Centre for Media History

"The paper draws on the author’s research into podcasting, especially in relation to its uptake by public service radios, which may be constituting a revitalising of the public radio voice. Invoking historian, John Durham Peters discussion of the merits of dissemination and dialogue, and critical theorist Bertolt Brecht’s disappointment with “one way” broadcast radio in the 1930s, the author explores podcasting as a new form of broadcast dissemination which draws on radio’s past dreamings of “eros and democracy” (Peters 1999). The significance of this time-shifted and ever expanding distribution of voice and its acousmatic presence creating a new media 'pod-ecology' is also discussed in the context of amateur and citizen media.

Reference; John Durham Peters, Speaking into the Air: A History of the Idea of Communication, University of Chicago Press, 1999.""

This essay examines the radio work of Kaye Mortley from her earliest days in radio in Australia to her work with the renowned Atelier de Creation Radiophonique (Radio France Culture) connecting the histories of radio and film to delineate the project of documentary. Arguably, Mortley is one of radio’s few genuine auteurs, most notably of the documentary (in its broadest sense). She conjures worlds of great richness and subtlety: a “mise-en-ondes” as the French coined it (after mise-en-scene), captured by the microphone, written in the waves of sound.

Inspired by the more than 20 years of radio/audio documentaire de creation workshops conducted in France by Kaye Mortley. Textes de Mehdi Ahoudig / Thomas Baugmgartner / Zwonimin Basjic / Edwin Brys / Alexandre Castant / Andréa Cohen / Daniel Deshays / Jürgen Ellinghaus / Barbro Holmberg / Harri Huhtamaeki / Virginia Madsen / Alain Mahé / Pierre Marietan / Marie-Madeleine Mervant-Roux / Laetitia Mikles / Emilie Mousset / Götz Naleppa / Marie-Hélène Nicolas / Yves Nilly / Dominique Petitgand / Florence Pezon / Jean-Pierre Rehm / Delphine Saltel / Larry Sider / Sean Street / Romain Vallée

Radio's history has been one of survival, resilience, expansion and continuing re-invention. While in the present no less than in the past, radio's innate flexibility and adaptability to new technology will ensure its ongoing relevance as a medium, this article considers the particular significance of specialist traditions and production cultures unique to a public service broadcasting " form " such as ABC Radio National (RN). Drawing on rich seams of historical and comparative research, and on past investigations of " cultural radio " developments and forms since the 1930s, the article examines the particular ecology of RN, and the role and legacy of journalists, producer-broadcasters, " creatives " and engineers who contribute to re-invention and innovation in media forms, radiophonic expression and content. In doing so it also reveals the historical tensions between information and culture in the national broadcaster, and in the mix between creative and more narrowly defined journalistic practices.

Madsen, Virginia (2018). Transnational Encounters and Peregrinations of the Radio Documentary Imagination. In: Golo Föllmer/Alexander Badenoch (Eds.), Transnationalizing Radio Research (83-100). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. Online ISBN: 978-3-8394-3913-5; https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839439135-008 or https://www.transcript-publishing.com/author/madsen-virginia-320022251/

My first formal interview with Kaye Mortley occurred over ten years ago. Although she was still a regular contributor to ABC Audio Arts and Features on Radio National at that time, she no longer was living in her country of birth. After a few crucial years producing for the ABC's national ...