What is the future of student media and what are young listeners interested in?
As part of the festival, Palacký University’s Department of Theatre and Film Studies has prepared a programme focused on young listeners on Thursday 23 March. In the morning space will be given over to student media societies, while in the afternoon the panel discussion Youth Radio – Radio for Youth will take place. Guests will include the Radio Wave presenters Brit Jensen and Filip Titlbach.
The first official meeting of Czech student media outlets will take place on Thursday as part of the Prix Bohemia Radio festival. It will take the form of a two-and-a-half-hour block with a workshop on the subject „Internal communication, motivation and sustainability in student societies“ headed by an instructor from the Academic Centre of Student Activities. Student radio and television stations from various corners of the country, including Prague, Brno, Ostrava and Olomouc, have confirmed their participation.
Student media outlets are today a given at virtually all universities. However, they have up to now lacked a platform that would facilitate cooperation between student television and radio stations.
„The meeting will build on efforts by Czech student radio and television stations to create a joint space for sharing contacts, experiences, tips and positive energy. We want to meet, to start collaborating and to educate, motivate and encourage one another for better results. In the future we would like to organise a conference on a larger scale at which several training blocks and lectures from personalities with experience would take place. The March meeting is the first step to realising these plans, “ says main organiser Zuzana Řezníčková, outlining her vision.
Zuzana Řezníčková and teacher Andrea Hanáčková will also chair the afternoon panel discussion entitled Youth Radio – Radio for Youth. The programme is focused on radio broadcasting for listeners aged 15 to 30.
How to attract listeners? In what circumstances will a teenager even turn on the radio?
These questions will be raised in the debate, in which talks will be delivered by the Radio Wave presenters Brit Jensen and Filip Titlbach, as well as Lenka Veverková, a dramaturge of children and youth programmes.
„In view of the fact that present at the panel discussion Youth Radio – Radio for Youth will be students, who are a major section of our audience, I expect that I will learn from them how they listen to radio. Whether live from the airwaves, via podcasts or by playing recordings on the web, where audio tracks are embedded in articles. The actual debate on the form of radio for young people, what they expect from it, how they come to it and whether they look for it could also be interesting. And naturally I’m interested in how they perceive the issues of intimacy, sexuality and relationships on the airwaves, “ says Filip Titlbach of his expectations for the panel.
„We regard it as very important to mediate contact between students and work in these fields. At the same time, we’re interested in fostering a dialogue between young listeners and Czech Radio. Many young people have no idea what they can find in Czech Radio’s programming. The aim, therefore, is to start a dialogue and acquire information. We regard the chance to meet the producers referred to, to get to know about their work in more detail and also to express our opinions about it as very attractive, “ adds Řezníčková.
Both events are taking place under the Department of Theatre and Film Studies at PU, Olomouc. Admission is free and without accreditation. The student media outlets begin their block at 10:00 in the Theatre Hall on the third floor of the Arts Centre UP. The Youth Radio – Radio for Youth panel discussion starts at 15:00 at the same venue.
