Radio formats and social media use in Europe – 28 case studies of public service practice

Abstract

The aim of this article is to report, summarize and spread the results of a largescale European research project funded by EBU Radio in 2011 to map best practices in social media and European public radio, focusing on the way successful public service radio formats have incorporated social media in their production flow. The kEywords radio studies social media Facebook Twitter 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. RJ_12.1&2_Bonini_89-108.indd 89 8/24/15 11:37:34 AMF i r s t P r o o f L a y o u t @ I n t e l l e c t L t d 2 0 1 4

Public service hit radio? Playlists and product differentiation in the competition for listeners

“…All prominent radio stations have launched their services on the Internet, offering online not only their output as a live stream but also their interrelated playlists, facilitated by Spotify. 1 They have created a media strategy that takes advantage of new digital platforms and social media, which means that traditional broadcast radio has remained as only one, but still a central, medium that they utilize to reach their audience (Bonini et al 2014;Stiernstedt 2013.) The ability to adapt is also evident in the fact that, in Finland, radio has succeeded in increasing its share of media advertising and has become even more attractive to international radio chains than before (Ohlsson 2015).…”

“…When music content diminishes in the output, it is replaced with either talk, station IDs or commercials. As our study concentrates on playlists, we have not been able to analyse how the relationships between the different elements have changed, but it is possible that by decreasing the number of musical performances Kiss FM/The Voice has increased the role of presenters in the programme flow, thus aiming at addressing its female audience more effectively (Stiernstedt 2014). Similarly, one could think that the male-oriented listenership has made it possible for YleX to increase the volume of music in its output.…”

“…In order to further analyse the changing structures of music provision and consumption and their relationship, the increasing prevalence of customer analytics used by corporate media, including YLE, deserves serious attention. As radio is increasingly being listened to via the Internet, the stations can gather more feedback from the listeners than was possible through the auditory tests typical of the earlier broadcast era (see Bonini et al 2014;Stiernstedt 2008;Uimonen 2010). The playlists published by the radio stations act as a strong recommendation system, which has a tendency to manipulate the use of music.…”

A Instituição social do rádio: (Re)agregando as práticas discursivas da indústria no ecossistema midiático

“…As páginas na web, os aplicativos BBC iPlayer e Sounds (www.bbc.co.uk/sounds), os canais em mídias sociais, são todos parte dessa transformação (D. Rajput, comunicação pessoal). O investimento em interfaces digitais, especialmente mídias sociais, é uma tendência entre os serviços públicos europeus para enfrentar a perda de audiência (Bonini et al, 2014). Como lembra Dubber (2013, p.54) o ato de ouvir não parece ter mudado significativamente, ao contrário do contexto em que ele ocorre e da duração da audição.…”