Register now for HIST 3907B with Sean Graham (CRN 15805). Still some spots remaining and prerequisite equivalencies will be considered.
A new course on radio is set to kick off this January in the Department of History. Often a forgotten medium in an era of personalized content, radio was a revolutionary force for much of the 20th century. In much the same way that President Obama harnessed the power of social media in 2008, Franklin Delano Roosevelt used radio in the 1930s. On warm summer nights during the Second World War, you could walk along a city block and follow the news as the announcer could be heard through open windows.
This course will explore the power that came from that communal listening. Students will have the opportunity to listen to old programs and discuss why they were so effective. They can also compare the techniques used by radio producers to those used in social and digital media today in order to answer a question that many cultural historians are asking: how much has the media landscape changed?
Discovering old radio shows only comprises one section of the course, however, as radio has increasingly been used to tell historical stories. As a result, the course will examine these programs and ask whether audio is an effective way to teach people about the past. With so much visual content available to historians, can audio compete? Is there a way to tell compelling stories about the past with only sound?
Not only will students have the opportunity to listen to and critique radio documentaries, but they will also make one of their own. With the help of the campus station, CKCU, and based on their own analysis of radio programming, students will write, produce, and record a radio program detailing a major historical event. Some of the best programs may air on CKCU, while others will be posted on Activehistory.ca and the Activehistory.ca YouTube channel.
That’s not the only practical element in the course. In February a new exhibit by Carleton’s Michael Windover and York University’s Anne MacLennan exploring the material history of radio will open in CUAG and the Discovery Centre. The class will have special access to those exhibits and the opportunity to discover the way in which the physical design of radios has changed the way in which people listen to popular programs. Additionally, students will enter into a dialogue with the exhibit and some student work may appear alongside the exhibit in the Discovery Centre.
The class will also feature opportunities to learn from local experts on radio. From radio personalities, to radio pioneers, to radio historians, the course will include diverse perspectives and the chance to interact with people who have thousands of hours of practical radio experience. By going beyond the theoretical understanding of radio, the class provides a unique opportunity to discover how radio can be used as a medium, source, and outlet for history.