Editors' Introduction

Abstract

Historical studies from an international, global, transnational, or comparative angle have become increasingly popular in recent decades—all aspects of the “international turn” in historiographical writing. This collection takes its cue from Isabel Hofmeyr's description of the transnational approach as being primarily concerned “with movements, flows, and circulation,” and with interrogating “historical processes” that are “constructed in the movement between places, sites, and regions.”1 In 2018, ten years after Kate Lacey made a case for studying the history of radio “as part of a wider matrix of communications media, rather than in isolation, and in cross cultural and cross-national contexts,” Lacey noted the growing number of cultural histories of transnational radio broadcasting.2 Transnational perspectives on the history of broadcasting more broadly are burgeoning internationally.3 Michele Hilmes has pointed to the “inherent transnationalism” of broadcasting, which is compelled “to provide a conduit to speak to other nations and to let other influences stream into the national space.” These impulses are held in tension with the equally important responsibilities to disseminate national culture and to resist “foreign” or other unwanted cultural influences. The task of the “transnational media historian,” Hilmes suggests, is to pursue the usual flows of texts and people, but also to consider economic and institutional aspects of cultural production. “The study of broadcasting—particularly understood as a transnational form—requires attention to the sphere of politics and economics as much as to matters of creative influence, the development of aesthetic practices and forms, and their social and cultural reception.”4 A more multifaceted approach to broadcasting history is perhaps required, one that recognizes that flows of media content, ideas, and people can take multiple and complex pathways. This special issue addresses the considerations raised above, and extends from Hilmes's focus on social transformation within British and US broadcasting as …