Venue: Moore Institute National University of Ireland, Galway 9am-6pm, 1 April 2011Part of the Texts, Contexts, Cultures research programme. Supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
This workshop will compare scholarly approaches to histories of radio and empire, in a broad transnational and geopolitical context. Key questions to be considered include:
- How have transnational broadcasters sought to influence society, politics, and culture in target areas, at different times and in different settings? What comparisons and contrasts can usefully be drawn?
- How might concepts of (soft) power, territory, sovereignty and trans- nationality contribute to critical interdisciplinary engagements with international broadcasting within historical and contemporary ‘empires’?
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to the study of radio and empire? What is the place of institutional history? How do we tackle the cultural history of broadcasting and empire, and the issue of audience reception?
- How useful are older models of ‘media imperialism’, and new ideas about ‘cultural diplomacy’ and ‘globalisation’, as tools of scholarly analysis? How far have institutions with responsibilities for both domestic and external broadcasting been reshaped by their overseas obligations?
- What light do different disciplinary perspectives have to shed on these topics?
No charge for registration, but if you would like to attend please email Simon Potter in advance. Further details available here: Building Empires on Air – Programme
Vertical Geographies 