Radio & Audio Media Division - Top Research Presentation & JRAM Outstanding Article of the Year

Moderator: Brad Clark, Mount Royal University Debut Competition 1st Place: Angelica Kalika, University of Colorado Boulder; Community Radio Journalism: Actor-Network Theory and Structuration in a Hyper-Local News Organization 2nd Place: Jayne Cubbage, Bowie State University; WBSU Radio—From Revolution to Evolution—Getting Some Love on the Radio at an HBCU Open Competition 1st Place: George Bovenizer, University of South Alabama; Turning Up the Volume on the Voice of a Black Broadcasting Pioneer: Jocko Maxwell’s Contributions to Sports Radio and Negro Leagues Preservation Presentation of the Journal of Radio & Audio Media (JRAM) Outstanding Article of the Year: Presented by: JRAM Editor: Noah Arceneaux, San Diego State University 2025 Recipient: Maria Rae, Deakin University, Australia & Kirsten Diprose, Deakin University, Australia; Bush podpreneurs: How rural women podcast producers are building digital and social connectivity Journal of Radio & Audio Media, Volume 32, 2025 - Issue 2, 333–352. https://doi.org/10.1080/19376529.2024.2328690 Drawing on interviews with Australian rural women producers, Marie Rae and Kirsten Diprose reframe podcasting not simply as an expressive or cultural practice, but as a form of entrepreneurial and connective labor that bridges social, geographic, and infrastructural divides. In foregrounding the figure of the “bush podpreneur,” this study makes a significant contribution to scholarship on podcasting, rural media, and digital inequality, while underscoring the enduring importance of sound as a tool for connection beyond metropolitan centers.