Radio a propaganda tool A novel interdisciplinary research project addressed the topic of radio propaganda, focusing on Radio Bari. This was the first radio station to broadcast in Arabic, approaching Arabs and challenging British and French colonial power. Climate Change and Environment © Thinkstock The project '"War of Waves". European radio propaganda in the Arab world: The experience of Radio Bari (1934-43)' (WOW: RADIO BARI) examined propaganda carried out by France, Germany, Great Britain and Italy in the Arab world between the mid-1930s and early-1940s. It drew on disciplines spanning cultural history, colonial history, global and transnational history, history of international relations and history of media. Project activities included extending methodological and theoretical skills, enhancing expertise in historiography, and extensive reviews from a wide variety of information sources. Project work also involved participation in and presentations at seminars, workshop attendances, and teaching and supervision of PhD students. On the research front, WOW: RADIO BARI worked on archives during missions in France, Israel and the United Kingdom, as well as four missions in Italy. This enabled amassing a significant amount of sources and reviewing relevant documents. The latter included the entire BBC transcription of Radio Bari news (from 1939 to 1943). Other documents offered information on Italian propaganda in North Africa and in British Palestine. WOW: RADIO BARI also reviewed files on how British diplomats in the Arab World perceived Radio Bari and its impact on Arab public opinion. Research outcomes were presented at the 2012 and 2013 Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Conference and at a European University Institute (EUI) seminar in 2013. A book proposal accepted by a leading Italian publishing house dealing with contemporary history is in the works for completion and publication at the end of 2014. Other publications work included writing for the peer-reviewed online journal Travels to the Holy Land, two articles in the peer-reviewed journals QualeStoria (2012) and The International Spectator (2013), as well as articles in non-peer-reviewed journals. WOW: RADIO BARI hasadded to knowledge on instruments of modern propaganda and radio broadcasts as a cultural and transnational experience. Keywords Radio propaganda, colonial power, Arab world, public opinion, contemporary history
