Youth radio as ‘social object’: the social meaning of ‘free radio’ shows for young people in France

A distinctive aspect of French radio is the very liberal and open-minded ‘free radio’ phone-in programmes broadcast on young people’s radio stations (Skyrock, Fun Radio and NRJ). These programmes deal with ‘young people’s problems’, say the 15–16-year-olds we interviewed – that is, sexuality and relationships, teenage identity, drugs and sometimes political subjects. The article first shows how radio is a medium particularly able to exploit its dual nature as both conversation and device, text and frame, conversational exchange and social interaction. The phone hoax is a typical example of this. The ‘metatextuality’ of young people’s radio is characterized by ‘talk about’ television, magazines and other radio programmes. This article also proposes a new analysis of reception based on a ‘hermeneutic sociology’ – by which we do not mean textual analysis – applied to ‘free radio’ shows, which are neither conventional talk shows, news or current affairs, nor fiction. In order to analyse their reception by young people, the article asks: ‘What kind of “social object” is radio for teenagers?’ The question is not what use teenagers make of radio programmes or how they interpret or ‘read’ them, but what these programmes represent for them. The article analyses four types of ‘social object’ – radio as ‘common sphere’, as ‘quasi-institution’, as ‘social event/occasion’ and as ‘device’. It describes what these ‘objects’ indicate in relation to socially situated listeners and to different ‘free radio’ formats.