Reporters, Radio Waves, and the Dispersed Audience : Staging the Radio in Early German Sound Cinema

Abstract

Early sound film was linked to the broadcasting and recording industries both economically and technologically. This alliance produced a variety of interactions between the three media, which were regarded as attractions of modernity around 1930. The widespread fascination with radio not only combined theories on film and radio but also became the subject of numerous feature films. Against the backdrop of these discourses, cinema soon developed conventional narratives about radio, which, in turn, shaped the media fantasies of the time. Based on the analysis of selected films, this chapter explores how the attraction of radio was formulated, disseminated, appropriated, and transferred to early sound films. The focus is on the (film) character of the radio reporter and the new dispersed audience united by the ‘radio waves.’