Las preferencias radiofónicas de los jóvenes chilenos: estudio de caso en la población universitaria en Concepción

Abstract

Radio, today, faces great changes and challenges. Our modern landscape, thanks to digital media, is forcing radio to adapt. And although many stations have reacted skillfully, via Radio 2.0, their contents have remained the same. This means new audiences, such as young university students, are becoming less and less interested in traditional radio. Our mixed study — by collecting material from documents, focal groups, and surveys carried out with 383 university students in the city of Concepción, Chile — hopes to identify the radio contents preferred by young university students and determine how this age group relates to sound media. Our analysis allows us to know at what time they listen, through which technology, what topics they’re interested in, and what kind of station they’re attracted to. Among our results, we highlight that young people do not become informed via radio and do not feel represented by radio programming. They find traditional radio average, though they do listen to it. Their preferred topics include culture, travel, and technology, with this information being communicated by topic experts and not by journalists who simply read the news. This is clear proof that, without strategies aimed at this age group, Chilean radio risks eventually losing its audience in the future.