The rules of engagement: talkback radio audiences’ understandings of the conditions of access to programs

Abstract

We know quite a lot about how access to talkback radio programmes is controlled by producers and hosts, but we know relatively little about the extent of audiences’ knowledge of these rules and their understanding of the conditions of access to talkback. Drawing on data from focus groups with audience members of 12 Australian talkback radio programmes, this paper explores what talkback radio listeners and callers know about the gatekeeping and production processes involved in talkback programmes. It also explores how the study participants, who were all dedicated, long-time listeners, engage with these processes to gain access where it might otherwise be denied. The article finds that audience members are well informed of the various methods producers and hosts use to control callers’ access to programmes and that while controlled access can have the effect of dissuading some audience members from calling, it impels others to actively subvert these restrictions.

Acknowledgements

The author thanks the anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions and Dr Kate Holland for her contribution to the literature review from which this paper drew information.

Notes

1. Thanks to Dr Collette Snowden for suggesting the term dialogic radio.

2. The name of this station is ABC Lismore, but the focus group was held at Byron Bay because that town was identified as being particularly community oriented.