Perspectives of University Radios on Informative Broadcasting Contents: A Comparative Study Between Australia And Turkey

Abstract

Being structured far from its traditional functions, and correspondingly, providing mostly music and entertainment-based content to its listeners, current radio broadcasting content has been frequently criticized by academic circles. Especially in Turkey, the majority of radios keep broadcasting popular music, entertainment, and daily comedy programs while ignoring informational fields such as news, education, culture, and arts. Even university radios, each of which should be structured as an alternative broadcasting practice, often broadcast with a style similar to popular/common radio formats. This necessitates to question the reasons underlying this situation and the approaches of university radios to instructive and informative broadcasting.

Within the study, university radios in Australia which have a powerful educational and community broadcasting tradition, and those in Turkey which are rapidly increasing in number and most of which are seeking its direction, were examined in terms of their perspectives on informative broadcasting practices. In this context, face-to-face in-depth interviews were carried out with 2SER of Macquarie University and University of Technology Sydney, 2NUR of Newcastle University, 3RRR which received its first license in Royal Melbourne Technology Institute, CURTIN Radio of Curtin University, and SURG of The University of Sydney. Also, face-to-face in-depth interviews with official executives of selected state and foundation universities in Turkey including Anadolu University, Istanbul University, Ankara University, Bahçeşehir University, and Koç University were conducted. Data analyzed with a descriptive approach showed that radios in Australia having flexible and rich facilities in terms of financial and human resources as well as strong community support are able to produce more instructive and informative content. While university radios in Turkey display different trends from each other regarding content structuring, the ones in Australia have adopted principles of community broadcasting described as a third model. University radios in Turkey do not have a holistic approach to alternative broadcasting practices.