With community radio, citizens have the means to make their views known on policies and issues that concern them.
The content of broadcasting in a community setting is largely popular and relevant to a local/specific audience but which may often be overlooked by commercial or mass-media broadcasters. Community radio stations are operated, owned, and driven by the communities they serve.
Community radio is not-for profit making and provides a mechanism for individuals, groups, and communities to tell their own diverse stories, to share experiences, and in a media rich world to become active creators of and contributors to media. In many parts of the world today, community radio acts as a vehicle for the community and voluntary sector, civil society, agencies, NGOs and citizens to work in partnership to promote community development.
By the core aims and objectives of this model of broadcasting, community radio stations often serve their listeners by offering a variety of content that is not necessarily provided by the larger commercial radio stations. It also serves as a voice of the community; speaks on behalf of the community when there is crisis, apart from enlightening the people. To that extent, it can be seen as a tool to reach out to everybody because of the language that is used in disseminating information. It also helps in transforming the community by projecting it in a brighter light to the outside world.
Thus, such a radio can be seen as a two-way vehicle in the sense that, it doesn’t just project the community to the outside, but also informs the people in such a community about the happenings around them, so that they will not be left out of what is going on in the outside world.
In an exclusive interview with Miss Salamatu Daudu one of
the staff of Sepeteri Radio, a community radio station located in a small rural
community of Ilasamaja, in Ibadan, she described community radio as a gathering
of people of common goals with the soul determination to free the people.
She added that community radio had remained a powerful tool in disseminating information to the people, a medium that had the strongest feedback mechanism, (community members provide feedback in the form of stories describing the desirable change in their life as a result of the activities of the radio.)Capable of creating a bond between the leaders and the followers, with a strong benefit of the doubts because it uses the local language of the people of the area.
She added that community radio had remained a powerful tool in disseminating information to the people, a medium that had the strongest feedback mechanism, (community members provide feedback in the form of stories describing the desirable change in their life as a result of the activities of the radio.)Capable of creating a bond between the leaders and the followers, with a strong benefit of the doubts because it uses the local language of the people of the area.
Another respondent, Mr Jayeola Tokunbo who is the top
management of the community radio station, said, Community radio could play a
significant role at the grass roots level for rural development. For instance,
issues of poverty, agriculture, gender inequality, education, social problems
among others could be the focus for programming.
Effective radio activities can make a significant change in a community’s life, he said, stressing that, a community radio facilitates a number of capacity building activities. In this regard it provides a set of participatory communication techniques that support agricultural extension efforts by using local languages to communicate directly with farmers and listeners’ groups.
It doesn't just benefit the farmer, palm wine tappers, the market women, men, also the local chiefs; but it also prepares the youth who aspire going to the outside world to pursue their dream.
Effective radio activities can make a significant change in a community’s life, he said, stressing that, a community radio facilitates a number of capacity building activities. In this regard it provides a set of participatory communication techniques that support agricultural extension efforts by using local languages to communicate directly with farmers and listeners’ groups.
It doesn't just benefit the farmer, palm wine tappers, the market women, men, also the local chiefs; but it also prepares the youth who aspire going to the outside world to pursue their dream.
He concluded by saying that the exchange of information,
networking of groups, the provision of skills and training and these
undoubtedly are key elements of developing a community.
Again, a radio facility for a community facilitates the promotion of awareness of community groups and facilities in the area as well as providing the avenue for the empowerment of these groups to use radio to promote themselves and to speak directly to the community.
It is accessible to the community in terms of ownership, decision-making and programming output. In majority of cases, programming is influenced by the community, with focus on local concerns and issues. Unlike in the case of the mainstream media, rather than merely talking about the community, the people themselves talk about themselves through the programmes which they are part of. This strengthens local culture with the recognition that this is their station; it becomes a forum for a wide diversity of local opinions and views.
Another respondent who did not want his name mentioned explained the challenges and problems which faces such a station.
According to him, despite radio’s advantages of being one of the cheapest and most accessible mass communications technology, small stations still struggle to survive. Here in Nigeria and elsewhere, many community radio stations operate in situations of dire poverty. This is despite having been set up confident that local needs would ensure community support in the form of volunteering, in-kind support and donations.
On the contrary, poor communities faced with high unemployment and lack of access to infrastructure view the sector as providers of income and resources such as gaining access to telephones, the Internet, training opportunities and above all, paid work rather than as initiatives needing community support.
The lack of viable social support, technical know-how, and managerial skills in the sector often leads to compromised broadcasting service to communities served. Consequently, lack of quality service through irrelevant programming, interrupted broadcasting service, absence of community participation and a weak financial base threaten the sustainability of community radio. This makes the radio to seek funds from politicians, and they use it as tools for their political campaign: a popular proverbs says 'He who pays the piper dictates the tune'.
The interpretation is that If you are paying for someone's services, you can dictate exactly what you want that person to do.
It is evident therefore that the challenge of sustainability remains one of the principal aspects contributing to poor performance of the community radio sector, particularly in rural communities
Again, a radio facility for a community facilitates the promotion of awareness of community groups and facilities in the area as well as providing the avenue for the empowerment of these groups to use radio to promote themselves and to speak directly to the community.
It is accessible to the community in terms of ownership, decision-making and programming output. In majority of cases, programming is influenced by the community, with focus on local concerns and issues. Unlike in the case of the mainstream media, rather than merely talking about the community, the people themselves talk about themselves through the programmes which they are part of. This strengthens local culture with the recognition that this is their station; it becomes a forum for a wide diversity of local opinions and views.
Another respondent who did not want his name mentioned explained the challenges and problems which faces such a station.
According to him, despite radio’s advantages of being one of the cheapest and most accessible mass communications technology, small stations still struggle to survive. Here in Nigeria and elsewhere, many community radio stations operate in situations of dire poverty. This is despite having been set up confident that local needs would ensure community support in the form of volunteering, in-kind support and donations.
On the contrary, poor communities faced with high unemployment and lack of access to infrastructure view the sector as providers of income and resources such as gaining access to telephones, the Internet, training opportunities and above all, paid work rather than as initiatives needing community support.
The lack of viable social support, technical know-how, and managerial skills in the sector often leads to compromised broadcasting service to communities served. Consequently, lack of quality service through irrelevant programming, interrupted broadcasting service, absence of community participation and a weak financial base threaten the sustainability of community radio. This makes the radio to seek funds from politicians, and they use it as tools for their political campaign: a popular proverbs says 'He who pays the piper dictates the tune'.
The interpretation is that If you are paying for someone's services, you can dictate exactly what you want that person to do.
It is evident therefore that the challenge of sustainability remains one of the principal aspects contributing to poor performance of the community radio sector, particularly in rural communities
