Technological Change in Radio

Technological change is what began the common use of radio in the 1920s and what allowed radio to continue to grow throughout the decade, as it still does today.  From the initial creation of the radio, to the mainstream use of it every day, to the many evolutions it has gone through since, radio has always been greatly affected by technological change and progression.

As consumer demand expands, radio expands as well, leading to more common use, larger audiences and better quality of sound thanks to better radio frequencies. This is all thanks to technological change, which took radio from solely military use, to common household use, to the main source of entertainment in America. As audiences asked for more, radio controllers supplied in, but were only able to thanks to the progression of technology is response to the demand.

Radio as we know it today was initially begun by technological improvements by Guglielmo Marconi, who created the radiotelegraph and performed the first transatlantic transmission. After this kind of radio helped to save many lives on the Titanic in 1912, the idea for what radio could accomplish broadened greatly. It became so commonly used, first by the Navy in the early ‘20s, and then in average American homes by the middle of the decade, regulation became necessary to prevent interference between frequencies (the Radio Act of 1927, for example). This was perhaps the biggest initial technological evolution of radio in the 1920s — the idea of making radio accessible to the masses for news, shows, and music. Eventually this led to use of FM radio, which was not as affected by interference as AM radio and allowed for many different radio stations in a single city. Multiplex stereo radio was also introduced at this time as technology continued to progress in response to consumer demand. The sound quality of music played on radio stations improved thanks to new technology, which in turn made for larger audiences. This technological growth made for a “golden age” of radio from the 1920s to the 1950s and allowed for the syndication of talk radio in many cities throughout the country. Eventually dwindling audiences led to another technological boom in the last twenty years, leading to the automation of radio. Satellite radio allowed for national formats to become popular and in the last several years, Internet radio has become the most widely used radio technology. Today, new music is usually found on “personal” radios such as Pandora, which gives a consumer access to most any song and even goes so far as to create personal playlists.

Social Learning in Media

Social learning is a concept related to the strong effect of media theory. Social learning in media occurs when a person observes an event, action, or implication in media and models his or her own behavior and/or attitudes after these observations. An example of this is illustrated in chapter 13 of Media Now. In a study, children watched a recording of an adult violently beating a blow up “Bobo” doll with different endings including negative consequences, positive consequences, and no consequences. It was found that the children who saw the tapes with positive or no consequences acted the same way they observed when presented with their own Bobo doll. Social learning is a concept also cited in the film Tough Guise. This documentary shows us that as boys observe men in films with seemingly ever-growing muscles, guns, and tough attitudes, they feel they should also behave in those ways. Films like First Blood and Terminator reinforce the notion that men must be “tough” in order to be masculine, or “true men.”  Boys emulate this ideal from early ages, as presented in Tough Guise, and this has led even to a rise in violent crimes among men.

Social learning is evident in a wide array of advertisements aimed at men of all ages. In one ad for boots aimed particularly at construction workers, the text reads, “For men who screw, bang, ‘n’ drill.” The words “bang” and “drill” perpetuate the stereotype that men are tough and aggressive, sexually and otherwise. This ad says to men, “real men are rugged and violent.” Men observe this advertisement and those like it and, in turn, believe that they, themselves, must toughen up. The theory that media has a strong effect on its audience may not be true (as there is parallel theory stating that media has only limited effects), but for those who are susceptible to the glossy print, the effects can be detrimental. 

Hegemony

Hegemony is basically defined as one ruling group in a society having almost dictatorial power over all others and thus being able to control all aspects of a single industry. This is seen in a myriad of areas throughout our own society from music, to television, to movies, and more.

One practice of hegemony is something called “framing” which involves this leading group telling people how to think about a person, issue, or event — do we think about this person or thing positively or negatively? Shaping the way we think about technology, politics, etc., is an important way of maintaining hegemony, which is naturally what an industry-dominating company or group wants to do. In a sense, framing is the creation and perpetuation of stereotypes. Framing is meant to influence or change people’s perceptions of products and people.

An example of framing in hegemony is Apple’s “Mac vs. PC commercials.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQb_Q8WRL_g&feature=related

Here, Apple does a clever job of shaping the viewer’s perception of PCs, not by slandering the computer, but by sarcastically illustrating PC’s inherent flaws as compared to Mac’s apparent lack of them. In this particular advertisement, the viewer learns to associate deadly viruses with PCs, thus causing one to prefer a Mac, which, according to the commercials, will not encounter the same problems. Apple’s advertisements frame PCs in a negative light, and in response, people react to Apple products positively.