Radio and Podcast Geopolitics: Exploring sonic and affective geographies of news and current affairs journalism on migration, conflict and diplomacy

广播和播客地缘政治：探索有关移民、冲突和外交的新闻和时事新闻的声音和情感地理学

• 批准号: ES/X006905/1
• 负责人: Alice Watson
• 金额: $ 12.28万
• 依托单位: University of Oxford
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FX006905%2F1
• 关键词: Radio; Podcast; Geopolitics; Exploring; sonic

A principal aim of this fellowship is to publish my doctoral research. Whilst geographers have studied the history and geopolitical power of radio broadcasting, there has been little interest in contemporary radio journalism and its capacity to shape listeners' geographical imaginations; that is to say, how audiences picture the spaces, places, and people they hear on the airwaves. This is surprising given the ubiquity and popularity of the medium, and recent work on the framing and status of voices in the media. My thesis addresses this research gap by exploring how BBC Radio 4 portrayed Europe's migration 'crisis' between 2014 and 2019, and by examining how selected broadcasts were produced by journalists and are heard, interpreted and imagined by listeners. The protracted Syrian conflict, drownings in the Mediterranean, and rise of populism raise important questions about the power of media to shape perceptions of distant people and places, and condition a sense of responsibility and care for 'vulnerable' others. Analysing Radio 4 matters, not only because the network is a popular space of broadcasting that reaches millions of listeners and claims to produce journalism in the public interest, but because the imaginative geographies it articulates can shape how audiences understand, imagine and participate in the world. My thesis contributes to these debates by exploring spoken narratives and soundscapes of migration and revealing the discursive, affective and imaginative power of radio. My research with audiences provides a particularly compelling and original contribution to this field. I discovered a preference among listeners for stories articulated by named refugees who re-appear in the geographical imagination as tangible and relatable human beings; confirming the view of political philosopher Hannah Arendt that voice is "instrumental in endowing the refugee with personhood and historicity - and hence with the potential for recognition" (Chouliaraki and Zaborowski, 2017, p.16). The act of hearing people's voices therefore plays a crucial part in conditioning emotional and socio-political responses as listeners are engaged and moved by those they hear from. Audiences also respond to live, in-situ, multi-sensory journalism, which enables them to envision people and places in their mind's eye, and feel like they are transported to where the recording was made. Put simply, radio is experiential, affective and imaginative, and elicits from many listeners "a leap to the realisation that 'this could have been us'" (Chouliaraki and Stolic, 2019, p.320). This is not a universal response; however, in successfully evoking the geographical imaginations of a majority, I argue that radio participates in the affective work necessary to establish a sense of relatability between listeners and refugees, and forge meaningful connections with others. These conclusions inspire my interest in conducting further limited research on sonic and affective geographies, and multi-sensory storytelling, specifically through the lens of podcasts. Low-cost production and on-demand listening has led to a recent boom in podcasts and to suggestions we are living in a "golden age of audio" (Ganesh, 2016). There is rich potential to engage with this audio archive of popular culture and explore how news and current affairs podcasts intervene in the geopolitical debates of our time. Potent examples are the BBC's 'Ukrainecast', which discusses the latest machinations of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the World Service's 'Global News', which reports on politics, international relations and diplomacy from a global perspective. Questions of interest are: why are podcasts an appealing medium for journalists to tell news stories? What are the emerging geographies of producing and listening to this new 'everywhere' medium? And how do the geopolitical imaginaries articulated within them capture audience attention and shape their geographical imaginations?

这个奖学金的主要目的是发表我的博士研究。虽然地理学家已经研究了无线电广播的历史和地缘政治力量，但对当代无线电新闻及其塑造听众地理想象力的能力却兴趣不大;也就是说，观众如何描绘他们在电波中听到的空间，地点和人物。这是令人惊讶的，考虑到媒体的普遍性和流行性，以及最近对媒体中声音的框架和地位的研究。我的论文通过探索BBC Radio 4如何描绘2014年至2019年期间欧洲的移民“危机”，并通过研究选择的广播如何由记者制作，并由听众听到，解释和想象来解决这一研究空白。旷日持久的叙利亚冲突、地中海沉没事件和民粹主义的兴起提出了重要的问题，即媒体在塑造对遥远的人和地方的看法、培养责任感和关心“弱势”他人方面的力量。分析第四电台很重要，不仅因为该网络是一个受欢迎的广播空间，拥有数百万听众，并声称为公众利益制作新闻，而且因为它所表达的富有想象力的地理可以塑造观众如何理解，想象和参与世界。我的论文通过探索移民的口语叙事和音景，揭示广播的话语、情感和想象力，为这些争论做出了贡献。我的研究与观众提供了一个特别引人注目的和原始的贡献，这一领域。我发现听众更喜欢那些在地理想象中以有形和可联系的人的身份重新出现的难民所讲述的故事;证实了政治哲学家汉娜·阿伦特的观点，即声音“有助于赋予难民人格和历史性-因此具有获得认可的潜力”（Chouliaraki和Zaborowski，2017年，第16页）。因此，倾听人们的声音在调节情绪和社会政治反应方面发挥着至关重要的作用，因为听众被他们听到的人所吸引和感动。观众也会对现场、现场、多感官的新闻报道做出反应，这使他们能够在脑海中想象人物和地点，并感觉自己被带到了录制的地方。简而言之，无线电是经验性的，情感性的和想象力的，许多听众都认为“这是一个飞跃，意识到'这可能是我们'”（Chouliaraki和Stolic，2019年，第320页）。这不是一个普遍的反应，但是，在成功地唤起了大多数人的地理想象力，我认为，无线电参与情感工作，建立一个听众和难民之间的关系感，并与他人建立有意义的联系。这些结论激发了我对声音和情感地理学以及多感官叙事的进一步有限研究的兴趣，特别是通过播客的透镜。低成本的制作和点播收听导致了播客最近的繁荣，并建议我们生活在“音频的黄金时代”（Ganesh，2016）。有丰富的潜力参与这一流行文化的音频档案，并探讨新闻和时事播客如何干预我们这个时代的地缘政治辩论。英国广播公司（BBC）的《乌克兰广播》（Ukrainecast）是一个有力的例子，它讨论了俄罗斯入侵乌克兰的最新阴谋，而世界服务的《全球新闻》（Global News）则从全球角度报道政治、国际关系和外交。有趣的问题是：为什么播客是一个吸引记者讲述新闻故事的媒介？生产和收听这种新的“无处不在”媒体的新兴地区是什么？它们所表达的地缘政治概念如何吸引观众的注意力，并塑造他们的地理想象力？

项目成果

Radio geopolitics: Imaginative geographies of Europe's migration 'crisis' on BBC Radio 4

广播地缘政治：BBC 广播 4 台上欧洲移民“危机”的想象地理

• DOI: 10.1016/j.polgeo.2023.102993
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Political Geography
• 影响因子: 4.1
• 作者: Watson A

Listening to Europe's migration 'crisis': The discursive, affective and imaginative responses of audiences to BBC Radio 4 broadcasts

聆听欧洲移民“危机”：观众对 BBC 广播 4 台广播的话语、情感和想象力的反应

• DOI: 10.1111/tran.12670
• 发表时间: 2024
• 期刊: Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers
• 影响因子: 3.3
• 作者: Watson A

The production of ' From Our Own Correspondent ' on BBC Radio 4: A popular geopolitical analysis

BBC 广播第四台制作的“From Our Own Correspondent”：流行的地缘政治分析

• DOI: 10.1111/area.12918
• 发表时间: 2024
• 期刊: Area
• 影响因子: 2.2
• 作者: Watson A