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Community media and grassroots activity

Community media and grassroots activity. Ullamaija Kivikuru. Community media, community multimedia centres. Established in the 1960s in India (educational), West Africa (educational) and Latin America (political) In Europe, in the 1970s and 1980s Popularity in Africa grew in the 1990s

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Community media and grassroots activity

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  1. Community media and grassroots activity Ullamaija Kivikuru

  2. Community media, community multimedia centres • Established in the 1960s in India (educational), West Africa (educational) and Latin America (political) • In Europe, in the 1970s and 1980s • Popularity in Africa grew in the 1990s • Same tradition as ”literacy papers” in the 1970s (Africa) • SriLanka, Thailand, Phillippines, South Africa (roughly 120), Mozambique (roughly 80), Ghana (60) • Some established by state organs, some by NGOs, some by communities themselves

  3. Commedia (1987-1990) • Nine Tanzanian villages: basic idea to establish ”model village centres” which would promote similar activity in the 8,150 villages of the country • Nation level: radio set, national newspapers • Village level: a biweekly newsletter, barefoot journalists on voluntary basis • Popularity of the newsletter grew with some delay • News values: ”mini scale” national values, proportionally more on sports and village events • Initiative from outside (UNESCO) • Operated better in villages with a mobile population • Final result: 2 megaphones

  4. South African community radio • Ideological background: Windhoek Declaration 1991, Paulo Freire, government media policies with three modes of mass media (public, private, community) • fully controlled by non-profit entities and and carried on as non-profit enterprises • licences allocated by an independent public organ IBA • national ”interest organisation” Community Radio Forum operates as a mouthpiece in policy-making • serves a particular community (geographic or interest-based) • encourages members of the community to participate in the selection and production of programmes • may be funded by donations, grants, sponsorships, advertising or membership fees • under-funded (frequently off-air), personel problems (Teer-Tomaselli)

  5. Support • Unesco: Model multimedia centres & simputer • Open Societies (Soros) • Catholic church • Northern assistance organisations (Nordics, The Netherlands, Canada) • Clearly party oriented assistance organisations (e.g. FES) have taken some distance and focused on more directly party politics related activities recently

  6. Communities of intererst • Most African community media are based on locality (physical closeness) • There are also community media based on interest (youth media, music-based media, fan clubs, etc.)

  7. Problems around community radio • Mainly exogenously introduced • Legal problems (easier for societies turning orientation such as South Africa, Mozambique) • Sustainability: problems of voluntary base • Financial problems (equipment), sustainability • Need for continuous training • Tends to give voice to the strongest in a community • Community-level contradictions • Language used (official, local?)

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