The One to Watch Radio, New ICTs and Interactivity Edited by Bruce Girard In collaboration with The Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) Geneva office and The Communication for Development Group Research, Extension and Training Division Sustainable Development Department FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Rome, 2003 The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. All rights reserved. Reproduction and dissemination of material in this information product for educational or other non-commercial purposes are authorized without any prior written permission from the copyright holders provided the source is fully acknowledged. 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Fax: +39 06 705 3801 – Email: [email protected] The One to Watch – Radio New ICTs and Interactivity The One to Watch – Radio New ICTs and Interactivity Chapter 8 Table of Contents Creating & Sustaining ICT Projects in Mozambique.....................................109 Birgitte Jallov Chapter 9 The Russian Rural Information Network.......................................................121 Nancy Bennett Section III - Networks.................................................................................134 Chapter 10 Awaking from the Big Sleep: Kantor Berita 68H...........................................136 Foreword ........................................................................................................ iii Martin Hala and Santoso Preface .........................................................................................................v Chapter 11 The Agencia Informativa Púlsar ...................................................................145 Section I - Concepts and Context .................................................................1 Bruce Girard Chapter 1 Chapter 12 Radio and the Internet: Mixing media to bridge the divide................................2 InterWorld Radio: “The kind of thing that connects you to the world” ...........157 Bruce Girard Francesca Silvani Chapter 2 Section IV - Communication with migrants .............................................170 Take Five: A handful of essentials for ICTs in development..........................21 Alfonso Gumucio Dagron Chapter 13 Blending Old and New Technologies: Mexico’s indigenous radio service Chapter 3 messages .....................................................................................172 Linking Rural Radio to New ICTs in Africa: Bridging the rural digital divide ...39 José Manuel Ramos and Ángel Díez Jean-Pierre Ilboudo and Riccardo del Castello Chapter 14 Callos and Guatitas: Radio and migration in Ecuador and Spain.................180 Chapter 4 Luis Dávila and José Manuel López The Information Highways are still Unpaved: The Internet and West African community radio .............................................................................57 Section V - Rural Radio: Cases from USA, Africa and Latin America ...191 Lynda Attias and Johan Deflander Chapter 15 Farm and Rural Radio in the United States: Some beginnings and models.192 Chapter 5 Robert L. Hilliard Public Radio and the Internet in the United States.........................................69 Robert Ottenhoff Chapter 16 After 50 years: The role and use of rural radio in Africa ...............................199 Section II - Gateways ...................................................................................74 Jean-Pierre Ilboudo Chapter 6 Community Multimedia Centres: Chapter 17 Creating digital opportunities for all ................................................76 Radio Chaguarurco: Now you’re not alone...................................................211 Stella Hughes Bruce Girard Chapter 7 The Kothmale Model: Using radio to make the Internet visible .....................90 About the authors ......................................................................................230 Ian Pringle and MJR David - ii - The One to Watch – Radio, New ICTs and Interactivity Foreword communication medium. The combined use of the two media not only allows wider access to a wealth of information, but it also provides an effective mechanism for bottom up articulation of real development Ester Zulberti needs. We live in an era characterised by rapid This publication provides an overview of the most significant technological advances in the telecommunication experiences in combining radio and ICTs to sustainable development. It is a result of numerous attempts by FAO’s Communication for sector which affect all spheres of human activity. Development Group to foster information exchange and collaborative New communication tools, services and practices have emerged and information has become the partnerships in rural radio initiatives. We hope that the reader will find in most distinguishing trait of contemporary these pages some useful insights for stimulating discussion and concrete societies. action in the context of their own development work. Knowledge and information can greatly impact on agricultural production and food security. Improved communication systems can help rural communities access relevant and timely information on agricultural Ester Zulberti and rural development issues. With the dramatic expansion of various Chief, Extension, Education and Communication Service forms of electronic interchange, including electronic mail and the Sustainable Development Department Internet, unprecedented opportunities exist for knowledge and FAO information sharing and dissemination among development agents, policy makers and the beneficiaries themselves. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can be effective means of providing development workers with huge amounts of relevant information on markets, technology, prices, successful experiences, credit facilities, government services and policies, weather, crop, livestock and natural resource protection. However, in order to have a significant impact on development programmes, ICT services must be readily accessible and meaningful to broad segments of rural populations and the information they carry must be adapted and disseminated in formats and languages that they can comprehend. They must also serve people’s needs for entertainment, cultural enlightenment, and human contact – needs which, despite being strongly felt by us all, are too often overlooked by development professionals. The convergence of ICTs with rural radio can serve these purposes, providing a powerful support for harnessing and communicating knowledge for development, for ensuring wider access to information, and for permitting local cultural expression and development. This is especially true in rural areas, where radio is an important mechanism for the rapid diffusion of knowledge and information in a diversity of languages and formats and where its long history and time-tested participatory methodology make it the most widespread and popular - iii - - iv - The One to Watch – Radio, New ICTs and Interactivity The One to Watch – Radio, New ICTs and Interactivity Preface While Ms. Gardner’s comment inspired the title of the book, reminding us of the versatility and potential of the radio ICT combination, the subtitle Radio, New ICTs and Interactivity, merits a few Bruce Girard words here. This book is not concerned with how individuals or communities can interact with radio stations or the Internet via instant In February 2001, the FAO organised an polling, “personalised” web interfaces, phone in radio programmes or International Workshop on rural radio entitled remote broadcasts from the town market. Instead it focuses on Information and Communication Technologies interactivity as a social communication process – people and communities Servicing Rural Radio: New Contents, New interacting with each other rather than with the media. It is about how Partnerships. The fifty workshop participants radio, in combination with the Internet, can better inform people about exchanged experiences and developed ideas for themselves and the world, stimulating (interactive) communication within how radio and ICTs could be used together to support rural communities. and between communities, and leading to a common understanding of We were enthused by the idea of combining radio with the Internet and problems and to common proposals for their resolution. with its potential for breathing new life into radio and for making the The chapters in this book are grouped into five sections. The five Internet’s information truly accessible to rural populations. As Carleen Gardner, FAO’s Assistant