Invited Article
COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION ON CAMPUS RADIO: A case study of Vivek High School 90.4 FM By Dr Archana R Singh Reader, School of Communication Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh Email:
[email protected],
[email protected]
Abstract: The little media that is growing parallel to the big global entities has to remain on guard and ensure maximum community participation, so that it does not turn into a puppet in the hands of the large conglomerates. This media are closest to the community in the form of citizen journalism, grassroots press and community radio. This is a case study of Vivek 90.4 FM which has emerged as Chandigarh First Community Radio Station operational since 4 Nov 2007. The aim of this Case Study was to identify the participatory communication aspect of community radio and to study system of content generation, methods of resource generation and the extent of community participation. Observation, Interview and Focus Group Discussion are used for data collection. It was found that the school radio station is a balance of participative, somewhat participative and authoritarian system. The students are brought to understand that community is a body of listeners but participation in the form of content generation is not on their minds. No effort is being made for resource generation from the community and hence the radio remains the property of the school and not of the listeners.
Key words: Community, Radio, Vivek High School, Campus, Participative, communication
Introduction
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In the present era of globalization, media of communication are getting increasingly concentrated into the hands of huge western based transnational companies. This phenomenon has tremendous impact on national media systems, social and cultural autonomy. While this may point towards a very powerful media, one cannot underestimate the external forces, such as social institutions and media consumers influence on what is represented. As Williams (2003) has pointed out, `any description of mass communication or evaluation of effects, content and production of media messages is inextricable interwoven with a broader discussion of other social institutions and other aspects of social life.’ The fact that media is increasing its dependency on TNCs that support them, points towards an urgent need for some universal paradigms which ensure peoples participation in the process of media and message making.
Participatory communication
Participation in decision making process stresses on reciprocal collaboration. The ability of the masses to develop themselves as well as their environment cannot be underestimated. Theoretically two approaches have been identified:
1. Dialogical pedagogy by Paulo Freiro 2. Access, participation and self management articulated by the UNESCO
Freiro’s notion of dialogic communication as a normative theory of participatory communication is accepted widely, however, his theory is based on group dialogue rather than on amplifying media such as television, newspaper or radio.
Mefalopulos(2003 ) defines Participatory communication as an approach capable of facilitating people's involvement in decision-making about issues impacting their lives - a process capable of addressing specific needs and priorities relevant to people and at the same time assisting in their empowerment.
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Singh
and
Jamwal
(2009)
say
that
grassroots
communication
cannot
be
compartmentalized into `local’ level approaches and their universal application out rightly rejected. Global and local have amalgamated to form `glocal’ which is mostly based on audience interest, choice and perspectives. Thus, the concepts of diversity and pluralism operate at the level of the receiver.
Ojne of the most common models used in participatory communication is the Reciprocal Agenda Setting model. In this model, all the developmentally influential sectors of the community are seen to have an input in what the media sends out. The nine sectors include the individual, men, women, youth, local leadership, traditional leadership, government, extension workers, NGOs/ /religious/spiritual leaders and co-operatives.
The editorial staff has the role of a gatekeeper in selecting material. In this manner the community has a chance to participate in the agenda setting function of media. The participatory media, thus, acts as a window to the `outside world’.
Francis P Kasoma’s model for participatory communication
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Individual
Men/youth
Women/youth Traditional media Co-operatives
Local leadership Local media Traditional leadership
Religious/spiritual
Government
The basic purpose of communication is to create a `community’. The concept of community used in reference to communication programmes can be difficult as it can be interpreted in many ways. The classical concept of community is characterized as having internal cohesion, common objectives and linkages among the community members (Peruzzo, 1996)
The little media that is growing parallel to the big global entities has to remain on guard and ensure maximum community participation, so that it does not turn into a puppet. This media which are closest to the community in the form of citizen journalism, grassroots press and community radio should not turn into a gimmick in the hands of the large conglomerates. Danger also lurks in the form of organisational control that may want to use the medium for propaganda.
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The medium and its use should have all the mechanisms of the involvement of the community.
The use of capital intensive technologies will only lead to further dependence on TNCs and the power blocs that support them. Each country or community should find its own path in terms of its values and culture, its resources and ideals, at the same time respecting human rights, basic needs, social justice as well as fragile ecology and ever depleting energy. (Kumar Kewal J, 1994) Communication theory has abandoned the direct effects and 2 step flow models typically used to illustrate participation development communication. In a similar vein Cohen and Uphoff (1980) have suggested using participation as an adjective, allowing planning, decision making, or any other development activity to be characterized as more or less participatory. With globalization, the trend is to study hermeneutics (i.e. communication across cultural barriers) so that dominant cultures do not take over the entire process of participation.
UNESCO has defined participatory communication in terms of three parameters:
1. Access: Use of media for public service, may be defined in terms of the opportunities available to the public to choose varies and relevant programs and to have a means of feedback. 2. Participation implies a higher level of public involvement in communication systems. It includes involvement of the public in the production process and also in the management and planning of communication systems. 3. Self management is the most advanced form of participation. Public here exercises the power of decision making within the communication enterprises and is fully involved in the formulation of communication policies and plans.
These ideas are widely accepted as normative theories of alternative communication. Participatory radio is a good example of this.
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Radio: Redefined and ready
Radio with its capacity to penetrate the remotest of rural hinterlands, is the tool of choice for development communication activities. Radio has the capacity to bring the field level interpersonal and the electronics mass mediated communication into functional relationship with each other. ( Ashcroft, 1994|) Radio has been used to pass technical information about agricultural innovations, for instance, Paul Neurath( 1962) created `radio farm forums’ in India , thereby creating cognitive and psychological climate for development.
In India, radio has been used primarily for public broadcasting. Although, there is no standard definition of public broadcasting, a number of key characteristics can be observed. Public service broadcasters generally transmit programming that aims to improve society by informing viewers. In contrast, the aim of commercial outlets is to provide popular shows that attract an audience—therefore leading to higher prices when advertising is sold. For this reason, the ideals of public broadcasting are often incompatible with commercial goals. Of course, public broadcasters also strive to entertain their viewers, but they can still come across as being overly paternalistic in nature.
The indispensability of radio as efficient and effective means of communication in today's society is indisputable. However, for this medium to be more useful, it has to be changed from being a means of transmitting to people but also of receiving from them. This is an era of two way and three way interactivity with every medium trying to outdo the other by use of feedback mechanisms that create a genuine forum for discussion. The receiver who is now at par with the sender can create messages, by giving news, views and even opinions. This major shift in the way mass media has adopted the philosophy of
6
maximum interactivity is a direct outcome of the online media which thrives on this principle.
Since air waves have always been free, the use of radio came about in its most rudimentary form as ham radio. The history of ham radio began in India as early as 1921. The first Indian ham late Amarendra Chandra Gooptu, started his transmission in the year 1921 with a call sign 2JK. India's first short wave public broadcasting station belonged to Dr. Matcalfe, VU2KH, a leading radio amateur and who was the Vice-Chancellor of Mysore University. He and his group of radio amateurs established an entertainment public broadcasting station VU6AH in the year 1935 and had listeners all over India. Amateur Radio licensing was closed and ham radio equipments were taken away by the authorities
when
the
World
War
II
broke
in
1939.
At the end of World War II, the authorities started issuing temporary amateur radio operator's licenses from 1946. By the beginning of 1948, there were hardly fifty odd licensed hams of which a dozen or so were active. (Missra 1996)
Despite a thriving public broadcasting system and a newly created commercial broadcasting a more organised and meticulous form of participatory radio emerged.
In India, the campaign of Community radio started in the mid 1990s, soon after the Supreme Court of India approved the idea, passed on its judgment in the month of February 1995, and declared “airwaves are public property”. This notion of the Indian government was passed on as an inspiration to groups across the country and community radio started with only educational (campus) radio stations under somewhat strict conditions. Anna FM is India‘s first campus ‘community’ radio that was launched on 1 February 2004, controlled by Education and Multimedia Research Centre (EMRC) and the students of Media Sciences at Anna University produce all programmes. On 16 November 2006, the government of India advised a set of new Community Radio
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Guidelines that allowed the NGOs and other civil society organizations to possess and operate community radio stations. There are now 41 operational CR stations in India, of which 38 are campus radio stations. (Pavarala, Venniyoor, 2009)
The movement of community radio has been driven by an organized effort at building collective identity among vigilant citizens across the country as a grassroots culture, embracing alternative organizational practices. Driving these commitments among this largely volunteer community is a deep and abiding belief in the necessity of transparent, participatory organizational practice to build vibrant, diverse, and challenging community radio.
Vivek High 90.4 FM
One such example is the Vivek High Radio, 90.4 FM. Vivek High School is a prominent private elite school in Chandigarh, located in Sector 38, and since its inception has been highly activity oriented. The radio station is run solely by the students of the school with the help of a station in charge of production and a technical assistant. Chandigarh has 2 private commercial broadcasters and of course the national public broadcaster. The Panjab University in Chandigarh is in the process of starting its radio station, having acquired the license and construction work underway. Vivek 90.4 FM however, has emerged as Chandigarh’s First Community Radio Station operational since 4 Nov 2007 with a 50 Watt capacity and a prescribed range of 10-12 kilometers. The aim of the community radio is to serve the community and focus on the common man's day to day concerns and help to realize local aspirations. It addresses issues relating to health, education,
environment,
agriculture,
social
development,
cultural,
personality
development, community development, food and nutrition, house hold remedies. (www.vivekhighschool.org/rd-vivek90.4.html)
Aim and objectives:
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The main aim of this Case Study was to identify the participatory communication aspect of community radio.
Objectives: To study the following with reference to 90.4 FM
1. System of content generation 2. Methods of Resource generation 3. Extent of Community participation
In order to meet the above mentioned objectives an interview schedule based on Cohen I Sylvie’s checklist for identifying participatory component of projects and a self developed FGD schedule has been used.
Tools::
1. Observation 2. Interview 3. Focus Group Discussion
Findings: A radio station in a school can add value to the school education program in a Comprehensive, yet cost effective way. It adds a new mode of content delivery, which remains available even when the students are mobile and they do not have to be in the classroom anymore. Variety of educational programs, administrative notifications, cultural and entertainment programs can complement the mainstream classroom content. The attempt was to find, the variety of content that is generated by this radio station and whether the aspect of participatory communication is evident in the generation of content. The community for a school relates to all the people who are in any way related with the school and education system such as students, faculty, staff of the school, local decision
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makers, policy makers, parents, guardians, students from other schools in the community, students and staff of colleges, university or other educational institutions.
Content Generation:
School has employed a teacher, whose sole responsibility is to run the radio station packing in 18 hours of programming a day. The programming includes
2 hours of recorded religious music, bhajans and gurbani 3-4 hours of student programmes. 1 hour break in the afternoon during which the next batch of programmes are uploaded. 3 repeat broadcasts of student programmes.
Content bank has been created by the student and faculty. 12-15 recordings are held per week. The radio club students have their own shows for which they research and write the script under the guidance of the in charge. They stay back after school to record their programmes.
During the FGD the students exhibited clarity regarding the functions of a radio and also the purpose behind a community radio. They were self motivated to spread awareness in the society and knew that their radio station caters to all. As regards content generation the consensus was on use of `appropriate’ programme and nothing `controversial’. They looked towards their teacher for the definition of `appropriate’ and `controversial’ making it clear that the final decision is taken by the teacher.
The content generated for the radio is specific to the station and no class lectures, or recorded lectures are transmitted. The school station has no phone – in facility creating a severe dip in the interactivity quotient. This scarcity makes it impossible to have several
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formats of radio programming such as Q&A with experts and live debates; RJ’s role is also limited to a monologue.
The programme content includes panel discussions, career guidance and preparation for competitive exams, anti ragging, anti smoking awareness building campaigns, slots for different societies, clubs of the school such as language club, photographic club, film society, music and drama by the students. However, there is no slot for alumni association, adult and continuing education, colleges or university. No announcements are made regarding examination schedule or about special lectures or classes.
Resource generation:
No extra fee is charged from the students for running the radio. The school radio station does not get any advertisement from the local community and so it is totally school sponsored. The studio is rented out to outsiders for the purpose of recording their programmes. Students from the school can also rent the studio for recording independent programmes. There is no other method of resource generation.
Participation by the community
The level of participation by the community was limited to decision making by the station in charge with the over-all guidance of the school administration. The students have a `Radio Club’ through which they generate content but local community participation is limited. The responses on the checklist are marked in italics.
1. Project planning stage:
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a) Through initial open discussion with community of its problems and how to solve them b) Through a discussion of the projects proposal with opinion leaders from the community c) Through discussions with govt/non govt organizations at district/block/project level. d) Project thrust from outside without discussion. e) Project imposed in absolute disregard of community’s wishes.
The station in charge in consultation with and as per the guidelines laid down by the school management designs the programmes. The community has not been involved at the planning stage although once the project has been given the nod; students have been producing and running their own shows under the guidance of the teacher in charge.
2. Need identification:
a) The people themselves b) The local opinion leaders c) A government agency d) Centrally sponsored scheme. e) Station in charge
The assessment of the needs of the community is based on the perception of the local opinion leaders, which in this case is the school management and the experts who are called in for various specials. The experts decide the requirement of the community and prepare their message accordingly. The station in charge added the option `e’ in the above to add her name as the deciding factor in need identification. The school management works through the station in charge who is an employee of the school.
3. Extent of resource mobilization for the project:
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a) By the community b) By the community and others c) Through matching contributions d) Through massive external assistance e) With no contribution from the community
The school does not charge any money from the students for the radio. The station goes not try to mobilize any resource and the station is totally sponsored by the school administration.
4. Identifying project workers
a) The community with its own criteria b) The community with imposed criteria c) Of local persons by implementing agency d) Appointment of outsiders.
Once again the decision is in the hands of the school through the station in charge.
5. Development of social and technical skills
a) Through short local pre service training, followed by regular, on the job, inservice training, parallel with training of trainers from within the community. b) Through short, local pre service training, followed by regular on the job, inservice training c) Through an infrastructure for the exchange of information at local level. d) Through pre service training within the district/town , followed by some in-service training e) No training or training in unfamiliar language.
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The station in charge is a Master of Mass Communication and has served in radio stations prior to joining Vivek High. The technical skills that have been acquired by the in charge and the technical assistant are being considered in the above response. There is however a system of training of junior students by the seniors so that a new crop of trained students is ready by the time the older students leave the school.
6. Project implementation:
a) Under community control b) Under community supervision c) With some community involvement and supervision d) With some community involvement e) With no community involvement
Being sponsored by the school, the control is with the management as far as their programme production is concerned. Only the students who join the `Radio Club’ have some involvement with the project implementation. In this case the number is only 35 ranging from classes 4th to 10th. The other students from the school can give their questions, suggestions, comments through email or on the station notice board from time to time.
7. Periodic evaluation/monitoring or progress:
a) By the community b) Some evaluation by the community and acknowledgement of possible conflict areas in the project. c) Outsiders’ evaluation with results reported to the target community. d) Outsiders’ evaluation not reported to the target community.
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e) No evaluation.
Since there is no formal monitoring mechanism from the school administration, the students themselves evaluate their programmes through informal mechanisms such as asking for response emails, notices on the school board and word of mouth. No formal system of evaluation exists.
The descriptors in the checklist are identified as
A= highly participative B= Participative C= somewhat participative D= Non participative E= Authoritarian
The school has scored 1 A, 2 B, 2 C, 2 D and 2 E. This grading makes the school radio station a good balance of participative, somewhat participative to authoritarian although leaning more towards the `somewhat participative’ category. The definition of the community is clear in the minds of the students as `all those who listen to our radio’ but has not been internalized for programme production. They are brought to understand that community is for tuning in to the radio station and forms a body of listeners but participation in the form of content generation is not on their minds. No effort is being made for resource generation from the community and hence the radio remains the property of the school and not of the listeners. Even when they answer that projects are being implemented with some community involvement and are evaluated by the community, they actually mean that the same is being done only by the students of the school. To the credit of the school, they have managed to keep the station running without any outside support and only fuelled by the enthusiasm of the students.
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Conclusion
Despite the level of participation being not on the higher side, the smiles on the faces of the students, the joy in their voice, the sparkle in their eyes was enough to prove that they were thoroughly enjoying their radio experience. Although none of them wanted to be a radio professional when they grew up, they did want to continue with radio as a lifelong passion! Having their own radio show is a matter of pride and also the fact that one’s peer group looks up to you is a strong morale booster. The school has a well drafted syllabus for different classes which incorporates topics such as development of radio, importance of community radio, difference between community radio and commercial radio, voice culture, studio etiquettes, radio content creation, popular genres, scripting, rules of I&B ministry, Planning a programme and use of original content.
That is why when a young broadcaster from 90.4 FM goes on air, one knows that he is not talking in air!
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