Making Waves: Stories of Participatory Communication for Social Change - Introduction - Radio: Small Waves, Giant Changes

For more than fifty years radio has been the most appealing tool for participatory communication and development. It is without a doubt the communication tool most widely spread throughout the world and has always been the ideal medium for change. Radio had much to do with the changes in the communication landscape of Europe since the early 1970s when the radio libre or pirate stations popped up by the hundreds in Italy,France and other countries of the conservative continent. Radio Tomate and the others that started in small clandestine rooms of Paris or Milan may have evolved to successful commercial enterprises over the years, but the whole spectrum of radio and television in Europe has changed since their creation.

In the mid-40s, about three decades before diversity in electronic media would spread, small and often isolated communities of campesinos (poor farmers) or miners in Latin America had already started operating their own stations, not only to challenge the monopoly of state media, but also to have, for the first time, a voice of their own. The social struggles of the 1960s and 1970s, the resistance to military dictatorships that were delivered to power courtesy of the CIA, contributed to the multiplication of independent and community-based radio stations by the thousands. Today, any small country in Latin America can count by hundreds the stations, most of them FM, that serve rural or urban communities with content, that is appropriate to the local language, culture and needs.

Individually, most of these radio stations, often housed in a school, a church or a union building, may not make waves that reach far, but the ensemble certainly has the power of a tsunami. They have rocked down governments and launched new populist leaders. But above all, they have served their constituency on a daily basis, without much noise, mostly open to people's ideas and voices. [3]

Asia and Africa are certainly undergoing the same process that Latin America lived through decades ago. As people repudiate the last dictators, the new voices emerge from various media, and radio is usually in the forefront. As soon as the state monopoly cracks down, small organisations and communities lift their antennas over the villages. Asia provides important examples in the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Nepal, while in Africa several countries are taking advantage of the new democratic winds, the example of South Africa being outstanding among them.

Nonetheless, participatory radio in Africa is still at an early stage of development:

I think the term community radio doesn't apply to stations in Africa. It implies that a station has evolved from a group of people or a community, a village. That's not the case in Africa. Most private radio stations in Africa are commercial stations. It doesn't mean they broadcast commercials all day long but it does mean that they were set up with the sole purpose of making money. And most radio stations are important for the development of the country. I'd prefer to speak of development radio. More of these stations are popping up across West Africa. African culture is based on oral history. Radio now adopts the role of village chief who used to tell stories sitting under a village tree. [4]

The smallest and most precarious community radio station already makes a difference for a community. The presence of a community radio station, even if it is not highly participatory, has an immediate effect on the population. Small stations usually start airing music for most of the day, thus making an impact on cultural identity and community pride. The next step, closely associated with music programming, is carrying announcements and dedications which contribute to the strengthening of the local social networks. When the station grows in experience and skill, local production of health or education-related programmes starts. These contribute to share information on important issues that affect the community.

Community radio stations have multiplied by the thousands all over the world over the past five decades. It is almost impossible to even calculate the real numbers, as statistics do not include the many that operate without a legal license. Essentially they are important within their own community geographic and social universes, though once in a while the names of some of these stations are heard across the borders: Radio Enriquillo in Dominican Republic, Radio La Voz de la Montaña in Mexico, Radio Animas in Bolivia, Radio Qawinakel in Guatemala, Radio Xai-Xai in Mozambique, Radio Tubajon in the Philippines, Radio Sagarmatha in Nepal, Katutura Community Radio in Namibia, Kagadi-Kibaale Community Radio in Uganda, Chikaya Community Radio Station in Zambia.

The process of communicating through radio has gone through various stages during the past five decades. This report has selected examples that provide a view of the evolution and the new perspectives in using radio as a communication tool for social change.Among the fifty case stories selected, no less than twenty are radio stations, which acknowledges the importance of this medium. Radio has been instrumental for social change and moreover,has invented participatory communication, as we know it today.

The first to appear in October 16, 1947, was Radio Sutatenza in Colombia. Established by José Joaquin Salcedo Guarin, a Catholic priest, the station had two main objectives: to broadcast the Christian doctrine to poor farmers and to teach skills that would contribute to community development. Radio Sutatenza grew steadily over the decades until the powerful Cadena Caracol bought it in the early 1990s.

Participation in community radio stations varies from total ownership to different degrees of audience involvement in programming and management.

The classic example of total ownership and control of a radio station by its constituency is the network of miners' radio stations in Bolivia. Having been established since 1949, this network is one of the first experiences and one of the most outstanding examples of popular and participatory communication in the world. It is not often that we encounter radio stations that have been conceived, set up, managed, technically run, financed and maintained by the community. Furthermore, the miners' radio stations are also the paradigm of a communication initiative that is part of a larger political and social change project. Last but not least, the fact that at its peak in the 1970s the miners' radio network was comprised of as many as 26 independent stations, which is not negligible at all in terms of scale. Unfortunately, we won't find many other examples of this level of quality.

In recent years we have some other examples of stations where community ownership is an important feature, such as Radio Izcanalin El Salvador and the local radio stations in Burkina Faso, formerly known as High Volta, and Haiti. In the last two examples, the stations were actually set up with both external funds and technical assistance. In Burkina Faso the project of creating six local radio stations was a result of the vision that Thomas Sankara had when he was still Minister of Information, even before he became President and changed the name of the country. The whole project started collapsing when he was ousted and killed by his close friend and arms companion, Blaise Campaore. In Haiti in 1994, United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) donated radio equipment and provided initial training for four stations in remote areas of the island, but the stations are still struggling to build their own identity in a country constantly shaken by political upheaval.

Networking has always been a challenge for community-based communication projects. Top-down networking can easily be done by commercial ventures because of the highly centralised organisation, but that doesn't work as easily when dealing with a group of independent radio stations, each one owned by a different community. Maybe the first question to answer is what defines a network? The miners' radio stations of Bolivia were not considered a network because they aired the same programmes or had a central management, but because they were capable of linking their signals when it was judged necessary, and they pursued the same objectives: to improve the life of Bolivian miners and be heard by the whole nation.

The other example of networking that is worth mentioning is Tambuli in the Philippines. These stations, around twenty, were set up with the help of external technical assistance and funding from UNESCO and Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA).Some aspects of networking include exchanges of cassettes, training, meetings and overall monitoring from the Tambuli Foundation in Manila. But in terms of linking their signal or exchanging material in real-time, no networking is possible as the stations are spread out in the most remote places of the island and can't possibly get in touch through their low-powered transmitters. Technically, Tambuli is not a network, although philosophically all the stations share the same objectives and ideas.

The Local Radio Network in Indonesia shows radio networking is possible even when the stations that make up the network are all privately owned. Again, this is an example of the diversity that we have found during the research process. It is essential to understand the political context of Indonesia in order to appreciate the relevance of this network to communication for social change. There is simply no other community radio in Indonesia. No law provides for such, and after decades of Suharto's strong military regime, it will still take some time until new legislation on communication is established. Albeit, the need for democratic communication inspired UNESCO to support more than twenty private local radio stations, small stations with little resources of their own, and to spark a process of networking with the help of new technologies. UNESCO provided additional equipment, training and technical assistance so the stations would start producing and airing local news and locally produced programmes. Computers and Internet access enable the stations to exchange news on a daily basis, thus consolidating the networking process. In spite of threats by the army, especially in politically hot regions as Ache, the network continues to grow.

On a much larger scale, Púlsar is a news agency in Latin America that provides daily reports and news through e-mail and the Internet, to several hundreds of community radio stations. From a networking perspective, Púlsar has been successful in establishing a system of correspondents all over Latin America and the Caribbean, who provide daily feeds and news from people's perception.

Madagascar is following a model similar to the Tambuli stations, with its radio stations in Fianarantsoa and Morondava. These two stations a third is likely to be established in Antananarivo were set up with support from Switzerland's Développement et Cooperation (DDC), with the objective of serving rural communities in their respective geographical areas of influence. This may not be an example of networking because of the lack of contact among the stations, but may become an example of ownership by the community. During the first two years efforts were directed to establish the two stations as community media, the first stations of their kind in Madagascar. Next, the process is scheduled to transfer total ownership of the stations to the rural associations currently represented on the management board. However, there is much uncertainty as to what will happen when Swiss technical assistance totally withdraws.

Among the most relevant experiences of radio stations that have succeeded in establishing themselves as examples of participatory communication for social change, those originated by Catholic priests are in the forefront. From the first community radio station ever, Radio Sutatenza (1947), to the thousands that operate today mainly in Latin America, radio has been the most supportive medium of communities struggling for a better world. The Catholic priests behind these communication projects quickly understood that the survival and development of the radio stations had to be linked to community participation, involving the real social, political and cultural needs of the people, and not just to preaching about faith or against communism.

Again, a classic example comes from the mining districts of Bolivia. Early in the fifties a group of Catholic priests established Radio Pío XII in Llallagua, with the objective of fighting communism and alcoholism among miners, exactly as Radio Sutatenza did a few years before in rural Colombia. Soon after, the station moved so close to the miners' community, that it joined the network of union radio stations. In subsequent years it was often attacked by the army, and literally, under fire, exactly as the other stations and for the same reasons defending the political and social rights of workers. Radio San Gabriel in La Paz, which focused mainly on its peasant constituency, has grown to become one of the most important national radio stations in Bolivia.

Jesuit priests created and are still behind one of the most interesting experiences selected for this report, Radio Kwizera a station that serves the refugee population in western Tanzania, near the borders of Burundi and Rwanda. Several radio stations functioning under the umbrella of the Tambuli network in the Philippines, are actually supported at the grassroots level by priests and pastors, such as Radio Tubajon and Radio Loreto both located on Dinagat Island, north of Mindanao. Radio Quillabamba in Peru and Radio Huayacocotla in Mexico, are among the group of outstanding examples of radio stations supported by progressive priests, entirely identified with the local population.

It is not unusual to find community radio stations that have been set up with support from local or international NGOs, but it is less common to find radio stations that were established by government institutions in order to serve the community. There are few of the latter and usually when these stations exist it is more often the result of good-willed individuals challenging the system, rather than as an expression of government policy to provide a voice for the people. What Thomas Sankara did during the early 1980s in Burkina Faso has not been replicated by other African governments, who have been too jealous to release their tight control over the media.

The Mexican government, on the other hand, does have a policy of promoting community radio, in particular within indigenous communities. Radio Margaritas is one of the 24 indigenous radio stations established by the Instituto Nacional Indigenista (INI), an official institution. These stations produce and air programmes in 31 local languages and Spanish, and reach an estimated six million indigenous Mexicans. As with some other interesting projects from Mexico, the stations are the fortunate result of political contradictions, and precisely because these contradictions are far from being resolved, the stations have survived through various changes of government. Radio Kiritimati in the Kiribati archipelago in the South Pacific and Kothmale Radio in Sri Lanka are also examples of community radio stations that were established and are partly funded by the government, with little political interference.

Kothmale Radio is an experience worth describing because it is one of the first projects aiming at the convergence between radio and the Internet. Equipped with computers and Internet access, the station receives requests for information from the audience, searches the web for the appropriate data, and returns the results to the listeners, in local language. It is also building a database with information useful to the local constituency.

As a tool for social change and participatory communication, radio has several comparative advantages over the other media. First, it is cost-efficient in terms of investment both for those that run the station and for the audience. Second, it is pertinent in terms of language and content ideal for the huge illiterate population that still remains marginalised especially in rural areas of the Third World. Third, it is relevant to local practices, traditions and culture. Fourth, once the initial investment in equipment is made, sustainability is feasible, though dependent on the level of community participation. Fifth, in terms of outreach and geographic coverage radio has a strong advantage over other media. Last but not least, the convergence between radio and the Internet is providing new strength to community radio and has enormously increased networking opportunities.



Footnotes

[3] Unfortunately in recent years new radio stations operated by obscure religious denominations, mostly evangelic, have contributed to the exact opposite, dividing communities, thus affecting their social and cultural tissue.
[4] Johan Deflander from PANOS Mali, at click here.

Continued...click here to return to the Table of Contents.