| The growing influence of the media in contemporary political culture is a widely debated subject in academic, political and journalistic circles. Often the undertone of these debates is pessimistic; many fear a steady infiltration of media logic in political processes as an undermining of democratic principles. Apart from the pessimism, these debates have shaped an awareness of the specific role the media play in the construction of political reality. However, in the current stream of studies on the relations between politics and the media two shortcomings can be distinguished. First, the dynamics between the media and politics are primarily analysed through a television-centric perspective. And second, the historical dimension of the interplay between these two domains remains largely unexplored. In this research an effort is made to transcend these limitations by focussing on the importance of radio for the construction of political culture in history. In general broadcasting historiography a shift has occurred in recent years from the study of policies and regulations towards the study ofbroadcasting-content in its social-cultural context. Despite this, the political importance (the content, communicative conventions and influence) of radio broadcasting has so far remained an undeveloped field of interest. It is the purpose of this research to shed light on these aspects of radio broadcasting roughly between 1925 and 1965. The emergence of radio as a mass medium in the 1920s opened unique possibilities to parties and politicians to redefine methods of political communication and propaganda. In comparison with the then dominant print-media, the capacity of radio to cross social, geographical and ideological boundaries created a widening of the political domain on an unprecedented scale. Furthermore, through the instantaneous character of radio broadcasting existing conceptions of the political community were changing. And so, radio broadcasting in potential not only affected the reach but also the nature of politics. In reality the reactions of politicians and parties to the new medium were rather ambivalent; in many countries where broadcasting emerged the potential of political broadcasting was met with enthusiasm and anxiety. In effect, the various national broadcasting systems which evolved from the 1920s contained different grades of restrictive regulations towards the application of radio as an instrument for political communication. In order to distinguish the specific contribution of radio within the transformative processes of political culture, I will adopt a comparative perspective. Whereas the manifold differences between national broadcasting systems have long served as an argument to discourage an application of a trans-national perspective, I believe these divergent systems offer a challenging opportunity to reveal medium-specific and autonomous functions of radio broadcasting in a wide political context. For this cause, the differences between the Dutch and British broadcasting system form an interesting point of departure; whereas the Dutch VARA (one of the four mass broadcasting associations) was a socialist political broadcasting organisation, the BBC on the other hand cherished an ideal of political neutrality. Following from this, the primary focus of the research will be on the political culture of the Dutch and British labour movement. Since these consequently were, with regards to broadcasting, in contrasting positions, these will serve as the contexts in which the meaning of radio and political broadcasting will be analysed. In order to do so, the analysis will take place on three different levels. On the first level I will trace the construction of the airwaves as a cultural or political domain from a party-political perspective. On the second level the focus will be on party political broadcasting as such (form, style and content), in relation to the communicative and propagandistic practices of the labour movements in Britain and The Netherlands. And finally, on the third level an analysis will be conducted of the public perception of mass mediated politics and the transformation of political culture in relation to political broadcasting in general. |
