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Week 7 – Theories of Audio

This week’s lecture focused on the different theories of audio and how the format of radio has changed over the years. I found Crisell’s Understanding Radio to be particularly interesting because it raises the notion of sound being ‘utterly non-visual’ and dependent on the listener using their imagination to create representation.

In Acoustic Territories (Brandon Labelle), he notes that “sound is what lends to directing our visual focus – we hear something, and this tells us where to look.” I interpreted this as radio being consistent of  listeners being engaged with the presenter’s speech to create an image and without a physical image or text to follow, listeners are subject to the power of the omnipotent presenter and have the capability to misrepresent social groups like the ‘other’. This could mean that when radio was a central form of communication, like during World War II, mass audiences were relying on audio to be truthful rather than entertaining and the editors or presenters influence on audio could form the listener’s opinions of groups like the ‘other’. 



For example, the Orson Welles War of the Worlds 1938 Broadcast caused a national panic when he distributed a radio dramatization of a Martian invasion. Listeners were subjected to the stories of the “indescribable”[1] animals and Welles’ “sophisticated sound effects”[2] which created a realistic account of the ‘other’. Perhaps this shows that due to radio codes being purely auditory and consisting of speech, radio becomes “a kind of no man’s land where it must constantly fight for the listener’s attention”[3]. Welles’ broadcast caught the attention of millions by representing the Martian world as extraordinary via sound effects and dramatized language and this could indicate that if presenters edit their material to dramatize reality, they can gain the attention of mass audiences and their content becomes a source of ‘reliable information’ even though it’s not necessarily a truthful source.   


[1] https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/welles-scares-nation
Welles Scares nation, History.com Editors, October 29, 2009

[2] https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/welles-scares-nation
Welles Scares nation, History.com Editors, October 29, 2009

[3] (Crisell, Chapter 1, The Characteristics of Radio, Understanding Radio)

Comments

  1. Tom O11 December 2018 at 08:08

    Really good to see you reflecting and integrating theory into your writing.

    ReplyDelete

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