Radio and the Politics of Modernity : A Historical Study of Listening in Urban Uganda, a case of Relationship Shows

Abstract

Radio is described as the most widespread electronic medium not only in Africa but in the world. However, its continued existence has gone through a test of time with the emergence of other media technologies that have posed as a threat to its survival. Recent studies have described the radio as an old medium on the verge of obsolescence in the digital age. And yet over the last decade, late-night relationship shows, and other entertainment shows have grown enormously popular in Uganda. The popularity of these radio programs challenges common distinctions between so-called “old” and “new” media. This study takes on a historical and discourse analysis approach on radio and listenership among urban dwellers in order to understand how radio industries and technologies through the production of relationship shows have challenged the above notion. This study aligns with a body of scholarship that has challenged the idea that radio is a fallen medium. It sheds light on how radio has continued to be part of people’s social life, especially amidst competition from the other media technologies. Studies on the radio in Uganda have emphasized the top-down narrative since radio was introduced in Uganda during the colonial period as a political platform. Most of the scholarship focuses on governments, political ideologies, colonial systems, and companies without considering how these industrial, technological, and political changes have affected the everyday listener. Hence my research appraises the aural experience in the period of the digital age, and as such, to give a new definition of radio as a tool of social interaction, intimacy, and interconnectivity among the listeners for the everyday cultures in Uganda, and specifically among urban dwellers.