Festival of SYN: Women in Media

The Festival of SYN is a week-long event run by Melbourne's SYN Media offering a wide range of exciting, free radio, TV and online media making workshops for young people and those who work with young people, such as educators and youth workers.

As part of the festival, SYN will be holding an intensive radio training course free for all women under the age of 26 to encourage more gender diversity in the Australian media landscape.

General Manager Tahlia Azaria has been part of SYN Media for over seven years as a volunteer producer and presenter before being appointed to her current paid role just under two years ago. Tahlia is thrilled to be offering the Women in the Media: radio training intensive course next weekend as part of the Festival of SYN.

"We have a strong history of supporting young women to take on leadership positions - our President is a woman, the last two people in my position were both women, and five out of our nine paid staff are women,” Ms Azaria says.

“That trend trickles down through our volunteer base to ensure we have strong representation of women in all levels of the organisation. We are proud to be at the forefront of gender diversity in the media.”

"We are running the Women in the Media course as a way of encouraging more young women to break down those barriers in the future."

The course will run over two days and will cover radio presenting and producing skills, editing and ultimately how to create innovative and engaging radio. The course is being run for free as part of the Festival of SYN – a week-long event offering a wide range of free radio, TV and online media-making workshops for young Melburnians.

Recent statistics show that across the Australian commercial radio network, of 142 promoted presenters only 17 were female and of those 17 most were paired with other men or hosting shows on Gardening or Entertainment.*

The Festival of SYN will be held in the school holidays at the House of SYN - 16 Cardigan St, Carlton - from April 8th to 14th 2013 with workshops being held from 9am until late.

The Women in the Media: radio training intensive course will be held on the 13th and 14th.

These workshops will be popular so bookings are essential. To make your booking, head to syn.org.au/festivalofsyn, email [email protected] or call on (03) 9925 4747.

* Source: Daily Life