RADIO SUMMARY

Tong
Suggests that electronic mediation creates a dialectical relation between presence
and absence.
o The absence of shared physical space among Muslims in Singapore does not
affect their religious and sociocultural identity, because of the presence of
shared acoustic space created through radio transmission (1993: 93).
o In Tongs example, there is a physical absence and an acoustic presence in
this radio situation.
This physical anonymity leads to a focus on the voice as the
generator of intimacy and relationality
Schulz
Voice constitutes a pivotal aspect of religious life in Mali
o Schulz asserts that authority granted to religious radio speakers is grounded
in culturally anchored understandings of voice as an essential medium for
facilitating spiritual activity and moral subjectivity
This assertion comes towards the end of her exposition of the ways in
which Muslim authority, particularly that of women, is contested
through the medium of the radio.
Indeed, the rise of the presence of womens voices on the radio
constitutes a controversial phenomenon in Mali.
While highly popular with many female listeners and some
male listeners, these hadjas come under fire from those
concerned not only with intrinsic arguments about the role of
women and their modesty and their perceived lack of
religious instruction but also more importantly are subjected
to criticisms that are specific to the medium of the radio,
namely uncontrolled dissemination of religious interpretation
Disembodiment
o Suggests that their presence on the radio in Mali departs from the traditional
relegation of female religiosity and devotional practices to an intimate,
secluded space within the domestic realm.
That women have decided to take up a role in radio broadcasting
might be indicative of the invitation and exploitation of
disembodiment.
Where notions of modesty in traditional Islam are
particularly focused on the body (shown through arguments
for covering the body) and on private presence, the absence
of the body and the anonymity of the voice might be said to
be less contradictory to traditional values than, for example,
a television appearance.
o Though there are nevertheless some contested
arguments against female radio broadcasting because
the sensuality of their voices risks arousing male
desire
However it might be argued that the popularity of the hadjas
is supported (and perhaps justified) by the absence of body
that the radio fosters in a culture in which some are very
concerned with modesty.
Controversy around the hadjas
o The hadjas generally do not espouse Islamic interpretations that differ much
from their male counterparts it is specifically the way in which they are
 being communicated, and by whom, that provides the focus for this
controversy.
This notion of uncontrolled dissemination will be considered in light
of Schulzs comment that new media technologies undermine the
foundations of traditional, text-based forms of authority and foster a
democratisation of religious interpretation for the women in Mali
who were previously excluded from religious teaching
o This dissemination of ideas and democratisation of knowledge destroys any
monopoly that might have been held over religious interpretation, fostering
debate and discussion
Commercialisation
o Cherif Haidaras radio broadcasts were recorded on cassette tapes which are
then distributed and sold.
Schulz argues that as religious and commercial entertainment
cultures become increasingly intertwined, it would be misleading to
try to distil a pure religious message untainted by the logic of
commerce and consumption
Indeed, the radio is not purely a religious medium: it is used
for advertisement and many other commercial and
entertainment purposes that are inevitably juxtaposed with
religious material
Not fully democratic
The price asked for the cassette will determine whether or
not someone can access the religious teaching it beholds.
The cassette allows the religious teachings to transcend space
and time, and yet it renders exclusive and individualised
religious experience and exposure.
Disembodiment both facilitates female involvement, is overcome in stylistic
techniques that generate intimacy, and poses a threat in its easy dissemination.

Kunreuther FM Radio in Nepal

Informal individuality as cite of intimacy
o Notes the informal, conversational speech of the new, young radio-jockeys as
compared to the more subdued style of the traditional Radio Nepal hosts.
On the FM, a fast-paced, verbose, chatty speaker, who peppers his
or her speech with new slang, laughter, several different tones, and
English, immediately conjures up the image of a young, urban,
middle-class hipster the most common (but certainly not the only)
host of FM programs
o Importantly, she also suggests that this informality leads FM RJs to be
considered direct speakers whose words are not couched in poetics and
metaphors, which affords the FM radio a reputation as a medium of
intimacy, perhaps more so than in face-to-face interaction.
This seemingly paradoxical observation is perhaps the result of the
fact that the radio host does not face an immediate audience; instead,
they are free to express their inner self without fear of any form of
response that may distract them, interfere or make them feel shy of
their inner self.
This was particularly important in Nepal at the time due to the
increasing focus on the development of the inner self as a parallel to
international development as a feature of the democratisation of the
country.
 Informality and spontaneity of the Nepali FM register as a cite of unplanned
honesty and, importantly for the time, transparency.
o FM radio in Nepal emerged as a product of the Peoples Movement, which
created a changing landscape of political discourse and subjectivities in
Nepal from the 1990s onwards.
Demands for transparency and participation as a means of sustaining
a healthy democracy, and FM radio with its emphasis on listening,
consumer participation and spontaneous informality became a
symbol of this new democracy.
This democracy was motivated by the metaphor of awaj uthaune
raising voice that brought Nepalis out onto the street in protest.
o An important aspect of this democratisation is the voice gained by those
previously marginalised through the medium of radio.
The dispersive, political and commercial nature of the medium of the
radio has a two-fold effect in Nepal:
More people are exposed to the radio
More people are featured on the radio.
o This is exemplified in the case of the Tharu-language programs run by Amira
Chaudhari.
Previously a marginalised group subjected to bonded labour, the
Tharu community found a voice and heard their voice through
Amira.
It was not the intonation or timbre of her voice with which they
identified but merely her authentic speaking of the language.
The intimate association between voice and identity is
evident: some see the voice as indicative of identity as the
signature or the fingerprint
o It is merely Amiras natural use of the Tharu register
that affirms her as a true native Tharu speaker giving
voice to a previously silenced group.
The intimate association between voice and identity and between
language and ethnicity politically intertwine: Kunreuther suggests
that here the vioce is both a dense metaphor used to explain
transformations in self and the material means through which these
transformations ostensibly take place on the FM radio

VOICE/ LANGUAGE/ HETEROGLOSSIA

Hill
o Ethnography that centres on the story of Don Gabriel, a speaker of modern
Mexicano in San Lorenzo Almecatla in Mexico.
He describes the tale of his sons murder to the ethnographer in a
mixture of Mexicano and Spanish, which he states was caused by
envidia, a destructive envy which leads to revenge against its object
and which targets those who prosper through capitalist accumulation
rather than through traditional communtarian processes of the local
peasant communities.
He uses a Spanish-Mexicano mix not only because the terminology
for business-for-profit does not exist in Mexicano (and he explains
 these aspects in Spanish) but as a means of establishing his own
moral position.
The two languages encode two opposing ideologies:
Mexicano indexes the communitarian values of the
community that speaks that language while Spanish indexes
the Spanish-speaking world of the pursuit of individual profit
in the marketplace.
Hill asserts that to assimilate the Spanish lexicon of business-for-
profit into his narrative while making clear that his own moral
position is grounded in peasant communitarian values, he constitutes
the voice system of his narration along a moral axis (supported by a
moral geography), and distributes this lexicon among voices which
are far removed from the moral center of his text