Social Communications of the Ukrainian Community in the USA through the Lens of T. Shevchenko Radio Broadcasts in the Early 1930s

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to provide an analytical insight into the social communications of the Ukrainian community in the USA through the lens of radio broadcasts dedicated to Taras Shevchenko in the early 1930s (1930–1935). The study aims to examine the dynamics and substantive content of these radio projects, as well as to identify key trends in popularizing the Kobzar’s heritage through the radio initiatives of Myron Surmach and other Ukrainian media activists, highlighting their role in national consolidation and resistance to assimilation.

The research methodology is based on a combination of general scientific and specialized methods: monitoring and content analysis of the archival materials of the «Svoboda» newspaper to establish an empirical database; a comparative-historical method to track the evolution of broadcast formats; a method of media event reconstruction to recreate the structure of landmark broadcasts; and discourse analysis to examine the rhetoric of radio appeals as a tool for the social consolidation of the diaspora.

The results. It is proved that during the period under study, a unique media phenomenon emerged – the «Shevchenko Month», which transformed traditional forms of honoring the poet into specific socio-communicative formats (radio concerts, bilingual lectures, and literary-musical compositions). It has been established that the March program cycles became the first successful example of media crowdfunding, where the patriotic enthusiasm of the listeners was converted into financial support for the Ukrainian word in the USA.

Novelty. For the first time, based on the systematization of little-known archival sources from
1930–1935, a holistic model of «Shevchenko» radio broadcasting in the USA has been reconstructed.

Practical significance. The research results can be utilized in developing lecture courses on the history of Ukrainian journalism, media management, and socio-communicative technologies. The experience of financial and organizational self-organization of ethnic media in the 1930s is highly relevant for contemporary cultural diplomacy projects and independent media initiatives of the Ukrainian diaspora.

Key words: history of radio, radio of the Ukrainian emigration, socio-communicative technologies, Myron Surmach, Taras Shevchenko, Ukrainian diaspora, Ukrainian-language broadcasting.