[cma-l] Youth Broadcasts

[Tam Curry]

*1. Do most of you consider 'working independently' as 'young volunteers
broadcasting but with staff nearby' (for whatever reason)? And does
'working independently' mean being able to decide who is involved,
broadcast roles and content for every programme, or just being
unattended whilst broadcasting?*

We give our young people in the youth groups relatively free reign when it
comes to creating all of the content for their shows, but they are directly
supported by staff up to and during the broadcast - this differs when the
young people are enrolled as volunteers in that they have the added
responsibility of including mandatory elements to their show content e.g.
adverts, announcements, interviews, etc and that they do not have that
direct staff support.

I am unaware of the Ofcom rule you speak of Alex, I'm not sure if the rules
differ for RSLs? In general, our young volunteers have as much scope and
freedom to create content for their shows as any other (adult) volunteer,
and ultimately they decide what to include (so long as it is within the
scope of their show format). When they come in to the studio, (adult)
volunteers in the studio are aware of their responsibility to support them -
but only if the young person needs or asks for it. So in a sense, they
*are*alone, but there is a safety net of other volunteers present
should they
need them.

*2. How does funding make a difference? For instance, would staff
involvement
in youth programming change the way the programming is conducted if
funds were made available? Has anyone been through this and, if so,
what changes were made? What did the young volunteers think of this
change?*

Until recently we have never had any specific funding to work with young
people, so we paid for the youth programmes (over the last 2 years) from our
core monies. For this financial year however, we have been awarded some NHS
funding to develop a range of tobacco prevention and education initiatives
(FYI the Radio station is part of a wider Community health initiative);
subsequently we have incorporated into our youth group training programme a
tobacco prevention theme - so the young people, when learning audio
production, show creation and broadcasting skills, create tobacco prevention
info-mercials, short (pre recorded) programmes and vox-pop style surveys
(from their local neighbourhoods) which will be included in our upcoming
broadcast.

Win/win really, as it does not dilute the learning process, the cost of the
groups are covered, we meet some of the funding outcomes, the young people
(as well as creating their own shows) get their proud creations being aired
throughout the broadcast and they themselves get an education about
tobacco..

All the best

Tam

On 23 May 2011 12:37, Two Lochs Radio <tlr at gairloch.co.uk> wrote:

> <<1. Do most of you consider 'working independently' as 'young volunteers
> broadcasting but with staff nearby' (for whatever reason)? And does
> 'working independently' mean being able to decide who is involved,
> broadcast roles and content for every programme, or just being
> unattended whilst broadcasting?>>
>
> There's a line to be drawn here between being able to decide the specific
> content of a show minute by minute in an agreed and monitored framework and
> having complete responsibility for output. I don't think Ofcom permits
> people under 15 to be fully responsible for the control of output at any
> time does it? Either way, as I say, we never have young people "unattended
> while broadcasting".
>
> <<2. How does funding make a difference? For instance, would staff
> involvement
> in youth programming change the way the programming is conducted if
> funds were made available? Has anyone been through this and, if so,
> what changes were made? What did the young volunteers think of this
> change?>>
>
> Yes it would make a difference, but no we haven't been down that avenue as
> yet.
>
> Alex
>
>


-- 
Tam Curry

Camglen Radio Coordinator

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