The book argues that the civic ambition of American radio in the 1930s and 40s centered on the production of self-governing and opinion-forming individuals – a cluster of ideas that the book names radio's civic paradigm. A range of programs, from classical music broadcasts to multi-opinion radio forum discussions of public affairs, were designed to promote both civic engagement and individualization. The “public interest” regulation of radio, and continuing broadcaster anxiety about further political reform to broadcasting, meant that at least until the end of WW2, American radio did not just ... More

The book argues that the civic ambition of American radio in the 1930s and 40s centered on the production of self-governing and opinion-forming individuals – a cluster of ideas that the book names radio's civic paradigm. A range of programs, from classical music broadcasts to multi-opinion radio forum discussions of public affairs, were designed to promote both civic engagement and individualization. The “public interest” regulation of radio, and continuing broadcaster anxiety about further political reform to broadcasting, meant that at least until the end of WW2, American radio did not just create popular entertainment, but also fostered programs of high civic ambition, aimed at changing not just pleasing citizens. The civic paradigm was also however, the book argues, divisive. Not all Americans shared its values of openness to change and acknowledgement of diversity, and radio researchers discovered that radio had a class-divided audience. The 1938 War of the Worlds panic exposed this division, most clearly between those who wanted radio simply to speak the truth, and those who understood it as a medium whose primary virtue was that it could expose citizens to different perspectives and allow them to try out different ways of thinking. For these and other reasons, the civic paradigm was waning by the end of WW2. But the ambitions of radio's golden age have not been well remembered in radio history.