IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB441884312

Listening Through the Iron Curtain: RFE and Polish Radio in the “Fog of War” (2019)

Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Volume: 61
Issue: 3
Pages: 200-231
Publication date: 2019
Language: English

URI: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1600-0498.12227

DOI: 10.1111/1600-0498.12227

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Methods of communication; media Propaganda Technology and culture Cold War Radio 20th century, late Poland

In Polish historiography on radio in the Stalinist period, the official propaganda broadcast by Polish Radio is very often juxtaposed with the free and unbiased broadcasting of Radio Free Europe (RFE), which can create the impression that RFE was the only source of information in Poland and tends to diminish the importance of Polish Radio. In fact, both broadcasting institutions were crucial players in Cold War warfare, which was described by George F. Kennan in terms of Clausewitz's “fog of war.” Indeed, both RFE and Polish Radio were listening to each other through the Iron Curtain because “white propaganda” (along with the intelligence obtained from political refugees) was one of the most important sources of information. The two broadcasting stations were more alike than we are willing to admit. For instance, the Polish section of RFE mimicked the post-war strategy of Polish Radio. While the latter pretended to be the continuation and successor of the pre-war institution, RFE's propaganda shaped the programme of Polish Radio for many years. Using this case study on RFE's attitude toward Poland's western borders along the Odra and Nysa Rivers, I show how these two opposing broadcasting stations functioned within an endless propaganda feedback loop.

...More

Included in

Article István Rév (2019) Neither Objective nor Subjective. Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology (pp. 143-152). unapi

Citation URI

data.isiscb.org/p/isis/citation/CBB441884312

This citation is part of the Isis database.

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Article Kind-Kovács, Friederike; (2013)
Voices, Letters, and Literature through the Iron Curtain: Exiles and the (Trans)mission of Radio in the Cold War (/p/isis/citation/CBB001213834/)

Article Risso, Linda; (2013)
Radio Wars: Broadcasting in the Cold War (/p/isis/citation/CBB001213833/)

Article Georgi Georgiev; (2019)
Cold War Atmosphere: Distorted Information and Facts in the Case of Free Europe Balloons (/p/isis/citation/CBB595787869/)

Book Liz Gunner; (2019)
Radio Soundings: South Africa and the Black Modern (/p/isis/citation/CBB003700829/)

Book Alejandra M. Bronfman; (2016)
Isles of Noise: Sonic Media in the Caribbean (/p/isis/citation/CBB588899427/)

Book Ross, Corey; (2008)
Media and the Making of Modern Germany: Mass Communications, Society, and Politics from the Empire to the Third Reich (/p/isis/citation/CBB001232126/)

Article James Owen Weatherall; Cailin O’Connor; Justin P. Bruner; (2020)
How to Beat Science and Influence People: Policymakers and Propaganda in Epistemic Networks (/p/isis/citation/CBB187785214/)

Article Helen Piel; (2020)
Scientific Broadcasting as a Social Responsibility? John Maynard Smith on Radio and Television in the 1960s and 1970s (/p/isis/citation/CBB544967395/)

Article Ruxandra Petrinca; (2019)
Radio Waves, Memories, and the Politics of Everyday Life in Socialist Romania: The Case of Radio Free Europe (/p/isis/citation/CBB631038986/)

Article Johns, Adrian; (2009)
Piracy as a Business Force (/p/isis/citation/CBB001021856/)

Article István Rév; (2019)
Neither Objective nor Subjective (/p/isis/citation/CBB495362445/)

Article Yermolov, Pavel; (2012)
The History of Radio Technology Evolution in Crimea (1899--1920). Part 2 (/p/isis/citation/CBB001321283/)

Article Weber, Heike; (2010)
Head Cocoons: A Sensori-Social History of Earphone Use in West Germany, 1950--2010 (/p/isis/citation/CBB001035711/)

Article Wittkower, D. E.; Selinger, Evan; Rush, Lucinda; (2013)
Public Philosophy of Technology: Motivations, Barriers, and Reforms (/p/isis/citation/CBB001201749/)

Book Gonza lez de Bustamante, Celeste; (2012)
“Muy buenas noches”: Mexico, Television, and the Cold War (/p/isis/citation/CBB001202061/)

Book Gere, Charlie; (2008)
Digital Culture (/p/isis/citation/CBB000954039/)

Book Lovink, Geert; (2007)
Zero Comments: Blogging and Critical Internet Culture (/p/isis/citation/CBB000953891/)

Book Park, David W.; Jankowski, Nicholas; Jones, Steve; (2011)
The long history of new media: Technology, historiography, and contextualizing newness (/p/isis/citation/CBB001180046/)

Article Slotten, Hugh Richard; (2012)
The International Telecommunications Union, Space Radio Communications, and U.S. Cold War Diplomacy, 1957--1963 (/p/isis/citation/CBB001200574/)

Article Webb, Alban; (2013)
Cold War Radio and the Hungarian Uprising, 1956 (/p/isis/citation/CBB001213835/)