the antenna. </p>
<h2>No free lunch</h2>
<p>We are <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LnAus20AAAAJ&hl=en">electrical engineers</a> who <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HEb5C1wAAAAJ&hl=en">research wireless systems</a>. During the peer review of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2201337119">our paper</a> about this research, published recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reviewers asked us to explain why the method did not violate the <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Demons%2C-Engines-and-the-Second-Law-Bennett/2480bf5e7b41a5b6d1db92e3387d7214bc68a49c">second law of thermodynamics</a>, the main law of physics that explains why <a href="https://engineering.mit.edu/engage/ask-an-engineer/is-it-possible-to-construct-a-perpetual-motion-machine/">perpetual motion machines</a> are not possible. </p>
<p>Perpetual motion machines are theoretical machines that can work indefinitely without requiring energy from any external source. The reviewers worried that if it were possible to send and receive information with no powered components, and with both the transmitter and receiver at the same temperature, that would mean that you could create a perpetual motion machine. Because this is impossible, it would imply that there was something wrong with our work or our understanding of it. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505660/original/file-20230120-12-rlgt9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A graphic in the top half showing a horizontal cylinder on the left with a pipe extending to the right with a 90-degree bend upward connecting to an upside-down triangle with pairs of curved lines on either side, and in the bottom half the same but disconnected" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505660/original/file-20230120-12-rlgt9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505660/original/file-20230120-12-rlgt9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505660/original/file-20230120-12-rlgt9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505660/original/file-20230120-12-rlgt9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505660/original/file-20230120-12-rlgt9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=643&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505660/original/file-20230120-12-rlgt9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=643&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505660/original/file-20230120-12-rlgt9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=643&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Electrons that naturally move around inside a room-temperature resistor affect electrons in a connected antenna, which causes the antenna to generate radio waves. Connecting and disconnecting the antenna produces the ones and zeros of a binary signal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Zerina Kapetanovic</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One way the second law can be stated is that heat will flow spontaneously only from hotter objects to colder objects. The wireless signals from our transmitter transport heat. If there were a spontaneous flow of signal from the transmitter to the receiver in the absence of a temperature difference between the two, you could harvest that flow to get free energy, in violation of the second law. </p>
<p>The resolution of this seeming paradox is that the receiver in our system is powered and acts like a refrigerator. The signal-carrying electrons on the receive side are effectively kept cold by the powered amplifier, similar to how a refrigerator keeps its interior cold by continuously pumping heat out. The transmitter consumes almost no power, but the receiver consumes substantial power, up to 2 watts. This is similar to receivers in other ultra-low-power communications systems. Nearly all of the power consumption happens at a base station that does not have constraints on energy use.</p>
<h2>A simpler approach</h2>
<p>Many researchers worldwide have been exploring related passive communication methods, known as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/2534169.2486015">backscatter</a>. A backscatter data transmitter looks very similar to our data transmitter device. The difference is that in a backscatter communication system, in addition to the data transmitter and the data receiver, there is a third component that generates a radio wave. The switching performed by the data transmitter has the effect of reflecting that radio wave, which is then picked up at the receiver. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">An example of backscatter unpowered wireless communications.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A <a href="https://doi.org/10.23919/JCIN.2019.8917868">backscatter device</a> has the same energy efficiency as our system, but the backscatter setup is much more complex, since a <a href="https://www.atlasrfidstore.com/rfid-insider/explaining-backscatter-from-basic-to-advanced-principles">signal-generating component</a> is needed. However, our system has lower data rate and range than either backscatter radios or conventional radios.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>One area for future work is to improve our system’s data rate and range, and to test it in applications such as implanted devices. For implanted devices, an advantage of our new method is that there is no need to expose the patient to a strong external radio signal, which can cause tissue heating. Even more exciting, we believe that related ideas could enable other new forms of communication in which other natural signal sources, such as thermal noise from biological tissue or other electronic components, can be modulated. </p>
<p>Finally, this work may lead to new connections between the study of heat (thermodynamics) and the study of communication (information theory). These fields are often viewed as analogous, but this work suggests some more literal connections between them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196271/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua R. Smith receives funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense Medical Command, DARPA, Bosch, and Amazon. He is a co-founder of start up companies Jeeva Wireless, Wibotic, and Proprio. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zerina Kapetanovic's Ph.D. work was funded by a Microsoft Research Dissertation Grant. She is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at Microsoft. </span></em></p>A wireless transmitter uses almost no power and at first glance appears to violate the laws of physics. It’s actually a clever use of physics that could one day transmit data from tiny remote sensors.Joshua R. Smith, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and of Computer Science and Engineering, University of WashingtonZerina Kapetanovic, Acting Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering, Stanford UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1944802022-11-16T12:57:48Z2022-11-16T12:57:48ZBBC at 100: why local radio is not being replaced by the web – and why the BBC should not scrap it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495632/original/file-20221116-24-z4sq6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Local radio still attracts significant audiences in the UK.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alex from the Rock/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>BBC radio faces substantial cuts at the very moment it celebrates its centenary. In September 2022 it was announced that the range and scope of World Service <a href="https://theconversation.com/bbc-at-100-the-future-for-global-news-and-challenges-facing-the-world-service-192296">radio would be reduced</a>. </p>
<p>The following month, it was the turn of local radio: the BBC’s stations around the UK will now carry more shared content as programme production is <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63455192">scaled back</a>. In both cases, a shift away from radio content towards online has been suggested. </p>
<p>Is this the beginning of the end for BBC radio? The history of the medium provides some answers about the role radio still plays today.</p>
<p>When BBC radio was first established, it was entirely local. On November 14 1922 <a href="https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/this-week-in-broadcasting-history-the-bbc-began-daily-transmissions/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Post&utm_campaign=BCP:BBCDailyBroadcastBlog,14.11.22">the BBC transmitted its first radio programmes</a>, two evening news bulletins from its London station 2LO. Only listeners in London and its environs could reliably pick up 2LO’s weak signal. </p>
<p>Soon afterwards the BBC also began broadcasting from stations in several other UK cities, all reaching out to their own local audiences. However, some major cities had no service at all and, as audiences grew, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/this-is-the-bbc-9780192898524?cc=gb&lang=en&">listeners clamoured for better access</a> in their area.</p>
<p>The BBC responded by replacing the old transmitters with a <a href="https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/BBC/BBC-Annual/BBC-Year-Book-1928.pdf">small number of powerful regional stations</a>, each serving a large area of the country. The new stations were linked together into a network, so that everyone across the UK could simultaneously hear the same programmes. This allowed local programme production to be scaled back during the 1930s. </p>
<p>The BBC maintained that London could provide all listeners with the best spoken-word content, classical music, and entertainment. Creating a <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315024608-19/broadcasting-national-unity-david-cardiff-paddy-scannell-157">single national audience</a> was prioritised over serving the particular needs of local communities. This fuelled accusations that the BBC was too metropolitan, out of touch with the needs of people outside the capital. </p>
<p>In the 1950s and 1960s, many worried that the new medium of television would <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-history-of-broadcasting-in-the-united-kingdom-9780192129673?q=briggs%20sound%20vision&lang=en&cc=gb">kill off radio</a>. If the US experience was any guide to the future, as listeners became viewers, radio would cease to be the all-round informer, educator, and entertainer of the British public. </p>
<p>However, because the BBC still held a monopoly over radio in Britain in the 1960s – no commercial radio was allowed until 1972 – it was able to resist change for some time. Listeners also organised to save what they loved. In the 1950s they established a Third Programme Defence Society to protect the BBC’s radio network covering “serious” music and the arts (the audience for “the Third” was tiny, but very vocal). </p>
<p>Later, listeners famously rallied behind the preservation of the shipping forecast, a regular announcement of weather for those at sea that was also well-loved by many on land. The radio soundscape only really began to change in the later 1960s, as the threat of “pirate radio” finally obliged the BBC to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/radio-reinvented/">reshape its radio networks</a> and give popular music more airtime (introducing Radio 1 and gradually rebranding other services as Radios 2, 3 and 4).</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">BBC local radio trailers.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This period also saw the creation of a new BBC system of local stations: BBC Radio Leicester was the first to begin broadcasting, in 1967. This was another way to show the continuing relevance of radio and win over a new generation of listeners. The idea of using radio to connect with local communities and support local democracy was presented as a crucial part of the BBC’s <a href="https://chbbc.sussex.ac.uk/play/?id=76">public service remit</a>. </p>
<p>News of the imminent demise of radio has <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/radios-second-century/9780813598468">often been exaggerated</a>. To remain relevant, the medium has been constantly reinvented. The rise of podcasting and the launch of BBC Sounds (the BBC podcast player) are only the latest examples of this. In 2022, BBC managers want to move expenditure from local radio to online platforms, arguing that this is how to reach the audience of the future. </p>
<p>Is this yet another timely reinvention? Possibly, but at the moment <a href="https://www.rajar.co.uk/listening/quarterly_listening.php">listening figures for BBC local radio remain buoyant</a>, and there are good reasons to value its continuing contribution. </p>
<p>Local newspapers and commercial radio stations have <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/779882/021919_DCMS_Cairncross_Review_.pdf">lost significant journalistic capacity</a> in recent years, as titles and stations have folded or been absorbed into cost-cutting chains and conglomerates. BBC local radio has filled a significant gap in the market and in UK civil society.</p>
<hr>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bbc-at-100-a-century-of-informing-educating-entertaining-and-trying-to-keep-politicians-honest-192514">BBC at 100: a century of informing, educating, entertaining – and trying to keep politicians honest</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The BBC currently faces an enormous <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/jan/16/bbc-licence-fee-to-be-abolished-in-2027-and-funding-frozen#:%7E:text=The%20BBC%20will%20have%20to,fee%20abolished%20completely%20in%202027">real-terms funding cut</a>. The TV licence fee has <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11572171">been frozen</a> and limits have been placed on the ability of the BBC to generate commercial revenues. High inflation is eroding the purchasing power of the BBC’s fixed income. </p>
<p>But why target the World Service and local radio for cuts? If it was all about numbers, then Radio 5 Live with its declining audience, Radio 3 (which attracts only about a fifth of the combined audience <a href="https://www.rajar.co.uk/listening/quarterly_listening.php">of BBC local radio stations</a>), or the BBC Three digital terrestrial television service (which in the months after its relaunch <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-10680249/BBC-Threes-80m-launch-sees-50-000-viewers-tune-watch-flagship-shows.html">struggled to generate audiences</a> in excess of 100,000 for its programmes), would be more obvious candidates. The decision to cut local and international radio services may reflect judgements about the relative risk of provoking public or political protests. </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001dp2s">responses to the local radio cuts</a>, even on the BBC’s own networks, has made it clear that many listeners see them as a direct affront to their communities, another example of an out-of-touch, London-focused BBC ignoring their interests. As the House of Commons’ <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/5243/documents/52552/default/">digital, culture, media and sport committee</a> has acknowledged, local broadcasting continues to play a significant role in British public life and remains highly valued by many listeners.</p>
<p>History shows that the BBC has always had to adapt to reflect wider changes in society and stay relevant. Offering online content is clearly crucial for the BBC’s future. Yet with more rivals for the attention of audiences than ever before, the BBC cannot afford to alienate its loyal radio listeners. If it does, they might switch off the BBC for good.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194480/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Potter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The BBC has underestimated the public response to local radio cuts, says an expert.Simon Potter, Professor of Modern History, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1930062022-10-27T12:27:53Z2022-10-27T12:27:53ZThe first televised World Series spurred America’s television boom, 75 years ago<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491965/original/file-20221026-21-k03uax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C59%2C3898%2C2780&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An estimated 3.5 million Americans viewed the first televised World Series at bars, restaurants and storefronts.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/crowd-watching-world-series-game-on-tv-set-in-window-of-news-photo/515248870?phrase=crowd gazing in window at television new york&adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Boston Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WRi6iZAl-I">desperately waving at his home run to stay in play</a>. Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Kirk Gibson <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZzGkoXlaTM">pumping his arms</a> as he hobbles around second base after muscling a home run off Dennis Eckersley, the Oakland A’s dominant closer. The ground ball hit by New York Mets outfielder Mookie Wilson <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpyJjecJnuI">skipping through the legs</a> of Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner. </p>
<p>Some of the most dramatic images in World Series history are ingrained in the minds of baseball fans thanks to television coverage. This year’s World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and Houston Astros will surely bring another timeless highlight to the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/03/2021-world-series-ratings-braves-astros-game-6-draws-14point3-million.html">12 million or so viewers</a> expected to watch. </p>
<p>Yet the first 43 World Series weren’t televised at all. It wasn’t until the 1947 series between the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers – 75 years ago – that fans could watch their favorite players duke it out on screen. </p>
<p>As I detail in my book “<a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/bison-original/9780803248250/">Center Field Shot: A History of Baseball on Television</a>,” which I co-authored with Robert Bellamy, the telecasts became a sensation. They drew millions of Americans to a new medium at a time when there were no national networks, only a handful of stations and somewhere between 50,000 and 60,000 TVs in the entire country.</p>
<h2>Negotiations go down to the wire</h2>
<p>In August 1947, the television industry anticipated a possible all-New York World Series: The Yankees had a huge lead in the American League, while the Dodgers also held a substantial one in the National League. </p>
<p>If the two teams met in October, New York’s three television stations – run by NBC ABC, and the now-extinct <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/DuMont-Television-Network">DuMont</a> – decided they wanted to cover the games.</p>
<p>But the rights to televise the games were held by the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mutual-Broadcasting-System">Mutual Broadcasting System</a>, a radio network that had no television division. Thus, Mutual would need to farm out the coverage to one or more New York stations. </p>
<p>Although no national television network existed at the time, NBC, DuMont and CBS did have the means to link stations on the Eastern Seaboard through a combination of coaxial cable, microwave and over-the-air broadcast transmissions, expanding the potential audience for the World Series. The Series would air on eight stations in four markets: New York City, Philadelphia, Washington and Schenectady, New York.</p>
<p>While the Yankees-Dodgers series materialized, the televising of the Series almost didn’t. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Boy hawking souvenir programs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491966/original/file-20221026-21-dnupqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491966/original/file-20221026-21-dnupqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491966/original/file-20221026-21-dnupqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491966/original/file-20221026-21-dnupqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491966/original/file-20221026-21-dnupqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491966/original/file-20221026-21-dnupqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491966/original/file-20221026-21-dnupqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Broadcasters got their wish when the New York Yankees faced the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1947 World Series.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/new-york-ny-yankee-and-dodger-fans-are-jamming-the-yankee-news-photo/515585048?phrase=boy%20selling%20souvenir%20programs&adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>The predictable stumbling block was money. Baseball commissioner <a href="https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/chandler-happy">Albert B. “Happy” Chandler</a> wanted $100,000 for the television rights to the Series. Gillette, the sponsor of the radio coverage on the Mutual Broadcasting System, balked at the steep price given television’s limited penetration – only 50,000 to 60,000 U.S. households owned TVs at the time. The radio rights to reach the nation’s 29 million homes with radios had cost Mutual only $175,000. </p>
<p>Initial negotiations produced an offer of $60,000 from two sponsors: Gillette and the Ford Motor Company. New York’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Liebmann">Liebmann Breweries</a> offered to meet Chandler’s $100,000 demand, but the commissioner refused because he did not want beer ads when youngsters would be prominent members of the audience.</p>
<p>Even before a coverage deal had been finalized, bars, restaurants, television dealers, department stores, automobile dealerships and movie theaters started advertising the event, urging customers to come by to watch the World Series on television. And in the days and weeks leading up to the Fall Classic, the demand for television sets spiked. </p>
<p>The excitement pressured Chandler and the sponsors to reach a compromise. </p>
<p>Finally, on Sept. 26, just four days before Game 1 at Yankee Stadium, Chandler, Gillette and Ford <a href="https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1947/1947-10-06-BC.pdf">agreed to $65,000 for the rights to televise the World Series</a>. Production costs added another $35,000 to the sponsors’ bill. Mutual, Gillette and Ford also agreed to allow all three New York TV stations and those connected to them to broadcast the game, providing the widest possible exposure.</p>
<h2>An unexpectedly strong response</h2>
<p>Initial industry estimates had the Series reaching between 600,000 and 700,000 viewers, many of them located in the bars and restaurants where a substantial number of the nation’s first television receivers were located. </p>
<p>But that forecast ended up being conservative. Although home viewing for the seven games was substantial – 450,000 in a <a href="https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/40s/1947/BB-1947-10-18.pdf">Hooper rating survey commissioned by Billboard</a> – the out-of-home viewing numbers were extraordinary: Another 3.5 million were estimated to have viewed the World Series in public locales. </p>
<p>Hooper’s survey found that an average of 82 customers showed up at each of these public locations to watch at least some of the World Series. Variety reported that bar owners saw a 500% increase in patrons during the Series, with some offering reservations to their regulars for a choice location near the TV set.</p>
<p>What viewers from those choice seats saw was primitive by today’s standards. The screen was usually small – 12 diagonal inches or less. The low-definition images were black and white and came from just a few cameras. No extreme close-ups were possible. There was no instant replay, so fans had to pay attention or the moment was lost. </p>
<p>But for the first time, they were seeing the World Series live, and for free.</p>
<h2>The TV industry’s World Series bump</h2>
<p>The audience liked what they saw. <a href="https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/40s/1947/BB-1947-10-11.pdf">Billboard</a>, quoting The Newark Evening News, reported that TV “audiences hung on every turn of the video cameras and the ‘oohs and aahs’ at a slide or strikeout were something radio broadcasters would give their eye teeth to hear.” </p>
<p>It didn’t hurt that <a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/postseason/1947_WS.shtml">the 1947 World Series</a> ended up being so dramatic. The Yankees prevailed in seven games, but Brooklyn owned the two greatest moments.</p>
<p>In the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 4, Dodgers pitch hitter <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWjpOAy5zCM">Cookie Lavagetto ended Yankee starter Bill Biven’s no-hit bid</a> with a two-out hit, driving in two runs and sending the Dodgers to a 3-2 win. Then, in Game 6, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SrtxVs8uMI">Al Gionfriddo’s stunning catch of Joe DiMaggio’s deep drive to left field</a> helped preserve an 8-6 Dodgers victory, leading legendary Dodgers broadcaster <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Red_Barber.html?id=lWhgEAAAQBAJ">Red Barber</a> to exclaim, “Oh, Doctor!”</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oWjpOAy5zCM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Cookie Lavagetto’s double won the game for the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game 4.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The Washington broadcasts even reached the White House, where President Harry S. Truman, his staff and the D.C. press corps watched some of the contests. The <a href="https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Televiser/Televiser-1947-09-10.pdf">industry magazine Televiser</a> reported an enthusiastic response from the White House viewers: “If TV can do as good a job as that on perhaps the most difficult of all subjects to televise, then it really has arrived.” </p>
<p>The public’s embrace of the World Series on television, along with the generous coverage of the telecasts by the press, provided an important boost to the nascent television industry. The Sporting News reported that the first televised World Series increased sales for new receivers in New York to levels not seen since the early days of radio. Similar reports came from dealers in Washington and Philadelphia.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sarnoff">David Sarnoff</a>, chairman of RCA – which owed NBC and was a leading manufacturer of receivers – regarded television’s coverage of baseball and its crowning event, the World Series, as one of the most important factors in triggering the growth of the new medium. </p>
<p>Television makers, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Center_Field_Shot.html?id=6kPQhpS-X8YC">he concluded</a>, “had to have baseball games and if [baseball owners] had demanded millions for the rights, we would have had to give it to them.” </p>
<p>The television industry eventually did pay millions and then billions for those rights. <a href="https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2018/11/15/Media/MLB-Fox.aspx">Fox’s latest seven-year contract</a>, including rights to the World Series, pays Major League Baseball $5.1 billion. </p>
<p>Happy Chandler’s 1947 demand for a $100,000 seems like quite a bargain today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193006/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Walker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Just five days before the first pitch of the 1947 World Series, a deal was struck to air the Series on television.James Walker, Emeritus Professor of Communication, Saint Xavier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1922962022-10-14T10:17:06Z2022-10-14T10:17:06ZBBC at 100: the future for global news and challenges facing the World Service<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489559/original/file-20221013-25-pn0xmr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">globalnewsshutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>The BBC celebrates its <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2021/bbc-100-year-of-programming">100th birthday</a> on October 18 2022. It comes as the institution faces increasing competition for audiences from global entertainment providers, anxieties about the sustainability of its <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/work/90/the-future-of-public-service-broadcasting/publications/">funding</a> and a <a href="https://pressgazette.co.uk/most-popular-websites-news-world-monthly/">highly competitive global news market</a>.</p>
<p>Its international broadcasting operation, the BBC World Service, is only a little younger, established 90 years ago. Delivering news and programmes in 40 languages across the continents, it faces similar, significant questions about financing, purpose and its ability to <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/bbc-tim-davie-diversity-world-service-1235225577/">deliver</a> in a world of increased social media and online news consumption. </p>
<p>Currently the BBC’s international services are mostly funded by British people who pay a television licence fee, with a third of the total cost covered by the UK government. The BBC claimed that, as of November 2021, the World Service reached a global audience of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2021/bbc-reaches-record-global-audience">364 million people each week</a>. </p>
<h2>The role of radio</h2>
<p>Radio is still clearly a key means to extend the reach of the World Service and a core part of the BBC’s global news package. It is highly adaptable and reasonably affordable. It also gives people in parts of the world where access to media can be difficult <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-wireless-world-9780192864987?prevSortField=8&resultsPerPage=100&sortField=8&type=listing&facet_narrowbytype_facet=Academic%20Research&lang=en&cc=uk">relatively easy access to news</a>. Short-wave radio, the traditional means of broadcasting over very long distances, is also difficult for hostile regimes to block. </p>
<p>Recently, fears that Russia would target Ukraine’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/shortwave-radio-in-ukraine-why-revisiting-old-school-technology-makes-sense-in-a-war-178575#:%7E:text=There%20are%20a%20number%20of,kilometres%20or%20tens%20of%20kilometres">internet infrastructure</a> and erect firewalls to prevent its own citizens’ accessing western media sources, led the BBC to reactivate short-wave radio news services for listeners in both countries. UK government funding of <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/bbc-gets-emergency-funding-to-fight-russian-disinformation#:%7E:text=BBC%20World%20Service%20will%20receive,about%20the%20war%20in%20Ukraine">£4.1 million</a> supported this.</p>
<p>Current thinking about the World Service has been shaped by a 2010 decision of UK prime minister David Cameron’s government to <a href="https://www.historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers/papers/the-bbc-world-service-and-global-britain">withdraw Foreign and Commonwealth Office funding</a> for BBC international operations from 2014. This seemed to end a 60 years-long era when the BBC was the key <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/978-1-137-31855-8">subcontractor for British global “soft power”</a> (using cultural resources and information to promote British interests overseas).</p>
<p>The plan was that British TV licence-fee payers would fund the World Service, seemingly as an act of international benevolence, free of government ties. However, this seemed unlikely to be sustainable at a time when BBC income was being progressively squeezed.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489556/original/file-20221013-25-dxbb82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A person in Western Sahara with a radio set." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489556/original/file-20221013-25-dxbb82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489556/original/file-20221013-25-dxbb82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489556/original/file-20221013-25-dxbb82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489556/original/file-20221013-25-dxbb82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489556/original/file-20221013-25-dxbb82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489556/original/file-20221013-25-dxbb82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489556/original/file-20221013-25-dxbb82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Access to radio news is much easier than other forms of media in some parts of the world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Saharaland/Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>In 2015, World Service revenues were boosted by a major grant from the UK’s Official Development Assistance fund, covering around a third of the World Service’s running costs. One anonymous BBC insider was quoted by The Guardian saying that this would sustain the corporation’s “strong commitment to uphold global democracy through <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/sep/05/bbc-director-general-international-expansion-russia?CMP=twt_a-media_b-gdnmedia">accurate, impartial and independent news</a>”. </p>
<p>Even before the second world war, the BBC claimed it only broadcast truthful and objective news. Policy makers recognised this as a crucial asset for promoting <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/this-is-the-bbc-9780192898524?cc=gb&lang=en&">British interests overseas</a>, and seldom sought to challenge (openly at least) the “editorial independence” of the BBC.</p>
<p>The BBC’s 2016 royal charter further entrenched this thinking, stating that news for overseas audiences should be “firmly based on British values of <a href="http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/about/how_we_govern/2016/charter.pdf">accuracy, impartiality and fairness</a>”. The idea that a truthful approach to news was a core “British value” that could help promote democracy around the world became part of the BBC’s basic mission statement.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/us-and-russia-engage-in-a-digital-battle-for-hearts-and-minds-190104">US and Russia engage in a digital battle for hearts and minds</a>
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<p>In 2017 the BBC established 17 new foreign-language radio and online services. To maximise possibilities for listening it purchased FM transmitter time in major cities around the world, and deployed internet radio, increasingly accessible to many users via mobile devices. The focus was on Africa and Asia. However, the World Service also strengthened its Arabic and Russian provision to serve those who “<a href="https://downloads.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/reports/pdf/futureofthebbc2015.pdf">sorely need reliable information</a>”.</p>
<h2>Fake news factor</h2>
<p>The World Service’s rationale has been strengthened by growing concerns about “fake news”: distorted and untrue reports designed to serve the commercial or geopolitical interests of those who manufacture it. The BBC has, in response, further emphasised its historic role as a truthful broadcaster. In its <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/beyondfakenews/trusted-news-initiative/">trusted news initiative</a> it has worked with other global media outlets to tackle disinformation, hosting debate and discussion, and sharing intelligence about the most misleading campaigns. </p>
<p>Claims for continued relevance also rest on a drive to bring news to an ever larger audience. The BBC’s stated aim is to reach 500 million people this year, and <a href="https://advanced-television.com/2020/08/24/bbc-targets-1bn-global-audience/">a billion within another decade</a>. In 2021 the BBC claimed to be on course to realise this goal, reaching a global audience of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2021/bbc-reaches-record-global-audience">489 million</a>. The audience for the World Service accounted for the single largest component of this global figure.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/100-years-of-the-bbc-the-rebels-who-reshaped-broadcasting-and-paid-the-price-173784">100 years of the BBC: the rebels who reshaped broadcasting – and paid the price</a>
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<p>What then should we make of the BBC’s announcement in September 2022 that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/sep/29/hundreds-of-jobs-to-go-as-bbc-announces-world-service-cutbacks">400 jobs would have to go </a> at the World Service due to the freezing of the licence fee and rapidly rising costs? Radio services in languages including Arabic, Persian, Hindi and Chinese will disappear, and programme production for the English-language radio service will be pared down. Certainly, these cuts will reduce the BBC’s impact overseas. But they should also be understood as part of a longstanding and ongoing <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15506843jrs1202_8">transition from shortwave radio to web radio</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, cutting back on World Service non-news programming might not be a major cause for concern. In an age of global streaming services and social media, audiences can receive programmes from providers from across the globe. The World Service would find it hard to compete with many of these services. However, the BBC remains in a pre-eminent position to offer <a href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/58001/bbc-annex2.pdf">trusted news</a>. </p>
<p>By focusing on providing news online, the World Service is putting its resources where it can best promote British soft power and international influence, thereby improving prospects for its own continued existence. However, abandoning radio entirely would be a mistake. As the Russian invasion of Ukraine has demonstrated, radio remains a crucial way to reach audiences who might find their access to trusted news via the internet suddenly cut off.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192296/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Potter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The BBC would be taking a huge risk if it abandons radio news, when so many worldwide listeners depend on it.Simon Potter, Professor of Modern History, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1901042022-09-23T12:34:10Z2022-09-23T12:34:10ZUS and Russia engage in a digital battle for hearts and minds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485652/original/file-20220920-18-mgviae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5455%2C3645&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">RT, a Russian government-operated media outlet, is just one of the players in the global information war.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/russian-state-controlled-international-television-russia-news-photo/1241380961">Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The battle over Ukraine extends across the world: <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1464884920941967">Information warfare</a> is quickly evolving as key nations seek to influence public opinion and gain political support. </p>
<p>As during the Cold War, Russia and the United States are the two main combatants. <a href="https://theconversation.com/us-military-steps-up-cyberwarfare-effort-113100">Some efforts are clandestine</a>, but plenty of material is broadcast to the public as each country attempts to, in the words of political linguists, <a href="https://utorontopress.com/9781442606227/language-capitalism-colonialism/">“constrain the power and influence of the other</a> … and win ‘hearts and minds’ … around the world.”</p>
<p>Key government-sponsored media outlets in the current battle are Russia Today, often known as RT, and two U.S. government-backed operations, Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. </p>
<p>But it can be hard for many people to tell the difference between these outlets and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2017.1360143">independent news</a>. As a <a href="https://newhouse.syr.edu/people/jennifer-grygiel">propaganda scholar</a>, I believe citizens of all nations deserve to know <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/20/us/politics/russia-rfe-free-press.html">how their media have been filtered</a> and when governments are seeking to influence their views.</p>
<p>My colleague <a href="https://www.sagersmith.com/weston-sager-attorney/">Weston Sager</a> and I developed a <a href="https://scholarship.law.uci.edu/ucilr/vol11/iss2/7/">test for determining whether</a> a particular media outlet is, or is not, a government mouthpiece. We examine key factors such as government control, funding, attribution and its resemblance to news.</p>
<p>At their best, these types of outlets provide official government information – at worst, blatant propaganda. Here’s how the main players in the U.S. and Russia measure up. </p>
<h2>Russia Today: Propaganda with some facts sprinkled in</h2>
<p>RT is a multilanguage international media broadcaster that claims to be an “<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220907233054/https://www.rt.com/about-us/">autonomous, non-profit organization</a>.” But in reality, it has officially declared to the U.S. State Department <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/rt-files-paperwork-with-justice-department-to-register-as-foreign-agent/2017/11/13/20271468-c8ad-11e7-8321-481fd63f174d_story.html">that it is an arm of the Russian government</a>. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-rt-coverage-is-biased-and-misleading-but-banning-the-network-may-not-be-a-good-idea-178128">lockstep with the Kremlin</a>, RT has supported the 2008 Russian invasion of Georgia, the 2014 Russian invasion of the Crimean peninsula of Ukraine and the 2022 Russian invasion of mainland Ukraine.</p>
<p>The outlet has a <a href="https://archives.cjr.org/feature/what_is_russia_today.php">history of publishing sensationalized</a> and biased articles promoting Russian policies and accentuating the perceived failings of the United States and its allies. For example, in 2015, RT devoted extensive coverage to the <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7dj73/russia-propaganda-rt-ban-ukraine-invasion">Occupy Wall Street movement</a>. Not only did this storyline allow RT to selectively showcase people protesting in the United States, it helped further Russia’s narrative that its economic system is superior to U.S. capitalism. </p>
<p>More recently, RT has, without credible evidence, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/04/technology/russia-bioweapons-geneva.html">accused the United States</a> of developing bioweapons in Ukraine and testing them on people there.</p>
<p>But this doesn’t mean that RT is “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884920941967">able to dispense with facts all together</a>,” as propaganda often leverages <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2017.1360143">truthful bits of information</a>, nor that it is strictly anti-American. In 2010, for instance, RT published an interview containing accusations that the Republicans were exploiting racial fears ahead of midterm elections. Then RT publicly <a href="https://archives.cjr.org/feature/what_is_russia_today.php">defended the Obama administration</a> against Fox News host Glenn Beck‘s accusations that Obama was turning the United States into a socialist country. Propaganda works by supporting <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884920941967">themes that are in popular discourse at the time</a>. It does not necessarily follow a linear path and may be <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/18/us/womens-march-russia-trump.html">counterintuitive at times</a>. </p>
<p>In the wake of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, <a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-rt-coverage-is-biased-and-misleading-but-banning-the-network-may-not-be-a-good-idea-178128">RT was blocked</a> in many nations around the world <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-09-01/ukraine-war-propaganda-from-russia-today-rt-thrives-despite-sanctions">to limit the spread of Russian propaganda</a>. Nevertheless, RT continues to publish its content, especially in <a href="https://theconversation.com/%20merica-influence-operations-extend-into-egypt-111167">less developed countries</a> where the Russian government is working to increase its international reputation and influence. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485655/original/file-20220920-11487-ppvp23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A large stone building with long vertical windows." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485655/original/file-20220920-11487-ppvp23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485655/original/file-20220920-11487-ppvp23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485655/original/file-20220920-11487-ppvp23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485655/original/file-20220920-11487-ppvp23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485655/original/file-20220920-11487-ppvp23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485655/original/file-20220920-11487-ppvp23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485655/original/file-20220920-11487-ppvp23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Voice of America is headquartered in the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building in Washington, D.C.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/VOABuilding/49a5c28c24874594a189ee5676def4b8/photo">AP Photo/Andrew Harnik</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Major US outlets present mostly facts – that support American values</h2>
<p>Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty are the U.S. government’s primary international media outlets, though <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220727233718/https://www.usagm.gov/who-we-are/organizational-chart/">there are other channels</a> as well. </p>
<p>In 1942, during World War II, the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220513105818/https://www.insidevoa.com/a/3794247.html">U.S. government established VOA</a> to broadcast pro-Allied messages and to combat Nazi propaganda abroad. In the 1950s, the CIA founded <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20201016170050/https:/www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2007-featured-story-archive/a-look-back.html">RFE/RL</a> to counter Soviet propaganda in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. </p>
<p>Both outlets are now overseen by the <a href="https://www.usagm.gov/">U.S. Agency for Global Media</a>, a <a href="https://www.usagm.gov/who-we-are/oversight/">part of the executive branch</a> of the federal government. The agency receives <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220601130038/https://www.usagm.gov/our-work/strategy-and-results/strategic-priorities/budget-submissions/">over US$800 million in annual funding from Congress</a>.</p>
<p>Similar to RT, <a href="https://www.wnyc.org/story/voice-of-america-vows-independence-as-trump-calls-for-worldwide-network/">VOA</a> and <a href="https://pressroom.rferl.org/about-us">RFE/RL</a> claim that they are independent media outlets. In support of that claim, they often point to a vaguely defined “<a href="https://www.usagm.gov/who-we-are/firewall/">firewall</a>” that is supposed to shield their editorial integrity from U.S. government influence.</p>
<p>But the firewall is often strained under the weight of political pressure. In 2020, President Donald Trump’s newly appointed CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/27/us/politics/trump-michael-pack-voice-of-america-firewall.html">rescinded the firewall regulation</a>, which compromised VOA’s independence in advance of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. In 2021, the firewall was legislatively strengthened, but <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-22-104017.pdf">questions remain about its effectiveness at preventing government influence</a>. </p>
<p>Governmental influence over the editorial direction of U.S. state media can also come through legislation. In 2021, Congress introduced a bill that would instruct the agency to “<a href="https://www.congress.gov/117/bills/hr4785/BILLS-117hr4785ih.pdf">facilitate the unhindered dissemination of information</a> to Islamic majority countries on issues regarding the human rights and religious freedom of Uyghurs.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485657/original/file-20220920-3608-bie9z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Satellite dishes adorn a roof, with church spires in the background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485657/original/file-20220920-3608-bie9z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485657/original/file-20220920-3608-bie9z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485657/original/file-20220920-3608-bie9z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485657/original/file-20220920-3608-bie9z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485657/original/file-20220920-3608-bie9z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485657/original/file-20220920-3608-bie9z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485657/original/file-20220920-3608-bie9z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From this rooftop in Prague, RFE/RL broadcasts across Eastern Europe and into Russia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/prague-czech-republic-satellite-dishes-are-pictured-13-news-photo/55393416">Michal Cizek/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Additional editorial pressure comes from federal law. VOA material must be “consistent” with U.S. foreign policy objectives, “represent America,” “<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/22/6202">present the policies of the United States clearly and effectively</a>” and include <a href="https://www.cjr.org/opinion/broadcasting_board_of_governors_house_trump.php">editorials</a> that reflect <a href="https://editorials.voa.gov">the views of the U.S. government</a>. Under the same law, RFE/RL is required to support the U.S. government abroad. Additionally, federal law also more pointedly provides a new pathway for folding this into a larger outlet that would be expressly required to “<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/22/6209">counter state-sponsored propaganda</a> which undermines the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States and its allies.”</p>
<p>VOA and RFE/RL have a history of providing slanted and incomplete portrayals of major events and issues. Scholarship has highlighted how, during the Cold War, RFE spread “<a href="https://thebaffler.com/salvos/an-american-tale-ghodsee">rumors as fact</a>” and displayed a “<a href="https://thebaffler.com/salvos/an-american-tale-ghodsee">consistent pattern of downplaying or ignoring evidence that contradicted RFE’s vision</a> of Eastern Europe as a totalitarian dystopia” early in the Cold War. </p>
<p>U.S. government editorial pressure has also come indirectly through funding cuts, which VOA experienced after senators balked at spending tax money to produce <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1973/05/21/archives/voice-of-america-is-candid-in-reporting-on-watergate.html">“unpleasant news”</a> surrounding Watergate. The Reagan administration was known to object to critical VOA coverage and also steered its <a href="https://thebaffler.com/salvos/an-american-tale-ghodsee">“editorial voice”</a> to align with the administration’s political agenda.</p>
<p>Today, VOA often publishes stories about the United States that promote American values, such as recent articles titled “<a href="https://projects.voanews.com/refugees/world-refugee-day-2022/">Refugees Shape America</a>” and “<a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/international-festival-celebrates-traditional-food-and-dance-/6728071.html">US International Festival Celebrates Traditional Food, Dance</a>.” </p>
<p>On the other hand, RFE/RL is more focused on <a href="https://www.usagm.gov/2022/02/25/audiences-turn-to-rfe-rl-for-truthful-reporting-about-russias-invasion-of-ukraine">countering propaganda</a>. It includes coverage that is often critical of U.S. adversaries, such as “<a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-soldier-deserter-filatyev-interview/32019717.html">‘We Have To Pay For Our Indifference’: A Russian Deserter Speaks Out After Ukraine War Memoir Hits A Nerve</a>” and “<a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/putin-ukraine-grain-exports-changins-routes/32022295.html">Putin Hints At ‘Changing Routes’ For Ukrainian Grain Exports, Warns Of Food ‘Catastrophe’</a>.” </p>
<p>Even though VOA and RFE/RL sometimes publish pieces that show unflattering aspects of the United States, such as “<a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/the-global-legacy-of-january-6/6384891.html">The Global Legacy of January 6</a>,” this is <a href="https://www.abc-clio.com/products/b4258c/">by design</a>, as the outlets would lose credibility if they ignored important topics covered in independent media.</p>
<h2>Concealed influence</h2>
<p>Because VOA and RFE/RL rely on facts, the U.S. State Department has argued that U.S. government media are less threatening than Russian “<a href="https://www.state.gov/report-rt-and-sputniks-role-in-russias-disinformation-and-propaganda-ecosystem/">disinformation</a>.” But the U.S. approach is still risky: VOA and RFE/RL content more closely resembles independent news, so <a href="https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1203&context=nulr">it is more difficult for readers to identify it as government-run media</a>. This is especially problematic in cases in which the outlets are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/technology/facebook-ads-propaganda.html">targeting U.S. citizens</a>, who may not be able to tell that they’re interacting with their own government. </p>
<p>Despite what VOA and RFE/RL claim, they are not independent. Both are funded by the U.S. government and are used to deliver U.S. policy abroad. Even though VOA and RFE/RL may look like news, they aren’t; like RT, their underlying purpose is to bolster their government’s influence around the world.</p>
<p><em>Weston Sager contributed to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190104/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Grygiel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Russian government media are frequently criticized as being blatant propaganda. How do US government media measure up?Jennifer Grygiel, Associate Professor of Communications (Social Media), Syracuse UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1818302022-08-11T12:13:39Z2022-08-11T12:13:39ZFarmers can save water with wireless technologies, but there are challenges – like transmitting data through mud<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478568/original/file-20220810-12-v7tt1o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5300%2C3520&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Wireless sensors and data systems can help farmers use water much more efficiently by monitoring soil conditions.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.ie/detail/news-photo/pivot-irrigation-sprinkler-hanover-virginia-september-20-news-photo/623544064">Lance Cheung/USDA via Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Water is the most essential resource for life, for both humans and the crops we consume. Around the world, agriculture accounts for <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/chart-globally-70-freshwater-used-agriculture">70% of all freshwater use</a>.</p>
<p>I study <a href="https://www.google.com/search?kgmid=/g/11gr6_nlm6">computers and information technology</a> in the Purdue Polytechnic Institute and direct Purdue’s <a href="https://polytechnic.purdue.edu/facilities/environmental-networking-technology-laboratory">Environmental Networking Technology (ENT) Laboratory</a>, where we tackle sustainability and environmental challenges with interdisciplinary research into the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35291-2_3">Agricultural Internet of Things</a>, or Ag-IoT. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ibm.com/blogs/internet-of-things/what-is-the-iot/">Internet of Things</a> is a network of objects equipped with sensors so they can receive and transmit data via the internet. Examples include wearable fitness devices, smart home thermostats and self-driving cars. </p>
<p>In agriculture, it involves technologies such as wireless underground communications, subsurface sensing and antennas in soil. These systems help farmers track conditions on their land in real time, and apply water and other inputs such as fertilizer exactly when and where they are needed.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460161/original/file-20220427-24-m731go.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="White sticks embedded in soil among corn stalks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460161/original/file-20220427-24-m731go.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460161/original/file-20220427-24-m731go.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460161/original/file-20220427-24-m731go.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460161/original/file-20220427-24-m731go.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460161/original/file-20220427-24-m731go.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460161/original/file-20220427-24-m731go.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460161/original/file-20220427-24-m731go.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sensors installed in a corn field.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Abdul Salam</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In particular, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50861-6_11">monitoring conditions in the soil</a> has great promise for helping farmers use water more efficiently. Sensors can now be wirelessly integrated into irrigation systems to provide real-time awareness of soil moisture levels. Studies suggest that this strategy can reduce water demand for irrigation by anywhere from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s40003-021-00604-5">20%</a> to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/WF-IoT.2015.7389138">72%</a> without hampering daily operations on crop fields. </p>
<h2>What is the Agricultural Internet of Things?</h2>
<p>Even in dry places such as the Middle East and North Africa, farming is possible with efficient water management. But extreme weather events driven by climate change are making that harder. <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/newsroom/trending-topics/drought-in-the-western-united-states/">Recurrent droughts in the western U.S.</a> over the past 20 years, along with other disasters like wildfires, have caused <a href="https://brownfieldagnews.com/news/drought-and-wildfire-the-costliest-disasters-for-crop-farmers-in-2021/">billions of dollars in crop losses</a>.</p>
<p>Water experts have measured soil moisture to inform water management and irrigation decisions for decades. Automated technologies have largely replaced hand-held soil moisture tools because it is hard to take manual soil moisture readings in production fields in remote locations. </p>
<p>In the past decade, wireless data harvesting technologies have begun to provide real-time access to soil moisture data, which makes for better water management decisions. These technologies could also have many advanced IoT applications in public safety, urban infrastructure monitoring and food safety. </p>
<p>The Agricultural Internet of Things is a network of <a href="https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=cit_articles">radios, antennas and sensors</a> that gather real-time crop and soil information in the field. To facilitate data collection, these sensors and antennas are <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/s16122096">interconnected</a> wirelessly with farm equipment. The Ag-IoT is a complete framework that can detect conditions on farmland, suggest actions in response and send commands to farm machinery.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478601/original/file-20220810-24-uwqksn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Graphic showing satellites, drones, wireless underground communications systems and other digital components collecting and sharing signals around a farm" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478601/original/file-20220810-24-uwqksn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478601/original/file-20220810-24-uwqksn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478601/original/file-20220810-24-uwqksn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478601/original/file-20220810-24-uwqksn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478601/original/file-20220810-24-uwqksn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478601/original/file-20220810-24-uwqksn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478601/original/file-20220810-24-uwqksn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Technologies that together comprise the Agricultural Internet of Things.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Abdul Salam/Purdue University</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Interconnecting devices such as soil moisture and temperature sensors in the field makes it possible to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adhoc.2018.07.017">control irrigation systems and conserve water autonomously</a>. The system can schedule irrigation, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2019.12.013">monitor environmental conditions</a> and control farm machines, such as seed planters and fertilizer applicators. Other applications include <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3934/mbe.2019273">estimating soil nutrient levels</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS.2002.86.4.336">identifying pests</a>.</p>
<h2>The challenges of putting networks underground</h2>
<p>Wireless data collection has the potential to help farmers use water much more efficiently, but putting these components in the ground creates challenges. For example, at the Purdue ENT Lab, we have found that when the antennas that transmit sensor data are buried in soil, their operating characteristics change drastically depending on how moist the soil is. My new book, “<a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-50861-6">Signals in the Soil</a>,” explains how this happens. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460334/original/file-20220428-9923-mehb2j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A scientist stands next to a wood-framed test bed containing equipment embedded in soil" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460334/original/file-20220428-9923-mehb2j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460334/original/file-20220428-9923-mehb2j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460334/original/file-20220428-9923-mehb2j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460334/original/file-20220428-9923-mehb2j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460334/original/file-20220428-9923-mehb2j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460334/original/file-20220428-9923-mehb2j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460334/original/file-20220428-9923-mehb2j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Abdul Salam takes measurements in a test bed at Purdue University to determine the optimum operating frequency for underground antennas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Abdul Salam</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Farmers use heavy equipment in fields, so antennas must be buried deep enough to avoid damage. As soil becomes wet, the moisture affects communication between the sensor network and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/jsan7040047">control system</a>. Water in the soil absorbs signal energy, which weakens the signals that the system sends. Denser soil also blocks signal transmission. </p>
<p>We have developed <a href="https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=cit_articles">a theoretical model and an antenna</a> that reduces the soil’s impact on underground communications by changing the operation frequency and system bandwidth. With this antenna, sensors placed in top layers of soil can provide real-time soil condition information to irrigation systems at <a href="https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cit_articles/36/">distances up to 650 feet (200 meters)</a> – longer than two football fields. </p>
<p>Another solution I have developed for improving wireless communication in soil is to use <a href="https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cit_articles/43/">directional antennas</a> to focus signal energy in a desired direction. Antennas that direct energy toward air can also be used for long-range wireless underground communications. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460463/original/file-20220429-26112-lm4nw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two metal radios on the ground" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460463/original/file-20220429-26112-lm4nw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460463/original/file-20220429-26112-lm4nw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460463/original/file-20220429-26112-lm4nw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460463/original/file-20220429-26112-lm4nw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460463/original/file-20220429-26112-lm4nw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460463/original/file-20220429-26112-lm4nw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460463/original/file-20220429-26112-lm4nw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Using software-defined radios to detect soil measurement signals. These radios can adjust their operating frequencies in response to soil moisture changes. In actual operation, the radios are buried in the soil.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Abdul Salam</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What’s next for the Ag-IoT</h2>
<p>Cybersecurity is becoming increasingly important for the Ag-IoT as it matures. Networks on farms <a href="https://theconversation.com/rise-of-precision-agriculture-exposes-food-system-to-new-threats-187589">need advanced security systems</a> to protect the information that they transfer. There’s also a need for solutions that enable researchers and agricultural extension agents to merge information from multiple farms. Aggregating data this way will produce more accurate decisions about issues like water use, while preserving growers’ privacy. </p>
<p>These networks also need to adapt to changing local conditions, such as temperature, rainfall and wind. Seasonal changes and crop growth cycles can temporarily alter operating conditions for Ag-IoT equipment. By using cloud computing and machine learning, scientists can help the Ag-IoT respond to shifts in the environment around it.</p>
<p>Finally, lack of high-speed internet access is <a href="https://www.theregreview.org/2022/07/09/saturday-seminar-regulating-the-digital-divide/">still an issue in many rural communities</a>. For example, many researchers have integrated wireless underground sensors with Ag-IoT in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bILpvH3EuQ">center pivot irrigation systems</a>, but farmers without high-speed internet access can’t install this kind of technology. </p>
<p>Integrating satellite-based network connectivity with the Ag-IoT can assist nonconnected farms where <a href="https://www.ntia.doc.gov/report/2019/american-broadband-initiative-milestones-report">broadband connectivity is still unavailable</a>. Researchers are also developing vehicle-mounted and mobile Ag-IoT platforms that use drones. Systems like these can provide continuous connectivity in the field, making digital technologies accessible for more farmers in more places.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181830/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abdul Salam does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Agricultural Internet of Things is making farming more efficient. An information technology expert describes some of the challenges of working with sensors and antennas underground.Abdul Salam, Assistant Professor of Computer and Information Technology, Purdue UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1882642022-08-06T12:21:38Z2022-08-06T12:21:38ZHow Vin Scully scored his Dodgers gig at 22 years old<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477903/original/file-20220805-20-qfxk61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C8%2C2968%2C2317&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Barber called Scully, pictured in a broadcast booth prior to a Brooklyn Dodgers game, 'the son I never had.'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/announcer-vin-scully-of-the-los-angeles-dodgers-poses-for-a-news-photo/482028781?adppopup=true">Sporting News via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Vin Scully, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/02/sports/baseball/vin-scully-dead.html">who died on Aug. 2, 2022</a>, is widely viewed as the greatest baseball announcer of all time. But for an earlier generation, his mentor, Red Barber, held that distinction.</p>
<p>In our recent biography “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Red_Barber/lWhgEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">Red Barber: The Life and Legacy of a Broadcasting Legend</a>,” we uncovered moving private letters and public references documenting the rich personal bonds between these two great voices of the game. </p>
<p>In 1939, Barber brought daily radio broadcasts of Dodgers baseball to Brooklyn’s fans for the first time. By the time Scully arrived in 1950, Barber – known as “<a href="https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19921022&slug=1520043">the Old Redhead</a>” – was the toast of Flatbush. </p>
<p>For a combined century – 33 years for Barber and 67 for Scully – the two blessed baseball fans with some of the sharpest word pictures ever painted of the grand old game. Together in the Brooklyn booth for four crucial years, from 1950 to 1953, they forged a relationship that proved to be both demanding and gratifying.</p>
<h2>The chance of a lifetime</h2>
<p>After Scully graduated with a degree in English from Fordham University in 1949, he papered East Coast radio stations with applications. <a href="https://vault.si.com/vault/1964/05/04/the-transistor-kid">He eventually scored an interview with CBS Radio</a>, where Barber was director of sports. Barber came away impressed, but there were no openings at the time.</p>
<p>Barber later phoned Vin Scully when, at the last minute, he needed a reporter to cover a college football contest at Fenway Park in Boston for CBS College Football Roundup. Scully’s mother answered the phone and took the message for Vin that <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Voices_of_the_Game/oNBwQgAACAAJ?hl=en">“Red Skelton” wanted to talk to him about a job</a> – confusing Barber with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Skelton">the popular entertainer</a>.</p>
<p>Fortunately, Scully figured out who was calling. He hustled to the park, only to learn there was no room for him in the press box. With only a light topcoat to defend himself against the cruel New England elements, he had to call the entire game from the roof, braving the winds on a chilly fall day with only a 60-watt light bulb to warm his hands. Barber, initially unaware of Scully’s plight, later wrote that when he learned his announcer had called the game from the roof, he was impressed by the young broadcaster’s stamina and even more impressed that Scully had never complained about the brutal conditions.</p>
<p>When <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ2EG3t3fEI">Ernie Harwell</a>, who would become the legendary voice of the Detroit Tigers, left the Brooklyn Dodgers’ broadcast booth for the New York Giants, Red Barber needed to find a replacement. He decided to go with the young broadcaster <a href="https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00067187/00001/downloads">who had so impressed him</a> – later describing Scully as “a pretty appealing young green pea … a boy who had something on the ball.”</p>
<p>So Vin Scully, just 22 years old, <a href="https://dodgers.mlblogs.com/on-this-date-70-years-ago-today-vin-scully-joins-the-booth-a66648e399e8">was given the chance of a lifetime</a>, to broadcast the games of the Brooklyn Dodgers, the National League’s most successful team. </p>
<p>But this golden opportunity was challenging in ways Scully did not foresee.</p>
<h2>Barber takes Scully under his wing</h2>
<p>Red Barber, who early in life planned to be a college professor, was a tough grader. He demanded a lot of himself, and he held those who worked with him to just as high a standard. </p>
<p>When Vin first entered the Dodgers broadcast booth, Barber told the young man that his job was to do whatever Red and his colleague Connie Desmond didn’t want to do. He also made it clear that any Scully errors would be corrected on air for all to hear. When Barber saw Scully drinking a beer with his pregame sandwich – a common practice at the time – <a href="https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00067191/00001/downloads">he told Vin he never wanted to see him do it again</a>.</p>
<p>Barber was no teetotaler – far from it; leisure hours drinks were something he treasured. But he believed a broadcaster should never have a drink, even a beer, on the job. Barber reasoned if Scully made an error, something inevitable for a broadcaster ad-libbing for hours at a time, anyone who saw him sipping the press room brew would conclude that alcohol had clouded his performance.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man holding microphone interviews baseball player." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477902/original/file-20220805-7920-unk7jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477902/original/file-20220805-7920-unk7jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477902/original/file-20220805-7920-unk7jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477902/original/file-20220805-7920-unk7jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477902/original/file-20220805-7920-unk7jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477902/original/file-20220805-7920-unk7jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477902/original/file-20220805-7920-unk7jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Barber could be a hard-driving boss.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/american-sports-journalist-red-barber-interviews-american-news-photo/57394862?adppopup=true">Robert Riger/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of Red’s broadcasting mantras was <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Broadcasters/bpFZAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">pregame preparation</a>. So before one game, when Scully told his mentor that a Dodgers’ regular would be out of the lineup, Barber demanded to know why. Scully told him he had no idea. To Barber, that was unacceptable.</p>
<p>Scully quickly realized that he needed to know the “whys”; he had to get to the stadium early and spend time talking with managers and players, absorbing compelling facts and stories to keep listeners engaged during slow stretches of each contest.</p>
<p>The delicate bonds that develop between any mentor and mentee, though often fruitful, almost always involve some degree of resentment and frustration, likely because each member of the pair has so much vested in winning the respect and affection of the other. Some of Barber’s barbs must have stung. But throughout his career Scully always credited Red for instilling in him the discipline and values of a professional baseball announcer. <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Red_Barber/lWhgEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">He claimed</a> that the greatest virtue of Red as a mentor “was the fact that he cared. I wasn’t just another kid in the booth, just another announcer. … He made sure that my work habits were good, and he rode me if I drifted away from his ideal of the right way to work.”</p>
<h2>Scully in the spotlight</h2>
<p>In 1953, Barber left the Brooklyn booth after a dispute over his pay. </p>
<p>Ahead of that season’s World Series between the Dodgers and the New York Yankees, the Series’ sponsor, Gillette, offered Barber only $200 per game, take it or leave it. Barber left it, and when he did not get the support he wanted from Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley, he decided to sit out the Series and sign with the Yankees for the following season.</p>
<p>Gillette then turned to Scully, asking him if he’d announce the Series. Scully called Red seeking his permission. Barber was genuinely moved by Scully’s request, given that his permission clearly was not needed. </p>
<p>All of a sudden, Scully, at the age of 25, was thrust onto the national stage. He remains the youngest person to ever call a World Series. Two years later, he announced the Brooklyn Dodgers’ only World Series win, and in 1958 he moved with the club to Los Angeles, where he would call games for the next 59 seasons.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Vin Scully recaps the 1953 World Series in one of the earliest recordings of the legendary broadcaster.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Barber and Scully maintained an affectionate dialogue for the remainder of Red’s life.</p>
<p>When Barber and Mel Allen were honored by the National Baseball Hall of Fame as the first recipients of the <a href="https://baseballhall.org/discover-more/awards/887">Ford C. Frick Award</a>, presented yearly to a broadcaster for “major contributions to baseball,” <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Red_Barber/lWhgEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">Scully wrote his old teacher</a>, “I know as well as anyone alive what a true artist you were behind the mike. There is a great deal of you in anything I do well in play-by-play, and it will live in me as long as I am working.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/23/obituaries/red-barber-baseball-voice-of-summer-is-dead-at-84.html">When Barber died in 1992</a>, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=lWhgEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA421&lpg=PA421&dq=%22radio%27s+first+poet%22+vin+scully+reader%27s+digest&source=bl&ots=eKTwjzRZ9i&sig=ACfU3U20PiKT9ghjq_j_phD7Wi3yq3zg8g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwipi_j9srD5AhXvGFkFHaZ5AIQQ6AF6BAgCEAM#v=onepage&q=%22radio's%20first%20poet%22%20vin%20scully%20reader's%20digest&f=false">Scully penned a tribute</a> in Reader’s Digest, calling him “radio’s first poet … and the most honorable man I ever met.” </p>
<p>At Barber’s funeral, Scully <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=lWhgEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA416&lpg=PA416&dq=%22Now+don%E2%80%99t+you+talk+about+me+during+the+game.+These+people+aren%E2%80%99t+tuning+in+to+hear+about+me.+Talk+about+the+game.%22&source=bl&ots=eKTwjyO0aa&sig=ACfU3U0RPFLsb-840mAH9SYnTQ8e10yLOQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjBsqDXg7D5AhWthIkEHSHWAt0Q6AF6BAgCEAM#v=onepage&q=%22Now%20don%E2%80%99t%20you%20talk%20about%20me%20during%20the%20game.%20These%20people%20aren%E2%80%99t%20tuning%20in%20to%20hear%20about%20me.%20Talk%20about%20the%20game.%22&f=false">told a reporter</a> that he was preparing to announce the fourth game of the World Series when he first learned of Red’s death. After absorbing the sad news, he began hearing his old mentor chiding him: “Now don’t you talk about me during the game. These people aren’t tuning in to hear about me. Talk about the game.”</p>
<p><em>This article has been updated to correct the year Scully graduated from Fordham.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188264/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Legendary broadcaster Red Barber took a chance on Scully when he asked him to be an announcer for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Three years later, Scully was the voice of the World Series.James Walker, Past Executive Director, International Association for Communication and Sport, Emeritus Professor of Communication, Saint Xavier UniversityJudith R. Hiltner, Emeritus Professor of English, Saint Xavier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1844432022-06-06T05:03:31Z2022-06-06T05:03:31ZRunning Up That Hill: How Stranger Things and TikTok pushed Kate Bush’s 1985 pop classic back to the top of the charts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467070/original/file-20220606-58929-dq1m16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C0%2C3810%2C1890&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Netflix</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Netflix’s nostalgia-laden thriller <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4574334/">Stranger Things</a> returned last month and with it came the revival of another classic from the 1980s, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp43OdtAAkM">Running Up That Hill</a> by Kate Bush. The song plays a prominent part in the narrative connected to one of the show’s leading teen cast members and is featured in a climatic, and visually stunning scene that has been making the rounds on the internet. </p>
<p>In a post shared to her <a href="https://www.katebush.com/news/stranger-things">website</a> over the weekend, Kate Bush showered praise on the show and Netflix: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>You might’ve heard that the first part of the fantastic, gripping new series of Stranger Things has recently been released on Netflix… It features the song, ‘Running Up That Hill’ which is being given a whole new lease of life by the young fans who love the show – I love it too!</p>
</blockquote>
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<h2>Making a deal with TikTok</h2>
<p>One thing missing from the acknowledgement is mention of another digital platform helping to boost the song’s presence: TikTok. A thirty-second version of the Stranger Things clip has been posted and reposted on TikTok, gaining millions of views in just over a week, and Kate Bush’s song has been used in over 500,000 short videos. </p>
<p>Videos featuring the song depict teens cosplaying as characters, acting out scenes from the shows, and making humorous <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@baconwithsyruppp/video/7104096896326585643">meme videos</a> (“my friends playing my favourite song trying to save me… my airpods die”). </p>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-717" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/717/49c95088a4889547ced7601822c68ac3134eb78b/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-718" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/718/d127f2da46f9174c5382ce3540b443553ea06973/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Others engage less with Stranger Things and more with Kate Bush, in videos depicting connecting with parents over a shared love, recommending more of Bush’s music, and sharing joy that a new generation of audiences might be discovering the influential artist for the first time. The song <a href="https://www.salon.com/2022/05/31/stranger-things-kate-bush-tiktok-running-up-that-hill/">speaks to misfits and of desperation</a>, themes as relevant to teens in 2022 as they were in 1985. </p>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-719" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/719/63220c4786c649d0ec426ad2d9a191a9cd60248a/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-720" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/720/90e763d23c54af47371bdf092e882f33d60d9f58/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Running up that hill and going viral</h2>
<p>The runaway resurgence of Bush’s 1985 classic could be a signal to film and TV producers to make clips more “TikTokable”. </p>
<p>Songs with short catchy hooks that are attached to eye-grabbing visual sequences in clips that are sixty, or better yet thirty, seconds maximum are more likely to be picked up on and shared on TikTok. </p>
<p>The chances of going viral can be improved by choosing classic chart-toppers that may find a revival among younger audiences. Naturally when a beloved artist is found by Gen-Z audiences, it leads to<a href="https://www.pedestrian.tv/music/stranger-things-kate-bush-fans-gate-keeping/"> gatekeeping by longtime fans</a> as well as counter-gatekeeping by fans who are thrilled to see a younger audience connecting with one of their favourite artists’ music. </p>
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<p>Stranger Things is not the first to capitalise on the power of <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/43bxpn/the-science-behind-musics-nostalgic-power">musical nostalgia</a>. The success of films like <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2014/08/04/guardians-of-the-galaxy-1970s-soundtrack/13580579/">Guardians of the Galaxy</a> have proven to be powerful tools to give older a reprisal on the radio and popular charts. TikTok challenges and audio memes have helped catapult other classics back into vogue such as Harry Belafonte’s Jump in the Line, The Shangri-Las’s Leader of the Pack remixed into Oh No by Kreepa, and, of course, Fleetwood Mac’s <a href="https://filmdaily.co/news/fleetwood-mac-tiktok/">Dreams</a>. </p>
<p>TikTok is a music-centric platform. It takes advantage of musical innovations pioneered on earlier short video platforms, like Flipagram, Dubsmash, and Musical.ly. These platforms allowed users to draw from an internal library of popular songs, creatively add them to video creations, and use features like Duet to place themselves side-by-side their favourite artists. </p>
<p>Unlike streaming services like Apple Music or Spotify, users can take a more active and playful role interacting with music on TikTok.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/halseys-record-label-wont-release-a-new-song-until-it-goes-viral-on-tiktok-is-this-the-future-of-the-music-industry-183720">Halsey's record label won't release a new song until it goes viral on TikTok. Is this the future of the music industry?</a>
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<h2>Radio and the charts</h2>
<p>As with other musical TikTok phenomena, Running Up That Hill might be more than a momentary flash in the pan. In 2020, <a href="https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/tiktok-says-over-70-artists-that-broke-on-the-platform-this-year-have-signed-major-label-deals/">TikTok claimed</a> over 70 artists who first emerged on the platform had secured record deals an the <a href="https://www.billboard.com/photos/songs-tiktok-viral-chart/1-dixie-damelio-2020-cr-flannery-underwood-billboard-1548-1594396309/">Billboard charts</a> now frequently feature songs that went viral.</p>
<p>The song has returned to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/jun/03/kate-bush-running-up-that-hill-uk-top-10-stranger-things">Top 10 singles charts in the UK</a> and is set to overtake Harry Styles As it Was as the <a href="https://musicfeeds.com.au/news/kate-bushs-running-up-that-hill-is-on-track-to-be-australias-number-one-single-this-week/">number one single in Australia</a>.</p>
<p>Kate Bush being reserviced to radio, physically or digitally delivering music to radio stations by her label, is a significant development. In the past much money and influence has been involved in getting music onto the radio. For a song that has not received play for decades to spontaneously reappear is a “watershed moment” according to <a href="https://www.billboard.com/pro/kate-bush-running-up-that-hill-stranger-things-radio-service/">a Warner Music label executive</a>. Despite the growth and dominance of streaming, radio still plays a pivotal role for curation and discover in music markets such as the <a href="https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/article/2019/the-steady-reach-of-radio-winning-consumers-attention/">US</a>, <a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-11/Trends-in-viewing-and-listening-behaviour_ACMA-consumer-survey-2020.pdf">Australia</a>, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/19376529.2021.2023536">around the world</a>. </p>
<p>Radio play brings songs like to those who might not use TikTok or haven’t gotten around to watching the new season of Stranger Things. </p>
<p>While much focus in the music industry has centred on how to make <a href="https://theconversation.com/halseys-record-label-wont-release-a-new-song-until-it-goes-viral-on-tiktok-is-this-the-future-of-the-music-industry-183720">songs go viral</a> on TikTok, labels and artists might want to reconsider the radio as the true measure of success for songs traveling through the pipeline from TV to TikTok to Top 40.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184443/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>D. Bondy Valdovinos Kaye does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Running Up That Hill had a prominent moment in the new season of Netflix’s Stranger Things – and now it’s being played on commercial radio and being discovered by a younger audience.D. Bondy Valdovinos Kaye, Lecturer, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1765662022-03-27T19:12:00Z2022-03-27T19:12:00ZAgricultural productivity, sex education and gender equity: 5 times soap operas enabled social change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449135/original/file-20220301-23-1k2rf3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C0%2C5997%2C4016&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A fancy term for how stories persuade us is through “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/673383">narrative transportation</a>”.</p>
<p>People get transported through two main components: empathy with the characters, and imagination of the plot. </p>
<p><em>Empathy</em> is when people develop positive feelings toward a character and identify with the character’s values and fate. </p>
<p><em>Imagination</em> means people generate vivid images of the things a character does, so they feel as though they are doing it themselves. </p>
<p>The more familiar people are with a story topic and the more they are able to fantasise, the more narrative transportation increases and the more a story can change them. </p>
<p>Soap operas, with their long and involved storytelling and large audience reach, can be uniquely positioned to enable this narrative transportation. For decades, educational content has intentionally been placed in soap operas to spread ideas and bring about behavioural and social change.</p>
<p>Here are five notable examples of the persuasive power of soap operas.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hooked-on-a-book-podcast-or-tv-show-heres-how-the-story-changes-you-106062">Hooked on a book, podcast or TV show? Here's how the story changes you</a>
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<h2>1. The Archers</h2>
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<p>The first recognisable intervention was launched on radio with The Archers. </p>
<p>Launched in 1951 (and still on air today), BBC Radio and the UK Ministry of Agriculture created this “everyday story of country folk” to encourage farmers to try new techniques to increase productivity. </p>
<p>Set in the fictional town of Ambridge, the series follows the lives of the residents who live there, and in particular their work in the nearby towns. Over its run it has included <a href="https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/research/archers70/">obscure details</a> of pig husbandary and milking-parlour technology alongside its more generalist entertainment. </p>
<h2>2. Secret of the Land</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.wur.nl/en/Publication-details.htm?publicationId=publication-way-3630363637">Secret of the Land</a> started airing on Egyptian television in 1989, and, like the Archers, the series was established to encourage better farming practices.</p>
<p>At the heart of the show was a funny, but not-too-well-educated farmer. More experienced farmers, including the mayor of the village and an agricultural engineer, humorously critique and reform his not-too-smart agricultural decisions and daily actions in the field. </p>
<p>By showing the older and wiser farmers consulting with government-appointed agricultural experts, the series also successfully increased the experts’ credibility among the viewing farmers.</p>
<h2>3. Soul City</h2>
<p>In its fourth season, the popular South African soap Soul City (broadcast from 1994 to 2014) portrayed how neighbours might intervene in a domestic violence situation. </p>
<p>The prevailing cultural norm in South Africa at the end of the 90s was for neighbours to not to intervene during the abuse. Partner abuse was considered to be a “<a href="https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/combating-aids/book225810">private</a>” matter conducted in a “private” space, with curtains drawn and behind a closed front door.</p>
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<p>In Soul City, the neighbours collectively decided to break the ongoing cycle of spousal abuse in a neighbourhood home. While an abuser was beating his wife, they gathered around the residence and collectively banged their pots and pans, censuring the abuser’s actions. </p>
<p>This episode highlighted the importance of energising neighbours, who, for cultural reasons, had previously felt powerless. </p>
<p>After this episode was broadcast, towns throughout South Africa <a href="https://www.soulcity.org.za/projects/soul-city-series/soul-city-series-4">reported</a> pot banging to stop partner abuse. </p>
<h2>4. Taru</h2>
<p>The purpose of the Indian radio soap opera Taru was to promote caste harmony, community development, gender equality, small family size and reproductive health. </p>
<p>Broadcast from 2002 to 2003, the soap revolved around Taru, a young, educated woman who worked for the village health and community centre. Taru was idealistic, intelligent and polite as she worked to empower rural women. </p>
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<p>Taru was friends with her coworker, Shashikant, who belongs to a lower caste. The cast villagers discriminated against him, even as he prevented a child marriage and encouraged girls to be treated on par with boys.</p>
<p>Taru’s mother Yashoda was highly supportive of her daughter’s friendship with Shashikant, but Mangla, Taru’s rogue brother, derided Taru’s social work, and ridiculed her friendship with the lower-caste Shashikant. </p>
<p>With Taru, Shashikant, and Yashoda as positive role models, the soap <a href="https://au.sagepub.com/en-gb/oce/combating-aids/book225810">inspired communities</a> to stop child marriages, launch adult literacy programs for dalit (low-caste) women, and welcome dalits to social events.</p>
<h2>5. Cut Your Coat</h2>
<p>The “well planned family” was the centre of the Nepalese soap Cut Your Coat According to Your Cloth (broadcast between 1996 and 2003), which encouraged spouses to plan their families to suit their own interests and make choices jointly. </p>
<p>In the series, two village elders vied for power, and community members struggled to reconcile contemporary concerns with traditional values. Colourful heroes and villains, and plenty of suspense, kept the audience eager to tune into the next episode.</p>
<p>Among these high-octane stories were subtler storylines about spacing between births and limiting family size. In this way, the series encouraged women to express their aspirations and concerns about reproduction and family in a culture that traditionally offered little opportunity for women to do so. It empowered women to speak openly to people in authority such as health workers and community leaders. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.routledge.com/Entertainment-Education-and-Social-Change-History-Research-and-Practice/Singhal-Cody-Rogers-Sabido/p/book/9780805845532">Surveys showed</a> that while the national Nepalese use of contraceptives remained steady around 39%, contraceptive use in the areas where the soap was broadcast rose from 36% to 49%.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-very-special-episode-how-tv-shows-can-be-powerful-tools-for-public-health-154373">A very special episode: how TV shows can be powerful tools for public health</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176566/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom van Laer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Soap operas, with their long and involved storytelling and large audience reach, can be uniquely positioned to enable narrative transportation.Tom van Laer, Associate Professor of Narratology, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1785752022-03-09T12:30:41Z2022-03-09T12:30:41ZShortwave radio in Ukraine: why revisiting old-school technology makes sense in a war<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450771/original/file-20220308-6791-1kxtuoh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=38%2C0%2C4272%2C2839&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/old-radio-retro-scene-141435379">theerapol sri-in/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Shortly before access to the BBC News website <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/mar/04/bbc-website-blocked-in-russia-as-shortwave-radio-brought-back-to-cover-ukraine-war">was reportedly blocked</a> in Russia a few days ago, the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2022/millions-of-russians-turn-to-bbc-news">BBC announced</a> that it was resuming the broadcasting of the BBC World Service via shortwave radio for four hours per day. It said that this was to ensure that people in parts of Russia and Ukraine can access its news service.</p>
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<p>In a world with near-ubiquitous adoption of mobile phones, the use of <a href="https://www.stormfax.com/wireless.htm">early 20th century</a> radio technology might seem unusual. But it makes sense for a number of practical reasons.</p>
<p>Shortwave radio is an old variant of what many people may remember as “AM” analogue radio, operating on low frequency radio waves to deliver audio services. Shortwave radio is far simpler than modern digital TV or telecommunications services: receivers are widely available (or can be built from <a href="https://udallas.edu/news/2019/how-to-build-a-shortwave-radio">spare electrical parts</a>), and it works across long distances.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-write-to-your-mp-if-youre-concerned-about-the-crisis-in-ukraine-178452">How to write to your MP if you're concerned about the crisis in Ukraine</a>
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<p>Traditional broadcast TV and radio fundamentally differ from modern internet-based services. Like Freeview TV received over an aerial, traditional broadcast radio services don’t require you to transmit anything to be able to receive a service. It’s transmitted once, and anyone with a receiver can listen or watch. </p>
<p>When someone uses a shortwave radio receiver, there’s no lasting trace of them using it. This makes it hard for an occupying force to find those listening to (perhaps banned) overseas media. </p>
<p>Conversely, when you browse the internet or use a mobile app, your device is requesting the content you wish to receive, and it’s being sent directly to your phone. This bi-directional communication means that when you browse the internet, various entities like your internet provider are able to see that <a href="https://www.howtogeek.com/664608/why-you-shouldnt-be-using-your-isps-default-dns-server/">you visited</a> certain websites.</p>
<p>Internet-based services can also become overloaded, either as a result of high demand, or due to malicious attacks <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/anonymous-attacks-russia-ukraine-invasion-rt-ddos-b2023177.html">flooding a service</a> with requests, aiming to make it unavailable.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/radio-has-a-rich-history-as-a-weapon-of-the-liberation-struggle-in-southern-africa-177041">Radio has a rich history as a weapon of the liberation struggle in southern Africa</a>
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<p>There are a number of other technical reasons why shortwave radio can be very useful in crisis situations. Since it uses lower transmission frequencies, the signals can travel much further than TV or mobile phone signals – <a href="https://www.ors.at/en/radio/shortwave/">thousands of kilometres</a>, rather than <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mobile-phone-base-stations-radio-waves-and-health/mobile-phone-base-stations-radio-waves-and-health">kilometres or tens of kilometres</a>. </p>
<p>This means the BBC can broadcast from outside into a conflict zone without needing local physical infrastructure. And since low frequencies are used, the signals <a href="https://www.quality2wayradios.com/store/Radio-Range-Distance">propagate better</a> through buildings and the environment. If you’ve ever experienced poor mobile phone signal in the centre of an old building, you’ve experienced the challenges of radio propagation. Low frequency signals reach into buildings and basements better, even when transmitted from far away, which might be useful for people who are taking shelter.</p>
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<img alt="A man holds a smartphone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450783/original/file-20220308-21-1nzbde2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450783/original/file-20220308-21-1nzbde2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450783/original/file-20220308-21-1nzbde2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450783/original/file-20220308-21-1nzbde2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450783/original/file-20220308-21-1nzbde2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450783/original/file-20220308-21-1nzbde2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450783/original/file-20220308-21-1nzbde2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">If you’re visiting news sources on the web, it’s possible this can be traced and seen.</span>
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<p>Shortwave radio receivers can also be very <a href="https://swling.com/Radios.htm#CCRadio-SWP">power efficient</a>. You can run a portable radio for days on batteries, and many cars have a shortwave-capable radio in them, which can run from the car battery. There are even wind-up or solar-powered shortwave radio receivers <a href="https://radiowaves.org.uk/hand-crank-shortwave-radio/">available</a>.</p>
<p>Though mobile phones can be charged from power banks, solar panels or car chargers, they require a lot of infrastructure, like radio masts, power and fibre network connections. Any of these could fail, or <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60659185">be deliberately targeted</a>, taking down some or all of the network. If your local mast loses power, the network will go down in that area. If the core network sites are damaged or lose power, the whole network will become unavailable.</p>
<p>Further, mobile phones and other digital radio technologies are designed to use low transmission power to make it more cost effective for mobile operators to <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7210297">re-use the same frequencies</a> in different areas. This means that the network operators reduce signal power wherever possible. </p>
<p>This makes it practical for almost anyone to attempt to <a href="https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.108.7211&rep=rep1&type=pdf">jam and block access to</a> mobile networks, using handheld jamming devices (which are <a href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/spectrum/interference-enforcement/spectrum-offences/jammers">generally illegal</a> to own or use). Shortwave signals are more difficult to jam, generally requiring <a href="https://www.rfcafe.com/references/popular-electronics/russian-jamming-april-1959-popular-electronics.htm">a network</a> of large, high-power transmitters spread out across a country, operating on the same frequency.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/radio-gaga-four-issues-that-will-decide-the-future-of-audio-99804">Radio gaga? Four issues that will decide the future of audio</a>
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<p>In the current war, a shift towards traditional radio communications technology is not only being seen in the context of news broadcasts. There are numerous reports of Russian military units using <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/world/ukraine-russia-putin-radio-civilians-b2027256.html">unencrypted analogue radios</a>, or “walkie talkies”, to communicate on the battlefield. </p>
<p>In hostile environments, sometimes older, simpler technologies are more readily available, and can deliver a more reliable communications channel than more complex, modern alternatives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178575/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Greig is a member of the UK 5G security group, a depute-chair of the UK Telecoms Data Taskforce, and is involved in the delivery of 5G Testbeds & Trials projects, funded by DCMS.</span></em></p>The BBC has resumed broadcasting via shortwave radio to ensure civilians can access the news.Greig Paul, Lead Mobile Networks and Security Engineer, University of Strathclyde Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1779612022-03-03T13:27:38Z2022-03-03T13:27:38ZWhat’s behind the obsession over whether Elizabeth Holmes intentionally lowered her voice?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449303/original/file-20220301-17-otvuzn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Was the way she spoke another strand of deception in the web of fraud spun by the former Theranos CEO?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/elizabeth-holmes-dropped-out-of-stanford-in-2003-as-a-19-news-photo/1359151393?adppopup=true">Karl Mondon/MediaNews Group/Bay Area News via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is a scene in Hulu’s new series, “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10166622/">The Dropout</a>,” where Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, wearing a white blouse, stands in front of a mirror and practices saying, “This is an inspiring step forward.” With each iteration, her voice deepens.</p>
<p>As the world has learned about Theranos’ <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-theranos-fraud-elizabeth-holmes-convicted-trial-blood-testing-start-up-11641330471">web of deception</a> – whether through John Carreyrou’s bestselling book, “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/549478/bad-blood-by-john-carreyrou/">Bad Blood</a>,” Apple’s podcast series “<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dropout/id1449500734">The Dropout</a>” or Hulu’s streaming series of the same name – Holmes’ <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/02/09/elizabeth-holmes-voice-the-dropout-devotes-an-entire-episode-to-her-odd-baritone/">supposed attempt to alter her voice</a> is a detail that captivates audiences. The behavior might strike some people as bizarre, even sociopathic.</p>
<p>But because of my training <a href="https://doi.org/10.3109/14015439609099196">in vocology</a>, which is the study of vocalization, and my interest in <a href="https://theconversation.com/tiktok-bamarush-and-the-irresistible-allure-of-mocking-southern-accents-166324">speech biases</a>, I’m intrigued by why Holmes may have felt compelled to change her voice in the first place. I see the story of her voice as part of a broader cultural fixation on the way women speak and sound.</p>
<h2>Reactions to Holmes’ voice</h2>
<p>Whenever Holmes is in the news, some questions always come up: </p>
<p>What’s with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI_a-B6F1Eg">that distinctively low voice</a>? Is she faking it? </p>
<p>I have not been able to find definitive proof, in the form of video or audio recordings, to show that Holmes’ voice is noticeably different in its current form than at some previous time. </p>
<p><a href="https://youtu.be/lEArFDFcLZM?t=88">One video</a> claims to capture Holmes shifting between two very different voice modes. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">During this interview with Elizabeth Holmes, commenters highlight a vocal switch between the 1:28 and 2:08 marks.</span></figcaption>
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<p>However, it could have been easily edited. And dramatic, sustained pitch changes in speech can be associated with heightened emotional states without indicating a put-on voice. At the same time, <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2019/03/why-did-elizabeth-holmes-use-a-fake-deep-voice.html">people who know Holmes have claimed</a> that she changed her voice in order to cultivate a persona as a Silicon Valley wunderkind.</p>
<p>Only a clinician like a <a href="https://voicefoundation.org/health-science/voice-disorders/voice-care-team/otolaryngologistlaryngologist/">laryngologist</a> can make a voice-related medical diagnosis. But since I can’t definitively answer if Holmes’ voice changed intentionally, it is worth considering what natural or medical processes could cause a similar effect. Hormones <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6592446/">directly impact</a> the voice, including pitch and the perception of roughness or hoarseness. Women’s voices tend to <a href="https://lithub.com/vocal-effects-how-hormones-change-the-way-we-sound/">decrease in pitch range during menopause</a>. </p>
<p>Holmes’ young age at the time she became known for her voice may rule out an age-related hormonal voice change, but a similar effect could be found with <a href="http://www.vocapedia.info/_Library/JOS_files_Vocapedia/JOS-069-5-2013-571.pdf">certain hormone therapy</a>. There are also several <a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/voice-disorders">voice disorders</a> that impact pitch range. </p>
<h2>If she did it … how?</h2>
<p>There are all sorts of reasons people seek voice therapy or coaching to address vocal insecurities. Whether they’re concerned about their voice range or simply seeking skills to become better communicators, the voice is resilient and can be developed with training. There are also wonderful resources available for <a href="https://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/voice-and-communication-change-for-transgender-people/">gender-affirming voice</a> support for transgender people. </p>
<p>So what is the physiological process at play when someone intentionally lowers their voice? </p>
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<img alt="Woman wearing mask seated in back seat of car." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449300/original/file-20220301-13-1yth1oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449300/original/file-20220301-13-1yth1oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449300/original/file-20220301-13-1yth1oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449300/original/file-20220301-13-1yth1oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449300/original/file-20220301-13-1yth1oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449300/original/file-20220301-13-1yth1oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449300/original/file-20220301-13-1yth1oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Elizabeth Holmes leaves a San Jose, Calif. courthouse after testifying in her defense in November 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/theranos-founder-and-former-ceo-elizabeth-holmes-sits-in-news-photo/1236759223?adppopup=true">Ethan Swope/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Engaging a tiny laryngeal muscle called the <a href="https://med.umn.edu/ent/patient-care/lions-voice-clinic/about-the-voice/how-it-works/anatomy">thyroarytenoid</a> causes the vocal folds, which are housed inside the larynx (or “voice box”), to relax and become shorter and thicker. Imagine decreasing tension on a rubber band. These shorter, thicker folds vibrate at a lower frequency, resulting in a lower-pitched voice, just as a thicker or more lax <a href="https://www.yamaha.com/en/musical_instrument_guide/acoustic_guitar/mechanism/mechanism003.html">guitar string</a> has a lower pitch.</p>
<p>It is likely the singular nature of Holmes’ voice is related not only to its low pitch, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7591156/">but also its resonance</a>, the unique tonal quality and placement of the voice. Holmes might adjust her resonance by consciously lowering the larynx. Doing so creates a longer space above the larynx, which boosts the <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0132193">deeper, darker tones</a> in the voice. </p>
<h2>Women’s voices subject to scrutiny</h2>
<p>In my role as a theatrical <a href="https://www.rsc.org.uk/about-us/how-we-make-theatre/voice">voice coach</a>, I’m sometimes asked to help women actors lower their voices. I’ve encountered directors and producers with significant distaste for higher-pitched women’s voices, especially when this pitch range is combined with <a href="https://www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/resonance-disorders/">nasal resonance</a>. </p>
<p>In movies and on TV, characters with high-pitched voices are often portrayed as comical, dim-witted and generally undesirable. Think of Lina Lamont, the character from “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045152/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Singin’ in the Rain</a>” memorably played by Jean Hagen. Her high, piercing voice became a source of consistent laughs. </p>
<p>Might sexist attitudes about women’s voices cause <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0051216">women in leadership roles</a> to feel pressured to adjust their pitch range down?</p>
<p>Former British Prime Minister <a href="https://www.workingvoices.com/insights/busting-the-margaret-thatcher-voice-coaching-myth/">Margaret Thatcher</a>, nicknamed the “Iron Lady,” famously <a href="https://decider.com/2020/11/15/the-crown-season-4-gillian-anderson-margaret-thatcher-real-voice/">down-shifted her voice</a> to burnish her stature. <a href="https://www.americanscientist.org/article/how-voice-pitch-influences-our-choice-of-leaders">Research on perceptions of pitch</a> in women’s voices shows higher ones are associated with physical attractiveness, while lower voices are associated with dominance. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, many women <a href="https://youtu.be/JfgBgpFJYto">radio and podcast hosts</a> are barraged with negative listener feedback about “<a href="https://www.wired.com/video/watch/accent-expert-breaks-down-language-pet-peeves">vocal fry</a>,” the creaky mode of speaking made famous by Kim Kardashian. </p>
<p>Yet physiologically, to create this sound, the vocal folds must vibrate at a low frequency, associated with low pitch. This much-maligned vocal feature is at one end of the pitch spectrum. But there’s another equally hated speech feature that is achieved at the other end: the high-rising terminal intonation pattern, or “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28708526">uptalk</a>.” This feature is noted for the dramatic upward pitch at the end of each thought, which <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z756L_CkakU">can make</a> statements sound like questions.</p>
<p>The insistence that women in media change the pitch of their voices often comes with little concern for the <a href="https://doi.org/10.3109/14015439.2011.587447">anatomical and physiological factors</a> that will limit how much pitch change is ultimately possible. My current research is investigating perceptions of women’s speaking voices in the performing arts and considering whether it’s time to part ways with some old aesthetic preferences.</p>
<p>Either way, the delicate dance of trying to strike a happy medium – the Goldilocks voice profile, where one can be taken seriously as a leader without being perceived as inauthentic, grating or patronizing – seems to be elusive. Women’s voices are the subject of endless scrutiny at both ends of the range – it seems they just can’t win. </p>
<p>If everything about this story were the same except the gender of Theranos’ CEO, I wonder whether his voice would even be remarked upon. If it were, might the <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/deeper-voice-gives-electoral-advant-12-03-14/">same vocal qualities</a> be perceived as positive traits befitting a capable, serious-minded leader? </p>
<p>Elizabeth Holmes undoubtedly lacks the practical skills and moral compass to be a great leader. But all the noise about her voice, and the potential that she changed it to get ahead, just may reveal a sexist double standard that women seemingly can’t escape.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation’s politics, science or religion articles each week.</em><a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-best">Sign up today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177961/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathryn Cunningham is a member of the Pan-American Vocology Association (PAVA) and Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA). </span></em></p>A speech expert wonders what this says about the pressures women in leadership roles feel – and the broader cultural impulse to police the way women speak and sound.Kathryn Cunningham, Assistant Professor of Theatre, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1770412022-02-16T15:12:40Z2022-02-16T15:12:40ZRadio has a rich history as a weapon of the liberation struggle in southern Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446073/original/file-20220213-19-16de5ed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wits University Press</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Radio, known for decades as <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/02/1111882">‘Africa’s medium’</a>, has many magical qualities. It’s an intimate medium with the ability to transcend borders. It chimes with Africa’s strong <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/African-literature/Oral-traditions-and-the-written-word">oral culture</a> and it is ephemeral – it lives in the present moment. Because of this, radio served as a powerful tool in the <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000046767">liberation struggle</a> in southern Africa.</p>
<p>Radio leaves no incriminating paper trail. It allowed freedom fighters to counter colonial propaganda and helped leaders in exile maintain a presence with supporters back home. Unlike print media, which dominates the “first drafts of history”, radio’s ephemerality makes it difficult to study. With little concrete content in archives (and often only in the archives of the oppressor), historical analysis has been parochial, anecdotal and sporadic.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446074/original/file-20220213-23-jvb7nm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A book cover in green with the words 'Guerilla radios in Southern Africa' and an illustration of a portable radio against a background of camouflage fabric." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446074/original/file-20220213-23-jvb7nm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446074/original/file-20220213-23-jvb7nm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446074/original/file-20220213-23-jvb7nm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446074/original/file-20220213-23-jvb7nm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446074/original/file-20220213-23-jvb7nm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446074/original/file-20220213-23-jvb7nm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446074/original/file-20220213-23-jvb7nm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wits University Press</span></span>
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<p><a href="https://witspress.co.za/catalogue/guerrilla-radios-in-southern-africa/">Guerrilla Radios in Southern Africa: Broadcasters, Technology, Propaganda Wars and the Armed Struggle</a> (2021) is a collection of essays that fills many of the gaps in the study of media’s role in the liberation struggle. Focusing on clandestine radio broadcasting, it shines a light on how rebel broadcasters in Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa disrupted and dismantled the propaganda of colonial powers.</p>
<h2>Battle of the airwaves</h2>
<p>In the second half of the 1900s, southern Africa’s liberation from white colonial powers, including the UK, Portugal, and, in South Africa, the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">apartheid</a> state, was complicated by the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Cold-War">Cold War</a> between the US and Soviet Union and their allies. </p>
<p>The armed struggle involved a battle for the hearts and minds of citizens. National airwaves were dominated by state-controlled radio designed to maintain the status quo. But this was soon disrupted by the establishment of guerrilla broadcasters – often set up by exiled citizens – in Lusaka, Maputo, Harare, Luanda, Brazzaville, and Luanda. As <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/western-Africa/The-formation-of-African-independence-movements">winds of change</a> swept the continent, newly independent states often hosted the guerilla stations of nearby states still seeking independence.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/radio-as-a-form-of-struggle-scenes-from-late-colonial-angola-128019">Radio as a form of struggle: scenes from late colonial Angola</a>
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</em>
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<hr>
<p>Now, for the first time in a single publication, historians from a range of institutions have published information on these broadcasters’ producers, policies, listeners and content. They did this by sifting through the archives and conducting interviews with former participants and audiences.</p>
<h2>Many challenges</h2>
<p>Edited by Sekibakiba Peter Lekgoathi, Tshepo Moloi and Alda Romão Saúte Saíde, the book’s eleven chapters illustrate how the battle for the airwaves took on a heroic David-and-Goliath character. Rebel broadcasters operated with limited resources and very little training – as discussed in the chapter Radio Republic South Africa by Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu.</p>
<p>Alda Romão Saúte Saíde’s chapter outlines the experiences of the self-taught A Voz da Frelimo (Voice of <a href="https://artsandculture.google.com/story/the-struggle-for-freedom-in-mozambique-jstor/mwVRhh_vPQsA8A?hl=en">Frelimo</a>). Broadcasters trained on the spot, each performing a variety of roles.</p>
<p>Staff were also increasingly scattered, as Robert Heinze’s chapter on <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/south-west-africa-peoples-organisation-swapo">Swapo</a>’s Voice of Namibia explains. And as countries acquired independence and state-owned international services offered to carry guerrilla messages, the stations were weakened through loss of funding and decentralisation.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-zulu-radio-dramas-subverted-apartheids-grand-design-126786">How Zulu radio dramas subverted apartheid's grand design</a>
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<p>Acquiring news was also a challenge. The stations were not especially known for news-breaking reporting. Most recycled news items from the colonists themselves, from local state broadcasts or the BBC’s Africa Service. They reframed them by offering commentary – with information from exiles being an exception.</p>
<h2>Sonic encounters</h2>
<p>Despite these challenges, the book tells how it took only one short, crackling sonic encounter with the voices of the resistance to capture hearts and revive spirits. A major success of the book is its rich qualitative focus on listenership, previously absent in research.</p>
<p>Mhoze Chikowero’s chapter on Zimbabwean exiles explains that the broadcasters themselves had only a sketchy idea of who might be tuning in. Although their message was clear, broadcaster Gula Ndebele remembers: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Our audiences were largely imagined.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So it would be interesting for former broadcasters to read about the memories of their listeners. Although audience statistics are absent, it’s clear the broadcasters weren’t speaking into a void. Many listeners attribute their political awakening to the broadcasts. In the Zimbabwean context, a listener recalls how the broadcasts urged him to sign up for military training.</p>
<p>Marissa J. Moorman’s chapter includes recollections of adolescent <a href="https://theconversation.com/radio-as-a-form-of-struggle-scenes-from-late-colonial-angola-128019">Angolan</a> listeners, many of whom “hid to listen”, often in groups and without their parents knowing.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/radio-in-ghana-from-mouthpiece-of-coup-plotters-to-giving-voice-to-the-people-131709">Radio in Ghana: from mouthpiece of coup plotters to giving voice to the people</a>
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<p>Tshepo Moloi explains how the “trial and error” approach of tuning in to <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/radio-freedom-history-south-african-underground-radio-chris-smith">Radio Freedom</a> in South Africa further electrified audiences. A listener recalls: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>One quiet night as I twiddled a transistor radio, searching for a disco music station, I heard the statement, ‘the terrorist regime of Ian Douglas Smith’, delivered in thick African tones … my body tensed with every turn of the knob.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Moloi’s chapter argues, convincingly, that Radio Freedom helped to revive the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/african-national-congress-anc">ANC</a>’s dormant reputation among <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/black-consciousness-movement-bcm">Black Consciousness Movement</a> supporters, encouraging them to join the movement’s armed wing, <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/umkhonto-wesizwe-mk">MK</a>, in exile.</p>
<p>The battle for the airwaves became linked with the armed struggle – most famously symbolised by Radio Freedom’s iconic opening machine gunfire riff. Almost all chapters highlight this relationship. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/radio-is-thriving-in-south-africa-80-are-tuning-in-176846">Radio is thriving in South Africa: 80% are tuning in</a>
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<p>The broadcasts also transcended the armed struggle. They suffused all aspects of civilian life – domestic, cultural, even spiritual. For instance, Dumisani Moyo and Cris Chinaka’s fascinating chapter plumbs the memory of Voice of Zimbabwe <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/zimbabawean-independence-day">veterans</a>, who explain how they built links with spirit mediums in order to unsettle the confidence of black Rhodesian army soldiers, appealing to their religious beliefs.</p>
<h2>Insightful</h2>
<p>Edited volumes often lack focus or collate chapters with spurious connections, resulting in interesting but disparate collections. That is not the case here. The editors’ tight focus on a single medium in a connected geographical area has resulted in a cohesive and thought-provoking read. </p>
<p>The book will be an insightful read for scholars of media, culture and history, as well as anybody interested in southern Africa’s past. We may never have a full picture of the role played by guerrilla radio in the liberation struggle, but this book goes some way towards stamping down some important history that might otherwise be lost.</p>
<p><em>Guerrilla Radios in Southern Africa: Broadcasters, Technology, Propaganda Wars and the Armed Struggle is available from <a href="https://witspress.co.za/catalogue/guerrilla-radios-in-southern-africa/">Wits University Press</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177041/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martha Evans does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The role played by guerrilla radio in the liberation struggle will not be lost to history, thanks to books like this.Martha Evans, Senior Lecturer in Media Studies, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1696842021-10-19T13:55:39Z2021-10-19T13:55:39ZMale experts outnumber females by 10 to 1 on Ghana media programmes. We found out why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426163/original/file-20211013-25-1xnrq78.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Female experts are a rare sight on Ghanaian media programmes.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/5094796158">Wikimedia Commons/Flickr/Jonathan Ernst</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>New <a href="https://ghanawomenexperts.com/docx/gwe-report.pdf">research</a> has demonstrated that male experts outnumber female experts by more than 10 to 1 on Ghana’s leading radio and TV news programmes. The <a href="https://ghanawomenexperts.com/unmute-the-voices-of-women-in-ghanas-media/">Ghana Women Expert</a> project sought to count the number of women interviewed in the media as experts and authority figures to highlight the gender gap by drawing attention to the under-representation and mis-representation of women in media. </p>
<p>There are many ways of demonstrating the gender gap in public life. For some years the journalism department at City University of London has run a <a href="https://expertwomenproject.com/">project</a> which investigated who speaks on television news – monitoring the use of male and female experts in major UK news broadcasting outlets. </p>
<p>Journalists and broadcasters cannot influence who makes the news but they do have choices about the expert guests invited as interviewees and to comment on news events. Over the past 10 years, since the City project began, the gender ratio of experts in the UK has steadily improved – from over four men for each woman expert appearing, to below 2.2 men to each woman (2.2:1) in the most recent data. </p>
<p>We were interested to investigate the gender balance in expertise outside the UK and how this compared. </p>
<p>Using funding made available by the UK Global Challenge Research Fund, we partnered with colleagues to set up the <a href="https://ghanawomenexperts.com/unmute-the-voices-of-women-in-ghanas-media/">Ghana Women Expert</a>. Part of this project’s work focused on monitoring six of the most wide reaching and important news broadcasts (two TV and four radio). </p>
<p>We found that male experts and analysts dominated all of the flagship news programmes. </p>
<h2>Understanding the landscape</h2>
<p>The survey was conducted under the direction of Nana Ama Agyemang Asante and Betty Kamkam-Boadu, both freelance journalists in Accra, with support and funding from the City University of London’s journalism department. The six programmes surveyed were: Peace FM’s Kookroko; Citi FM’s Citi Breakfast Show; Starr FM’s Morning Starr; TV3’s Key Points; Joy Tv’s PM Express; and Joy FM’s Super Morning Show. Over the five months surveyed, monitors counted the women interviewed as experts and authority figures, the time allocated to them, and the topics they covered. </p>
<p>Data gathered across the Ghanaian news media between February and June 2021 shows that men dominate radio and television programmes overall – in terms of presenters, correspondents and interviewees. And the same imbalance was true of invited experts. </p>
<p>The under-representation of women’s voices and issues in media is reflected across other sectors in the country. Only 30 women are in Ghana’s 275-member parliament, while only eight of the eight-five ministers are women. Men occupy most of the leadership positions even in organisations where women dominate like the Ghana Registered Nurses Association and the Ghana Union of Traders.</p>
<p>Data collected for the project indicates that there were a total of 1,623 broadcast interviews conducted by the six monitored programmes over the period. Interviews with invited expert guests comprised 1,468 out of the total 1,623 of all broadcast interviews during the time surveyed. </p>
<p>Yet only 129 of the expert guests were female, representing just 8.8% of the total number of experts interviewed on all the programmes. Generally throughout the period, the ratio of male to female experts was less than 10 to one. This indicates that, in every five weeks on the six selected shows, only one female expert is interviewed compared to 10 male experts.</p>
<p>Nana Ama commented:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The study shows that despite being 51.2% of the population, Ghanaian women’s voices and expertise remain unacknowledged in the media. Producers argue that the disparity is due to a reluctance on the part of women to appear on shows, but the figures also show that male experts were given more time during interviews than women. The media’s gender gap is not only unfair to women, but it also reinforces harmful and dangerous gender stereotypes.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The research project also interviewed some of the programme producers and hosts to explore why so few women experts were appearing on their shows. The responses in many cases highlighted the reluctance of women interviewees to put themselves forward. For example a host at JOY Fm which featured 320 men and 30 female experts during the period surveyed responded: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’ve had many female guests you chase give many excuses why they cannot be on the show. They blame the timing, or the subject is just simply too controversial or that it is too political and they don’t want to get involved.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Of the six programmes surveyed the one that featured the most women was Morning Starr (48 female experts compared with 364 men). This show also had the greatest total minutes of airtime devoted to womens’ voices (just over two and a half hours) – although mens’ voices by comparison were heard for over 35 hours. But their host too – Francis Abban reported that potential women experts are hard to woo. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I don’t get to interview a lot of women. Every morning things happen and when things happen, the natural order is to find somebody as soon as possible, who can readily respond to what’s happening on the go. Now, often when you call a man they may give you a minute or two to ask for context and then they will say, okay, let’s go. But for a woman they will say, ‘Well, I will need about six to 12 hours to prepare well to give you proper context’. And so once that happens, the natural fall-on option is not the woman.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Research in the UK interviewing broadcasters as part of the City University project had revealed a similar response. Women apparently need to be wooed “like a princess.” </p>
<p>Worst of all in the survey was the TV programme PM Express which did not interview a single female expert throughout the five months that were surveyed. </p>
<p>Given this wide disparity it looks as if “blaming” women for not being more willing to come forward is not an adequate response. If women are to have a public voice in Ghana’s media ecology then a great deal more needs to happen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169684/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Suzanne Franks receives funding from UKRI Global Challenges Research Fund. </span></em></p>If women are to have a public voice in Ghana’s media ecology then a great deal more needs to happen.Suzanne Franks, Professor of Journalism, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.