Title: Radio, secondary orality, the search for community, and “a prairie home companion”
Abstract: Although it assembled the audience for our televisual world, radio is probably one of the most overlooked oral/aural media among those that makeup what Walter Ong has termed “secondary orality,” Ong and others argue that, in comparison to primal orality and print, this secondary orality profoundly influences and predominates modern thought, and motivates each individual's search for social as well as inner character and meaning. After exploring primary and secondary orality and examining the relationship of radio to secondary orality, as viewed by media critic and practitioner Tony Schwartz, the author presents a brief analysis of one media‐created community of secondary orality—the listeners to public radio's variety show, “A Prairie Home Companion.” This analysis demonstrates how radio functions to fabricate both mediate and immediate surrogate communities, how the program reflects elements of both primary and secondary orality, and considers the strengths and shortcomings of the surrogate community of secondary orality for the authentic community of primary orality.
Publication Year: 1995
Publication Date: 1995-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 3
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