Between rapprochement and distrust. The radio in Caras y Caretas magazine in the 1930s

Abstract

This paper investigates the links and negotiations that the radio section of the magazine 'Caras y Caretas' set up around radio during the 1930s, a period marked by the consolidation process of radio in Argentina. It intends to address the Radio section of said magazine, reconstructing the multiple dialogues and meanings configured on the development of the radio phenomenon and analysing the links between the graphic press and the new medium. We can affirm that the “Radio” section contained various dialogues, at different levels and between different actors, in correspondence with the multiple interests that brought together readers and editors in the same section. This formed a reading pact where the interests of the readers had to be taken into account. The movement from criticism, mistrust and the supposed “disinterest” towards the signing of a contract with Radio Belgrano itself allows us to identify the importance that radio had in Buenos Aires's society in the 1930s also showing how economic and commercial interests began to relate different cultural industries, such as the written press.