Tripping Down the (Media) Rabbit Hole: Radio Alice and the Insurgent Socialization of Airwaves

This article illustrates the case Radio Alice, a “free radio” active in late 1970s Italy, which challenged traditional forms of thinking and doing broadcasting. The author discusses how the station utilized the airwaves first to constitute an alternative arena in which different voices, experiences, and social groups utilized radio as a 2-way communication device; second, to convey a new political sensibility and sense of sociability resembling a contemporary social network site. Ultimately, this case illustrates how radio can be understood as a modality of social interaction in its own right, rather than a mere distributor/amplifier of messages.