“PARTICIPATION” THROUGH COMMUNITY MEDIA: A BUZZWORD TOO FAR?

By Jerry Watkins

What could be more participatory than community media? COL describes community media broadly as any kind of media that are focused on the local community, including radio, TV, newspapers, telecentres and the web. As part of their mission, many community media organisations investigate and report on local issues – or national or international issues from a local perspective. Some aim to supplement traditional mass media channels; others provide an alternative. Either way, a strong link to local communities is a key ingredient.

Community media organisations are considered by some development agencies to hold great potential. For example, Major Programme V of UNESCO’s Communication and Information Sector highlights the role of both community radio and Community Multimedia Centres as catalysts for information and knowledge acquisition, learning and participation at the community level in Africa.

If we examine these programmes carefully, we can see that a key issue is to achieve a shared understanding of what participation should deliver in the community media/ODL space.

As development buzzwords go, “participation” is beginning to show some degree of longevity, perhaps due in part to its multiplicity of meanings. For example, the World Bank Participation Sourcebook (1998) suggests that participation is a “concept that means different things to different people in different settings”. Amongst the many definitions of participation in the development sector, there is a recurring focus on community involvement in decision-making processes. Many community media organisations do not consider themselves to be part of a formal development agenda and might not consider their mission to be a participatory one. However, those community media organisations that do actively identify themselves with the development process could well be considered to be participatory if they consult with community groups and local government; record and play local cultural forms; and/or interview community members as part of their programme output.

But just how “participatory” are these formats? Is the community actively engaged in content creation activities; or is it treated mainly as a source of sound bites and vox pops in a small-scale version of how larger traditional media players can operate?

Content providers such as community media or ODL organisations can be key players in the implementation of participatory content creation programs. The Phukusi la Moyo program in Malawi has been deliberately developed as a participatory content creation project: community groups were central to the programme’s inception and continue to provide program ideas and content.

Phukusi la Moyo is one of a number of emerging projects that indicate how multi-partner collaborations with community media can deliver and sustain learning programmes to marginalised groups. These programs can be achieved through the active, two-way participation of community members in content creation activities. This level of participation may be facilitated by more powerful and affordable communication technologies, accompanied by a network of human intermediaries to provide training and support. But the critical component is a management and communication strategy that acknowledges that the sustainability of grassroots development projects depends upon the active, two-way participation of the target community.

Those ODL players who can appreciate the potential of this kind of participatory communication will have the ability to design and implement powerful localised educational programmes and distribute these via community media. When this happens, “participatory” is transformed from buzzword to reality.

Jerry Watkins is a Senior Lecturer at Swinburne University (Australia) and co-editor of Participatory Content Creation for Development (published by UNESCO).