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JOURNALISM
Vienna’s Media Landscape: Missed Opportunity or Hidden Gem?
Debating the reality behind Vienna’s status as a media hub and the challenges it faces in embracing true innovation
In her 2014 piece ‘Alive and Kicking’ for Monocle, Kimberly Bradley singles out Vienna as a wholly underrated media hub. ‘The Viennese often underestimate what they have and how special it is’, she writes.
Quite apart from the fact that this has never truly been the case (We do grumble, but most of us Viennese are still proud of being nominated the most liveable city in the world, year after year!), the yardstick Bradley uses to shoe Vienna into a spot onto said list of the ‘World’s Unsung Media Hubs’ appears inconsequential.
English as Innovation?
For one thing, she favourably remarks on a radio station (FM4) that broadcasts in English half the time. In a globalised environment where CNN and BBC have maximum reach (yes, that was the case in 2014 as well!), in a country that doesn’t lean into its immigrant heritage but still boasts a multi-cultural society, offering consumable content in English seems like a no-brainer.
