“Every Radio show host is a listener”: considerations on roles performed in

Abstract

In general, social studies on Radio Stations has the tendency to interpret the Radio show host as an opposite category as of listeners. There is also the presupposition that in a constructed relation of power the Radio show host superimposes his preferences on the listener since the first decides who, what and when the listener is on the air. Finally, there is an inclination to treat the role of the Radio show host and of the listener as invariable. Having as ground an ethnographic research realized for one year in Ilheus (South of Bahia, Brazil) in a Radio station, this paper intends to criticize this perspective, defending that social roles performed in the interlocution between a Radio show host who is on the air and a listener can alternate based on the utilization of particular codes of each category. It also aims to stimulate analysis on the role of the anthropologist in this scenario.