The Positive and Negative Use of Community Radio

The power of community media, particularly community radio, to mobilize groups and bring change to societies is well documented in history. This power has been mostly manipulated and used to spread hate and violence. Adolf Hitler has used community media to spread propaganda against Jews and spread hatred. Another example is the case in Rwanda in 1994 when Hutu militias called their community to “kill the cockroaches” (Tutsis). Cautioning against the negative potential of community radio, an organization, Search for Common Ground, demonstrated how this organization relied on community radio to prevent the spillover of violence from Rwanda to Burundi by focusing on bringing people together and fostering dialogue and peace.

Given that community media can be used both positively and negatively, we must sail this water carefully. The impact of independent media on society is cross-cutting and encompassing, and thus should be regarded as a unique development sector. Within media development, it is essential to focus on community radio as a powerful source for empowerment, especially for disenfranchised and marginalized groups in society. Research efforts to quantify, analyze, and draw conclusions regarding the impact of community radio are essential and can serve as a sound basis for assistance advocacy. The most important aspects of community radio, which serves a geographic group or a community of interest, include the broad participation by community members often on a volunteer basis, and the ownership and control of the station by the community through a board of governors that is representative of the community and responsive to the diversity of its needs.

Understanding Community:

To understand community media, it is essential that we define what is considered a community. Based on contexts and perspectives community can take many shapes and forms. The concept of community in the discipline of communication can be understood as a construct of either terrestrial or social parameters. As a terrestrial or geographical parameter, “community refers to a specific geographical territory of or within or under a particular political entity” (Karikari, 2000). In simpler words, this parameter includes a population under a certain political administration, often defined by abstract or otherwise geographical boundaries, but constituting only a small portion of the whole of the jurisdiction of a country. The ‘geographical community’ is often interchangeable with the expression ‘local’. Examples of this kind of community would be a small-town community in a remote area, the community of a certain city, etc. The social parameter defines community in terms of “shared interests, tastes and values,” and even in “demographic or psychographic terms” (Karikari, 2000). This implies that groups of people who identify themselves with certain social, economic, cultural, political or ideological interests, views and orientations, might constitute a community. This type of community might or might not be restricted by any geographical area such as a town, a city. Neither they need to reside under a common political and administrative jurisdiction. The LGBTQ community, the black lives matters community, the alt-right community are examples of such community.

Community Media:

Community media commonly includes radio; television; print; and computer networks, but the nature and purpose, regardless of the medium, carries shared characteristics. Howley (2005) defines community media as follows: By community media, I refer to grassroots or locally oriented media access initiatives predicated on a profound sense of dissatisfaction with mainstream media forms and content, dedicated to the principles of free expression and participatory democracy, and committed to enhancing community relations and promoting community solidarity (p. 2).

According to Howley, the phrase “community media” encompasses a range of community based activities that intend to “supplement, challenge, or change the operating principles, structures, financing, and cultural forms and practices associated with dominant media” (2009). This generic definition is focused to the extent that it accommodates a diverse set of initiatives such as, to name a few: community radio, participatory video, independent publishing, and online communication, operating in a variety of social, political, and geo-cultural settings (Howley, 2009).

Community Radio:

Among the variety of community media, community radio is undoubtedly most impactful in terms of audience reach, given that radio is still the most powerful medium in terms of reach. According to UNESCO World Radio Day 2013 report, there are about 44,000 radio stations worldwide and at least 75% of households in developing countries having access to a radio. One of the primary limitations of radio as a medium and was and still is to some extant is interaction with the audience. Without channels for feedback, radio is “...purely an apparatus for distribution, for mere sharing out” (Brecht, 1932). However, community radio has bypassed the technological limitations in the medium and found ways to create feedback channels through ownership, community surveying and in other ways pursuing involvement from the community. Despite a lack of ability to directly respond to broadcasts, community radio has involved its listeners through listening clubs, surveys and direct feedback to shape the content of broadcasts (Jallov, 2012).

Consequently, the radio has become an important medium for development and social change, giving communities a platform for communicating about local issues, news and challenges that directly affect their daily lives (Mtimde, 2000). It has also demonstrated many positive attributes that benefit in preserving local culture, giving the community a voice and capacity to express their identity, and empowering the community with direct positive effects on democracy (Myers, 2011). While community radios can come in different shapes, a few criteria are essential for it to be ‘true community radio’. Community radio is two-way communication where the community can directly influence and be involved with content production and organization; it is not-for-profit; uses local languages; promotes local music, and; is owned by the community (Odine, 2013). Radio of this kind is participatory and functions as a community communication mechanism and a platform for local development, which is defined by the community itself (Jallov 2012). The community radio provides a platform for the members of the community to hold governments accountable, to advocate for their rights and to drive social change (da Costa, 2012).

Another advantage of radio in the context of development and social change is availability. Equipment for both broadcasters and listeners are widely available at low cost; the broadcast caters to the illiterate; and they can serve the community in its local language (Odine, 2013). However, even though community radio has been around since the 1940s (Jallov, 2012), it has been constrained by state ownership of the airwaves in many parts of the world. With the liberalization of the airwaves and availability of cheaper technology in the last two decades, licensing to community radios has increased dramatically and Africa alone has experienced a growth of 1,386% between 2000 and 2006 (Myers, 2011).

Conclusion:

The most important aspects of community media, particularly community radio, which serves a geographic group or a community of interest, include the broad participation by community members often on a volunteer basis, and the ownership and control of the station by the community through a board of governors that is representative of the community and responsive to the diversity of its needs. The potential of community radio to bring about social change is not a matter of mere observation but, as Population Media Center President William Ryerson demonstrated, an empirically proven fact based on quantifiable and statistically analyzed results.

Focusing on women’s rights promotion, HIV rates reduction, family planning, reproductive health issues, and prevention of child trafficking, the Center uses community radio to produce behavioral change among large audiences in 15 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, educating through entertainment, including with soap opera characters. The highly significant results of pre and post-broadcast random-sample surveys, Ryerson noted, indicated positive changes in the behavior of those who listened to the programming. In Ethiopia, for example, those who listened to special programming on HIV were more likely to be tested for the virus than non-listeners. This approach builds on the power of media to create high emotional contexts that help make information more memorable, and the Population Media Center relies on community radio as the most appropriate and cost-effective medium to reach its target audiences. According to the estimates of a project in Tanzania, for example, the cost of getting people to take steps to avoid HIV infection was eight cents per listener.

These are just a few illustrative, even if anecdotal, examples of what community radio can achieve. Given community radio’s enormous potential for participatory communication as a way of identifying, analyzing and solving problems at the grassroots level, and of stimulating communities to become more proactive in the pursuit of their own betterment, governments that have not done so should liberalize their media policies in its favor. And development agencies should actively promote and support it as part of their projects.