Podcasting, Welcome to Night Vale, and the Revival of Radio Drama

摘要

This article takes the surrealist fictionalized talk radio-style podcast Welcome to Night Vale (2012-Present; WNV) as a case study of the revival of the mid-twentieth century radio drama form. With affordable digital production tools and the inexpensive distribution of podcasts over the internet, WNV is helping to foster a new wave of creative audio production. Yet, much of this newfound creativity is arriving through a remediation of older radio forms, techniques, and styles. Putting this "new media " in historical and cultural perspective, the author argues, emphasizes the many continuities present during moments of media change, troubling simplistic notions of media disruption.