What is this radical called? 

Question

If you can't see it, it's the same radical on top of 篇.

What is it? What does it mean? I've been trying to search for it on Google, on dictionaries, and other places, but I can't find any information about it. It doesn't even have any content in the Unicode dictionary.

Answer 1

, as @songyuanyao expressed, is called 竹字头, 竹: bamboo.

篇, a quantifier, 一篇文章(an article), 一篇报道(a report), 一篇诗歌(a poem)

In ancient China, just as people of the other parts of the world did, used something instead of modern "paper" to write on, bamboo is frequently used as writing materials, it's cheap and easy to keep for a long time, people split bamboo into thin pieces, and join them together with lines, then engrave on those pieces and form a scroll, an unfolded scroll is 一篇, so that's why there is a "bamboo" on some characters like 篇.

Answer 2

It is 竹部, usually called as 竹字头. It's usually used as radical for the things concerned with bamboo or bamboo ware.

竹()：竹部、竹字头，作部首时可以表示和竹子或竹制品有关的事物。