On the same wavelength? Hyperdiverse young people at a community radio station

This paper uses a case study of youth-led community radio station, KCC Live, based in Knowsley, neighbouring Liverpool, UK, to explore which styles of voice belong in the soundscape of KCC Live, and how young people in this ‘ordinary’ social space view the ‘other’. I extend the term hyperdiversity to a discussion of how youth voice on the airwaves can involve the prioritisation of certain local cultural representations, and the silencing of others. I am also interested in young people’s perception towards ‘out-groups’ (people from other towns within Liverpool, and Merseyside more broadly). This notion of out-groups considers identity as a system of categorisation, in which boundaries are used to distinguish localities, creating binary distinctions between ‘us’ and ‘others’. This paper finds that engaging hyperdiverse young people in meaningful interactions around a shared interest, in this case community radio, stimulates the development of relationships across categorical differences

Young People, Community Radio and Urban Life

Young people are living in an era where their daily routines are saturated with different media platforms, competing for their attention. One such platform is community radio. However, community radio has not gained as significant scholarly attention as other media outputs. Although there is not a wealth of extant literature on the topic of young people and community radio, much of the available literature provides colourful accounts of young people, community radio and urban life – typically through detailed case studies. Collating these case studies, my discussion is organised around two central themes: first, community radio as a platform for youth voice; and second, social inclusion of young people through youth media participation. I situate these lively exchanges and debates within the wider literature of youth media, the arts and creative industries. I suggest that community radio stations, both traditional FM and online community stations, are crucial spaces of development for young people's identities, and a space of creative learning outside of a more formal environment of school. However, I wish this to be more than a whistle-stop tour of key literature; usefully, this paper critically assesses key conversations and highlights areas for urban geographers to devote future research interest

Mobilising Consumers for Food Waste Reduction in Finnish Media Discourse

Raippalinna explores how consumers are mobilised for food waste reduction in media discourse. Food waste reduction initiatives are often criticised for putting the responsibility on individual consumers, but little research exists on the mobilisation of consumers in actual contexts. Through critical discourse analysis of media texts, Raippalinna investigates how the food waste problem and consumers are constructed in relation to each other in Finlands leading newspaper Helsingin Sanomat 2010–2017. The analysis demonstrates that the discourses of consumer mobilisation appear mostly as consumer education where the consumer’s role is to manage individual consumption and household practices. The theoretical framework combines governmentality studies with a practice theoretical approach on consumption. Raippalinna discusses if and how media discourse can contribute to a transformation of food (waste) related practices.peerReviewe