Technology and Politics in Local Context: Rural Talk Radio in the US
Date:
Invited presentation on in-progess work, at (a Weatherhead Institute workshop series)[https://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/event/politics-and-social-change-workshop-09-26-24].
Talk radio has been an enduring player in the American media landscape for decades. US talk radio tends to be partisan and sometimes painted as alternative ‘infotainment’ on a dying medium. But on national and local levels, talk radio continues to play an outsize role—especially in conservative politics. Rural talk radio stations can be significant and trusted source of news and information. They can serve to contextualize national events and topics, as well as playing a role in local news, promoting local businesses, and organizing local politics. Drawing from data collected from three rural stations in Utah, this presentation sheds light on how contemporary rural radio stations operate at the intersection of digital and broadcast developments. It situates choices of programming, technical operations, and audience curation within local contexts (cultural and even geographical) as well as the wider political economy of conservative news environments—from expanding syndication choices bolstered by podcasting to the rise of digital ‘newspapers’ owned by these local stations. This presentation also explores some implications of these findings for discourses on conservative media, disinformation, and technological exceptionalism.