On the 23rd of July I had the chance to visit Northampton (England) to participate in a European youth exchange project named ‘Radiocracy’. This project was aimed at developing radio skills and content from local governments and train young people on how to produce and spread radio content in their localities. The goal of this attempt was to improve youth awareness on how different democratic systems work. The teams consisted of five participants from Cyprus, England and France.
Each group had a ‘leader’ with experience and involvement in radio. The members of my team (Cyprus) were Andreas Rocopos, Evie Hartsioti, Antonia Filippou, Christiana Palaonta and our leader Dr. Mike Hadjimichael. The first part of the project started in France, then continued in Cyprus and finished in England. I only had the chance to participate to the trip in England. On their staying in Cyprus members from the three groups decided to create a song, in French and English language with the help of Med Dred.
It was the first time that I had visited England and everything was new to me, like talking to people from France and England having the same age as me, hearing their thoughts, absorbing culture, visiting various buildings, etc. The ‘weird’ thing was that we all share a lot of similarities, like we all discussed about unemployment, how the government works, if the government hears the voice of young people, about the future and how uncertain it is, etc. It was a big surprise for me because I had the idea that only in Cyprus we have such economic problems, unemployment and all the other side effects that the economic crisis has brought on. The conversations and the interviews we did with young people in England had a big influence in me. I felt that we are connected because we could understand each other’s everyday concerns.
Some of the interviews and audio editing were made at Inspiration FM, in which we participated on a live radio show, explaining what Radiocracy project is about. It was the first time I ever spoken on a live radio show and I will never forget the experience. Inspiration FM is a local community radio station in Northampton. Now why do I mention this? Because I never heard or seen a community radio station. I did some research and I found out that here in Cyprus we don’t have such a radio station. A Community radio is a local based radio station which runs and funds by the communities themselves. Community radios are non-profit and if they manage to get profits they use them to develop the radio station. In Inspiration FM volunteers can go there and get trained in how to produce a live radio show (sound editing, proper language, etc.). When they learn all this stuff and gain experience they might end up having their own live radio show. It’s a great experience for young people and anyone who always wanted to get involved with radio (meet new people, by a part of a group, visit different events in the community, share your thoughts and opinions, etc.).
Radiocracy project and the trip to England was an amazing experience for me that I will always remember and I encourage everyone to participate in projects like this. Also I would like to suggest the idea of a community radio station to people in Cyprus. I believe that a lot of people would be interested in being part of different community radio stations around Cyprus and I would proudly help and participate in the creation of one in my community.
Web pages about the project:
http://www.eaea.org/news.php?aid=118856
http://musicalisle.wix.com/radiocracy
Listen to the song made during the Radiocracy project, with Med Dred:
Sing Sing Sing (One Drop) – Med Dred ft. Radiocracy AllStars:
Press play to listen to the Tri-lingual jingle that I mixed, below :
Press play to listen to the Cypriot podcast, below
Facebook page Radiocracy:
Andreas Papatheodoulou – TV / Avid MZ Lab Assistant
