LONDON — A recent LinkedIn post from David Fernández Quijada of the consultancy South 180 set me thinking. He asked an extremely simple and pertinent question that could easily be applied across radio or any other medium: Do you speak the same language as your audience? Just a few minutes spent thinking about the different dimensions of that question reveals how multifaceted it is. In Quijada’s post, he used the question to discuss how some broadcasters have launched services in simplified versions of their languages, “in plain language.”
The most developed example of such plain language seems to come from the Netherlands, where a NOS television bulletin, “Journaal in Makkelijke Taal” (“The News in Simple Language”) has been broadcast every weekday since last September. The NOS website presents the concept and describes the initiative as coming from an obligation on the part of public media to reach the whole community. In its reckoning, about 2.5 million people, one in seven of the Dutch population, could benefit from such a service. Effectively, the intended audience comprises people who have not attained a certain educational level, through disadvantage or learning difficulties, as well as non-native Dutch speakers. The pace is slower than usual, fewer topics are covered, more explanation is given, and the vocabulary is less wide-ranging.
Quijada can only point to Sveriges Radio as having done something similar in radio. It must be said that those of us with long memories recall that the BBC World Service seemed to speak more slowly and deliberately than domestic services in the past. When you listen to the Swedish transmissions at “Radio Sweden på lätt Svenska” (“Radio Sweden in Simple Swedish”), you get the feeling that you could easily understand, at least if you are familiar with other northern European languages — the words are clearly enunciated and separated, not running one into another in the way you hear in everyday speech.
Authentic voices
These examples should challenge other radio stations to follow suit. Radio production costs are much less than video, and the very heart of any radio service is spoken language. Surely it is in our interests, whether we are public or commercial, to make ourselves as inclusive as possible across society, along the lines of the NOS statement. The diversity focus has often been on age groups and ethnic diversity, but educational attainment is a dimension that has often been ignored. Notably, Wikipedia hosts a Simple English edition, and the U.K. Government website also demonstrates an underlying concern to ensure that language is not overly complex.
Often, I have peered into studios around the world to find a youth program hosted by someone who, being honest, is not very youthful!
I want to tackle the opening question — Do you speak the same language as your audience? — in another way. For various reasons, I have been thinking about youth programming recently and the necessity of finding authentic voices for younger age groups. It is probably not ageist to suggest that typically such people, with their fingers on the pulse of contemporary taste, will generally come from a younger demographic themselves, though there might be the occasional exception. Often, I have peered into studios around the world to find a youth program hosted by someone who, being honest, is not very youthful! The new candidates for such roles are probably already in our midst and active if we only cast the net wider to look for them. They will be found on TikTok and YouTube, perhaps creating their own podcasts.
Bolstering social mobility
However, the implications of the opening question are even broader. Here I want to introduce a conundrum which has long concerned me, but for which there is no easy answer. It has to do with social mobility. Long gone are the days when studying at a prestigious university would automatically open all the doors to media employment. At least at the BBC, even an internship must be applied for in the same manner as someone seeking an actual job. However, obstacles remain when seeking to mirror the contours of society in the personnel of radio or other media organizations. People from marginalized and disadvantaged groups may not see prestigious companies as prospective employers. They may well lack the aspiration to apply. From outside, it is true, the work environment may seem worlds away from their own day-to-day experience.
One relatively unintrusive measure to understand diversity of background is whether someone’s parents had a university education. And herein lies the challenge: whatever someone’s background, if you give them a reasonably stable, decently remunerated job and provide the circumstances to mix with motivated people from a wide variety of backgrounds, it often follows that their relationship with their origins becomes more remote. It may well become more difficult to identify with where they came from, as they blend in with the broader organization. For this reason, local and community radio is more important than ever since it does, to some extent, keep people anchored in their localities and in touch with cultures beyond the urban centers. In an increasingly polarized world, keeping communication channels flowing and connecting people with different life experiences is more important than ever.
Society cannot function effectively if we divide into those who consume high-quality media and another faction who have their prejudices confirmed through social platforms and conspiracy theories. In such a scenario, there is no point of contact, no common ground for dialogue. How can we ensure we speak the same language as our audiences? Extending that further, we should really ask whether we speak the same language as those who are not yet our audience or those who have already tuned out.
The author was head of Radio at the EBU until 2020, and before that, managing editor of one of the BBC’s national stations. He currently advises media organizations.
This article originally appeared in the May/June 2025 edition of RedTech Magazine.
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