Commercial Format FM Radio Stations for the Young in Croatia from the Perspective of the Education of Journalists

Abstract

Croatia's century-old radio history is followed by a long tradition of radio studies, but the commercial format FM radio stations for the young has not yet been the subject of scientific research, although they have existed since 2014. This paper presents first Croatian research tracking changes in the radio industry due to radio convergence and program formatting. It aimed to identify key differences of work positions and employee characteristics compared to traditional radio from the perspective of the education of journalists, and investigate whether the study programmes educating journalists follow trends in the radio industry quickly enough. The study leans upon the theories of media convergence, radio program formatting, and formal education of journalists. For this longitudinal research, empirical data were collected in the period from 2018 to 2022 by interviewing and surveying radio directors, and the employees, and by analysing the study programmes' content. The key findings are: ten new work positions were created for which multidisciplinary journalistic competencies are needed, employees fill more than one work position, such radio stations have a larger number of employees, changes in newsrooms are frequent and large, and although a higher journalistic qualification is not a prerequisite for employment or a special contract, none of the journalists are employed part-time.