Reading: Understanding Radio

From our reading 'Understanding Radio' by Andrew Crisell - I have made some interesting notes. It was an interesting piece of reading as it helped me understand the basics to radio and sound.

"Radio is a blind medium. We cannot see its messages, they consist only of noise and silence." 

Although this is an obvious statement it is interesting how Crisell is able to put the description of it perfectly in just one small sentence. Compared to some of the other readings which are a lot more complex, this simple sentence draws the readers in as it is clear what he wants to say from the first sentence.

Crisell goes on to comparing Radio with other modes of communication. He states that Radio is mass communication which has some of its advantages - including being able to communicate with multiple people all at once. However, it is an impersonal way of getting a message out there as well as the fact the audience are not able to communicate back. There is also the risk of misunderstanding between the sender and receiver. Below the quote shows how the contact could be misunderstood.

"If feedback is an impossibility in mass communication, there is no genuine facility of metalingual or phatic communication: the sender cannot check that the code or contact is working."

A negative point to this reading, would be Crisell's lack of describing the history of radio. Although he mentions how audiences used to listen to radio as a group activity and the prices ranges during the 1930's compared to the 1970's, he fails to demonstrate the ways in which radio actually started.

One point I was most interested in when reading the introduction to this book was the advantages of radio. On page 7, Crisell talks about positive aspects.

“There are some real advantages which radio possesses over other media. The most famous of these is its appeal to the imagination. Because radio offers sound only instead of sound and vision, the listener is compelled to ‘supply’ the visual data themselves. The appeal to the imagination gives radio an apparent advantage over film and TV.”

I completely agree with this statement. Not being able to use the senses we do with all other medium, makes our minds work harder as we have to listen more intently as well as picture what the sender may be saying or the environment they may be in.

As previously stated, I found this reading easier to follow than others. The structure is clear and Crisell analyses each aspect of radio carefully so the book is insightful for it's readers.