Participatory Communication, a case Study: Fuori Aula Network, University of Verona Web-Radio / Komunikacja Partycypacyjna. Studium Przypadku: Fuori Aula Network, Radio Internetowe Przy Uniwersytecie Werońskim

The aim of this paper is to investigate university communication through a participatory communication project. It is essentially an explorative Italian case study of “FAN”, the Fuori Aula Network or the University of Verona web-radio, which started in 2002, and a survey submitted to the radio’s student editorial staff (N=47, n=40), where the relationship between students and the institution emerges as mediated and enhanced thanks to a participative process that helps to make the university communication process more effective and strategic. The study, using a participatory and horizontal communication perspective (Beltran, 1993a, 2005b; Hodges, McGrath, 2011), explores the experience of students who are independent and strong protagonists - co-provators - of the university communication (Kotler, Fox, 1995; Kirp, 2003). In recent years, universities have become more and more competitive and have adopted various marketing communications models (Kotler, Fox, 1995; Kirp, 2003) with a relational approach towards their most important stakeholders: students (Foskett, 1999; Mazzei, 2000). Students, then, assume various roles but always largely primary: as partners (Baccarani, 1995), co-creators (Cheney, 1997) and co-innovators (Tapscott, Williams, 2006). The ‘customer/ student’ satisfaction, born by an engagement based on a two-way symmetrical model (Grunig, Hunt 1984; Hall, Becker, 2003; Luo, 2009), becomes a strategic driver, also in a Total Quality Management perspective (Sperlich, Spraul, 2007; Testa, Ugolini, 2010).