Lawrie Hallett

ABSTRACT The concept of the audience is changing. In the twenty-first century there are novel configurations of user practices and technological capabilities that are altering the way we understand and trust media organizations and representations, how we participate in society, and how we construct our social relations. This book embeds these transformations in a societal, cultural, technological, ideological, economic and historical context, avoiding a naive privileging of technology as the main societal driving force, but also avoiding the media-centric reduction of society to the audiences that are situated within. Audience Transformations provides a platform for a nuanced and careful analysis of the main changes in European communicational practices, and their social, cultural and technological affordances.

This article focuses on the considerable scale and pace of change in broadcast radio over the first two decades of the twenty-first century, an on-going process showing little sign of abating. Developments in digital broadcasting, the increasing consumption of audio via internet protocol and the arrival of the smart speaker are all major factors impacting the future of radio broadcasting. No longer a stand-alone medium, this article argues that the future of broadcast radio rests on the way in which it addresses the various challenges and opportunities offered by its use of new technologies and multiple platforms. Change is not simply being driven by technological and regulatory developments within the industry (although there have been plenty of those over the past two decades). Equally importantly, change is also being driven by external factors and by wider societal pressures. Arguably, today, radio faces greater levels of challenge and competition than at any time in its century...

For a number of reasons, professional audience measurement as carried out by Public Service and commercial radio broadcasters is inappropriate for Community Radio services. Not only is there the issue of the high costs involved, but more fundamentally, there is also the problem that such approaches are rather 'granular ' (with a tendency towards inaccuracy when measuring smaller specialist services). Moreover, professional audience surveys tend to focus only on the quantitative measurement of audience size, rather than on the qualitative elements of audience satisfaction. This paper will use the example of the approach taken by UK Community Radio station, 'Future Radio ' to obtain both quantitative data primarily through street surveys and qualitative data through on-line questionnaires, exploring why the station felt such research to be both necessary and beneficial. Showing how reasonably accurate data can be obtained on a cost-effective basis, issues of accura...

For a number of reasons, professional audience measurement as carried out by Public Service and commercial radio broadcasters is inappropriate for Community Radio services. Not only is there the issue of the high costs involved, but more fundamentally, there is also the problem that such approaches are rather 'granular' (with a tendency towards inaccuracy when measuring smaller specialist services). Moreover, professional audience surveys tend to focus only on the quantitative measurement of audience size, rather than on the qualitative elements of audience satisfaction. This paper will use the example of the approach taken by UK Community Radio station, 'Future Radio' to obtain both quantitative data primarily through street surveys and qualitative data through on-line questionnaires, exploring why the station felt such research to be both necessary and beneficial. Showing how reasonably accurate data can be obtained on a cost-effective basis, issues of accuracy and...

The chapter introduces the book on audience transformations, but also discusses the audience/society transformations, and their interactions, that characterise the 21st century. The chapters opens with a reference to the long history of sociological and philosophical work that has been mesmerised by social change. 20th (and 21st) century social theory has not lost this fascination. These theoretical reflections are then used to sketch contemporary audience transformations, and how they are embedded in societal transformations, but also in societal continuities.

Introduction 1. Audience/society transformations Nico Carpentier, Kim Schroder and Lawrie Hallett Part I: Using the media 2. Cross-media use - Unfolding complexities in contemporary audiencehood Jakob Bjur, Kim Schroder, Uwe Hasebrink, Cedric Courtois, Hanna Adoni and Hillel Nossek 3. New genres - new roles for the audience? An overview of recent research Ranjana Das, Jelena Kleut and Goran Bolin 4. On the role of media in socially demanding situations Ingrid Paus-Hasebrink, Jasmin Kulterer, David Smahel and Vera Kontrikova Part II: Unpacking the audience's complex structures (generations, minorities and networks) 5. Generations and media: The social construction of generational identity and differences Nicoletta Vittadini, Andra Siibak, Irena Carpentier Reifova and Helena Bilandzic 6. 'Lost in mainstreaming'? Ethnic minority audiences for public and private broadcasting Marta Cola, Kaarina Nikunen, Alexander Dhoest and Gavan Titley 7. Networks of belonging: Interaction, participation and consumption of mediatised content Paula Cordeiro, Manuel Damasio, Guy Starkey, Ines Botelho, Patricia Dias, Carla Ganito, Catia Ferreira and Sara Henriques Part III: Participation in and through the media 8. The democratic (media) revolution: A parallel genealogy of political and media participation Nico Carpentier, Peter Dahlgren and Francesca Pasquali 9. The mediation of civic participation: Diverse forms of political agency in a multimedia age Peter Lunt, Anne Kaun, Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt, Birgit Stark and Liesbet Van Zoonen 10. New perspectives on audience activity: 'prosumption' and media activism as audience practices Brian O'Neill, J. Ignacio Gallego, Frauke Zeller 11. The role of the media industry when participation is a product Jose M. Noguera, Mikko Villi, Nora Nyiro, Emiliana de Blasio and Melanie Bourdaa Part IV: Prerequisites of participation: access, literacies and trust 12. Transforming digital divides in different national contexts Sascha Trultzsch, Ragne Kouts-Klemm, Piermarco Aroldi 13. Situating media literacy in the changing media environment: critical insights from European research on audiences Sonia Livingstone, Christine W. Wijnen, Tao Papaioannou, Conceicao Costa and Maria del Mar Grandio 14. What does it mean to trust the media? Tereza Pavlickova, Lars Nyre and Jelena Jurisic

The Palgrave Handbook of Global Radio Edited by: John Allen Hendricks The Palgrave Handbook of Global Radio provides an overview of the historical developments and current status of the terrestrial radio industry in some of the largest and most populated countries throughout the world. Prominent international media scholars explore the status of the radio industry from economic, cultural, social, political, regulatory and technological perspectives, and provide insightful examinations of nearly thirty countries. This handbook is a state of-the-art exploration of global radio industry structure, and gives a unique insight into its influence on society.

Community Radio, small-scale, not-for-profit broadcasting, is a recent addition to the airwaves of the United Kingdom. These new stations have emerged into a competitive broadcasting environment at a time of great technological change. New digital broadcasting platforms are beginning to become established in parallel with Internet and mobile phone network audio delivery mechanisms and, as a result, the future technical development of the medium as a whole is in something of a state of flux. At the heart of Community Radio is a range of diverse linkages and interactions with members of individual target communities. Within such a diverse broadcasting sector, how has the uptake of so-called new media technologies developed, not just in terms of linear programme delivery, but also with respect to podcasting, "listen again" services and the provision of additional text and video-based content? This paper summarises the degree of uptake of new media technologies by the Communit...

For a number of reasons, professional audience measurement as carried out by Public Service and commercial radio broadcasters is inappropriate for Community Radio services. Not only is there the issue of the high costs involved, but more fundamentally, there is also the problem that such approaches are rather 'granular' (with a tendency towards inaccuracy when measuring smaller specialist services). Moreover, professional audience surveys tend to focus only on the quantitative measurement of audience size, rather than on the qualitative elements of audience satisfaction. This paper will use the example of the approach taken by UK Community Radio station, 'Future Radio' to obtain both quantitative data primarily through street surveys and qualitative data through on-line questionnaires, exploring why the station felt such research to be both necessary and beneficial. Showing how reasonably accurate data can be obtained on a cost-effective basis, issues of accuracy and...

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Over the past decade, the UK community radio sector has grown from a handful of experimental broadcasters to encompass a diverse range of some 200 services. By comparison with other types of broadcast radio in the UK, these services are heavily regulated with a variety of requirements being places upon their structures, inputs, processes and outputs. The process by which community radio regulation was developed has underpinned its subsequent acceptance by the sector. Most importantly, current UK community radio regulation was developed in conjunction with representatives of the sector and the fifteen experimental stations launched in 2001 / 2002. The paper considers the relatively 'light touch' regulation of the country's commercial radio sector and the ways in which the new 'Third Tier' impacts on existing mainstream providers, in particular the BBC. It also poses the argument that the recent change in direction for BBC Local Radio might place that service at ri...

This thesis examines the emergence of Community Radio in the United Kingdom. It places the sector within an historical context dominated by the BBC and strongly influenced by the subsequent arrival of commercial radio broadcasting. Understanding this historical context, which includes consideration of the role played by unlicensed 'pirate' radio operators, is, in the opinion of the author, a critical prerequisite necessary for assessing how and why current Community Radio practice has developed in the way it has. Primary research for this thesis includes a variety of semi-structured interviews with campaigners, practitioners and regulators and, whilst primarily focused on the emergence of the Community Radio sector within the British context, it does not ignore wider international perspectives. Recognising that, well before Community Radio began to emerge in the UK, much of the early conceptual development of the sector took place in other jurisdictions, the author also draw...

As a result of such circumstances, when developing UK community radio policy, legislators and regulators were able to draw upon a wide range of existing external practice and expertise to help inform their approach. Equally importantly, current UK community radio ...