ABSTRACT
Since its invention more than a hundred years ago, the radio medium has survived the rapid technological, cultural, and social changes prevailing across the world. Reflexively, its history has demonstrated the extent to which it can be a utility of propaganda, and, simultaneously, a medium possessing a democratic promise. Rapid technological changes have, over time, changed the formats, genre, and aesthetics of radio, as it seeks to retain its audiences who are inexorably attracted to other media platforms. This chapter interrogates the democratic functions of radio in a less-explored context of South Africa. Utilising conversation analysis and premised on Habermas’s public sphere theory and the opposing concepts of agonistic public spheres, the chapter explores the extent to which a popular open-line radio programme on South Africa’s Radio 702 constitutes an ideal public sphere in the Habermasian sense. The chapter argues that Radio 702 can be characterised as an ideal public sphere, albeit an irrational one. The irrationality – characterised by ‘verbal slaps’ of participants by others – makes it imperative to reclaim civility in this space. Furthermore, while democratic conversations can be ‘naturally’ agonistic, as Radio 702 shows, the values of free speech and the robust exchange of ideas envisaged by Habermas are degraded by agonism.
