What is a radio, anyway?

[CLIP of Google]

Last World Emoji Day, the UK industry group Radiocentre tweeted that their favourite emjoi ought to be the one of the radio, but radios don't look like that any more - they look like phones, tablets, cars or televisions, so they don't really have a favourite emoji after all.

It’s a succinctly made point; and highlights a failing in the English language — radio means, of course, three different things — a receiver, a technology, and a type of audio programming.

Radio is now on a variety of different platforms. Broadcast technology, like FM or DAB+; live streaming via IP; and on-demand too, in the form of podcasting and other things.

Most, if not all, radio research reflects this. The apparent unsophistication of a paper ...