In 1890, Guglielmo Marconi discovered radio. There is some debate regarding whether Nikola Tesla should have received credit instead of Marconi, and a case concerning financial compensation was taken to the Supreme Court years later in 1943. Radio transmissions sent and received their first signal in Italy in 1895. In 1902, the first successful transatlantic radiotelegraph message was sent and for the next few years, signals all went in and out of England. Radio was originally used in World War I (political purposes underline its function across time, whether directly in combat or for candidate interviews and campaign advertisement distribution). (PBS.org)
In 1917, all radio development was controlled by the U.S. Navy so that enemies couldn’t access key information and use it against them (it was used as a walkie-talkie system of sorts). In 1919, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) was established to make radio more mainstream and distribute patents that had been restricted. In 1933, Edward Howard Armstrong invented frequency-modulated FM radio, which is what we associate with the more widely-listened to radio today.
Radio was revolutionary when it was first discovered for practical use. It remains a core medium where people can get news, music and information. But it serves another function as well, which reflects its original use: a path by which police officers, airline pilots, firefighters and other public officials can trade important information with each other in real time and in private channels. The revolutionary quality of the medium exists in how unchanged in nature and purpose it has remained over the last few decades.
As Rainie and Wellman point out in “Networked, The New Social Operating System,” policymakers had trouble reaching those in underdeveloped societies who didn’t listen to traditional forms of media like radio during The Cold War. As a result, they researched how information spreads through networks and the rate at which people adopt certain technologies.
Radio is not a medium that allows for open-source reporting, and as such, it is one of the most reliable sources of information today. It is interactive in that users can call into certain shows, but that’s not a main component of the platform built into vehicles and on boomboxes. That said, it also adheres to traditional revenue models (advertisements) and as a result, is struggling to stay afloat as other companies sell user data, storage and streaming ability in addition to ad space.
Because radio does not operate based on an open-source model like Facebook or Reddit and is rather a straightforward way to get information to the listener (whether it be an interview, news report or talk show), is an extremely Hauberian concept. Its simplicity makes it such. Hauben notes that “the essence of the Net is Communication,” both between certain individuals and between individuals and society at large. I believe that because the radio is such a Hauberian concept, it is struggling to stay relevant and get funding in a way that platforms like Twitter and Facebook, which are cluttered with visual monetary calls to action, are not.
While other technologies and media platforms are being promoted and experimented with on a large scale, radio gives listeners the ability to absorb to content in a space where few other distractions exist: inside the car. It’s widely available and simple in structure and delivery.
Current social movements such as the Women’s March of 2017 have gone back to their original roots — that of in-person gathering. Such events have gained traction that has spread and garnered unprecedented turnout through more modern social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. While society (as opposed to government and public/private officials) has never used radio as a form of widespread social communication with one another or to spur action like protest, it’s particularly important to our police force in the same way that it used (and still is) be integral to the U.S. Navy. Radio transmission was a key component of understanding what happened on the planes on the morning of Sept. 11 2001, just as it helped us better the moments leading up to the disappearance of Malaysian flight MH370 (Telegraph, 2014).
That said, I would be mistaken not to point out its limitations, especially in an era when so many other more high-tech platform are available to us. Most recently, NBC News reported that the law enforcement official who oversaw the initial response to a gunman in Parkland, Fla. didn’t act as swiftly as she otherwise could have of because of static radio signal due to a high volume of messages. According to the article, “The county’s radio system played a significant role in hampering the initial response, the commission learned Wednesday.” (NBC News, 2018)
As demonstrated by this flaw, and the inherent flaws of any man-made technology, I don’t think that identifying social movements by their communicative tools is a good way to not only separate them from each other but categorize them at large. While social movements originate on technology platforms more and more, the movements are so much more than those platforms themselves. It’s important not to forget that. Who knows; perhaps radio will become what vinyl is to us today: that is, a remnant of the past and a mirror image of the nascent culture the internet drew in when it arrived on the scene. I believe that it will continue to serve public officials as it has been but that it may slowly fade away from directly appealing to society, as podcasts and wearable technology replace its core function there.
References
Who Invented Radio? (Rep.). (n.d.). doi:https://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_whoradio.html
Parkland shooting investigation finds radio issues delayed police response (Source: Associated Press, Rep.). (2018). NBC News. doi: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/parkland-shooting-investigation-finds-radio-issues-delayed-police-response-n890901
Pearlman, J., & Wu, A. (2015). The final 54 minutes of communication from MH370 (The Telegraph, Rep.). doi:https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/malaysia/10714907/Revealed-the-final-54-minutes-of-communication-from-MH370.html