Voices for change

Tuning in to community radio

The impact of new information and communication technologies on development is a subject of extensive international debate, particularly at the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society. While much of the debate focuses on the Internet, many planners and practitioners have begun to realise that it is to traditional media, such as radio, that poor people are most likely to turn for access to information and voice.

Maragusan community audio tower (CAT) was created in April 1995 in Davao del Norte, Mindanao, the second largest island of The Philippines. It was one of the FAO-supported CAT created to improve communication flows within rural communities. The Maragusan CAT played an important role in the establishment of several agricultural ventures such as the 3,000-hectare Durian production project, and the tilapia hatchery which serves as an income generating activity for broadcasters. Maragusan took a step forward and requested support to upgrade the Community Audio Tower to a radio station, which happened In November 1998 with the installation of a small 20-watt transmitter. Photo by Alfonso Gumucio Dagron

Community radio is not new. It is present in most countries and all regions of the world. It builds on more than half a century of grassroots experience that has earned it the support of tens of thousands of communities worldwide. Yet community radio is today gaining new recognition and attention.

In wider discussions on poverty reduction and international development there has been renewed emphasis on the need for open and accountable governance, satisfaction of basic needs, and strategies that are people-centred, community-driven and empowerment oriented. It is in these contexts, as a means of providing access to communication, particularly for poor rural communities and marginalised urban populations, that the role and potential of community broadcasting has begun to enter mainstream development thinking. It is also attracting programme support from multilateral agencies including UNDP, the World Bank, UNESCO and FAO.

Community broadcasting has developed among diverse groups, as social movements and community-based organisations have sought to express their concerns, cultures and languages and to create an alternative to state-owned public broadcasting and private commercial media. Community radio has become a means of promoting citizen's participation and popular expression. It defends cultural and linguistic diversity, provides trusted information in a form that is easily understood, enables communities to challenge those in authority and hold their leaders and institutions to account.

This issue of id21 insights focuses on the growth of community broadcasting and of community radio in particular. It examines the role of community media in development and some of the continuing and new challenges it faces. This includes the political, legal and regulatory environment, sustainability outside the state and commercial ownership models, and assessment of the social impact of this growing sector.

The enabling environment

The growth of community broadcasting is closely associated with democratic reforms and government policies that support greater pluralism in the media. Yet barriers to establishing community radio still exist. Many governments are still reluctant to cede control of communication channels while increasingly dominant commercial media groups are also trying to squeeze out alternative approaches. India's cautious road to media pluralism is described by Ashish Sen in an article highlighting the need for awareness raising and building upon local people's demands.

Community media activists have turned increasingly to the language of human rights and international legal standards on the right to freedom of expression as the means of persuading reluctant governments to allow civil society groups and community-based organisations to take to the airwaves.

In Latin America the regional human rights system has become a valuable ally to community broadcasters. Aleida Calleja provides an account of how community broadcasters in Mexico obtained broadcast permits after building alliances with human rights groups and other actors, despite the resistance of powerful commercial media corporations. Calleja demonstrates how the growing international recognition of community broadcasters and an effective country level advocacy strategy combined to persuade a new Mexican government that community radio has a right to take its place in the broadcast landscape.

The enabling environment for community radio is not only dependent on having the right laws and regulations. Colombia has one of the best laws on community radio in Latin America and has pioneered the development of community radio linked to rural telecentres. But in regions of conflict in Colombia, as elsewhere, the law is only a partial guarantee. Clemencia Rodriguez describes how a citizen's radio in Magdalena Medio was able to mobilise its audience to challenge the threats of armed groups and maintain its independence.

Despite such challenges community radio has grown beyond the point of simply demanding the right to exist. It is now addressing longer term issues of sustainability and social impact. While any attempt to examine the role of community radio in development must address the political, legal and regulatory context, it is these new issues which research must address in order to realise the potential role of community media in reducing poverty and the struggle for social justice.

Radio CBS is owned and operated by the residents of Cipta Bahana Swadaya, a poor squatter neighbourhood in urban Jakarta. It has a core team of 12 volunteers, most of whom are young street vendors. They regularly broadcast information and discussion programmes on issues such as water supply and sanitation, health and housing. The team estimates at least 1,000 regular listeners. Photo by Steve Buckley

Sustainability

For community radio practitioners used to operating in precarious economic circumstances, sustainability has long been a concern. Alfonso Gumucio Dagron argues that sustainability is not about money alone but must also be understood in terms of the extent to which radio stations have community support, institutional capacity and a wider political environment conducive to their existence and growth.

Indonesia has seen rapid growth in the number of community radio stations, first with a relaxation in broadcasting controls after the fall of the Suharto dictatorship in 1998 and later through the introduction of legislation in 2002 that recognises community radio as a distinct tier of broadcasting, separate from public and commercial broadcasting. Imam Prakoso describes the difficult regulatory constraints facing community radio and reports on research which identifies the need to strengthen community participation and to build management, programme-making and fund-raising capacity.

UNESCO has championed the concept of linking community radio with telecentre services as a means of enhancing the capacity and sustainability of both. Stella Hughes reports how UNESCO's evaluation of pilot Community Multimedia Centres (CMCs) has informed strategies for scaling up investment and support for CMCs in Mali, Mozambique and Senegal.

Assessing social impact

As community broadcasting gains recognition and support in national communication policies and from international development agencies it now faces new challenges. How to demonstrate its contribution to the public good? How to provide a voice for critical and alternative perspectives and not be assimilated by government agendas or the marketplace? Evaluating the social impact and effectiveness of community broadcasting is in its infancy and much of the evidence, though extensive, is anecdotal.

Some of the articles begin to redress this. Birgitte Jallov provides a methodological brief for 'barefoot impact assessment', based on field research in Mozambique. The approach covers three areas: internal functioning, impact of community radio content, and impact of the radio on community development. It emphasises both the importance of assessments to demonstrate how community radio is contributing to social change and the need to develop tools that practitioners can easily use.

A recent study of 13 radio stations in Africa and Latin America sought to substantiate links between community radio and the Millennium Development Goals. Nick Ishmael Perkins suggests that because community radio takes a more integrated approach to development, it is not always useful to assess the goals as separate measures. Focus group research is better than quantitative scoring for establishing such links.

Community broadcasters themselves are well aware of the significance radio services can have for their own communities. Among the challenges that practitioners, stakeholders and researchers face are to:

• demonstrate, with clarity, the approaches to policy, law and regulation that are most conducive to the further development of community broadcasting
• learn, from the experience of effective advocacy and the implementation of policy reform, how to adapt successful strategies to country contexts
• understand the factors which influence sustainability and develop solutions that can assure the longer term survival and growth of community media
• develop appropriate and transferable methods for assessing and evaluating the social impact of community broadcasting.

The wider challenge for development research is to articulate this grassroots practice with mainstream agendas on poverty reduction, empowerment, social justice and the role of traditional and new information and communication technologies.

Steve Buckley
15 Paternoster Row
Sheffield S1 2BX
UK
sbuckley@gn.apc.org

Steve Buckley is President of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters and Joint Managing Director of CM Solutions, a community media consultancy.

Views expressed on these pages are not necessarily those of DFID, IDS, id21 or other contributing institutions. Copyright remains with the original authors but (unless stated otherwise) any article may be copied or quoted without restriction, provided both source (id21, insights) and authors are properly acknowledged and informed. Copyright © 2004 id21. All rights reserved.