Radio reaches the widest audience in the world.
In an era of dramatic advances in communications, radio retains its power to entertain, educate, inform and inspire.
It can unite and empower communities, and give voice to the marginalized.
This year, with the Winter Olympics now under way, we also recognize the many ways in which sports broadcasting brings people together around excitement and achievement.
On World Radio Day, let us celebrate both radio and sports as ways of helping people achieve their full potential.
Radio is the mass medium reaching the widest audience in the world. It is also recognized as a powerful communication tool and a low cost medium. Radio is specifically suited to reach remote communities and vulnerable people: the illiterate, the disabled, women, youth and the poor, while offering a platform to intervene in the public debate, irrespective of people’s educational level. Furthermore, radio has a strong and specific role in emergency communication and disaster relief.
There is also a changing face to radio services which, in the present times of media convergence, are taking up new technological forms, such as broadband, mobiles and tablets.
Radio is still the most dynamic, reactive and engaging medium there is, adapting to 21st century changes and offering new ways to interact and participate. Where social media and audience fragmentation can put us in media bubbles of like-minded people, radio is uniquely positioned to bring communities together and foster positive dialogue for change. By listening to its audiences and responding to their needs, radio provides the diversity of views and voices needed to address the challenges we all face.
2018 Theme: Radio and Sports
As we look forward to a year of momentous sporting events, events that have the ability to unite the hearts and minds of people everywhere, UNESCO calls on all radio stations around the world to showcase the beauty of sports in all of its diversity.
Let’s celebrate the traditional sports that connect us to our cultural heritage, the grassroots sports that anchor us within our communities, and the inspiring stories that challenge gender stereotypes and cover, equally, both men’s and women’s sports events.