Transnational Radio Encounters: Mediations of Nationality, Identity and Community through Radio

This project looked at how radio as a medium that easily crosses national borders has fostered transnational encounters.

Six individual projects examined how radio was shaped in and by transnational arenas. The projects explored how infrastructures, sound aesthetics and archives reflect local identities and influence historical and present attempts to interact transnationally.

TRE aimed to research how radio in history and at present:

• mediates national identities among and across borders
• structures cultural encounters beyond the limits of national and social entities

The central research question was ‘How are transnational radio encounters structured by aesthetic, infrastructural and archival factors, and what forms of cultural identity and interaction do they support?’

The TRE project involved six international research teams combined with seven associated partners. The research was conducted using a transnational comparative approach. Building on a range of case studies, the researchers explored key moments of technological, political and institutional transition. They also explored the ways in which transnational radio encounters can be reconstructed and represented in the shifting archival environment. They traced the evolution of vital phenomena of transnational radio encounters to explore:

• how the arts facilitated transnational radio encounters within and between established broadcasting organisations
• the changing role of international radio services in constructing concepts such as European-ness
• the role of community radio for minority ethnic identities