Government controls, non-government reactions: Private radio manufacturing and the development of amateur radio in China (1912-1949).

As in most countries, the Republic of China's development of amateur radio benefited from the appeal of the amateur radio medium as well as characteristics of its technology, and it was also impacted by external factors such as war. Against a background of tradition, newly formed, but extremely strong, popular scientific beliefs fueled conflicts between state power and folk forces which played a key role in China's amateur radio development. In this study we will explore the tensions between the Chinese government's concerns for national security and distrust of folk radio research, and the rising, public demand for amateur radio. We consider how negotiations between state power and folk forces happen, and what further factors influence the construction and development of radio technology. Our analysis adopts the constructivist approach of Social Shaping of Technology (SST) theory, which focuses on the role of social factors in processes of co-construction and negotiation in technological development. We identify the folk forces, represented by the interaction between private enterprises and amateurs, as well as state power, as two of the main social factors that influenced the development of radio technology in China. From 1912 to 1937, the Chinese government was suspicious of amateur radio activities, and as a result, they instituted policies unfavorable to its development. In contrast, the Yamei Radio Co. Ltd. led the private radio manufacturing enterprises in promoting the development of amateur radio and the popularization of related technologies. In tandem, radio amateurs assisted in the promotion and technological innovation of Yamei products. From 1937 to 1949, with the government's semi-supportive and semi-skeptical attitude, amateur radio associations did make some progress. Benefiting from the early work performed by private enterprises, these associations grew into a new folk force to challenge government control, and they continued to promote the popularization and development of radio technology. Our study illuminates complex relationship among government control, non-governmental reaction, and technological development in a specific context. When there is a conflict, folk forces have the ability to mobilize against policy-driven obstacles, thus to counterbalance government control. This study not only provides a new case for SST research, but it also adds to our understanding of China's radio technology, amateur radio, and radio manufacturing industry.

Tropicalizing the Portable Radio: Electronics and the U.S. Military's Battle against Fungi in the Pacific War.

As the U.S. military became embroiled in "jungle warfare" across the Pacific during World War II, it was caught off guard by the rapid deterioration of materials and equipment in the tropics, where the air was hot, humid, and teeming with fungal spores. This article tells the story of how American scientists and engineers understood the "tropical deterioration" of portable radios and electronics and developed techniques to counteract it. Examining scientific efforts to prevent tropical decay reveals how exposure to tropical conditions during World War II shaped the development of portable electronics. Contributing to envirotech history and environmental media studies, this article uncovers the importance of climate proofing to the history of electronics miniaturization. Tropical deterioration, furthermore, provides a technology-focused lens for enriching our historical understanding of the tropics as an environmental imaginary.

Centenario de la radiodifusión en el Uruguay (1922 ­ 2022): médicos en su inicio / Centenary of radio broadcasting in Uruguay (1922 - 2022): doctors at the beginning / Centenário da radiodifusão no Uruguai (1922 - 2022): médicos em seu início

En 2022 se cumplen 100 años del comienzo formal de la radiodifusión en el Uruguay. Varios médicos estuvieron vinculados y desempeñaron un rol dominante en su inicio y en las actividades culturales desarrolladas a partir de la instalación de las radioemisoras.

The year 2022 marks the 100th anniversary of the formal beginning of radio broadcasting in Uruguay. Several physicians were linked to and played a dominant role in its beginning and in the cultural activities developed since the installation of radio stations.

2022 marca o 100º aniversário do início formal das transmissões de rádio no Uruguai. Vários médicos estiveram envolvidos e desempenharam um papel dominante em seu início e nas atividades culturais desenvolvidas desde a instalação das estações de rádio.

[A series of radio broadcasts of the French School Radio devoted to Pharmacy in 1966]. / Une série d'émissions de la Radio scolaire consacrée à la pharmacie en 1966.

In December 1966, the French School Radio devoted three of its emissions to Pharmacy. Found in the archives of the National Center for Educational Documentation (CNDP), those short programs resumed life.

[The end of an era. Fourteen radio sketches for the Pink Pills]. / La fin d'une époque. Quatorze saynètes radiophoniques pour le compte des pilules Pink.

Those sketches, restaured by the French "Institut national de l'audiovisuel", are transcribed and analyzed for the first time. They was probably broadcasted during the summer of 1939 by the private station Radio Gard Nîmes.

Spellbinding and crooning: sound amplification, radio, and political rhetoric in international comparative perspective, 1900-1945.

This article researches in an interdisciplinary way the relationship of sound technology and political culture at the beginning of the twentieth century. It sketches the different strategies that politicians--Franklin D. Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill, and Dutch prime minister Hendrikus Colijn--found for the challenges that sound amplification and radio created for their rhetoric and presentation. Taking their different political styles into account, the article demonstrates that the interconnected technologies of sound amplification and radio forced a transition from a spellbinding style based on atmosphere and pathos in a virtual environment to "political crooning" that created artificial intimacy in despatialized simultaneity. Roosevelt and Colijn created the best examples of this political crooning, while Churchill and Hitler encountered problems in this respect. Churchill's radio successes profited from the special circumstances during the first period of World War II. Hitler's speeches were integrated into a radio regime trying to shape, with dictatorial powers, a national socialistic community of listeners.

The association of television and radio with reproductive behavior.

This note analyzes the association between media exposure and reproductive behavior in 48 developing countries. A summary of part of a more extensive Demographic and Health Surveys report, it shows strong connections between media exposure and the use of modern contraception, the number of children desired, and recent fertility. Television viewing is particularly important; it is assumed to expose viewers to aspects of modern life that compete with traditional attitudes toward the family and is associated with greater use of modern contraceptive methods, with a desire for fewer children, and with lower fertility. These relationships are particularly noteworthy because the data measure only the frequency of media exposure with no information about its content.

Geeks, meta-Geeks, and gender trouble: activism, identity, and low-power FM radio.

In this paper, I consider the activities of a group of individuals who tinker with and build radio hardware in an informal setting called 'Geek Group'. They conceive of Geek Group as a radical pedagogical activity, which constitutes an aspect of activism surrounding citizen access to low-power FM radio. They are also concerned with combating the gendered nature of hardware skills, yet in spite of their efforts men tend to have more skill and familiarity with radio hardware than women. Radio tinkering has a long history as a masculine undertaking and a site of masculine identity construction. I argue that this case represents an interplay between geek, activist, and gendered identities, all of which are salient for this group, but which do not occur together without some tension.

A contribuição da comunicação para a saúde: estudo de comunicação de risco via rádio na Grande São Paulo / The contribution of communication for health: study of the communication of risk through broadcast in São Paulo City

O presente trabalho tem o objetivo de analisar a partir da programação das rádios comunitárias: "8 de Dezembro" situada na Cidade de Vargem Grande Paulista e "Cantareira", situada na Vila Brasilândia, município de São Paulo e dos discursos de seus ouvintes, como ocorre a comunicação de riscos sanitários inerentes ao campo da vigilância sanitária e qual é a influência destas mensagens nos hábitos cotidianos desses ouvintes. Utilizou-se como instrumento da metodologia a análise dos documentos produzidos pela programação das rádios, levantando o conteúdo abordado sobre saúde e mais especificamente sobre vigilância sanitária, e entrevistas qualiquantitativas junto a 106 ouvintes dessas rádios. Utilizou-se a metodologia do Discurso do Sujeito Coletivo (DSC), metodologia esta que une o aspecto qualitativo ao quantitativo da pesquisa. Posteriormente os dados foram tabulados com a ajuda do Software Qualiquantsoft. Dentro desse quadro, concluiu-se que as rádios comunitárias podem ser um espaço de comunicação em saúde pública através de processos educomunicativos, ou seja, processos onde a comunicação tem papel educativo sobre a população, estimulando uma comunicação de riscos sanitários mais eficiente e democrática, enquanto formadora de cidadania. Na educomunicação, a recepção é crítica e interage com a emissão, resignificando a mensagem, a partir de sua experiência de vida local, social, cultural, educacional, religiosa, etc.

[From Institut Pasteur to Radio Luxembourg. The surprising history of Tho-Radia]. / De l'Institut Pasteur à Radio Luxembourg, L'histoire étonnante du Tho-Radia.

The authors study of the history of "Tho-Radia", a cream with base of thorium and radium, launched in 1933 by Dr Alfred Curie and a pharmacist, Alexis Moussali. Tho-Radia disappears near 1960.

[Archeology of the radio pharmaceutical advertisement]. / La mort parfumée des poux. Petite archéologie de la publicité pharmaceutique radiophonique.

After Second World War, a debate sets in France the partisans and the detractors of the radio advertisement, in particular pharmaceutical advertisement. In this article, the author revises campaigns led, during the thirties, by Robert Desnos for Armand Salacrou.

Chills and thrills: does radio harm our children? The controversy over program violence during the age of radio.

A review of the popular and scientific periodical for the 1930s and 1940s revealed that the controversy surrounding the radio "thriller" and its possible harmful effects on young listeners was one of radio's most highly publicized issues during its golden years of broadcasting. Many of the questions raised concerning this issue were similar to those asked later during the age of television. Relying heavily upon the psychoanalytic emphasis on emotion, catharsis, and intrapsychic dynamics, expert opinion voiced in various popular periodicals and newspapers of the day suggested that the violence and excitement portrayed in many of the crime and adventure programs was harmless, and perhaps beneficial, for most listeners. However, research in support of this conclusion was sparse, and psychologists evidenced little interest in the issue. Not until the advent of television, and the emergence of social learning theory in the early 1960s, did psychologists direct significant research effort towards evaluating the effects of media violence.