Writing Sample: Weekly Blog Post for Introduction to Mass Communication

Weekly Blog Post for Introduction to Mass Communication

Topic: Origins, Impact and Influence of Radio Broadcasting

Audience: Unspecified Undergraduate College Students

Intended Reaction: Think

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Happy Monday (just kidding),

This week we will be discussing the origins and importance of radio broadcasting. “But I do not listen to radio, I listen to music on an iPhone/Spotify/Pandora/Last.FM/Streaming Service, etc.…”

That is great to hear as all the popular streaming music services can trace their origins to Christmas Eve, 1906, when the voice of inventor and engineer Reginald Fessenden was broadcast through wireless telegraphy. The technology has changed and certainly improved, but the function has remained the same.

If you do listen to radio, whether it be terrestrial radio or satellite radio, you may have a person you like to listen to who is a host or personality for that station or channel. Dr. Frank Conrad was the first radio “personality” to broadcast music that he liked on the nascent radio waves in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in November of 1920. Thank you, Dr. Conrad, for making the medium of radio a medium that is and continues to be peopled-focused.

Of all of the mass communication mediums that we have studied and have yet to consider, radio is unique and continues to be novel in that it relies on the receiver in the communication process to successfully complete the transaction. What I mean by that is that radio requires a receiver to listen to the broadcast and to understand what they are listening to. In class I will discuss the difference between hearing and listening and how it relates to the medium of radio.

There are so many impressive visuals to look at on gigantic screens and screens that fit into the palm our hand, and yet radio continues to be a profitable industry.

Something to think about: why does radio continue to make money when television has so much more to offer?

The question above is a trick question and offering an answer is also difficult.

Not impossible, but certainly complex.

The answer is complex just like human listeners are complex receivers.

The recurring dichotomy of mass mediums that appear to be simple in function but are complex in what they are trying to achieve applies to radio just as it will apply to the mediums that succeed it.

And yet, just about every radio station which actively broadcasts remains reliant on the power of the human voice.