Medrado, A. 2022. The Place of Radio in the Soundscapes: Everyday Listening and Producing Sounds in Marginalised Communities of the Global South. in: Chignell, H. (ed.) The Bloomsbury Handbook of Radio London Bloomsbury. pp. 1-28
| Chapter title | The Place of Radio in the Soundscapes: Everyday Listening and Producing Sounds in Marginalised Communities of the Global South |
|---|---|
| Authors | Medrado, A. |
| Editors | Chignell, H. |
| Abstract | Community radio studies have a lot to benefit from attending to the circumstances in which listening experiences take place in marginalised communities of the Global South. Two ethnographic studies – conducted in the Brazilian cities of Salvador and Rio de Janeiro – provide the basis for this argument. The first study focused on the everyday listening to community radio by residents of Pau da Lima, a working-class neighbourhood. The aim is to assess to what extent community radio and - from a broader perspective - community sounds represent a public (social, political, or familial) resource for its audiences. The second study explored the ways in which the transformations that Rio de Janeiro experienced prior to hosting the Olympics, in 2016, echoed in the soundscapes of Favela da Maré, a large network of favelas. To analyse a variety of mediated listening experiences and practices, the chapter draws from three main areas of enquiry: a) community media studies; b) studies of listening (from a Global South perspective); and c) auditory culture. The recognition that radio needs to be understood as being enmeshed in complex soundscapes provides an important theme throughout the chapter. The chapter also contests a coloniality of power perspective in which favela areas are dismissed as sonically polluted environments and their residents’ sounds and voices as mere noises. Rather, the research demonstrates that residents of favelas play the role of aural architects, using sounds and radio as tools to create boundaries and seize spaces, communicating identity and resistance. By being attentive to soundscapes and auditory culture, the chapter brings to the fore the need to recognise the importance of aurality for marginalised communities in the Global South. |
| Keywords | community, radio, soundscapes, ethnography, favelas, marginalisation, Global South |
| Book title | The Bloomsbury Handbook of Radio |
| Page range | 1-28 |
| Year | 2022 |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury |
| Place of publication | London |
| Edition | 1st |
| ISBN | 9781501385292 |
| File | |
| Web address (URL) | https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/bloomsbury-handbook-of-radio-9781501385292/ |