Abstract
In this article I detail the use of regular radio broadcasts as an experimental tool in qualitative geographic research. I detail a case study that offers examples of the use of public radio while in the field. The case study is based on research I conducted in Ocracoke, North Carolina that examines the relationships amongst local environmental knowledge, cultural practices, and socioenvironmental change. The criteria used to evaluate the use of public radio as a qualitative tool involves assessing the techniques ability to enhance credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability. These categories are borrowed from a comparison study conducted by Baxter and Eyles (Trans Inst Br Geogr, 22(4):505–525, 1997) that evaluated rigor in qualitative geographic research. I close by considering how my project addresses some of the recent calls in human geography to include phonographic methods alongside visual and textual modes of inquiry (e.g. Gallagher and Prior in Prog Hum Geogr, 38(2):267–284, 2014). The major claim of this paper is that the use of audio media has the potential to contribute to qualitative geographic research in ways that visual and textual representations cannot.
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Pompeii, B. The use of public radio as a tool in qualitative geographic research. GeoJournal 80, 791–802 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-015-9647-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-015-9647-1