Copyright by Kathryn Ann Metz 2010 - The University of Texas at ...

and perceptions of mediated products. Fernandes introduces the “artistic public sphere,”
defined as “sites of interaction and discussion among ordinary citizens generated through the
media of art and popular culture” (2006: 3). She focuses on how Cubans use films to
negotiate identity and politics. Alternatively, John Fiske researched the meanings that
consumers place on common, everyday objects such as blue jeans, revealing the ways in
which people actively or passively construct meaning from seemingly banal artifacts. His
study is especially important because of the certain amount of agency that he gives to the
consumer, stating, “to be made into popular culture, a commodity must bear the interests of
the people” (1989: 21).
In using parts of these ethnographic models, I consider the interpretative reactions in
the metadiscourse surrounding radio listening. While radio is unquestionably different from
television, there are similarities in the ethnographic approach to studying them (spending
time with and interviewing listeners), and in how they support the construction of identity
(how radio listeners draw their sense of self from particular radio sounds). Naturally, the
promotion of Amazonianness by radio operators and programmers is interpreted differently
by various listeners who internalize alternately international or local musical references.
Jody Berland‟s study presents a distinct viewpoint regarding local narratives in
commercial radio and their relation to identity formation (1990). Berland suggests that
“radio offers listeners a sense of accessibility to and interaction within its own (broadcast)
community” (1990:188). Although local methods of formatting and programming radio may
be based on national or international models (and “most ideas are borrowed, not originated”
(1990:188), they are still uniquely regional. Radio executives make creative decisions about
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