Deafening Data: Sound Measurement and Knowledge Making in the Cold War.

Abstract

Technical monitoring-the routine assessment of radio signal quality-gained unexpected significance during the Cold War. In an era marked by unreliable sources and propaganda, quantifiable technical data became especially valuable. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a major Western broadcaster subject to deliberate interference by communist states, regularly measured the audibility of its jammed signal. These recordings went beyond technical concerns: acoustic categories became tools for studying closed societies during political crises. Meanwhile, technicians across the Iron Curtain provided party officials with statistics indicating who was winning the radio war. Acoustic data thus crossed geographical, ideological, and professional boundaries. This article examines how such technical monitoring transformed sound into data, bridging engineering, intelligence, and political communication. It also situates these practices within the wider history of Cold War media and the origins of datafication, inviting parallels to today's surveillance regimes.