CIDoRa is a two-year (2023-2025) research project based at the University of Limerick and funded by the European Union as part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions.

This interdisciplinary research project develops new understandings of German youth radio journalists' work in relation to promoting social inclusion and sheds light on possible issues that lead to an unbalanced and negative portrayal of ethnic and linguistic diversity on youth radio.

The CIDoRa project’s aim is to get insights into how youth radio journalists in Germany — an immigration country faced with the complexities of social integration — try to communicate with their ethnically and linguistically diverse audiences and thereby create a sense of community. It thereby aims to advance academic and public understandings in this area and support journalist for a more meaningful engagement with ethnic and linguistic diversity.

As multimedia outlets, youth radio stations in Germany use different modes (audio and visual) to communicate, and the related journalistic practices behind the scenes of media content production are reflected in media products (e.g. radio broadcasts and online memes). In the CIDoRa project, language is therefore examined as a translingual and transmodal social practice (involving various language resources and modes of meaning-making).

Over a period of 6 months of linguistic ethnographic fieldwork at one of the largest youth radio stations in Germany, journalists’ communicative practices behind the scenes and possible factors shaping representations of ethnic and linguistic diversity were observed to examine how the often criticised negative and unbalanced portrayals of ethnic and linguistic diversity become part of media products.

The results of the CIDoRa project are communicated to media stakeholders and educational institutions to form international collaborations with several different groups and individuals, particularly through academic conferences, publications and workshops with journalists and journalism students.