Berättelser om verkligheten : från magnetband till mp3

Sammanfattning: Swedish public service radio has during its almost 100 years undergone several transformations due to technical, societal and cultural changes. A transformation still in motion can be attributed to the arrival of the internet, the digitalization of the recording, storage and distribution of sound, as well as the fast paced evolution of the global media landscape. When the mp3-file and the internet enabled the spread of pre-recorded and on-demand podcasts, it simultaneously altered the premises for traditional audio journalism. This essay examines the digitalization of five Swedish radio documentaries through the lense of narratology and semiotics, by using a qualitative ethnographic method to compare analogue and digital works. When comparing the narrative components and the use of semiotic signs in the five works from between 1980-2017, the study found evidence that the digitalization of the sound medium may have impacted the way real events and people are portrayed in radio documentaries. The differences in terms of how auditive semiotic signs are used to portray a story, a storyworld and its characters are also discussed from the perspective of credibility and the ethical dimensions of nonfiction radio.