Research Catalog

Title

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

Author

Ehrlich, Matthew C., 1962-

Publication

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, c2011.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

x, 221 p.; 24 cm.

Summary

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, this book 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. The author 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, this book reveals radio's response to the political, economic, and cultural upheaval of the post-war era. -- Book Jacket.

Series Statement

History of communication

Uniform Title

• Project Muse UPCC books
• History of communication.

Subject

• 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

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

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.

ISBN

• 9780252036118 (hardcover : alk. paper)
• 0252036115 (hardcover : alk. paper)

LCCN

^^2010040243

OCLC

• 667213102
• SCSB-10673044

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library