Feminism on the Radio in Italy of the 1970s: The Case of Radio Donna on Radio Città Futura

Abstract

The aim of the research is tracing the origins of the representation of feminist movements in Italy in the 1970s starting from public discourse carried by some radios from the middle of the decade in an interdisciplinary framework. Through the analysis of audio documents of Radio Donna, launched on Roman Radio Città Futura from March 1976, this article wants to reconstruct how expressive and communicative feminist movements in Italy have expressed their demands and spread their views. The analysis of communication, through the thousands of radio born in Italy in the 1970s, allows to show a specific point of view and a new mode of dissemination of gender issues within the Italian public at this stage. The project aims to bring to light the public dimension of gender issues through listening of sound sources of Radio Città Futura, Radio Donna. The paper intends to analyse public discourse, undergoing a critical analysis which would grasp how radio tool was used by the feminist movements and what were the objectives of the flood operation. Moving from this example, the research points to see if and how the birth of the free radios in Italy has promoted a greater chance of access to the media to gender issues. The methodology studies the radio source by analysing the content and how it has been received towards the audience, focusing on two fundamental dimensions considered by Jérôme Bourdon in media analysis (Bourdon, Introduzione ai media, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2001). Next to the radio sources, I will make extensive use of the consultation of the daily and periodical press in order to cross our sources and provide the framework for public discussion. This paper contributes to study symbolic representation of feminist movements Italy of 1970s through the radio, focusing on an interdisciplinary perspective that combines historical and political reconstruction with the symbolic and communicative dimension of the media.