Student TV abroad: UK experience

A brief review on history of student television in Great Britain and description of its current state are given in the article. On the basis of selective analysis of broadcasting of student channels and analysis of activities of National Association of Student Television Channels (NASTA) overall conclusions are drawn about principles of broadcasting organization and methods of work. In the UK, a student television came in 1964 with a channel by students of the University of Glasgow, Scotland. Now the number of TV channels is over 30. Most of them work at universities and colleges, but there are private ones that are created on the personal initiative of several students from different universities, for example, the project MattNIan TV in Bournemouth. Accordingly, the production and the creative possibilities are very different. Digital technology simplifies and cheapens the process of television production and broadcasting, being instrumental in the development of student television. Its rapid growth in the past decade is largely provided by the fact that universities are able to purchase low-cost equipment and thus provide students with the opportunity to make their TV. In many cases, local authorities and foundations also provide support, especially where universities are city-forming institutions. According to the method of propagation most TV channels are cable and / or Internet channels. Basically, they produce news programs (including sports), interviews and analytical discussions, music programs, documentary and artistic sketches and staged comedies or dramas unique to Britain - though not everyone can afford it. Subjects mainly concern university or youth, and English students are primarily interested in serious issues. Of course, students do 'light' subjects, as well as entertaining news programs, but most student news broadcast channels have civil projects. Channels function through internal motivation and are managed exclusively by students. Editorial policy, planning, layout of a specific program or editing the plot - all this in the UK is a matter for the students, not the administration. Therefore, no "mandatory" interviews with rectors, deans or other officials - as one can see on Russian university TV channels -can be determined. Everything is done by students, teachers and a few staff members help professionally and supervise the process of broadcasting. Students are encouraged to try their hand in democratic journalism as a "fourth estate." In this sense, we can talk about the UK student television, first, as one of the effective tools for young people to form the values of civil society, and, second, as a long and active element of this society.

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