This article analyses the play-element of radio communication, based on examples taken from Poland’s commercial radio stations. The theoretical framework is provided by Roger Caillois’s distinction of four types of games (agôn, alea, mimicry, ilinx) that stretch between two poles: spontaneity (paidia) and rules (ludus). The article illustrates how different kinds of radio games exist on the air and the type of communicational function they have in modern society.
CailloisR (2001) Man, Play and Games. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
2.
HuizingaJ (2003) Homo Ludens. A Study of the Play-Element in Culture. London and New York: Routledge.
3.
LevinsonP (1979) Human Replay: A Theory of the Evolution of Media. New York: New York University.
4.
ManciniP (1998) Simulated interaction: How the television journalist speaks. European Journal of Communication3(2): 151–166.
5.
ManningFE (1983) Cosmos and Chaos: Celebration In the Modern World. In: ManningF (ed.) The Celebration of Society: Perspectives on Contemporary Cultural Performance. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green University Popular Press.
6.
ScannellP (1996) Radio, Television and Modern Life. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
7.
ScrutonR (2006) An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Modern Culture. South Bend, IN: St Augustine’s Press.
8.
SennettR (1978) The Fall of Public Man: On the Social Psychology of Capitalism. New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
