Page 175 - Communication Cultural and Media Studies The Key Concepts

NET RADIO

beyond our control but which determines our characteristics and
behaviour. In this sense, nature is an ideological category.
The other main way in which nature is used in analytical discourses
is as the material properties of an object. Hence the nature of
something is contrasted with whatever conceptions of it might be
available (the nature of the planet earth is contrasted with conceptions
of it as flat). Nature in this sense is the proper object of study for
science: the attempt to reveal or discover by analysis the ‘true’ nature
(determining properties) of an object of study.

Further reading: Eagleton (2000)

NET RADIO

Radio, since its creation, has been understood as a broadcast medium,
transmitted from a central tower and receivable by radio equipment
within the signal’s limited reach. Net radio has none of these technical
characteristics. It is made possible by streaming technologies that carry
the audio information across the Internet and is receivable through
computers via telecommunications infrastructure. As it is carried over
the Internet, it can be received anywhere in the world where such
technology is available.
Net radio is what Marshall McLuhan (1964) called a ‘rear-
viewmirrorist’ invention. In its first years, television content was
developed that mimicked existing radio and theatre formats. Net radio
is only conceived of, referred to and marketed as radio in order to satisfy
the desire of audiences, and producers, for a reference point. By
attaching an existing label to a newtechnology we are able to create a
familiarity with something that might otherwise be a radically
different, and difficult, concept to grasp. However, as with the early
days of television, by breaking free from rearviewmirrorism, audio
Internet content may reach newlevels of innovation. Some net radio
stations already allowlisteners to create their own listening programme
– a significant departure from the broadcast radio format where
listeners are restricted to the station’s selection (see also Hartley, 1992a).

NETWORK SOCIETY

In the late twentieth century, a historical shift occurred in the
configurations of social organisation. Statism and capitalism – around

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