Ray- Dee- O-ACTive

As I started to think about radio as a form of qualitative research, I saw several similarities to that of blogs. Radio has had a long history of being a public speaking ground for the community to participate in, just like blogs are today. They are also both very accessible for the public listen in. This chapter started to make me wonder what we can consider qualitative in radio. Most radio today is not controlled by the people as mush as by the sponsors. It is not community controlled or community influenced, it commercialized and factory made. Internet radio stations have become a little different then the traditional FM radio that I grew up with. The big problem I see with radio in qualitative research today, is that there are too many restrictions to allow the medium to truly function as a method of qualitative research. Restrictions don't allow for the spontaneous, sometimes crude truths to be documented, instead they may be edited. I guess it is still look at as radio is too powerful of a weapon for change that it cannot allow the community complete access. Talk radio does allow some methods of change through talk radio but even these channels are sponsor and/or politically controlled and edited. I can see how art could be used as a form of artistic expression, but I am afraid it is too much of a form of propaganda or government controlled art.... EEEKKK! That is scary to think about.