Three-D Issue 18: Radio Studies Network update
Salvatore Scifo
University of Westminster
The Radio Studies Network (RSN) convened on 12 January in Luton for its annual business meeting at the MeCCSA conference. After 3 years, Steve Lax (University of Leeds) stepped down as Chair and Salvatore Scifo (University of Westminster) was elected as the new Chair of the Network. The Steering Group of the Network has welcomed a few new members and is now composed by the following radio scholars: Anne Dunn (University of Sydney), Janey Gordon (University of Bedfordshire), Steve Lax (University of Leeds), Peter Lewis (London Metropolitan University), Katie Moylan (University of Leicester), Eryl Price-Davies, Eleanor Shember-Critchley (Manchester Metropolitan University), Guy Starkey (University of Sunderland), Jo Tyler (Bournemouth University), Deborah Wilson (University of Lincoln) and Helen Wolfenden (University of Salford).
The RSN has now also a Facebook page which has already attracted interest from more than 40 researchers and practitioners after a few days of activity. This is planned to be a space for discussion and sharing information about events and publications for RSN members, but also open to all. Among the first posts, the members shared locations and information about a series of events that took place around the world to celebrate the first ever World Radio Day on 13 February 2012.
13 February is a date proclaimed by UNESCO to celebrate radio broadcasting, improve international cooperation among radio broadcasters and encourage decision-makers to create and provide access to information through radio, including community radios. It’s an occasion to draw attention to the unique value of radio, which remains the medium to reach the widest audience and is currently taking up new technological forms and devices.
There have been also a few book publications authored or edited by members of the Network. Among others:
- Hugh Chignell (2011) Public Issue Radio. Talks, News and Current Affairs in the Twentieth Century, Palgrave Macmillan;
- Angeliki Gazi, Guy Starkey and Stanislaw Jedrzejewski (2011) (eds.) Radio Content in the Digital Age. The Evolution of a Sound Medium, Intellect Books;
- Guy Starkey (2011) Local Radio. Going Global, Palgrave Macmillan;
- Janey Gordon (ed.) (2012) Community Radio in the 21st Century, Peter Lang;
- Matt Mollgaard (2012) (ed.) Radio and Society: New Thinking for an Old Medium, Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Members of the network are now planning national and international events to take place in the second half of 2012 and in 2013. Further details will be circulated through this newsletter, as well as through our new Facebook page and the usual communication channels: our lively Radio Studies mailing list, which brings together over 400 radio scholars from all over the world and the main MeCCSA mailings list.
Steering Group member Guy Starkey, is also the head of the ECREA Radio Research Section, which will be organizing the parallel panels of the bi-annual ECREA main conference, which will take place this year in Istanbul, Turkey, from 24 to 27 October 2012.