Project “Media, reception and memory: female audiences in the New State”

1. Project “Media, reception and memory: female audiences in the New State” “My uncle was the patriarch”: Research notes on reception, history and memoryJosé Ricardo Carvalheiro Univeridade da Beira Interior / Portugal

2. Audiences have been relatively neglected within media research about the past Humour program on the 1930’s radio Radio listening in the 1930’s • In countries where empirical media research didn’t start before the end of 20th century, there is a lack of understanding about what the first decades of broadcasting meant in people’s lives

3. We focus on “New State” regime (1930’s-60’s) and women’s condition – marked by traditionalism and rigid social segmentation

4. In this paper we try to • Discriminate the different dimensions of “reception” (in a general sense) • Think about the possibilities of researching past reception (in the specific sense of content appropriation) • Argue that this is necessary, but not enough, to understand media implications with social (gender) representations and relationships Use examples from life stories to consider reception analysis

5. Research on past audiences requiresexamination of diverse concepts Uses of the media Media consumption Media reception Centredon meanings and specific content

6. Life stories provide data that needs diachronic and synchronic analysis

7. Researching past reception? • The point of insisting on content reception lies in the connections between memory and identity. • We affiliate in a perspective that looks at reception of media content not just as interpretation, but as symbolic appropriation (Ricoeur; Thompson). • Appropriation points to connections between interpretation of signs and interpretation of the self.

8. How to study the past of reception through oral biographies? • 1) Start from “open” life narratives – not focused on media • Display of memories and identity • “My uncle was the patriarch, who dominated the family, who got jobs for brothers, for nephews... he used to control everything. Me and my mother, we escaped somehow from that control when my mother came to live alone with me in Lisbon. She escaped really from several levels of control, those of my father’s family, and those of her own family, that also wanted to control her, because she was alone, poor girl, with a little child…”

9. 2) Connect reception (as cultural appropriation) to mapped identity axis • “There is a song I always sang, although I sing very badly, but I used to sing it also to my students, as an example of male dominance at the time. It is a [Portuguese] song [by a popular male singer] that says: “to me there is nothing like the saddle and the woman, holding the reins…” I saw his performances on stage and this song was broadcasted continuously on radio.” Argumentative discourse

10. Different modes of dicourse relate to distinct forms of (re)appropriation “She was a lame girl, but she wanted to [marry]… would she marry or not… And there was a family, and the man fell in love to the lame girl, and the other woman [wife] was a bad one. She didn’t want him to go to the lame girl.” Narrative discourse

11. Reception as symbolic appropriation is important, but we should not consider only meanings of texts – Many relevant meanings for audiences come from reception as social action/social use To understand what the media meant to peoples lives, we must look for meaningful articulations with everyday life and social relationships • “One of my cousins was very talented for singing, but my uncle was a conservative man, and he wouldn’t allow her to learn chant because it was not a proper career for a decent young lady. The career for a decent young lady was to get married. So, my cousins did high school, and then they went to lessons of embroidering, cooking, and learning to be good housewives, which was the expected role for girls after 18. But, as she was very fond of singing, she turned on the radio, when her father was not at home, and listened to songs we enjoyed very much.”