Community Radio as Participatory Communication in Post-Apartheid South Africa

"Two questions appear fundamental to our understanding of the notion of participatory communication as it relates to community radio. One, in what ways do the roles and association between political actors, the mass media and the public change in a participatory communication environment? Two, what should the notable dividends of participatory communication be?"

Abstract

"This [eight-page] paper evaluates the evolution of community radio in post-apartheid South Africa where a three-tier broadcasting system - public, commercial, and community has replaced the monopoly of a state-run behemoth, the South African Broadcasting Corporation. The paper commences with an overview of South Africa's institutionalised culture of exclusion in the broadcasting sector and in other social spheres.

A conceptual review of participatory communication precedes and provides foundation for the examination of the operations of two community radio stations [Bush Radio and Radio Zibonele] located in two of South Africa's previously marginalised and disenfranchised communities. Though South Africa's adoption of community radio answers perpetual questions about the sustenance of community radio, the ongoing experience poses a few challenges.

Discussion

Going by our review of participatory communication, a community radio at its utilitarian best should primarily be geared toward the empowerment of community members who would also be CO-owners, CO-planners, CO-producers and CO-performers in the statement of communal issues. Broadcasting in a participatory environment should differ significantly from centralized broadcasting. While the latter deals with relatively passive audiences, the former interacts with actors whose voices are included in program content and radio station administration. Among other outcomes, broadcasting in a participatory environment should enable a community's ability to restore cultural pride, self-esteem, and identity.

Conclusion

...Four interconnected factors - the de-institutionalization of apartheid, the introduction of multiracial democracy, the decentralization of the broadcasting system and the accompanying empowerment of rural communities - are responsible for the rise of community radio in South Africa.

Though the inability to survive donors' largess may regrettably clean the stable of financially weak stations, the evolution of the community radio phenomenon in South Africa represents a remarkable landmark....Certainly, there are cautionary lessons to be learnt from the financial constraints that may be faced in the absence of non-governmental donors' participation in the sector. South Africa's ongoing experiment has, however, verified that African governments do not have to solely bear the cost of extending radio services to and engaging disenfranchised rural and semi-urban communities."