Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination

by Susan J. Douglas

Overview

Few inventions evoke such nostalgia, such deeply personal and vivid memories as radio—from Amos ’n’ Andy and Edward R. Murrow to Wolfman Jack and Howard Stern. Listening In is the first in-depth history of how radio culture and content have kneaded and expanded the American psyche.

But Listening In is more than a history. It is also a reconsideration of what listening to radio has done to American culture in the twentieth century and how it has brought a completely new auditory dimension to our lives. Susan Douglas explores how listening has altered our day-to-day experiences and our own generational identities, cultivating different modes of listening in different eras; how radio has shaped our views of race, gender roles, ethnic barriers, family dynamics, leadership, and the generation gap. With her trademark wit, Douglas has created an eminently readable cultural history of radio.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781452907048
Publisher:	University of Minnesota Press
Publication date:	11/30/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	434
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Susan J. Douglas is professor of communication studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and author of Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media.

Table of Contents

Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. The Zen of Listening
2. The Ethereal World
3. Exploratory Listening in the 1920s
4. Tuning In to Jazz
5. Radio Comedy and Linguistic Slapstick
6. The Invention of the Audience
7. World War II and the Invention of Broadcast Journalism
8. Playing Fields of the Mind
9. The Kids Take Over: Transistors, DJs, and Rock 'n' Roll
10. The FM Revolution
11. Talk Talk
12. Why Ham Radio Matters

Conclusion: Is Listening Dead?
Notes

Index