World Radio Day 2015: Youth and Radio

(Vatican Radio) Radio producers and broadcasters across the world are invited to celebrate World Radio Day on February 13.

The theme chosen this year is "Youth and Radio" calling for greater social inclusion of the generation under 30 years old, which accounts for more than half of the world’s population.

World Radio Day was proclaimed by UNESCO in 2011 as aday to remember the unique power of radio to touch lives and bring people together across every corner of the globe.

Marking the occasion, UNESCO has released a statement about celebrating radio, about  why we love it and why we need it today more than ever:. 

“From news and public debate to music and entertainment, radio continues to inform, captivate and inspire us in a way that no other medium can.

But radio is so much more than a forum for information and entertainment. It reaches more people in more places than any other medium. It’s a bridge of communication for remote communities, developing regions and vulnerable populations, sometimes with no other connection to the outside world. Perhaps no other platform can have the real-time reach between people and across cultures.

Radio is also the medium best-adapted to navigate the new digital frontiers that are pushing the media and communication into unchartered waters. Technologies such as the Internet, mobile communication and geolocation have shifted the traditional dynamic in which the media operate, with young people at the fore-front of these converging trends, at the same time embracing radio as enthusiastically as ever.

So let’s come together on 13 February not only to celebrate the importance of radio in our lives today, but to ensure it lives up to its huge potential in the future”.

UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova, released the following message for World Radio Day:

The fourth annual World Radio Day focuses on young women and men. On this occasion, UNESCO calls for greater social inclusion of the generation under 30 years old, which accounts for more than half of the world’s population, and underlines the power of radio to contribute to this objective.

Young women and men are not sufficiently represented in the media -- an exclusion that often reflects a wider social, economic and democratic exclusion. Young producers and broadcasters are still rare. Too few programmes are devoted to or designed by young people. This deficit explains the many stereotypes concerning young people circulating in the media and over the airwaves. 

Radio provides the means for change.

It is a vector of cohesion, education and culture.

It is a platform for exchange, where young people may find their place and express themselves.

It is often through young people (citizen journalists or freelancers) that the international press are able to cover current affairs in sensitive or dangerous regions. Many have risked their lives in the service of information and the radio. Supporting them better by giving them greater voice, we can air innovative ideas and new viewpoints and renew collective energies. This is the goal of World Radio Day in 2015, reflecting UNESCO’s efforts to counter all forms of discrimination. 

Ideas, events, resources and additional information can be found on the World Radio Day 2015 website.