prof. scannell: i'd appreciate what you are saying. that information. is that theaying thing we now take for granted as the most natural thing, namely talk on radio, was something that had to be discovered. that people had to learn how to do it. but it is a specific kind of form. the most extraordinary thing is that talk literally is prehistoric until sound recording comes along. writing is as old as recorded history. talkow people talk, what sounded like, how people related to each other through speech -- we don't know until radio and television came along. whicher the extent to radio and television has contributed to helping us all to learn to talk to each other in new kinds of ways. it used to be said of television that it kills talk. i can't think of a more idiotic to say about television. radio and television gave everybody things to talk about outside and above their own thatience, in ways hitherto had been simply impossible. >> we have a question way in the back. maybe we should follow up and have a chat. what you said you got me thinking when yo

prof. scannell: my time is up or my number is up, sorry. i've got to take it. i am always overwhelmed, jack darador always said, when i hear the voice of someone who is dead, as i am not, when i see a photograph or image of a dead person. i can be touched presently by the recorded speech of someone who is dead. i can hear and be affected by a voice beyond the grave. for darador, the recording of the voice is, in his own words one of the most important phenomena of the 20th century. it gives a living presence the possibility of being there a new that is without equal and without precedents. the defining ontological characteristic of the human voice as it speaks or sings is liveness it has to be brought to life in ways that i have yet to show, but talk dies in the announcement of its enunciation. how shall it be known what is spoken? for you shall speak into the air. these are the famous words of st. paul's epistle to the corinthians and the title of the book on the history of the idea of communication "speaking into the air," in which john takes as two paradigms

prof. scannell: national and international outrage is a newly created division of the library of congress thatne unit, all of the externally facing programs of the library. we

prof. scannell: [laughter] thank you very much, michelle, for that wonderful, if not slightly intimidating introduction. i am already beginning to feel that i am a hard act to follow. [laughter] all i can say, people, is i will give it a go. one of the things that i loved many years ago, when you get invited to do something like this, is always check the small print. i got an invitation about 30 years ago to give a keynote in italy at the invitation of the italian public broadcaster, rai. they said it is a conference about radio documentary. i said, yeah, i can do that. i did know something about radio documentary. until i actually got there, and the evening before i was about to stand up to do what i'm about to do now, they said, you know, it's about the short-form documentary, don't you? no, i didn't. and actually, i'd never even heard of short-form documentary. i thought it was going to be talking about what i do know about, the beginnings of what i think we would have to call long-form documentary. this is a gathering from all over europe of people working in radio were particularly in