Unfortunately, the situation of youth media in Austria isn’t really paradisiacal. Although there are some very committed youngsters, most projects initiated by young people are not able to survive a long time. Usually, a lack of money is the reason. But still there are a few successful projects:
Radio Orange for example. This radio station is the first and only free and non-commercial radio station in Vienna. It is run by an unsalaried association and provides the opportunity to give minorities a mouthpiece: immigrants, homosexuals, derelicts etc. Also young people interested in radio are welcome to join. Every kind of commitment is needed: for technical support, managing the daily program or enrichingOrange with an interesting new show. As Orange doesn’t broadcast advertisement of any kind it is subsidised mainly by donations of listeners and the city of Vienna.
Another well-organised project helping young people to take a step into the world of media is the Medienzentrum (media centre) which is part of Wien Xtra, Vienna’s department for youth work. This institution‘s goal is to encourage and help adolescents to work extracurricular with digital media. The Medienzentrum takes especially care of three big projects: Funkschatten (a radio show on Radio Orange done all by young people), Radio! (a special training on the basics of radio work) and Offene Leinwand (films and movies produced by young people are shown in a cinema).
There are also some local magazines produced by youngsters like Helmut (in German) in Krems and the City-Flyer (in German) in St.Pölten. Young journalists are free to write stories about whatever they are interested in. Both of the mentioned are financed by their local governments.
ZiS (Zeitung in der Schule = newspaper at school) might be interesting for Austrian pupils interested in newspapers and teachers who want to encourage their classes to read more news. This association provides assistance in matter of free newspapers for the pupils, organises special seminars and far more.
