ECREA16-Abstract

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Friday, November 11

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RAR02

Uncontinuities andHistory

PP 385

The Crash of the Titanic and the History of Radio

J.B. Ventura

Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias, ECATI, Lisboa, Portugal

The accident occurred in 1912 with the Titanic had a great importance for the early definition broadcasting as a bearing of a technology. Telegraphy and

wireless (radio genesis) resulted from the need to put in communication shipping vassels in order to control the traffic collision and to facilitate the issuance

of warning. With the crash of the Titanic realized the need for a legislation able to avoid the repetition of some events that have occurred with the use of ra‑

dio technology during the accident. The Titanic was equipped with a powerful radio equipment (5KW model) and two operators belonging to the Marconi

company. Looking the accident by the radio history perspective, we can ask ‘What is the role played by the radio technology in the accident?’ and ‘could

other use of radio technology in the Titanic accident, changed the outcome of this episode of naval history? '. The order by the captain of the Titanic to send

a SOS was carried by the operators. The first answer came from a German ship, Frankfurt. The answer of Jack Philips, one of the Titanic communications

operators, was to be quiet and not meddle in the matter. This strange reaction is only understood by the business model based at this time on patents

and rivalry operators. The boat responded to the SOS had Telefunken equipment, a rival brand of Marconi company. Another ship respond to the SOS, was

the Carpathia, which came to collect some passengers of the Titanic. However, a strange message indicated the rescue of all passengers of the the Titanic.

The origin of this message remains a mystery up to today. The Carpathia station allowed a maximum range of 150 miles and which only messages were

sent to another vessel, the Olimpic (another ship of the Titanic's owner) and later off the season. In the survey conducted by the US authorities concluded

that the silence of the Carpathia was order of Marconi, who, in New York, had already sold the exclusive story to a newspaper and did not want amateurs

could have interference and break the business. The sequence of events contributed to the US authorities effecting a review of radio legislation and give

start to a legislative path that came to be reflected later in the act Radio review, in favoring the broadcasting model - large and powerful transmitters and

receivers simple and low prices. The paper in submission aims to highlight the importance of the Titanic accident, as one of the elements contributing to

the legislation os radio in America. This element with the evolution of technology and social importance of radio, took radio technology for broadcasting

path, a path that still remains in the present day.

PP 386

Opera as an Entangled Medium in Weimar Germany: New Perspectives on Ernst Krenek’s Use of Radio in Jonny Spielt auf

K. Homden

Bournemouth University, Faculty of Media and Communication, Bournemouth, United Kingdom

The Weimar Republic gave birth to a new operatic reform, the Zeitopern. These operas are renowned for their modern day settings, jazz idioms and exper‑

imentation with technology. Cars, trains, newspapers, typewriters, telephones, cameras, gramophones and radios were seen on stage and became part

of the musical sound. The technology and media used in these operas are often regarded as gimmicks or props, which enhanced Zeitoper’s characteristics

within the realm of Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity). However, composers of Zeitoper not only used technology to redesign the traditional medium, but

to integrate opera with media discourses of the Republic. On 10 February 1927, the premiere of Ernst Krenek’s Jonny spielt auf took place in the Stadttheater,

Leipzig. In scene 7, Anita sings an aria which is broadcast over the hotel terrace by a loudspeaker. Hotel guests gather ‘motionless’around it, entranced by

the beauty of Anita’s voice, but when the broadcast is interrupted by Jonny and his jazz band, the guests sing ‘Thank God!’, start to gyrate and eventually

begin to dance.Yet this scene is concerned with wider discourses beyond theWeimar fascination of jazz culture.When placed in the context of media history,

it becomes clear that Jonny spielt auf is a key example of how Zeitoper became an entangled medium in its representation of new technology and media.

This paper will explore the use of technology and media within the Zeitopern, using Jonny spielt auf as a case study, in order to understand the merging

of opera with newmedia. It will adopt the methods of‘Entangled Media Histories’by considering opera as a complex multimedia art form and understand‑

ing Zeitoper in terms of its trans-medial flows. The paper will examine the radio scene from Jonny spielt auf in regards to its performance practice and its

relationship with contemporary discourses around radio broadcasting. This will give a new perspective to Weimar opera and its entangled relationship to

radio broadcasting.

PP 387

RCP, the Broadcast of Freedom. Raise and Fall of a Revolutionary Radio

H. Lima

, A.I. Reis

University of Porto, Department of Journalism and Communication Sciences, Porto, Portugal

The Portuguese Revolution of 1974 was a military rebellion against almost fifty years of dictatorship that enrolled the public support since its very begin‑

ning. The coup produce a major braking point with the past and new and challenging events occurred, in an escalade of social and political upraise, where

military, politicians and journalists played a central role. Media were recognized by military as an important ally and, in particular, the role of radio broadcast

is well known in the course of events in the first hours of the revolution (Lima, Reis, 2012). Portuguese military relied on radio as a strategic means of com‑

munication, either in terms of public broadcast, but also as internal communication. This choice is hardly surprising, since the Portuguese military forces

had training in strategic communication and propaganda during the colonial war. However, the specificity of the connection between radio broadcast and

military and political players during the revolutionary period (1974/ 1975) is scarcely studied. Radio studies show that this medium has played a main role

as an informational weapon and has been used to communicate with broad audiences in times of peace, war and tragedy. SecondWorldWar was a corner

stone in terms of the radio’s nature because it was used to prepare public opinion for the Nazi invasion and became a main ally for dominance. The sound

gained the people’s emotions even if through fear, authority and order (Hendy, 2014). In the following period its use by military was common in the colonial

warfare in order to gain the public support (Benhalla, 1983). Also, during the Cold War, radio played an important role in the ideological confrontation