Listening in Radiophonic Spaces
Politics and Aesthetics of Early British Broadcasting
$169.99
- Hardcover
184 pages
- Release Date
12 November 2026
Summary
Based on research in the BBC archives, this book examines the negotiation and establishment of a figure of the ideal listener and ideal listening in the context of BBC radio drama in the 1920s.
Guided by the idea of itself as a public service, the BBC articulated a new space of aesthetic experience constituted by broadcasting as a public sphere from the very beginning and conceived of its listener as a citizen, characterized by a specifically trained listening and the…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9798765149379 |
|---|---|
| Author: | Dr. Tobias Gerber |
| Publisher: | Bloomsbury Publishing Plc |
| Imprint: | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Format: | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages: | 184 |
| Release Date: | 12 November 2026 |
| Dimensions: | 229mm x 152mm |
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Critics Review
Gerber’s book is a timely reflection on how mass broadcasting was used in Britain to civilise and cultivate the audience as a universalised public and perhaps contributed to stabilising the country in the 1920s. The BBC (under the moralising leadership of Reith) aimed to educate, inform, entertain, but also to control and patronise those listening citizens. The aim was to exude and inculcate a certain type of well-mannered, disciplined and tolerant Britishness, reflecting rather bourgeois middle-class values. Listeners were encouraged to sit down and concentrate in order to acquire the new skill of appreciating radio outputs, whether or not they were particularly interested and despite the attendant static interference.
This book is a fascinating insight into the beginnings of mass broadcasting in the UK, through focusing on how a new dramatic form took shape in both producers’ and listeners’ everyday lives. It also inspires reflection on how the media contributes to a nation’s soft power and contemplation surrounding how the BBC might next evolve.
This excellent, deeply researched, book helps us to understand how the sound worlds of early BBC radio drama evolved alongside careful negotiation of new technology, changing everyday soundscapes, and the birth of the modern media listener. * James G. Mansell, Professor of Cultural History and Sound Studies, University of Nottingham, UK *
A rich and fascinating history of listening - with radiophony at its core. In his sound study Tobias Gerber originally develops the sonic dimensions of media theory by analyzing the early history of British broadcasting. Methodologically thrilling as convincing “Listening in Radiophonic Spaces” traces the formation of a new listening subject. The book situates this “aural citizen” in the radiophonic space opened by the BBC as a public service broadcaster. Moreover, it thought-provokingly argues that the mental apparatus and the imagination of this listener was (co-)structured by the BBC‘s radio dramas. Already in its early days, radio drama became increasingly a studio product, mixing up to ten channels or layers of sound – the voices of actors, elaborated sound effects and soundscapes, again and again interrupted by broadcasting‘s roar and hum. * Jens Gerrit Papenburg, Professor of Musicology and Sound Studies, University of Bonn, Germany *
About The Author
Dr. Tobias Gerber
Tobias Gerber is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Media Studies at the University of Basel, Switzerland. He is co-editor of the collection Radiophonic Materials (2024) and of volume I.B.5 of the Friedrich Kittler Complete Edition (forthcoming).
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