1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910961247003321

Autore

Ehrlich Matthew C. <1962->

Titolo

Radio utopia : postwar audio documentary in the public interest / / Matthew C. Ehrlich

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Urbana, : University of Illinois Press, c2011

ISBN

9786613070135

9781283070133

1283070138

9780252093005

0252093003

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (239 p.)

Collana

The history of communication

Disciplina

791.44

Soggetti

Radio broadcasting - United States - History - 20th century

Documentary radio programs - United States - History - 20th century

Radio broadcasting - Social aspects - United States - 20th century

Radio broadcasting - Political aspects - United States - 20th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Utopian dreams -- A higher destiny -- One world -- New and sparkling ideas -- Home is what you make it -- The quick and the dead -- Hear it now -- Lose no hope.

Sommario/riassunto

As World War II drew to a close and radio news was popularized through overseas broadcasting, journalists and dramatists began to build upon the unprecedented success of war reporting on the radio by creating audio documentaries. Focusing particularly on the work of radio luminaries such as Edward R. Murrow, Fred Friendly, Norman Corwin, and Erik Barnouw, Radio Utopia: Postwar Audio Documentary in the Public Interest traces this crucial phase in American radio history, significant not only for its timing immediately before television, but also because it bridges the gap between the end of the World Wars and the beginning of the Cold War. Matthew C. Ehrlich closely examines the production of audio documentaries disseminated by major American commercial broadcast networks CBS, NBC, and ABC from 1945 to 1951. Audio documentary programs educated Americans about juvenile



delinquency, slums, race relations, venereal disease, atomic energy, arms control, and other issues of public interest, but they typically stopped short of calling for radical change. Drawing on rare recordings and scripts, Ehrlich traces a crucial phase in the evolution of news documentary, as docudramas featuring actors were supplanted by reality-based programs that took advantage of new recording technology. Paralleling that shift from drama to realism was a shift in liberal thought from dreams of world peace to uneasy adjustments to a cold war mentality. Influenced by corporate competition and government regulations, radio programming reflected shifts in a range of political thought that included pacifism, liberalism, and McCarthyism. In showing how programming highlighted contradictions within journalism and documentary, Radio Utopia reveals radio's response to the political, economic, and cultural upheaval of the post-war era.