Radio : the forgotten medium for users´ creativemental interaction and co-production

• Twenty five years ago the Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company (UR)2 was in the process ofceasing production of radio programmes for children. There were two main reasons expressed;firstly, the broadcasting role model BBC had recently given up their educational radioprogramming for children and secondly, the use of radio programmes (or tapes) in schools inSweden had decreased in favour of television or video use. Surveys of teachers’ attitudes towardsradio usage in education revealed that teachers expected a lack of listening abilities in children,unless audio was accompanied by pictures. As a researcher of UR I made a reception study ofchildren’s listening experiences, which illustrated the abilities among 8-9 year old children tocreate mental images through listening to radio programmes. After their listening, children werepleased about their experiences and advocated an increased usage of radio programmes in school.The benefits of radio or audio and its absence of any pre-produced pictures are rarelyacknowledged. Today, as a university lecturer teaching journalism students in a programme forjournalism and media production (including radio, television and web) I find that radio is oftenneglected among the various media mentioned in media theory literature. When radio is broughtup it is commonly referred to in relation to music. The special affordances of radio/audio narrativesare seldom expressed. In this paper I will elaborate these affordances in relation to children’slistening experiences and to interviews with teachers.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Medievetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Media Studies (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogy (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

children

identification

listening experiences

mental imagery

radio

Medievetenskap och journalistik

Media Studies and Journalism

Education

Pedagogik

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)