Report from Spain.

Jones, Daniel E.

Professor Daniel E. Jones of the Facultat de Ciences de la Comunicacio Blanquernia, Universitat Ramon Llull in Barcelona (d.jones@wanadoo.es) writes with reports on gender studies and radio studies from the perspective of communication research in Barcelona. These first appeared in the Telos newsletters and are translated and reprinted with his permission. (Translation by Yocupitzia Oseguera.)

Gender Studies in Communication Journals

[Los estudios sobre genero en las revistas de comunicacion]. From Telos 57

What today are known as "gender studies" in the academic field of social communication are relatively recent, since they have evolved in the last 25 years, although there are precedents overall in the United States and in Europe dating back a few decades. Basically, they have been promoted mostly by female investigators, who from a sociological, psychological, semiotic, and pedagogic perspective were first interested in analyzing the representation of women in the media. More precisely, they focused on what image was attributed to women, what stereotypes were the most recurrent, and what the threshold for their public presence was.

This interest on the part of the critical investigation has been consolidated with greater strength in the United States, Canada, central and northern Europe, although with less force in other cultural areas such as Latin America and parts of Europe. This has been attributed in part to the academic traditions of the different countries as well as to the level of consciousness of women regarding their marginality in politics, society, and the media.

To quantitative content analysis (measuring the presence of women over against men in the press or in televised programming), other qualitative characters have been added which have been responsible for establishing the different stereotypes utilized to qualify women through the medium of semiotic analysis or complex interviews. Therefore, the first historical studies about the "feminine press" (specifically, the press directed towards women and concentrated on domestic and family matters) head to head with the "typical press" (essentially masculine and meant to reflect public issues deemed relevant) has also passed on to contemplate the role of female and male professionals. In sum, the context has managed to evolve from the analysis of texts, to study not only the number of women who work in communication businesses, but also what positions they hold and what role they play in the selection and treatment of different issues.

Mainly, female investigators have concentrated on print media but also on television (especially on the different types of content, from advertisements to informational or fictional programming), but there has been little analysis about radio (in spite of the huge influence on its female audience of various social standings) or about other cultural industries such as cinema, music, and video.

In the North American world, studies about gender are common in specific journals which are specialized in the field of social communication, such as the North American Cinema Journal, The Communication Review, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Journal of Communication Inquiry, Journal of Popular Culture, Media Studies Journal, Public Opinion Quarterly, and New Media, as well as the British journals, Discourse & Society, European Journal of Communication, and Media Development. Likewise, studies on gender can also be found in German journals such as Communications: The European Journal of Communication Research, in the Australian journal Australian Journal of Communication, and in the Asian journals Asian Journal of Communication (Singapore) and The Journal of Development Communication (Malaysia).

In the Iberian American area, several references on gender studies can be found in Latin American journals such as Anuario Ininco, Anuario Intercom, Aportes de la Comunicacion y la Cultura, Comunicacion: Estudios Venezolanos de Comunicacion, Dialogos de la Comunicacion, Comunicacao & Sociedade, Estudios sobre las Culturas Contemporaneas, Etcetera, Interaccion, Oficios Terrestres, Revista FAMECOS, and in the Spanish publication CIC: Cuadernos de Informacion y Comunicacion.

--Daniel E. Jones

The Decline of the Radio in Communication Journals

[El ocaso de la radio en las revistas de comunicacion] Telos 60

The historic process of the introduction of radio as a medium of social communication was relatively short in that it only took a span of 20 years from the technical invention (Marconi TSH, in 1899) to reach the first regular transmissions (beginning in 1920). The motives behind this rapid peak were overall the commercial interests of the powerful companies that fabricated the radio receiver components (for example, RCA and Westinghouse in the United States, and Telefunken and Phillips in Europe) and the progress of World War I.

There were three models of implantation of media in the world. The United States has always situated itself at the head of the commercial model, with a system of private entitlement for the broadcasters, which now holds hegemony in the entire West. A grand evolution of this medium was produced and in the 1920s the first national broadcasting channels were created: NBC, ABC, and CBS.

The progress of radio in Europe was slower, although it had started early and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) had represented the model singularly. In 1926 this public (not governmental) corporation emerged which monopolized radio broadcasting and its financing through the laws on the possession of receivers. This dealt with the model of public (not commercial) radio broadcasting, with a certain parliamentary control and without advertising, which would be mostly followed by liberal countries following World War II with the exceptions of Spain and Portugal.

The radio came to maturity after 30 years, being a popular medium of entertainment (along with cinema), a significant medium of information (along with the press), and a grand medium of propaganda. Its social influence was extraordinary due to its credibility, its acceptance as an informative source, and its popularity with the masses. Popular culture was introduced to the radio and series, interactive programs, and contests were born. During the Spanish Civil War and after World War II, external radio programming gained importance as a medium of propaganda and influence on public opinion. Hence, the radio was especially useful in the propaganda during the Cold War (Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty against Radio Moscow).

The 1950s saw a crisis for the radio because of the lack of renovation of the genres, the bad habits derived from a radio dedicated to propaganda, and the competition of television which assumed the functions that had been unique to the popular culture found in radio. This forced the radio to search for new functions. Consequently, the appearance of transistors and the drop in prices made the radio accessible to the lower classes, adolescents, and those parts of the Third World lacking electricity. Also the lightness and mobility of the new apparatus substantially changed the habits of the audience: it ceased to be listened to as a family activity and became a medium enjoyed individually. Since then there have been significant changes in the radio: the radio now specializes largely in music (the first formulaic broadcasting emerged), informational magazines were born, the "omnibus" programs, the weekend specials, the "radio compania" during the night, etc.

Precisely due to the spectacular peak that the radio has had since its beginnings, numerous investigators have occupied themselves with studying it, not only from the technical and political point of view of the 1920s and 1930s but also with the analysis of the effects the messages of the radio has had on its audience after the 1940s. Without a doubt, it was the best medium of communication because of its excellence in those years since it only competed in a few aspects with the press and cinema, until the television began gaining ground in the United States during the '50s and consequently in Europe and Latin America during the '60s.

In those decades radio broadcasting was (along with the cinema) the medium of social communication most studied, not only in books but also largely in journals that were professional as well as technical and academic. In spite of this, between the '50s and '60s there were changes that irreversibly channeled scientific interest towards television. Without a doubt there are differences between countries which are due to the overall level of development. Nevertheless, most show a greater interest in television and a generalized indifference to radio, even in regions of Latin America, where radio continues to be an important medium, especially in the vast rural areas without electricity where practically no other form of mass communication can reach.

Here are some titles of international academic journals which are published periodically and that are concerned with the radio as a medium of communication, analyzing different technical aspects, political, managerial, professional, public, of social content and implantation of media, which permits the reader the access to concrete perspectives of analysis. This is the case in North American publications such as Canadian Journal of Communication, Communication Research Trends, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Journal of Communication and Political Communication; in the Latin American journals Comunicacion, Comunicacao & Politica, Eptic On Line, Etcetera, Idade Midia, Razon y Palabra, Revista Brasileira de Ciencias da Comunicacao, Revista Mexicana de Comunicacion, Sala de Prensa, and Signo y Pensamiento. Also the European journals Cahiers d'Histoire de la Radiodiffusion, Communications & Strategies, Dossiers de l'Audiovisuel, European Journal of Communication, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Inter Media, Journalism, Media Culture & Society, Problemi dell'Informazione, and Telecommunications Policy, and Spanish journals such as Ambitos, Comunicar, Estudios de Comunicacion, Telos, Treballs de Comunicacio, and Zer. Recently, in 2003 the journal Altavoz: revista de temas radiofonicos appeared and is in CD form, edited by the science faculty of information of the Complutense University.

--Daniel E. Jones