Swinburne journalism students to host live state election broadcast

Swinburne University of Technology students will be reporting on the Victorian state election with a live radio broadcast on Saturday 26 November.

Journalism students will host the broadcast on the Vision Australia Radio network across Victoria including on the digital radio station IRIS in Melbourne.                           

They will be crossing to reporters at key electorates across the state to discuss the issues that impacted the election. A team of analysts, led by Swinburne politics students, will crunch the numbers and a social media team will be updating audiences online via a blog on Swinburne’s student publication The Standard (theswinstandard.net).  

The coverage will also feature Swinburne politics academic Dr Damon Alexander, who will be casting his expert eye over how the count is progressing and what it means for Victorians.

Head of Journalism and Executive Producer of the coverage, Peter Marcato, says the project is a great example of providing real-world industry experiences for students.

“After the success of our federal election broadcast, the students were quite keen to broadcast the state election to listeners across Victoria,” says Marcato. 

“Swinburne is providing these opportunities to work with industry to put together a live radio program, to bring the news of the election to listeners across Victoria, and showcase the emerging student talent coming through the Media and Communications Degree.”

Co-host of the coverage Aditi Kutty is looking forward to the opportunity to showcase what students can do.

“It’s exciting to have this opportunity to work in a live broadcast environment. It’s been an interesting campaign so far, no doubt it will be a fascinating count and our Swinburne student team is working hard to ensure we have every angle covered,” Ms Kutty says. 

Vision Australia Radio Manager Conrad Browne says the program produced by Swinburne will be invaluable to listeners across the state. 

“Vision Australia Radio is a trusted source of information for people across Victoria and we’re thrilled this partnership means we can bring election information to our audience in real-time. “It’s also great we can help the next generation of journalists to get first-hand experience in covering an election and producing live coverage.”

Vision Australia Radio incorporates ten community radio stations across Victoria, southern New South Wales, Adelaide and Perth. There are also five digital radio services available in the three metropolitan areas as VAR, VA Radio and IRIS. The stations provide a range of interesting and informative programs for those who are blind or have low vision including readings from newspapers, magazines and books. 

The broadcast will run from 7-10pm on the following Vision Australia Radio stations across Victoria and southern New South Wales:

• Melbourne - IRIS Digital Radio 
• Albury – 101.7FM
• Bendigo - 88.7FM
• Geelong – 99.5FM
• Mildura – 107.5FM
• Shepparton – 100.1FM
• Warrnambool – 882AM
• Warragul – 93.5FM

Online via varadio.org or theswinstandard.net