Why Talk Radio is Conservative
I've found an article that offers a better answer than mine to Fallon's question in class about why talk radio is a conservative form of political communication. The article, published in 2004, can be found here.
The quick summary is this: After disputing existing explanations of talk radio's right-leaning ideology, the author Mayer argues that talk radio is conservative for three reasons: 1. There are more conservatives in US society as a whole, so talk radio is created to address the larger audience; 2. Conservatives do not feel represented by what they perceive as a liberal mainstream media, so they need the alternative of talk radio more than liberals (I believe kudos go to Erin for offering this explanation in class); 3. Liberal audiences are segmented by race, gender, & ethnicity more than conservatives--therefore, these diverse groups would be less likely to listen to the same radio programming than a more homogenous (i.e., less identity driven) conservative audience.
I think the second and third reasons are pretty sound, although I'm not sure that #1 is valid any more under the current political climate.
The quick summary is this: After disputing existing explanations of talk radio's right-leaning ideology, the author Mayer argues that talk radio is conservative for three reasons: 1. There are more conservatives in US society as a whole, so talk radio is created to address the larger audience; 2. Conservatives do not feel represented by what they perceive as a liberal mainstream media, so they need the alternative of talk radio more than liberals (I believe kudos go to Erin for offering this explanation in class); 3. Liberal audiences are segmented by race, gender, & ethnicity more than conservatives--therefore, these diverse groups would be less likely to listen to the same radio programming than a more homogenous (i.e., less identity driven) conservative audience.
I think the second and third reasons are pretty sound, although I'm not sure that #1 is valid any more under the current political climate.
posted by Michael R. Kramer | 10:45 AM
1 Comments:
Coming from a very conservative family, I grew up listening to Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, and Bill O’Reilly. A few years ago, I would beg my parents to turn to the pop station, but now I actually like listening to talk radio. I do agree with the three points on why conservatives tend to use the radio. However, I do not know how I feel about entering more into the blog world. I think conservatives are aware that they have to eventually in order to keep up with the internet crowd. Just like protesting with signs, blogging tends to be more of a liberal thing.
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