An examination of the concept of intimacy in Radio Studies, combining mainstream and non-mainstream theories and practices

• Main Author: Karathanasopoulou, Evangelia
• Published: University of Sunderland 2014
• Subjects: 621.384; Radio
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.698592

My thesis is a meta-theory that looks at the evolution, current status and possible futures of Radio Studies, largely through the detailed examination of a key concept: Intimacy. It brings together and puts into dialogue theories of radio that have previously appeared to be antithetical: in other words, (what I refer to as) mainstream radio theory and non-mainstream (or avant-garde) radio theory. I use the term 'mainstream' radio theory to designate the ideas and arguments set out in textbooks and other scholarly articles and monographs that seek to explain the historical development and the workings and meanings of radio broadcasting (contemporary and historical) across a variety of popular platforms, formats and genres. I use the terms 'non-mainstream' and 'avant-garde' radio theory, on the other hand, to designate a more abstract approach to theorizing radio art (and radio as art) that has been largely produced by radio practitioners reflecting critically upon their own experimental and avant-garde productions, many of which challenge the conventions of mainstream and commercial radio broadcasting. Situated within the margins of mainstream broadcasting, these theorist-practitioners often position themselves (as well as being positioned by others) as a counter-cultural minority, one moreover that refuses to be bound by either the conventions of radio techniques and formats or the conventions of academic writing. Consequently, this body of theory is often quite challenging, impenetrable, allusive and (darkly) poetic, which means that it is subject to various interpretations, misunderstandings and contradictions, as I will discuss in more detail in chapters one and two of this thesis. These non-mainstream theories are typically more alternative in both content and language, which is often designed to challenge any sense of complacency in thinking by disturbing the ontological and epistemological regimes that operate elsewhere in such disciplines as Radio Studies, Media Studies and Cultural Studies. Nevertheless, as I shall argue, these artist-writers and critical thinkers have many valuable insights to contribute to Radio Studies as a whole and one of my aims is to absorb their ideas and arguments more fully into my exploration of radio Intimacy, while simultaneously borrowing from them some of their methodologies.