Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile: Moneda al Aire: the Radio UC interview series that questions the presidential candidates

Under the production, editing and leadership of journalism students, Radio UC is developing Moneda al Aire, a cycle of interviews with presidential candidates that, with a rigorous guideline and thorough investigation, seeks to give visibility especially to topics of interest. for young audiences.

In the middle of the campaign period, towards the elections that will define who will be the next president of Chile, Radio UC has a space on the air whose objective is to talk with the candidates, learn about their proposals and ask them about various topics of interest to citizens.

Moneda al Aire is the name of this series of interviews, which started on October 26, with the candidate Eduardo Artés . He was followed by José Antonio Kast , on Wednesday 27, and Marco Enríquez-Ominami on Tuesday, November 2. Over the next few days, more candidates will be added to the presidency.

The team behind this program is led by Carlos Montenegro, general editor of Radio UC, who together with the team, made up largely of students, is giving life to this project, which arose thanks to the idea of ​​Rocío González, radio producer and fourth-year journalism student: “Rocío not only had the idea but also generated the first polls with the commands to see availability. Then it was all about shaping it, deciding the format, the topics and a work system ”, comments Professor Montenegro.

“It is gigantic to have a candidate for the presidency of Chile in front of you” – Rocío González, Radio UC producer

Regarding the relevance of her work in managing interviews and contacting candidates, Rocío explains: “I understand that this is a mega project, but I still don’t see how big it is. We are fourth-year students, and other younger ones, and working with presidential candidates is tremendous, it is something that does not happen in other universities and in other university radio stations. It is gigantic to have a candidate for the presidency of Chile in front of you ”.

Catalina Olate is the student who served as editor in the interview with José Antonio Kast. On this experience, he comments: “This is a great opportunity for any journalism student. In addition, it is turning out well, they have been good guidelines, and the focus is always to maintain an editorial line of the radio’s target audience, from 18 to 24 years old, then topics such as mental health, gender diversity, human rights, migration, are included. education, culture, and it is seen adding other necessary topics because they are contingent ”.

Four teams working

Marco Enríquez-Ominami during the interview last Tuesday, November 2. In the image, the Radio UC booth and two journalism students.
In this program there are four teams working: an editorial team in charge of the content of the interviews, the hosts, Tomás Marín and Rocío González, who in addition to being aware of this content must resolve aspects of the program itself, the production that manages a series of operational issues and the digital team that works on web publications and social networks.

“As the professor in charge, I have to monitor this work at the level of planning, execution and especially in the subsequent feedback, which is when everything we are doing makes sense,” explains Carlos Montenegro, who also highlights the support of the team of professionals from the UC School of Communications :

“A re important part is the support of Felipe Fernández, who day by day manages the technical issue on the radio and who on this occasion also established coordination with the audiovisual team of the Faculty of Communications and with Alex Mora, who were the support to make a broadcast that, in addition to having good content, looks great ”.

“This type of content has an important visibility and makes more evident the sense of social responsibility that they live every day when practicing on the radio” – Carlos Montenegro, academic and general editor Radio UC

New chapters

The candidate José Antonio Kast during the interview held last Wednesday, October 27. In the image, photo of the UC Radio controls cubicle.
There are still several chapters in this cycle that has just begun, and the team is already generating reflections on the relevance of this work: “From this experience I rescue the learning of, for example, how to contact the candidates. In addition, being able to return to the radio studio is something that I missed a lot, being able to discuss the pattern with professor Eliana Rozas, with professor Carlos Montenegro and with my classmates has been very relevant and shows us that what we do can have an impact. It has been super tiring, a lot of work, but it’s worth it ”, concludes Rocío González.

For Professor Montenegro, an initiative like this can have a positive impact on the learning process of students: “In the learning method that radio involves, we seek the development of real experiences, that is, with real sources and a real audience as well. . This type of content has an important visibility and makes more evident the sense of social responsibility that they live every day when exercising on the radio ”.