The search for 'the Possible Radio': New configurations of independent radio production in Europe

• Grant number: 16/16274-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: October 16, 2017
• End date: February 15, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Communications - Radio and Television
• Principal Investigator: Eduardo Vicente
• Grantee: Eduardo Vicente
• Host Investigator: Manuel Angel Fernandez Sande
• Host Institution: Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), Spain

Abstract

Abstract: The aims of this project is to discuss how the production and distribution possibilities brought by digital technologies are aiding the independent production of radio programmes and impacting the radio scenario throughout different European countries. Within the limits of a relatively short-term research, the intentions are to analyse the outcome of the use of those technical tools by conventional broadcasters - especially public, educational, community and Estate-owned stations - and to seek a better comprehension of practices regarding the production and the consumption of radio being held through the internet. Therefore, information regarding dominant trends of independent radio production, the organization of specialised academic education, formation and careers of practitioners and, finally, the main theories of each radio tradition will be collected primarily in Spain and secondarily in four other centres. Furthermore, the key projects of online radio distribution adopted within each country shall be described and analysed, and their financing models shall be discussed, with special attention to the use of crowdfunding sources as a strategy. In addition, radio programmes that represent underlying trends shall be collected and analysed, with special emphasis to radio fiction. The countries to be investigated will be defined in function of the already stablished contacts with local researchers and the adopted organization models of radio production - estate-owned, public, commercial or mixed. There are plans to undertake a comparative overview with the Brazilian scenario in a future phase.