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Voice to action Community radio empowering rural communities: Cases in the English-speaking Caribbean Prendergast, P.W.
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VOICE TO ACTION
COMMUNITY RADIO EMPOWERING RURAL COMMUNITIES
Cases in the English-Speaking Caribbean
A dissertation presented to the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences University of Amsterdam
In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy
Patrick Wade Prendergast November 2018
Voice to Action Community Radio Empowering Rural Communities Cases in the English-Speaking Caribbean
ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT
ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. dr. ir. K.I.J. Maex ten overstaan van een door het College voor Promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Aula der Universiteit op woensdag 28 november 2018. lo 15.00 uur door Patrick Wade Prendergast geboren te Kingston
Promotiecommissie:
Promotor: prof. dr. P.C. Neijens Universiteit van Amsterdam
Co-promotor: prof. dr. C.J. Hamelink Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Overige leden: prof. dr. C.I.M. Nevejan Universiteit van Amsterdam prof. dr. R.A. Rogers Universiteit van Amsterdam prof. dr. J.L.H. Bardoel Universiteit van Amsterdam prof. dr. L. d'Haenens Universiteit Leuven dr. M.J.D. de Bruin University of the West Indies dr. J. Hoffmann, HIVOS, Den Haag
Faculteit der Maatschappij- en Gedragswetenschappen
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 ii Abstract
Empowerment is about the degree to which communities own and manage their resources and the extent to which such resources translate to the individual and collective benefit of the community. Community radio systems have been celebrated worldwide as excellent participatory communication tools which provide both access to information and a voice to the people of especially rural communities. These communities are usually among the poorest and most powerless, and are very often the targeted beneficiaries of empowerment programmes and projects led by international development agencies. The primary interest of this research is in exploring the role and value of communication in the evolution of the empowerment paradigm, as both the individual and the collective seek to improve the circumstances.
The research therefore, explores the mobilization and organizational functions of communication, particularly in bringing voice to poor, rural marginalized communities across the English-speaking Caribbean and the extent to which externally imposed, internationally defined measures of empowerment are manifested at both the individual/personal and collective/institutional levels. It posits that if communication plays a defining role in how the community is understood, interpreted, and projected, and if communication is a tool for education and transformation, then it must be a critical element in defining and constructing selfhood and human agency.
Specifically, the research interrogates the degree to which a community feels empowered in relation to its level of ownership of community resources. In this instance, the ownership of a community radio station and the degree to which such communication media system
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 iii promotes participation is explored as drivers of empowerment within the communities in which they are located. The argument is built on the premise that the higher the level of ownership of the resources, the more empowered the community will feel; the more empowered a community feels is the more likely for there to be action for change; ultimately, sustained action and change will lead to a more improved well-being of the community at both the individual and collective dimensions.
This, however, is not as fluid a process or outcome as while access, ownership and management of important resources are important indices of development and empowerment, these are not sufficient measures for, particularly, the rural poor in societies where the daily realities are serendipitous manifestations of persistent marginalization, brought about by economic, geographic, cultural and social factors. Methodologically and epistemologically then the search is also for a more precise indicator for interrogating the levels at which those involved in empowerment as a process actually participate, and how real or perceived power relations may be manipulated, including the use of communication, to suit stakeholder agendas and empowerment as a product. The question then is not just about access to the resources, but how and with whom the access is shared once the power of access is attained?
The serendipitous evolution of the Caribbean society is, therefore, central to the design of a case study methodology applied to five rural-based community radio stations spread across the English-speaking Caribbean. The case study combines focus group discussions amongst stakeholders across all the selected communities, as well as in-depth interviews with key performers such as programme managers and volunteers within the radio stations. These are
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 iv supported by thematic analysis of project reports and the administering of a survey among the listening audiences of two of the major media systems. All the research instruments are consistent in examining the individual and collective dimensions of empowerment and five critical elements of empowerment, namely, increased access, increased capacity, informed decision making, participation, and action.
The research concludes that the degree to which a community feels empowered is positively relational to the higher degree of ownership of community resources, but it is not as clear cut that the community radio stations by themselves guarantee higher success rates at promoting ownership, participation, and empowerment within the communities in which they are located. Also of critical note is that the conversion of empowered feeling to empowered action is not as evidenced without the added political, social and economic support systems spread across the communities. While the showcasing of the cultures of the communities have found new spaces and garnered new levels of respect and acceptance, social change and empowerment require higher level decision-making among the people and more sustained translation of information and awareness into action from and by the community media systems.
Additionally, inconsistencies between social action and social change across the Caribbean communities in which the selected media systems are located also speak to the capacity of those who access the radio stations. It is evidenced that their pre-existing power-relations determine where in the power-participation matrix they fall, thus influencing their ability to drive change both internally and externally. This research shows that while many of the volunteers feel they now have more power of influence than before, it is those who come to
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 v the system with previous higher levels of power who are still engaged at the decision-making level. So, while the new knowledge and insights emerging include the development of a
Caribbean typology for community communication and empowerment, the status quo is maintained in many instances and consequently, advances the acute implications for the sustainability of the empowered individual and community.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This dissertation would not have been possible without substantial sustenance, guidance, and assurance of many individuals, communities and organisations. Special thanks to: the people of Annai (Guyana), Toco (Trinidad), Blue Creek (Belize), Jeffery Town (Jamaica), and
Soufriere (St. Lucia), especially the volunteers and managers of Radio Paiwomak, Toco
Radio 106.7 FM, Radio Ak’Kutan, JET FM 88.7 and Soufriere Radio; the Rector and the management and staff of the University of Aruba, especially Dr Glenn Sankatsing and Dr
Lydia Emerencia and the visionaries behind the establishment of the PhD Research School in collaboration with the University of Amsterdam; my academic colleagues in the department of media and communication at The University of the West Indies, Mona campus especially the late professor Aggrey Brown and my inspirational and supportive friends at The UWI, Mona – Western Jamaica Campus.
Deep appreciation to Professor Cees Hamelink who has been a most patient and quietly interrogating academic supervisor and mentor. When my own academic zeal and personal challenges seemed destined to conspire against me, he always found the most intuitive ways to help me navigate the real from the abstract, and to see the light at the end of the tunnel beyond a mere glimmer of hope.
My family is simply awesome. Their incredibly consistent care, direction, patience and long- suffering through the many challenges and victories mean that success is as much theirs as it is mine. To my wife Doreen, children Tetrice, Jada, Jordis, Jhamiel-Wade and Bonique, as well as my sisters Audrey Francis and Beverly Williams and my entire family, this could not have happened without you. Thank you all for your unwavering encouragement.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 vii
Dedication
To the late Michael Als,
who passed away a few months after doing the interview for this research,
and
Community Radio Volunteers across the Caribbean
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract
Acknowledgements
List of Tables
List of Figures
Glossary
CHAPTER ONE 1
Encountering Caribbean development and empowerment through Community Radio
1.1 Overview 1
1.2 Empowerment communication and the rural poor 3
1.3 Framing empowerment within relations of power 7
1.4 Encountering Caribbean development as a process of domination 13
1.5 Community media as alternative 17
1.6 Direction of the research – Scientific and social relevance 20
CHAPTER TWO 27
Theoretical underpinnings of community communication and empowerment in the
Caribbean
2.1 Community, communication, and empowerment 27
2.2 Dependency, diffusion, and decision making as manifestations of power 32
2.3 Power-dependency relations as empowerment constraints in community radio 35
CHAPTER THREE 39
Methodological eclecticism and the serendipity of Caribbean phenomena
3.1 Research context and motivation 39
3.2 Towards a Caribbean empowerment typology 42
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 ix 3.3 A case of methodological eclecticism 49
3.4 The case study as a platform for eclecticism 56
3.5 Methods, sampling, and data collection 60
3.6 Limitations 66
CHAPTER FOUR 68
Community Radio in the English-Speaking Caribbean – The people’s voice take to air
4.1 Overview 68
4.2 Radio Toco – The original community radio in Trinidad and Tobago 73
4.2.1 Introduction 73
4.2.2 Giving voice to the powerless 77
4.2.3 Building collective and individual capacity 82
4.2.4 Support systems and sustainability 89
4.2.5 Who is listening to Radio Toco and why 92
4.2.6 Conclusion 98
4.3 JET FM 88.7– the voice from rural Jamaica 99
4.3.1 Introduction 99
4.3.2 JET FM changing attitudes and behaviour 106
4.3.3 Who is listening to JET FM and why 111
4.3.4 Sustainability 116
4.3.5 Conclusion 118
4.4 88.7 Soufriere FM – The voice and light of rural St Lucia 119
4.4.1 Introduction 119
4.4.2 Soufriere as an empowerment journey 124
4.4.3 Conclusion 128
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 x CHAPTER FIVE 130
Findings and Discussion – Empowerment as alternative voice and action within a culture of domination
5.1 Introduction 130
5.2 Feelings of empowerment 134
5.3 Empowerment as access 137
5.4 Levels of participation 139
5.5 Empowerment and ownership 145
5.6 Sustainability of social action and change 148
5.7 Conclusion 154
CHAPTER SIX 160
New typologies, new dilemmas and new challenges to empowerment in Community Radio
6.1 Building new platforms for new voices 160 6.2 New approaches to empowerment communication in the Caribbean 171
APPENDICES 181 Appendix A Informed Consent Form 181 Appendix B Interview Guide for In-depth Interviews 182 Appendix C Focus Group Guide 187 Appendix D Focus Groups Participants Data Form 189 Appendix E Survey Questionnaire 191
BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………….. 196
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 xi List of Tables
Table 1 Relationship between station operation, level of participation and degree of
empowerment. 43
Table 2 Awareness of drought management practices promoted by Drought, Look Out!
radio programme 110
Table 3 Programming on JET FM in order of preference by listenership 115
Table 4 Feelings about community by sex 135
Table 5 Radio station presence and benefit by sex 141
Table 6 Radio station presence and benefit by age 141
Table 7 Community’s ability to make decisions based on radio station presence 142
Table 8 Individual benefit from radio station’s presence 143
Table 9 Importance of radio station to community accessing resources 146
Table 10 Ways in which radio station makes access to resources possible 147
Table 11 Combined ways in which JET FM makes access to resources possible 147
Table 12 Belief radio station is being managed in sustainable manner 149
Table 13 Belief JET FM is managed properly by sex 150
Table 14 Belief Radio Toco is being managed in a sustainable manner. 151
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 xii List of Figures and Plates
Figure 1 A power-participation matrix for community radio 12
Figure 2 Media identity and local-national content 44
Figure 3 Relationship between media agitation and social change 44
Figure 4 Direction of community empowerment communication 45
Figure 5 Dimensions of empowerment 46
Figure 6 Levels of participation 47
Figure 7 Favourite radio station among listeners in Jeffrey town 112
Figure 8 Regularity of listenership to JET FM 113
Figure 9 Listening to Radio Toco and feelings about community 132
Figure 10 Listening to radio Toco and feelings about self 132
List of Plates
Plate 1 Map of Trinidad & Tobago locating Toco community 76
Plate 2 Photo of local teacher Deanna Caraballo, a volunteer presenter at Radio
Toco 86
Plate 3 Members of JET FM receive the Michael Manley Foundation Award for Self
Reliance (2011) from the Foundation’s Delano Franklyn 100
Plate 4 Map locating Jeffrey town in St. Mary, Jamaica 101
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 xiii GLOSSARY
AMARC World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters C4D Communication for Development C4E Communication for Empowerment CARICOM Caribbean Community CARIMAC Caribbean School of Communication CMC Community Media Centres COL Commonwealth of Learning CTA Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation EFJ Environmental foundation of Jamaica FAO Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations ICT Information Communication Technology ITU International Telecommunications Union JTFA Jeffrey Town Farmers Association RADA Rural Agricultural Development Agency SDC Social Development Commission STATIN Statistical Institute of Jamaica TF Toco Foundation UN United Nations UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNESCO United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund OECS Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States WSIS World Summit on Information Society
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 xiv CHAPTER 1
ENCOUNTERING CARIBBEAN DEVELOPMENT AND EMPOWERMENT
THROUGH COMMUNITY RADIO
1.1 Overview
The primary interest of this research is in exploring the role and value of communication in the evolution of individual and collective experiences as both the individual and the collective seek to improve the circumstances in which they live, work, and play. The mobilization and organizational functions of communication are, therefore, critical to this understanding. But while anecdotally these functions may be more evidenced within the inter/intra-personal dynamics of community rather than the generalized stereotypical homogenous mass level, there is still not enough work being done to validate such phenomena, especially across the Anglo-Caribbean region.
From Belize in the north to Trinidad and Tobago in the South and spanning Jamaica and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), there have emerged well established efforts at bringing voice to marginalized communities through the adoption of modern information-communication technologies. In contemporary times, wireless telephony and the possibilities of the Internet have been at the forefront of public discourse about the developmental value of Information Communication Technologies
(ICTs).
In Jamaica, for example, Internet usage has seen exponential growth from just above two percent (2.3%) in the year 2000 to approximately 53.6% in 2014 (ITU). Mobile telephony subscription on the other hand has mushroomed from 14.2% to 102.9% over the same period and hitting an all-time high of 116% in 2010 (ITU). At the same time mainstream commercial media have seen similar mushrooming and subsequent consolidation from largely government-owned single media house systems to more open private owned and independent media. Despite these phenomenal transitions at the mass level though, the media platform that remains constant and central to the people’s communication activities, especially at the poor rural community level, is radio.
A new round of these empowerment communication activities has coincided with the recent rise in civil society movements propelled by international agency-funding during the 1990s and which has also mushroomed into legitimate, even controversial, platforms for civic agitation and advocacy in the early parts of the new millennium. For example, in
Jamaica, the group called the 51% Coalition is an amalgamation of a wide cross section of civil-society and non-governmental groups that have coalesced around human rights advocacy and managed to place itself at the table of many national discussions both in public space and at government-led fora. This rise in rights-based advocacy is supported by an even more sustained drive towards a global information society undergirded by the rapid spread and penetration of newer information communication technologies – ICTs.
Community communication activities are therefore ripe for a level of analysis beyond their mere existence.
The fundamental thesis being interrogated here is:
If community media systems are tools for empowerment and the degree to which a community
feels empowered is relational to the degree of ownership of community resources such as media
systems (like a radio station), then community media systems (community radio) in the
Caribbean should have a high success rate at promoting ownership, participation, and
empowerment within the communities in which they are located.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 2 The argument is built on the premise that the higher the level of ownership of the resource, the more empowered the community will feel; the more empowered a community feels is the more likely for there to be action for change; and ultimately, sustained action will lead to a more improved well-being of the community. The concern though is that the international indices of empowerment are insufficient measures for a
Caribbean experience, especially for those people of poor rural and marginalized communities.
1.2 Empowerment communication and the rural poor
Empowerment is the single most critical factor for all contemporary development activities. Like development, the term empowerment has gone through various definitions running a spectrum of emphases from externally-driven single source interventions to internally-mobilized participatory initiatives. Generally speaking, empowerment is defined mainly as a process which leads to the improvement of people’s situations.
The definition of empowerment being used by this study is that offered by the Cornell
Empowerment Group which defines empowerment as “an intentional, ongoing process centred in the local community, involving mutual respect, critical reflection, caring and group participation, through which people lacking an equal share of valued resources gain greater access to and control over those resources” (1989:2 in Melkote and Steeves,
2001: 354). With this definition, the multidimensionality of empowerment is raised up but, critically, here empowerment is also explicit about marginalization, inequality and inequity. For the most part, these latter factors or conditions are the everyday realities of a Caribbean experience that is deeply rooted in a particularly violent and dehumanizing history.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 3 While access, ownership and management of important resources are important indices of development and empowerment, it is not sufficient in the context of particularly the rural poor. Their everyday reality is a manifestation of what it means to be economically, geographically, culturally and socially marginalized. A more precise indicator may be found in interrogating the levels at which all who are involved in empowerment actually participate in the process, and how power relations are masked or unmasked and skillfully manipulated to suit the various stakeholder agendas through various means, including the use of communication.
Communication plays an integral, if not defining, role in how we understand, interpret, and project the world around us. By extension then it helps to define self and human agency. Internationally, a key measure of development is people’s access to communication and information. The World Summit on the Information Society declaration of principles puts it simply: “Communication is a fundamental social process, a basic human need and the foundation of all social organization. It is central to the
Information Society. Everyone, everywhere should have the opportunity to participate and no one should be excluded from the benefits the Information Society offers” (WSIS
2003/2005).
In fact, access to information is such a necessary component in the development of knowledge, which in turn becomes a base from which informed action may be taken by an individual or community. In the contemporary information society, more than ever before, communities and peoples face new divides given the reach of, and access to, information communication technologies. The information rich and poor are defined by the digital divide. Those who own the technology have both greater access to the
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 4 information and, by virtue of that level of access, also have greater power over their circumstances as well as sway greater influence over those who do not have access.
However, while there is a rapid spread of ICTs – especially mobile telephony – and deeper penetration into the poorer countries and communities, the gap is still wide and the opportunities harder to grasp between the urban centres and the rural villages. In
Jamaica, for example, Dunn notes that in 2007 over 70% of Jamaican households still had no access to a computer despite the exponential liberalization and growth of the ICT industry since the 1990s. This figure only changed marginally in four years depending on the perspective from which it is presented. In 2011, only 24% of all households had access to computers while only 16 percent had internet access in their homes (Dunn,
2012:20). Hopeton Dunn and a team at the Telecommunication Policy Unit at the Mona
School of Business, University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona campus, have been tracking ICT access and use in Jamaica since 2007.
Access to computers and the Internet is a prime measure of modernity and development as much as they are to the ICT Development Index. The ICT Development Index was developed by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to capture the level of advancement of information and communication technologies in over 150 countries and is used to monitor the efforts at closing the digital divide (GISW, 2009:43). But individual access, which is predominant with the newer technologies and platforms, does not always translate into collective access the way media centres such as those supported by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
In the Caribbean, for example, several Community Media Centres (CMCs) have emerged as Cyber centres linked to community newspaper, radio outfits and Internet cafes which
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 5 provide free or low-cost access in rural communities. While UNESCO has had some success with the CMC initiative across the Caribbean, the feeling among the leaders of the successful centres is that the relatively moderate achievements are due primarily to inconsistency in leadership and coordination at the grassroots level. But the convergence happens and consequently widens the opportunity for community access to critical sources of information.
Interestingly, in the communities where the lowest level of new ICT penetration is most evident, radio still remains the most potent for reaching larger collectives. Community communication, and in this instance, community radio, therefore still plays a special role in the advancement of the empowerment process even in the wake of newer and seemingly more attention-grabbing and dynamically interactive ICTs. The sense of place and the appeal of people’s ability to still reach a larger number of persons at any given time cannot be undervalued, especially for poor rural communities that are perpetually struggling to meet their developmental needs and goals.
As the head of the Toco Foundation in Trinidad and Tobago, Michael Als* explains:
Underdevelopment beats down people… when they are able to get a sense of this energy, this
power that affects them; when they hear their voices on radio they come alive…so much
excitement is generated (by) just the fact that someone is heard on the radio, speaking about
something that has been affecting them for months or weeks, possibly years. And when they
hear it they have a big sense of what justice can be; they have a big sense of how their dreams
could possibly come alive; they have a big sense of the question of even social development and of
social freedom and social participation and social empowerment… They see themselves in a
different light and the radio therefore gives them the power to communicate with others and the
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 6 society and even with the power brokers – the big people! Because when the small people start to
speak big people listen, you know.
(Personal communication, March 18, 2013)
The defining role of community radio systems, as both technology and performance in the empowerment of individuals and communities, make them powerful at so many levels and dimensions. The dynamics between urban centres and rural spaces, the pace of the human, economic and infrastructural evolution between the two poles, and the ways in which both impact and are impacted by each other, are all grounded in a history of marginalization. The mass migratory feature seen in the rural to urban drifts, the drive towards education as a means of getting from the cane fields to the hallowed halls of learning, and the treatment of workers based on their position are examples of how deep rooted are the processes of empowerment and the need for communication to provide a sense of agency and voice – both at the individual and collective levels.
1.3 Framing empowerment within relations of power
The highest level of participation, as articulated by Wordsworth Gordon, president of the
Jeffrey Town Farmers Association (JTFA), which owns and operates a community radio station in rural Jamaica, has to do with two main elements of empowerment. First, farmers own the radio station, but secondly and more importantly, they are actively involved in the decision making processes in terms of the radio station’s content, programming, and direction. As the President of the JTFA affirms:
empowerment is when someone who has new information is able to utilize such information to
benefit self and others to live a better life style; so it’s not just to have information but to use
it… to be able to determine the value of the information to their advantage, the benefit of
community and the benefit of family (personal communication, July 2011).
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 7
What this means is that a group of people (farmers) who would normally only be involved in development initiatives at the consultation level – which is the lowest level of participation – are now both owners and decision makers of a resource that in itself is an acceptable means of power. This is also true for the selected cases under review by this study in Belize, Guyana, St. Lucia and Trinidad & Tobago where rural and indigenous folks – who are mostly involved in agriculture, fishing, and preservation of local cultures
– are using radio: to challenge negative and stereotypical imaging about their communities, articulate personal and communal dreams and aspirations, and mobilize and agitate both internally and externally for social, economic, and cultural change in their communities.
The main characteristics of community communication systems seem obvious; but depending on the perspective and attitude towards community and communication and the way relationships between those in charge and the people of community are managed, even the basic understanding of community, communication, and empowerment are challenged. Communication is a dialogic process which leads to common understanding of meanings (Brown, 2000). It, therefore, assumes a certain level of feedback or participation between those who send the message and those who receive the message.
In other words, while there is a constant exchange between content providers and consumers or audiences, at the community level this exchange is not constant in direction. Roles switch depending on the circumstances. In community communication the provider and consumer wear both hats at different points of the process. A volunteer producer at a community radio station then has to be always respectfully mindful of his or her individual and collective responsibility in and to the community as an agent of
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 8 social change and by extension, a significant player in the empowerment processes of his/her own community space.
Community is defined by common interests and location; people within a prescribed geographical space make up a community in the same way people with prescribed social interests do – even if they are located across geographical borders. The farmers who live in Jeffrey Town, St Mary are a community within a specific rural geographic space that also includes other people with different means of livelihood. So too, are the fisher folks of Soufriere, St Lucia. They may not be part of the management of the Soufriere
Foundation which operates Soufriere FM, in the same way the farmers are with the
Jeffrey Town Farmers Association, but the people of Soufriere do have direct access to a resource that other communities in St Lucia certainly do not have with their national stations.
The radio station is for the people of Soufriere not just because of its location but because of its purpose, focus, and content. As Malcolm Mathurin, the first project officer with Soufriere Radio and manager of the Soufriere Foundation says:
What we wanted to do is programming reflective of the community so the farmers could have a
voice, the fishermen would have a voice, (those in) tourism, the religious people… all would have
a feeling of what is happening in their hometown (personal communication, March 22,
2013).
This is certainly consistent with the sentiments of a young 19 year-old St. Lucian female who claims representation of her mostly unemployed age group. Speaking of the value of
Soufriere Radio she says:
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 9 It’s a good way of conveying relevant information…for example, in Soufriere if there is no
school; instead of going door to door to knock we hear it on the radio station. As they say, it
breathes life into Soufriere. It makes me feel like a citizen…and the programmes are really
inspirational… (Soufriere FG participant, March 25, 2013)
According to the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), community radio is “radio owned and managed by the community; the programmes are produced by the community and they deal with issues arising within and of relevance to the community” (AMARC, 1998). Furthermore, as the AMARC Declaration of Principle
1988 states, “Community radio responds to the needs of the community it serves, contributing to its development within progressive perspectives in favour of social change. Community radio strives to democratize communication through community participation in different forms in accordance with each specific social context.”
(UNESCO, Community Radio Handbook, 2001: 3).
It is in this very manifestation of the power of a radio station that the truth of empowerment is to be found. When people participate at the highest level – decision making – they are exercising power. When people have the opportunity to speak to and for many, via a medium that already carries with it authority and credibility, such as radio, they have power. But, this is also an acknowledgement that some individual or group already has that initial power to either open or close the access; and thus the question is not only about access to, but also access how? Who holds the key and how is that key shared?
Power is defined in many ways, but for the purposes of this research the focus is on the coercive and discursive elements of power. By so doing, the opportunity is provided to
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 10 bring to the empowerment analysis a longstanding debate in communication between those who believe media are all powerful hypodermic needles and those who believe it is the audiences that have the power of choice about what and how media are used. The essence of the latter perspective is that people are only influenced, but not controlled, by media and communication activities. The research findings on this differentiation between power as control and power as influence are quite fascinating. Even more interesting is how people see themselves in relation to the power they have gained or not gained by having some level of interaction with the radio station.
The following matrix (fig. 1) was developed as a way of understanding what was emerging from the discussions, especially with those who were closer to the daily operation of the radio stations. It matches levels of participation with perceived levels of power and demonstrates a couple of critical observations, namely:
a. The degree to which different players in the community radio systems develop
different relationships within the empowerment process depending on level of
participation; and
b. The extent to which status quo is easily maintained based on the perceived
power-participation quotient.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 11
Figure 1: A power-participation matrix for community radio
Empowerment as a process of social change has an inherent core of push and pull factors which make it philosophically dynamic, politically revolutionary, and educationally transformational. In the Caribbean setting these inherent factors take on a colour and scope similar in many ways to the experience of other regions subject to colonial, economic, and cultural domination, but quite dissimilar in significant enough ways to be understood as a unique Caribbean experience.
It is in these considerations that we may uncover the fundamental principles of a theory which explains Caribbean people’s willingness to act in relation to their sense of ownership of and identity with a resource, such as a community media system and which has the potential to make life better both at the individual and at the collective levels. The researcher therefore finds refuge for this kind of theoretical framing in the assertion of
Castells:
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 12 All institutional systems reflect power relations, as well as the limits to these power relations as
negotiated by a historical process of domination and counter-domination… Indeed, power
relations are by nature conflictive, as societies are diverse and contradictory. Therefore, the
relationship between technology, communication, and power reflects opposing values and interests,
and engages a plurality of social actors in conflict. (Castells 2007:239)
The Caribbean society especially the Anglo-Caribbean societies, have long been acknowledged as a plural society in many ways (MG Smith et al). And so, particularly for the Caribbean, empowerment is a constant struggle to address power imbalances. This researcher holds to the position that communication is about education and transformation (Brown, 1997; Freire, 1973). By extension, then, empowerment communication is essentially the dialogic processes of understanding the meanings of the relationships of power and finding and articulating ways to change such relationships that will lead to social justice and a quality of life worthy of a dignified human experience.
1.4 Encountering Caribbean development as a process of domination
There is a seeming dissonance between established notions of empowerment and those of the purported beneficiaries of empowerment – usually the poor and marginalized or groups of indigenous peoples struggling to maintain their culture. This dissonance can be attributed to a reflection of the incongruence between the varied theoretical thinking and perspectives on the processes of empowerment and the similarly diverse attempts at determining the true potential for social change and development as products of empowerment.
From the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) focus on economic growth; to the various United Nations (UN) development agencies focusing on human
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 13 and social capitals; and the inter-governmental institutions providing capacity building support at the grassroots level; to the rising civic and non-governmental organizations on the ground implementing the rights-based agendas of the big funders – there are as many approaches to development and empowerment as there are development and empowerment agencies. All are claiming the same game – lifting people out of their unequal, unjust and marginalized plight – but all with different agendas.
The history of Caribbean peoples has always been about empowerment; given its antecedents in a colonial past that dehumanized all relationships outside of a small core of human beings that appropriated controlling power or power over unto themselves. The colonial experience of the region was one in which whites, near whites and selected representatives of the ruling class were considered human beings and therefore were counted among the population. On the other hand, the slaves and their descendants who were in the majority were either property or near human counted more as economic asset. The post-colonial experience is arguably a play forward of the old regime where the colours may have shaded, but the systemic structures remain.
It means then that even in contemporary times, those at the periphery, especially in rural and remote communities, have even a greater distance to cover in attaining some semblance of belonging, social and economic wellbeing, cultural identity, and political voice. This is the history of domination with which Caribbean peoples have always contended. This is the context within which communication and access to information are critical to the type of action taken by an individual or community, as they engage in processes of social change, social activism, and community transformation.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 14 The ways in which, for example, democracy and freedom evolve are intricately tied to the business of access to information. In the Anglo-Caribbean, as noted by Dunn (2009)
Jamaica’s operation of an Access to Information Act (2000) and its free media make it a front runner among countries with advanced access to information (Global Information
Society Watch 2009, pg. 135 - 138). But mere access to anything is neither sufficient nor enough of a condition for true freedom to be realized. Unless access can be transformed into a process by which those who now have access can realize their true potentialities, it remains just that, mere access.
In other words, it is not sufficient for a people who have been marginalized by various modes of socio-economic and psycho-cultural domination to have access which further perpetuates the domination-subjugation dichotomy. The more meaningful to the process of social change, democracy and freedom is access which allows for equity, equality, and agency on the path to achieving independence at both the individual and collective levels.
Is this possible though when the reality that screams back at the poor and marginalized is that those who name the world own the world? A related and follow-up question to that is simply who is defining the world?
Ultimately, those who are able to define the world are those in whom power will reside.
Traditional mainstream media are key partners in the process of domination and, therefore as the stakeholders of communication activities designed to persuade mass audiences, will have power. The new media technologies and social media platforms which allow for a seemingly free and open dialogue among diverse cultures and locations are indeed part of that mainstream tradition of power as well.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 15 However, the real power of media and communication lie in its capacity to subliminally contribute to what Gramsci describes as the domination of the mind as part of a hegemonic system that maintains itself both by force and the spread of ideas (1971).
Later in Manufacturing Consent Herman and Chomsky (1988) propose that for people to emerge from this kind of hegemony people will have to seek knowledge and information in alternative forms of media and communication and even more critically translate that into community action. Is there an alternative voice for a region that lives in a world largely defined by the global reach of international news agencies such as CNN and FOX from the United States of America, and the BBC out of former colonial empire Britain?
Is an alternative platform for poor marginalized individuals and communities possible or sustainable given the rapid-fire changes in information communication technologies?
The exercise of power on the ground is also demonstrating that both the coercive and discursive forms of power are very much alive in the process of economic and cultural domination. For example, even the Caribbean in its own march along a road of political, economic, and cultural independence, has seen an invasion of Chinese culture in the region. When the most prestigious of regional educational institutions, the University of the West Indies, is one of the many locations at which Confucius centres are built, this is what Nye (2012) identifies as massive Chinese investment in soft-power. This soft-power frames a potential economic domination. In other words, what influence does a
Confucius centre have on the way Caribbean people see the partnerships of their governments with Chinese construction and engineering companies that have the capacity to meet long overdue and well needed infrastructural goals of the region?
Soft power is a critical part of the strategy in the dominant march of those who define the world in what is called the post-industrialist information technology age. This is the
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 16 age in which both an alternative voice must be articulated and translated into action that breaks the traditional hegemony and brings about new ways of doing for those who have long been marginalized, such as the rural poor. But it is also a prudent time to have those do for themselves what they have not been able to do before – take charge of their own resources and sustainably manage them in such a way that their descendants will have more time to better those arrangements, rather than fighting for the resource in the first instance. Can community communication and community radio be that catalyst for social change and community transformation?
1.5 Community media as alternative
What community media systems set out to do is to translate opportunities for a voice into education and awareness building aimed at social change and action that advance the welfare of both the individual and the community. This is a symbiotic process-product relationship that leads to a new appreciation of power as self-motivation, collective inspiration and mobilization, as well as shared management of all the resources which make for a better community. That is a tall order. But, if the domination of a people has been perpetuated by systematic coercion of education, religion, and media then the path to empowerment must simultaneously be about deconstructing these systems, as well as, creating other spaces and platforms on which people can redefine, control and manage their own resources.
Community media systems by their very nature are about providing information, encouraging communication, and promoting an environment in which communities over time feel empowered to both tackle the system and, ultimately, change the system. The dynamic processes involved in setting up and sustaining community media systems are themselves intriguing manifestations of the ways in which inequality has been entrenched
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 17 in the region, and at the same time, reflect the need for such establishments. These systems and their dynamic coexistence within a constant competitive relationship with traditional mainstream media forms, formats, and approaches provide a qualitatively distinctive base from which to measure specific notions of both individual and collective empowerment as identified by Man Hur (2006).
We must be mindful though that the trend in communication impact analysis tend to be largely focused on audience numbers – the market share, so to speak – rather than on examining the depth and quality of the relationship between the audience and the communication medium with which they interact, as they seek to realize their full potentials. This depth and quality speak to such important factors as, among many others, the individual and community value placed on the lived experience of the audience, the paradigmatic perspectives brought to the experience, the attitude towards collectives, and the articulation of a vision for the community.
It also speaks to the need for understanding how, even among the marginalized groups, notions of power impact relationships and by extension who leads and how the process of change is led. For example, does a teacher have more power by virtue of his/her level of education or by his/her traditional position of control? Would this then automatically make him/her the best person for leading the process of change in a community organization in which a majority of the members come from a largely undereducated and marginalized community?
The community may gladly appoint the teacher as the best choice, for example, to be the station manager, because of their own need for validation. In many Caribbean countries validation of place and stature is achieved via educational attainment. Arguably, certain
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 18 professions carry greater weight than others over a community’s sense of being and place. For example, a medical doctor or a lawyer would more likely be placed ahead of the line than a farmer or carpenter, even if the community is predominantly an agricultural one. These are cultural dynamics and relationships which are not necessarily captured at market level of media analysis.
Understanding trends in market share is evidenced primarily at the mass media level at which economic variables far outweigh the social and cultural factors of development with which community media are concerned. At the mass media level, communication content is driven more by financial viability or profit motive than by the human capacity to fulfill dreams and aspirations for better. The inverse is the case at community media level.
In the latter vein, one would be interested in the way media are used not just as information transmitting technologies, but as platforms for genuine communication activities. These include the dialogic sharing and understanding of information across local and national, individual and collective, and cultural and economic experiences. In light of this trajectory, the question to be asked is: Do community people longing for change have the capacity to engage in the kinds of transformational experiences required by community communication activities, such as, the operation and functioning of a community radio system?
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 19 1.6 Direction of the Research – Social and Scientific Relevance
Is Community Radio meeting its empowerment mandate in the Caribbean?
The general thrust of this research is to conduct an empowerment communication analysis of community media systems – specifically community radio – using cases from across the English-speaking Caribbean region. This may lead to a determination of the relevance, impact and sustainability of such systems – which are important factors in the life of such systems – but more importantly, the researcher is interested in how these systems advance empowerment as an alternative to the culture of domination.
The hegemonic principle of development to which the region has been exposed is one of external impositions of economic models and approaches, communication technologies and theories, and notions of empowerment. Not only is this principle believed to be failing (Best, Brown, Girvan, and Witter) but it also limits our understanding of how far a society can evolve on the Western model of development (Amin, Sankatsing).
Community radios are presented as technologies and platforms upon which the evolution of marginalized communities finds greater space and place for meaningful social and political transformation. The critical research questions then are twofold:
1. What is the quality of the relationship between community radio systems and the communities in
which they are located?
2. What is the degree of empowerment afforded the community as a consequence of these community
radio systems?
From an empowerment communication perspective the essential motivation is to establish the ways in which community radio in the English-speaking Caribbean promote individual and collective empowerment, as it relates to ownership, participation, and shared management of the community’s resources. Additionally, are there qualitative
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 20 differences evidenced by the levels at which individuals and community own, participate, and manage the radio station as a community resource?
Essentially, the concept of empowerment assumes skewed relationships of power; and in the Caribbean – particularly in marginalized poor rural communities – the symbols of power have always been in the hands of the wealthy minority whose ownership and access to resources give them ease of participation in the processes of determining social and economic affairs. Community media systems are, therefore, potentially the most significant resource for advancing empowerment among the traditionally marginalized given its framework for ownership and opportunities for higher level participation and management from and by the people.
Admittedly, this is a very difficult thesis to articulate from a Caribbean perspective. The main problem that emerges is that community media systems within the region are very often seen as failing to become true alternatives because of their continued dependence and very strong ties to the formats, approaches, and measurements of the traditionally
Westernized systems of media, communication, and development. Their sustainability, in particular, is also tied largely to the agenda of international funding agencies which are very often the lead organizations and motivation behind the introduction of the system in the first instance. In fact, most of the community radio stations across the world have been the result of interventions by international development agencies, such as those of the United Nations. Even with the differences in applications and iterations, the cases available and selected from the Caribbean are all initiatives heavily influenced by
UNESCO and its communication portfolio.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 21 The support by the international agencies is always welcomed. Much has been achieved, but there is still the need for an interrogation of the community radio-empowerment experience at three main levels:
1. To explore the contestation between communication as information transmission
systems for mind control and communication as a dialogic process of becoming
within the Caribbean space;
2. To clarify notions of empowerment, development, and the role of media and
communication as social construction systems versus channels for social change
in a Caribbean context; and
3. To validate Caribbean community media, both as operating systems and
alternative content and programming to traditional media, in the way they
execute their developmental function even as part of the established traditional
designation, the Fourth Estate.
It is critical to set a foundation for understanding the significance of community media in providing feasible empowerment alternatives to the approaches of underdevelopment which have plagued the Caribbean since the arrival of the European project of civilization on its shores over five hundred years ago (Beckford and Witter, 1972; Gray,
2004; Thomas, 1988). As empowerment communication tools, community media systems have a role to play in this development, but cannot in and of itself, be held entirely responsible for the kind of transformation necessary to soothe the scars of oppression, humiliation and dependency. Nevertheless, they are significant tools and simultaneously can be quite instructive to the understanding of where as a region the
Caribbean is located on the pathway to empowerment.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 22 Scientific relevance – Exploring Caribbean empowerment through communication lenses
What then is the scientific relevance of this study? Simply put, the central contribution of the process in which the researcher is involved at this juncture is the establishment of new typologies in empowerment through communication. This research is primarily an examination of the applicability of established empowerment indices – increased access, increased capacity, informed decision making, participation, and action (Alsop &
Heinsohm 2005) – to community empowerment in the Caribbean. Secondly, the research assesses how these indices fare in the context of individual and collective components of empowerment (Mann Hyung Hur 2006) as lived experiences. Thirdly, the Caribbean, as a lived serendipitous experience, is in itself, an eclectic unfolding of history and knowledge with a unique scientific process worth raising up for further interrogation.
Consequently, the researcher advances an argument or platform for a) valuing the qualitative nature of empowerment, and b) the development of systematic and meaningful measures of empowerment, even within a historical and cultural context that is uniquely pluralistic and distinctively Caribbean. The added dimension of the study is therefore, the development or construction of a typology of interaction between citizens
– both as individuals and collective – and institutions of empowerment such as community media systems, in this case, community radio stations in poor rural communities.
For example, community radio allows for the development of individual empowerment components such as self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-determination, and decision making ability (Man Hur 2006), at the same time as it promotes the development of collective empowerment components, such as, social cohesion and coalition building, leadership competence, and political control (Man Hur 2006). However, there is a gap in
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 23 the level of interrogation of this possibility within the Caribbean reality either because the indices are not culture adaptable or the assumptions about power relations are overly skewed towards the source of its origination. In other words, agents of development are still using indicators designed from non-Caribbean experiences, such as those presented by international development agencies, and are not identifying or acknowledging emergent indicators from practice within the region.
While practice in the Caribbean has been largely serendipitous, that in itself has presented and continues to present interesting ways of uncovering realities and ought not to be ignored or shoved aside as insignificant to the knowledge development processes. The researcher argues that the very ambiguities of Caribbean reality may best be served by a deeper appreciation of serendipity as scientific enquiry. Again, the Caribbean experience in community radio could prove useful in developing an empowerment typology of a different sort and possibly bring some validation to the unique ways in which Caribbean realities evolve serendipitously as knowledge development.
Social relevance – Understanding Caribbean empowerment as a socio-cultural process of becoming
Orlando Patterson, the Jamaican scholar and sociologist in his seminal work, Slavery and
Social Death (1985) interrogates the concept of the socially dead as a state in which human beings in slavery are deprived of their social being by being cast as property. With this designation, enslavement not only strips one of his/her freedom but denies the very essence of humanity – to be consciously pursuing the dreams and aspirations of becoming and of being with individual purpose to the collectivity to which one belongs.
From a traditional perspective, empowerment is seen as the process of giving people the capacity to both access and take control of the resources which they need to improve
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 24 their lives. Empowerment is therefore an integral part of the development process, if development is defined as that which “constitutes the reciprocal action between people and their environment that leads to the actualization of human potential in all its dimensions and to the conservation and continuity of the environment as people create society and history” (Brown in Culture Link 2000:162). Taken to its logical conclusion, empowerment is both a means and an end and should therefore be also about creating alternatives to the status quo. The research proposes that community media are in essence alternatives to the mainstream and are therefore providing both a fundamental and critical link in the empowerment and development processes specific to social and cultural identity building.
The history of development exercises in the Caribbean is replete with examples of failed external interventions, yet as a region policy makers continue to buy into the agenda of international agencies. Empowerment has to be an endogenous social process which leads to self-actualization, at the individual level and community power at the collective level. As Sankatsing (2003, 2007) further posits, “development is the mobilization of the own potentialities and social forces in a project of self-realization, in interactive response to nature, habitat, resources and history”. In many instances empowerment initiatives have been designed by individuals who do not occupy the space of the beneficiaries.
This raises the question: how does this help in the process of self-actualization and community power? A corollary to that is how much more effective are empowerment initiatives that are developed from the inside in making true reciprocity possible? In other words, the social and cultural context of development initiatives is critical to the ways in which the beneficiaries and, consequently, the initiative itself see success.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 25 An empowerment communication analysis of community media systems should, therefore, place new value, if not emphasis, on how Caribbean marginalized communities and voices actively contribute to the development process, for example, through their participation in the construction and development of community media programmes.
When women in rural communities of Jamaica and Trinidad who would not normally interface with the public health system, unless in need of medical attention, are brought into the core of content development for a radio programme designed to educate the wider community about maternity health and child care, new values are being placed on that experience. When a group of indigenous peoples in the bush lands of Belize or
Guyana are allowed to make decisions about what issues will be addressed by their own community broadcasting system, it is a move towards breaking down established barriers that knowledge and power are only to be found among the elite, the formally trained, or the institutions established to maintain an orderly and functioning society.
A closer examination of the phenomenon would, therefore, be significant to the efforts at bringing about a paradigmatic shift from the exogenously designed development approaches which have not truly advanced development in the region. It could also prove useful in the framing of social policy, particularly as it relates to education, communication, and giving people a sense of identity and place. As Jallov (2005) reaffirms, “If we really want to promote people-based social change and improved lives, we need to listen to the people themselves. They will point us in the right direction”.
Community media systems in the Caribbean are channels through which the marginalized are given voice and are therefore prime knowledge centres on which policy for social change and community development can be drawn – especially for the traditionally poor and marginalized rural communities.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 26 CHAPTER 2
THEORETICAL UNDERPINNINGS OF COMMUNITY
COMMUNICATION AND EMPOWERMENT IN THE CARIBBEAN
2.1 Community, communication, and empowerment
The objective of this chapter is to bring focus to the understanding of both community and communication as dialogic processes of shared meanings between both individuals and collectives involved in the making of history as a society. Community is a space within which culture and society evolve around agreed norms, customs and practices by those who occupy that space. Communication is the channel and understanding derived from the sharing of such culture and the agreement reached about the meanings and relationships of both the individuals and collectives as they construct community.
That puts all participants involved in this dialogic experience in a better position from which to take informed decisions about his or her life, as well as, the future of their communities. Communication therefore becomes a transformational educational exercise on the path to a collective becoming empowered. Consequently, communication is a key element of empowerment (Brown 1997, 2000; Freire 1973, 1993, 2007) in as much as it is fundamental to how communities are constructed and ultimately defined.
Critical to establishing that foundation of communication and placing it at the core of empowerment is an evaluation of the many international examples of community media systems found around the world (Jankowski & Prehn 2002, Lewis & Jones 2006). The historical evolution and analysis of the impact of community media systems, particularly drawing on those Latin American and African experiences (Dagron 2001, Jallov 2005) that bare similar experiences to that of the Caribbean are also important.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 27
Contemporarily, expanding the identification of community media systems to beyond mere geography or physical location is also critical to the discussion about the value of community, communication and their relationship to each other. Community media must embrace the traditional conceptions of media channels, such as radio and television operated at the grassroots level (Atton, Dagron, Lewis), contemporary new media systems brought about through newer applications of information communication technologies (Couldry & Curran 2003, Haiqing Yu 2006), and new and emerging opportunities for communication channels in formats such as popular/street theatre and public education movements (Downing 2001; Ford-Smith 1997; Srampickal & Boon
1998).
For example, Sistren Theatre Collective, a women’s theatre group from the urban centre of Kingston, Jamaica, uses popular education methodologies as a catalyst for community dialogue around social and economic issues of class and gender injustice and inequities.
The story telling groups of Bangladesh and Malawi that bring people together in common spaces to refashion and re-imagine their communities and villages through art and traditional stories demonstrate how the definition of community media can be much more expansive both in meaning and application. This expanded understanding of communication is necessary because all these formats are critical parts of the very fabric of community life. These formats find their way into community media systems not only as channels for entertainment or for embedding traditional educational content, but also as direct connectors to the culture of the people.
It is these same cultural trappings which are found in mainstream media to cultivate or construct a world in which people desire to be. In other words, community media are
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 28 both location and application of communication processes that are culturally embedded and articulated by the people’s voices, desires and actions for change – a change which brings better for both the individual and the collective as human being and as community.
This expanded definition of community communication also allows for a long needed critical assessment of the various perspectives on communication and development theories with distinct focus on the contemporary emancipatory communication theories versus the traditional modernization communication theories (Cadiz 2005; Dagron 2001;
James 2001; Morris 2005; Rogers 2003; Rogers & Hart 2003; White, Naire & Ashcroft
1994).
Historically, the lead role of reconstructing communities, and by extension redefining community communication practices, has been primarily that of international development agencies such as the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO). The UN based inter-governmental agency has been responsible for establishing community media systems (CMCs) across the globe and with much reported success. Especially in the context of new thrusts in Information
Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) projects across the Caribbean, a general overview and critique of the existing material on Caribbean community media is of extremely critical value.
This critique is valuable to the process of establishing the relationship between development, the role of communication as support systems and communication as a tool for empowerment of traditionally marginalized communities in which these international agencies operate. The main emphasis on UNESCO is related to the fact
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 29 that as an international agency it has a particular approach to development, and by extension, a particular approach to communication; but also, because even with the more modern ICT4D components, its projects and approach to development are externally constructed interventions. As such, there is a bias to diffusion of innovation theories, approaches, and models of development and communication.
If the interventions are externally motivated, designed, and delivered and are positioned to be people centered and people-driven then there is also an obvious need for critical interrogation to determine their true impact on the intended empowerment outcome.
The research is therefore framed within the empowerment communication paradigm which underscores that in community media, the nontraditional forms of communication, as well as the often unheard voice from the ground are new channels of expressing self and reality. But more importantly, community media systems are maximizing opportunities for new educational content and programming aimed at changing the way people with a particular experience see the world thus propelling both a paradigmatic shift from the traditional dependency on externally driven experiences to a truly internal process of action for change.
By way of emphasis then, while it is important to measure the impact of community media using empowerment indices it is of equal significance to identify those factors which make people more or less willing to act in ways that lead to social change, the improvement of the conditions under which people live, and ultimately a revolution in the status quo as is evident, for example, in the poor rural and remote community of
Jeffrey Town in St Mary, Jamaica (Prendergast, 2012).
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 30 Man Hung Hur (2006) suggests that there are three issues basic to the understanding of empowerment:
“empowerment is multidimensional in that it occurs within the sociological,
psychological, economic, political and other dimensions; empowerment occurs at
various levels such as individual, group, and community; (and), empowerment is
a social process because it occurs in relation to others” (2006; 524).
Empowerment by its very nature then, acknowledges that people should participate at all levels of the processes which move a community from basic awareness of its own resources to having the capacity to take control of such resources that are critical to the community’s development. Contemporarily, though, empowerment as a product must also highlight the sustainable management of these resources as a legacy of the community’s progress and development.
At the core of the empowerment communication paradigm is participatory communication which emphasizes the endogenous perspective over the exogenous
(Cadiz 2005; Dagron 2001; White, Naire & Ashcroft 1994), and acknowledges the community-based education and non-traditional means of communication as integral to the process of what Freire calls conscientization and knowledge building (Freire 2007). It also highlights the power relationships between cultural, historical, economic and political experiences of people and that of media and communication both as operation systems and as channels for social change (Brown 2001, Dean 2005, Dunn 2004, and
Gore 2007). All are important factors for consideration especially within a Caribbean experience where the constant motivation towards ‘becoming’ is grounded in the hegemony of things foreign, external and Western – including philosophy, science, culture, and technological innovation.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 31 2.2 Dependency, diffusion, and decision-making as manifestations of power
Theoretically this research recognizes the contestation between traditional communication paradigms such as Diffusion of Innovation (Rogers, 2003) and the dialogic interactive nature of contemporary empowerment communication
(CFSC/UNDP, 2010). In other words, the lingering notions of communication as mere transmission of information supported by the introduction of advanced technologies are under greater pressure from the still emerging notions of communication as “the interactive transfer of meanings between intelligences” (Brown 2000).
The contestation is further noted between communication as intervention and communication as initiative and between development as an indigenous process and development as an externally imposed economic outcome. The latter results in what
Sankatsing calls an envelopment of people’s indigenous culture. This imposition seeks to fit the indigenous into an exogenous framework rather than the preferred bottom-up, human-centered, and human-driven development process that allows for the dynamics of a people’s unique culture and environment to develop their own natural relationships
(Gray 2004, Sankatsing 2003, 2007).
As a social phenomenon then, community media have to be given consideration within an understanding of dependency theory – with emphasis on its argument that there is a relationship between people’s reliance on media for information and the level of social tension in the society. This is necessary, particularly in the context of UNESCO’s primary role in the development of community media systems in the Caribbean and the historical and economic dynamics between individual and collective dependence and community ownership – both of which seem to be at perpetual contestation. The new thrusts of the UN agencies away from the traditional communication for development
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 32 (C4D) to the more current communication for empowerment (C4E), highlights the shifts that have become necessary in the wake of what this researcher sees as a deepening consciousness towards internally-driven social action as evidenced, for example, by the social and behavioural changes taking place in Toco, Trinidad.
As Jallov reinforces in the UNESCO-Mozambique radio project, it can be a significant development challenge for outsiders to “create community radio from the top down”
(2005; 22). However, generally speaking, this is what is done despite the fact that “the first point in (the) strategy (is) to establish strong community ownership – the basis for any media community sustainability strategy and a sine qua non when working within the framework of a donor-initiated process”.
Other stages in the process include capacity building, strengthening financial partnerships, and creating local content (Jallov 2005; 22). Otherwise, it seems the intervention could prove to be perpetuating a dependency syndrome which has not worked in the Caribbean’s best interest on various levels. The political and economic arrangements across the region have been largely structured around dependence on external resources and special agreements, and consequently a severe vulnerability to external shocks.
Empowerment as a process and product of social change and development has an inherent core of push and pull factors which make it philosophically dynamic, politically revolutionary, and educationally transformational. In the Caribbean setting these inherent factors take on a colour and scope similar in many ways to the experience of other regions that have been subject to colonial, economic, and cultural domination. The examples in French, Portuguese and British colonial outposts in Asia and Africa readily
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 33 come to mind. However, these inherent factors are simultaneously quite dissimilar in significant enough ways to make the Caribbean experience uniquely serendipitous.
It is in these considerations that we may uncover the fundamental principles of a theory that explains Caribbean people’s willingness to act in relation to their sense of ownership and identity with an important resource such as a community media system which has manifest potential to make life better both at the individual and at the collective levels.
The researcher finds affirmation for this theoretical framing in the assertion of Castells
(2007) which states:
All institutional systems reflect power relations, as well as the limits to these
power relations as negotiated by a historical process of domination and counter-
domination. Thus, I will also analyse the process of formation of counter-power,
which I understand to be the capacity of a social actor to resist and challenge
power relations that are institutionalized. Indeed, power relations are by nature
conflictive, as societies are diverse and contradictory. Therefore, the relationship
between technology, communication, and power reflects opposing values and
interests, and engages a plurality of social actors in conflict. (Castells 2007; 239):
Particular for the Caribbean, empowerment is about addressing power imbalances.
Communication is about education and transformation. Empowerment communication is essentially understanding the meanings of the relationships of power and finding the most culturally appropriate and relevant ways to change such relationships towards the realization of social justice and a quality of life worthy of the human experience.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 34 2.3 Power-dependency relations as empowerment constraints in community media
Community radio and its mandate of empowering and transforming communities are by nature platforms for addressing power relations in the process of making important resources accessible to the people. Very often this transformation is premised on a state of dependence and, unfortunately, there is nothing more than a mere shift from one state of dependence to another. Emerson in his power-dependency theory (1962, 1964) looks at “how and why power was accrued and exercised, but also how it could be lost or successfully constrained… (and) argues that power was in relationships, not in people or positions, per se” (Sandra J. Ball-Rokeach, 1988 in mass Communication & Society,
1988, 1 (1/2), 5 – 40).
One could also argue, however, that it is the individual and collective experience or historicity of persons which form their attitudes towards power and therefore their placing primacy of value on the power of position and, consequently, how they treat with the relationships that emanate from the position. In other words, their subsequent exercise of power, though relational, also has foundation in the personage or physical representative of the position. Hence, the constant reference by participants in the research to the who of the position. This researcher’s design of the power matrix in
Chapter One, therefore becomes a critical tool for understanding the empowerment processes of community radio.
The power-dependency theoretical explorations of the 1960’s that underscored
Emerson’s work was also evident in Latin America and the Caribbean, and for what some would consider obvious reasons. The region, and for this research particularly the
English-speaking Caribbean, was during that period of the 1960’s emerging into its
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 35 strongest round of political independence movement. The last vestiges of colonial domination were being shaken, and new symbols of independence were raised up.
Starting with Jamaica and Trinidad in the early 1960’s, for example, the region had seen a wave of political independent declarations that lasted well into the 1970’s.
This political independence deepened the dialogue about dependency theory in the
Caribbean as the new indigenous governments struggled with what they had inherited to fashion a pathway of empowerment for their people after centuries of one form of domination or another. In the same way then, one cannot speak about empowerment without looking at power relations; nor should one look at independence without looking at dependence. This researcher contends that domination is at the root of the umbilical link between independence and empowerment and therefore borrows Theotonio Dos
Santos’ affirmation that dependence is:
“an historical condition which shapes a certain structure of the world economy
such that it favours some countries to the detriment of others and limits the
development possibilities of the subordinate economics...a situation in which the
economy of a certain group of countries is conditioned by the development and
expansion of another economy, to which their own is subjected.” (The Structure of
Dependence in American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings, IX, 2, No. 2
(May 1970). p.231)
Expanding on this meaning of dependency as a way of distinguishing the nature of dependency experienced by underdeveloped regions such as the Caribbean, Kema Irogbe
(in Journal of Third World Studies, Vol. XXII, No. 1 (Spring 2005) posits that “The domestic political economy is not only shaped by the interaction with a more powerful external economy, but is also shaped by the process. Indeed, the economies of the
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 36 dependence would be impossible to maintain without the existence and support of the external factors” (2005: 42).
The subsequent labelling of countries that have experienced the culture of violence and domination concomitant with slavery and colonialism as ‘developing’ assumes a starting point of underdevelopment and can easily be seen as merely a contemporary manifestation of the domination-dependency relationships that have characterised the post slavery, post-colonial and post-independence Caribbean. The power relations and power systems that have emerged and evolved over the more than 50 year period of independence in the Caribbean are still embedded in the old construction of society.
As Irogbe asserts, dependency relations have also shaped the social structures in the same way they shape political structures. He argues that having been forced to surrender their hold on the formerly colonized, the then imperialist powers ensured “they handed power over to their internal collaborators” thus creating “a convergence of interest between the local or internal bourgeoisie and the external capitalist oligarchies. The internal compradors greatly benefited from their dependency situation and they are unlikely to sever such a lucrative relationship unless they are forced to do so” (2005: 44).
The position of power versus the people in power versus the relational state of power debate still rages on. Thus, the empowerment struggle continues. This is a struggle to both shed the stranglehold of political and social arrangements inherited with independence as well as to change the psycho-cultural attitudes of subordination and inferiority embedded in the socialization processes of the education and media systems.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 37 The resources needed for the people to make their lives better are still far removed from their control and determination; and the people who can best bring about that change still remain those from outside or those inside whose values are closer to those of the former slave masters and colonisers. Technological and knowledge transfer and application remain an external to internal flow as much as the ownership of these important resources does. In other words, media domination of a particular kind from a particular source is a continuation, if not deliberate perpetuation, of the domination- dependency relationship between the traditionally information-rich and the frighteningly information-poor societies. However, community media systems that embrace an empowerment paradigm that prioritize the knowledge, skills, expertise, and realities of the local people are better able to advance sustainable change and management of own resources than externally driven interventions and models of development, especially for poor rural communities and villages across the Caribbean.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 38 CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGICAL ECLECTICISM AND THE SERENDIPITY OF
CARIBBEAN PHENOMENA
3.1 Research context and motivation
This chapter shares the developmental and methodological contexts of the research and makes the argument that alternative approaches to communication found within the community media systems of the Caribbean are not only sound platforms from which socio-political transformation is possible, but embedded within that possibility is a fundamental challenge to the traditional notions of how empowerment is measured, development is assessed, and epistemological justification is evidenced in emerging societies. The research design is located in the historical dynamics of power and power relations within the Caribbean region and the ways in which Caribbean knowledge- creators, in particular, have had to either imitate, assimilate, or agitate the imposed processes of knowing.
The major thrust of the research is the uncovering of new typologies of empowerment that are recognizably and uniquely Caribbean. Additionally, this process of uncovering sparks new kinds of discourse, particularly about the process of epistemological justification given what we know about the “ambiguities of the Caribbean experience” as
Chevannes (2006) calls it and the serendipitous ways in which Caribbean realities evolve.
The fundamental thesis being interrogated here is this:
If community media systems are tools for empowerment and the degree to which a community
feels empowered is relational to the degree of ownership of community resources, such as media
systems (like a radio station), then community media systems (community radio) in the
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 39 Caribbean should have a high success rate at promoting ownership, participation, and
empowerment within the communities in which they are located?
The research identifies ownership, participation, and empowerment as the key elements in understanding development. It also seeks to identify the ways in which these elements have been institutionalized and practiced as conveyors of alien, foreign, and interventionist approaches to improving peoples’ lives, particularly in the Caribbean.
Two major negatives result from the externally driven approach to development: the dominance of foreign resources, thoughts and measures in the assessment of emerging cultures, and the subordination of indigenous, native and intuitive cultures. Even with the pace at which new information communication technologies have emerged in the evolving information society the foreign dominance and subordination remains an issue.
Both the ‘information poverty’ and the homogeneity of local cultures and identity are widening and increasing unabated (UNCyberscool; GISW2009). The reverse should have been true – the evolution of functional societies built on the strengths of its own dynamics and resources.
This dilemma has thrown up one constant – how to empower those who have been disempowered by a system designed to perpetuate dichotomous relationships between
Western countries and others – domination and subordination, control and subjugation, power and powerlessness, and the right of the mighty over the vagrancies of the subjugated (Amin, 1988; Castells, 2007; Dussel, 1995; Fanon, 1963; Thomas 1988).
From a media and communication perspective, Amin’s analysis of empowerment as merely a quest in catching up with modernity in a context within which “the logic of imperialist expansion renders catching up an impossibility” (Dieng 2007) is most instructive. Eurocentrism, and contemporarily Americanism, as a tool for advancing
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 40 modernity, is “a phenomenon popularized by media in which the expression of the received ideas and specialist in areas of social science are valued highly, (however) what is needed is a genuine theory of culture, capable of accounting for the functioning of social power” (Amin, 1952: 2). This is the motivation for the research process outlined in this chapter.
A fundamental philosophy upon which the research is hinged is that all human beings have agency and if allowed to respond without the impositions of alien conditionalities they would willingly activate that agency rather than resort to dependency on outside help to move forward. Especially for rural folks in developing countries, such as, within the Caribbean, there is effort towards independence, self-actualization, and empowerment, but positive results and sustainability have been woefully lacking.
Community media and empowerment are therefore intertwined in fostering that sense of agency, independence, and confidence in the human capacity to mobilize their own resources and potentialities – including the uncovering of their own knowledge and in so doing describing and defining their own truths.
Consequently, this research seeks to advance the case for methodological eclecticism in the study of Caribbean phenomena. This is not advocacy for a laissez faire approach to research, but rather than attempting to find a single systematic and meaningful measure for a primarily qualitative concept such as empowerment, the research process and methodology will evolve as a grounded approach. An overarching outcome then, is the development of a typology of interaction between citizens – both as individuals and as collectives – and institutions of empowerment, such as community radio – both as performance and as technologies.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 41 Specifically this research seeks to examine the applicability of Aslop and Heinsohm’s
(2005) five empowerment indices to community empowerment initiatives in rural
Caribbean. These are increased access, increased capacity, informed decision making, participation, and action (Alsop & Heinsohm, 2005). Mirroring the plurality of Caribbean experience, this research is assessing how these indices fare in the context of individual and collective components of empowerment identified by Mann Hyung Hur (2006).
3.2 Towards a Caribbean Empowerment Typology
This research considers the possibility of a typology that would distinguish Caribbean empowerment processes in relation to community radio systems and from which a parallel taxonomy for community communication would also emerge. This researcher believes that the design of a Caribbean Empowerment Typology for Community
Communication (CET4CC) model would enhance the introduction, monitoring and evaluation of the practicality and sustainability of not only international, multinational or national development initiatives, but more critically, the introduction and management of community media systems as part of these initiatives.
This is the fundamental premise around which the four main hypotheses of the project have evolved. Each is reflexive of the four critical elements of empowerment – participation, identity, ownership and action. However, as mentioned before, all hypothetical statements have participation at the core of their interrogation.
Hypothesis 1: The higher the level of participation the more established the media system will be.
That is to say, the operational sustainability of the community media system is dependent on the level of involvement of the community people in its operation.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 42 The research is matching the identified levels of participation to areas of operational responsibilities. The basic categories of operation within the media system are matched with the levels of participation and are seeking to determine the degree of empowerment at the individual or collective level as indicated in Table X below. All the functions are either individual or collective. However, the collective is the highest ideal.
Table 1: Relationship between station operation, level of participation and degree of empowerment
Categories of Media Levels of Participation Degree of Empowerment
Operation
Listeners Evaluation Individual/Collective
Content development Benefits Individual/Collective
Marketing and Sales Implementation Individual/Collective
Programme development Decision-Making Individual/Collective
Hypothesis 2: Community media systems that address the informational and educational needs of the communities in which they are located will have greater community recognition and identity than those whose content is majority national news and popular entertainment.
The belief is that community acceptance, recognition and identity with a media system is dependent on the communication focus of that media system – inform, educate, entertain – but also its source and nature of content – local/localized or national.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 43 Figure 2: Media identity and local-national content
Hypothesis 3: The degree to which a community contests established power is linked to the ways in which power is contested in and by the community media system itself.
That is to say, community action for change (social or political) is dependent on both the ratio of power agitation within the media content and the extent to which power relations are manifested within the media system itself.
Figure 3: Relationship between media agitation and social change
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 44 Hypothesis 4: The degree to which a community is empowered has direct relationship to the presence of a community media system. Therefore, empowerment at both the personal and community levels is dependent on both the existence of the media system and the extent to which it operates as a community system, at which the highest level is ownership by the people.
Figure 4: Direction of Community Empowerment Communication
Empowerment is about ensuring people’s sense of identity and agency; increasing people’s awareness and knowledge; improving people’s capacity to organize for self- reliance; and encouraging opportunities for ownership. This means examining the applicability of empowerment indices identified by Aslop and Heinsohm (2005) to community empowerment in the Caribbean through the following series of questions:
1. Increased access:
Do individuals and collectives have access to the community media
system? What is the extent of the access? And importantly, what access
do individuals or collectives have to the resources of the community and
to what extent is this a consequence of the community media system?
2. Increased capacity:
Do individuals or collectives feel they are better able to perform specific
skills or tasks as a result of the media system? What specific area of
capacity building are identified – technical, knowledge, financial,
administrative, or relationship building? What are some of the things that
are being done by the community that were not being done before the
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 45 media system existed? Are the community members able to organize
themselves for self-reliance? If they own the resources, are they able to
manage for sustainability, and what criteria are in place to assess
sustainability?
3. Informed decision making:
Is the community better able to make informed decision and is it
measured? What are the anecdotal and empirical evidence?
4. Participation:
Three dimensions of participation and four levels of participation are being
considered by this research as illustrated in figures 5 and 6.
Figure 5: Dimensions of Participation
i. Who is participating?
ii. What is the level of
participation that is
taking place?
iii. How is the process
of participation
occurring?
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 46 Figure 6: Levels of participation with the highest being at the core.
i. Evaluation: This is the lowest level of participation, and where,
traditionally, the wider community is engaged in consultations on
outcomes.
ii. Benefits: The community is identified only as beneficiaries. Though a
step above mere responding to outcomes, this level allows the
community to receive a degree of tangibles.
iii. Implementation: The community is involved in the execution of the
activity but mostly in a voluntary dimension or what is called sweat-
equity.
iv. Decision-making: This is considered the highest level of participation
because it involves the community in the entire process of a project
or programme; from planning and design to implementation,
monitoring and evaluation, to projection of ways forward. A big
challenge that is posed by this level of participation is how to balance
inside expertise with outside expertise. (See Table 1)
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 47 Decision-making could be considered the core, the essence of the
empowerment process because it allows for deeper and greater identity
and opportunity for ownership of the resources, both as inputs and
outcomes. Consequently, it increases the power of those involved at this
level, hence the power-participation problematique of empowerment.
For example, the predominant manifestations of power within the
Caribbean space, due significantly to the colonial historiography of the
region, tend to be externally driven. Additionally, power indices such as
self-esteem; formally developed expertise or mastery in specialized
knowledge or technical areas; ability or capacity to express ideas
(sometimes in own voice); as well as, sense of agency, are usually related
to economic status. Generally, rural economies are way below the average
national economy and concomitantly assume positions of lower status
and limited resources. The existence of a community radio station,
therefore, is usually a significant achievement because of the power
residing in both the technology and the potential performance.
5. Action: A critical element of the full empowerment process is how to convert
access to the resources, increased capacity, and participation at the decision
making level into action and social change. Four main tasks are therefore
explored under this area of action. First, the research should identify the different
kinds of actions taken; but critically, who is involved in taking the action relative
to their levels of participation or engagement with the community media system.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 48 Secondly, the research must locate the catalyst for change. Does the media
system play a role in getting action? In other words, what is the relationship
between the action taken and the power-relations content of the media system?
Does the community media system embolden its audiences? A third question of
importance is to determine whether those with established power gain or lose
power with the advent of the community media system and what of those who
did not have power? Finally, for empowerment to be transformational, the ideal
would be that the actions and social change taking place in the community are in
fact sustainable.
3.3 A case for methodological eclecticism
One of the challenges traditional researchers will have with this work is its seeming flight in the face of traditional research approaches and methodologies. Admittedly, this researcher finds traditional scientific enquiry most inadequate for either exploring or explaining the fluidity and serendipitous nature of Caribbean phenomena. The dichotomous orientation of Western science and those socialized or wired to see the world in purely dichotomous ways see true research as located in either quantitative, qualitative or the compromise of triangulation or mixed-methods. And yet, there is increasing evidence of so much nuancing taking place in contemporary life that renders the usual almost redundant.
However, in the traditional sense, one could define the research approach taken here as primarily qualitative. It presents a comparative case study of community media operations from rural Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, St Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago. The community media systems under study include Radio Ak’Kutan (Belize), Radio
Paiwomak (Guyana), JET FM (Jamaica), Soufriere Radio (St. Lucia), and Radio Toco
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 49 (Trinidad). This study of selected Caribbean media systems looks specifically at community radio and how they:
a) fit within defined empowerment communication paradigms;
b) impact the empowerment processes within communities in which they are
located; and
c) what such impact say about the evolution of external development initiatives
within Caribbean societies.
The fundamental task is how to translate the plurality of Caribbean phenomena to knowledge. One of the essential points Feyerabend (1975) makes in his seminal work,
Against Method, is this: the idea that science (is) the most respectable form of knowledge
(with) set universal rules of engagement is both detrimental and undermining to science.
But more critically for this researcher, this idea undervalues man’s capacity for creative responses to the circumstances in which history and society are manifested and the development of his talents occur. Serendipity may best describe the process of understanding Caribbean societies, especially given the level of creative response necessary for the manner in which development takes place within and across the
Caribbean’s unique history.
At first glance Feyerabend could be seen as positioning himself on the naturalistic side of the scientific debate in which the dominant paradigm of positivism not only determines the approach to science, but holds hegemony over an important socialization institution such as education, wherein failures of this hegemony are evident.
It is very easy then to warm to this fundamentally anarchist view of science, if one looks at the evolution of the Caribbean as a region where development processes and understanding of such have been largely defined, if not prescribed, by Eurocentric (albeit
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 50 primarily American) and therefore external, paternalistic, and restrictive approaches and methodologies. In other words, the propensity towards validating Caribbean phenomena based on the dominant view that science and knowledge are the result of single lines of argument, reason, and empirical analysis rather than pluralistic methodologies, which have the potential to account for the convergence of history, emotion and religion in the unfolding of knowledge has been counter-productive to Caribbean development. It may also be counter-productive to the development of Caribbean epistemology.
What is most fascinating is that this counter-productivity is perpetuated by the very products and services which, if used appropriately, would be most effective tools for revaluing, reshaping, and reframing the psycho-physical violence of the historical and developmental processes that have been the Caribbean’s lot.
The media and the sensationalist ways in which, for example, the value of language is used to shape the region are at front and centre of perpetuating the counter-productivity of the hegemony of outsider over insider. From all accounts the Caribbean – English,
French, Spanish or Dutch-speaking – remains a plural society on several critical fronts.
One of the most obvious is the language variations not just across the dominant languages – all of which are presented as of European origin – but also as seen in the variations within the individual languages themselves. This plurality in language is manifested in the long-standing discourse about the place and value of, for example, the various dialects that have emerged across the region.
All the regionally evolved languages face the same kind of value-judgement debate – from the Dutch-derived Papiamento to the French-laced patois of both the Anglo and
Francophone Caribbean and the Afro-Jamaican dialectical derivative of the English language. The debate about language cuts across many areas of Caribbean life as
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 51 significant indicators of self identity, education, progress and success, social and economic stratification, and of course articulation of desires and beliefs in the form of cultural enterprises such as music and literature.
Given that language and its use are integral to all media operations, it is important for this discussion to take place. The significance is even more striking when community media systems are the channels through which marginalized peoples feel more connected to their language and culture and by extension develop a sense of belonging. Rural communities are known for their use of not only the native language, but accents that have very little or no metropolitan influence. Very often the metropolitan influence is made obvious through a sort of affected tongue and sound – a failed attempt at reproducing what is perceived to be correct language and sound.
According to Chevannes, in the chapter Ambiguity and the search for knowledge, when a people are caught ‘between two worlds…in this in-between, liminal state, the forging of new identities becomes an open-ended adventure of imagination’ (2006:77). This unique brand of convergence within a plural framework creates all kinds of challenges. One such challenge for the Caribbean region is the schizophrenic relationship of its people with that which is theirs versus that which is ‘others’.
This dilemma is the consequence of the cultural and cosmological interconnectedness of the Caribbean in which ‘distinctions between entities and categories are not absolute, and differences can be transposed from one category to another’ (Chevannes, 2006:74). This researcher believes that this kind of transposing of experiences from one to the other can and ought to be interrogated in a transparent and justifiable manner that is able to stand up to scientific rigour. This is a convergence that both underscores the plurality of
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 52 Caribbean reality and simultaneously provides a foundation for the plurality of methodologies necessary for unravelling and understanding said plurality. Again, as
Chavannes affirms, ‘Caribbean thought is thought, but will never be Caribbean unless it embraces the power of ambiguity’ (2006:75).
In wearing a western scientific cap, the questions raised by this notion of thought and ambiguities include: How do we measure ambiguity? What are the variables or indicators? Are there existing data bases for studying ambiguity? While the concept or notion of ambiguity seems understandable given the Caribbean experience of masking and unmasking, there is still that need for some empirical demonstration of this ambiguity. This researcher posits that
Caribbean ambiguity does manifest itself in the realities of media and power relations and can be seen in the ways, for example, that community radio always brings new energy to the debate about identity, ownership and management of own resources.
The fundamental issue then is what makes the discoveries or understandings about
Caribbean life justifiable knowledge. Specifically, in understanding Caribbean community media systems and their role in the empowerment of the region, consideration of whether a pluralistic methodology, or what Feyerabend calls the counter-inductive, would present more of a challenge to the scientific community than a focus on the discoveries made. It may even be safer to go with the Hosperian sufficiency of truth in justifying knowledge especially since Hospers himself makes a case for scepticism even if not in methodological pluralism. This debate is not just a longstanding one over methodological approaches and choices, but for this researcher is an example of the unique challenge faced by those who resist the hegemony of western scientific processes from within.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 53 This is not about signalling that there is no need for epistemic justification of Caribbean phenomena. Neither is it being proposed that a study of any of the region’s phenomena such as the evolution and contribution of media and communication should be void of scientific scepticism in the traditional sense. Rather, in agreeing with Unger (1982) the research is acknowledging that scepticism allows for development of other ways of thinking; other ways of determining how we know what we know to be true or fact and not just local phenomenon or experience being passed off as such. As Bonjour asserts,
‘There are… many different varieties of scepticism, and it is true that not all of them can be successfully answered” (1985: 14).
This is why it is so important to recognize the value of the reflexive mind-set in the study of communication and culture (Hamelink 2008) and especially in a society where that culture and communication have a symbiotic relationship with power and the process of social change. This particular research is located in the notion that society is a constructed phenomenon. The Caribbean society is in fact a special case of construction and deconstruction around notions of domination, colonialism, capitalism, and scientific empiricism, on the one hand, and anti-colonialism, social welfare brand of socialism, and grounded exploratory and participatory unveiling of the masks which govern the education, religious and scientific communities on the other. Caribbean evolution in most ways could be seen as one continuous process of serendipity.
Some important questions emerge for which this research and its design must provide answer:
1. How does one go about establishing what notions of empowerment and
participation within an external definition of development are sound and worth
highlighting? This is in light of the need to unmask the region’s dilemma of
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 54 fitting into a box prescribed by scientific endeavours and processes which would
see both the Caribbean phenomena and means of studying as mere pseudo-
scientific activities. This process must therefore acknowledge, understand and
appreciate the existence of outliers, especially where prescriptive indicators are
identified and imposed from external experiences.
2. How would epistemological anarchism advance the development of the region
beyond what Sankatsing (2006) describes as Caribbean social science being a
victim of its own disciplines, thus failing to embrace its own Caribbean realities?
If scientific justification and approval remain in the power domain of external
forces then it could become quite a futile exercise to change the status quo. This
would merely set the platform for backlash and the perpetuation of the victim-
oppressor relationship which has come to define the Caribbean-Colonialist
heritage, and by extension, disavow the significant contribution that may have
been possible with being conformist rather than being anarchical.
3. To where do the conversations about the value of qualitative or grounded
research theory versus the traditional lead in a Caribbean research project such as
this?
Maybe the common sense response to these questions lies in the Kantian notion that ideas are heuristic concepts and do not exist by themselves. Perhaps there are no truths to be found in exploring the notion that community communication in the Caribbean is after all empowering. But since we accept that communication is the centre of human development and the technologies that support the advancement of such are indicators of modernity then our own witness supported by information communication technologies should be seen as beyond mere local phenomena. A pluralistic
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 55 methodology, therefore, becomes the tool for reflexive analysis of a plural society such as the Caribbean’s.
As a product of the special history and culture known as Caribbean, and schooled in the experience of ambiguity, refuge can be easily found in the statement that a mature citizen will ‘study science as a historical phenomenon and not as the one and only sensible way of approaching a problem’ (Feyerabend 1975: 308). According to Feyerabend knowledge conceived from a pluralistic methodology ‘is not just a series of self-consistent theories that converges towards an ideal view; it is not a gradual approach to the truth. It is rather an ever increasing ocean of mutually incompatible…alternatives, each single theory, each fairy tale, each myth that is a part of the collection forcing the others into greater articulation and all of them contributing to the development of our consciousness’ (1975:
30).
Empowerment is supposed to be about moving people to the point of consciousness where they are confident in their own experiences, abilities and potential to create pathways which lead to an improved and sustainable way of life. This is a window of opportunity to embrace the challenge of moving towards new insights, new thinking, and the consolidation or justification of that which is Caribbean thought and knowledge; especially as it relates to the functions of media and communication in the Caribbean empowerment process.
3.4 The case study as a platform for methodological eclecticism
This research is designed as a case study. The beauty of the case study is its ideal for the exploratory and its facilitation of meaningful choice of context-appropriate approaches and methodologies (Schloss and Smith 1999; Yin 2003; Babbie 2007; Berg 2007). Case
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 56 study makes for easier articulation of resistance to the status quo, which is a critical element of empowerment. The choice of methodological design is recognizing a process of natural evolution in how the sources, resources, energies, and dynamics affect the levels at which both the researcher and communities of study perform.
Notwithstanding agreement with Yin (2003), that the traditional hierarchical view of scientific research which reinforces the myth that case study is only an exploratory strategy, this researcher still leans more to that exploratory and theory building applicability of case studies. This position taken is a consequence of the deep socio- cultural and developmental location of this particular study, but more importantly, because of the way in which case studies allow for a dynamic mix of methods and approaches (Yin 2003; Babbie 2007; Berg 2007).
Berg (2007) defines, a case study as “systematically gathering enough information about a particular person, social setting, event or group to permit the researcher to effectively understand how the subject operates or functions (2007:283). Critically though, “the researcher is able to capture various nuances, patterns, and more latent elements that other research approaches might overlook” (284). It is about finding the best instruments to answer questions posed in what is considered to be very fluid settings and circumstances, such as they are in the community radio systems. Serendipitous moments are, therefore, points at which the reflexive processes kick in rather than become excuse for incomplete interrogation and for which this researcher finds comfort in the case study approach. As Yin (2003) concludes, “the need to balance adaptiveness and rigor – but not rigidity – cannot be overemphasized” (2003:61).
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 57 The critical adaptiveness and flexibility skills identified by Yin (2003), as well as, the broadening of the meaning of ‘listening’ skills are what this researcher finds most fitting to serendipity as knowledge generation. The former speaks to the certainty of shifts in cases and the need for researchers in such instances to be “willing to adapt procedures or plans if unanticipated events occur (but also the ability) to maintain an unbiased perspective and acknowledge of those situations in which, in fact, you may have inadvertently begun to pursue a totally new investigation” (2003:61).
Regardless of the process, all data collection instruments – traditional or alternative – seek to address five specific indices of empowerment in relation to the individual and collective components of empowerment evolving from the location of community radio systems in rural communities across the Caribbean. Using the key elements of specific theories of power and communication, an empowerment communication typology is developed to demonstrate:
a. the degrees and components of empowerment in relation to community media
systems;
b. the levels and quality of participation and interaction between the community and
community media systems; and
c. the identifiable stages of Caribbean development at which community media
systems impact people’s empowerment.
The focus is on developing an understanding of the measurement of the indices or degrees of empowerment and how the various methods – interviews, focus groups and community fora supported by smaller surveys – can be operationalized into reliable and valid data collection instruments. The selection criteria for the community media systems and the sampling procedures for the subsequent field work are important in
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 58 understanding the process. However, the fundamental discussion is around placing the indices within the perspectives of select theories of power (domination, dependency, systems) and theories of communication (diffusion of innovation, and empowerment).
This is the basis upon which an approach to research that represents the occurrences of empowerment through community media within a Caribbean experience is constructed.
This qualitative case study of community media operations in Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, St
Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago is aimed at ensuring a representative fit of the region in terms of location, culture, and peoples. It also serves to highlight the socio-economic and political differences in the respective territories. The community media systems selected, therefore, reflect a diversity of approaches to the creation and production of media content on a wide and varied set of social and economic issues. These issues include maternal health and child care, rural agricultural practices, climate change, preservation of indigenous and at-risk cultures, and public education and awareness on governance.
Importantly, all the radio systems selected seek to give people a voice where it did not exist before. This is a critical component of empowerment.
The research, however, highlights three of the cases identified – Radio Toco, Soufriere radio and JET FM – given their similarities in rural development, support mechanism, and centrality to the development agenda of the community in which they are located.
Additionally, Radio Toco is the oldest of the surviving community radio systems in the
English-speaking Caribbean, while JET FM is among the most dynamic of the newer systems. Both Radio Toco and JET FM are treated with the fully expansive study, while the case of Soufriere Radio was examined through focus groups and in-depth individual interviews. Radio Ak’Kutan and Paiwomak, though rural based and focused on cultural preservation of largely indigenous populations, are considered in this study as outliers of
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 59 significant experience at both ends of the old-new spectrum. Focus groups and community meetings were conducted with the two latter cases.
In using the case study approach, the research combines focus group discussions; in- depth interviews; analysis of project reports and archival materials; evaluations of training materials; as well as survey questionnaire. While the five elements of empowerment are being examined – namely increased access, increased capacity, informed decision making, participation, and action – there is a special focus on the element of participation.
Participation is further broken down into four levels: evaluation, benefits, implementation, and decision-making. This researcher believes that a focus on participation allows for a more deliberate emphasis on power and how power informs action as key to understanding empowerment.
3.5 Methods, sampling, and data collection
Four types of research undertakings were activated in support of the process of uncovering the realities of the cases identified: in-depth interviews, focus groups, document analysis, and survey. The in-depth interviews were undertaken with the following participants because of their varying levels of involvement in the operations of the radio stations. a. Owners of the station – the leader of the organization and board members b. Station managers c. Content Producers d. On-air talent/volunteers e. Supporting organization representatives
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 60 The selection of the interviewees was automatic, based on their position of responsibility.
The volunteers, however, made themselves available for the interviews on their own judgment or interest.
For the focus group discussions, the intention was to have three groups of participants defined by gender (men only, women only, and a mixed group), but all selected on the basis that the radio station had some degree of value to their everyday life. The discussion guide was designed around assessing two main areas:
1. What are the specific ways in which the radio station has value to you/the
community?
2. How do community members feel about their level of participation in the life of
the radio station?
The survey was conducted among the general populations of listeners in each case. The population was identified from the most recent national censuses available (2010-2012) and were used to determine the characteristics for a simple random sampling procedure.
The aim was to identify representative samples based on overall age and gender and capturing between 10 and 15 percent of the populations. The general populations in these small, rural townships is spread across larger geographical spaces; but they are obviously smaller in size than the densely populated urban spaces. Group or collective influence is not therefore expected to be as easily mobilized in the rural townships.
The field work was conducted over a two year period between March 2012 and May
2014. All in-depth interviews, focus groups, and community meetings were conducted by the researcher in the communities of Annai, Guyana; Blue Creek, Belize; Jeffrey Town,
Jamaica; Soufriere, St. Lucia; and Toco, Trinidad. All participants in these activities
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 61 signed an Informed Consent Form (Appendix A). Additionally, two community wide surveys were conducted – one in Jeffrey Town and the other in Toco – by two sets of field workers who were trained to administer the 37 point questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed to capture three sets of information in three sections. Section
A covered the demographics, Section B looked at listenership of the radio station, and section C focused on the five indices of empowerment identified by the researcher for interrogation (Appendix B)
Several meetings and focus group discussions were undertaken with members of the communities and volunteers of the community radio stations. Participants were allowed to share their understanding of the broad themes of development and empowerment, as well as, their individual and collective views on the significance of the radio station to their everyday life in terms of building awareness, self-esteem, and making informed decisions; their feelings about the success or failure of the radio station in meeting their individual expectations of empowerment; and the extent to which they had access to the radio station and where needed, what improved access would mean. A focus group guide around these indicators was utilized (Appendix C), but participants also completed a
Focus Group Participant Data form which captured basic demographics and a few questions about the relevance of the radio station (Appendix D).
In-depth interviews were held with the leaders and managers of the radio stations, as well as, the heads of the main support organisation of each media system. At this level the interviewees reflected on issues of capacity building, sustainability, and leadership transition initiatives. Interviews were also done with individual volunteers – the content producers and presenters on the radio station. These interviews required the volunteers to reflect on the meanings of power and influence and how they see themselves in
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 62 relation to the real or perceived increased power that comes with being a volunteer at the radio station. An interview guide was utilized by the researcher (Appendix E).
The survey questionnaire was conducted at two levels. One was completed by the focus group participants capturing basic feelings about the importance of the radio station to the individual and community. The second was more comprehensive and was administered across the wider community using a stratified random sampling procedure to select from a population of listeners to the radio station. The target was 196 at 85 percent confidence and a 5%margin of error for Jeffrey Town, For the Toco survey the target was at least 165 respondents at 85 percent of confidence with a 5% margin of error. The survey questionnaire covered feelings about ownership and self-esteem, levels of access and participation, and motivation for action and benefits.
The five cases from across five rural communities in the English-speaking Caribbean provide a dynamic platform for multi-level, cross-cultural and pluralistic comparative and in-depth analysis of the empowerment processes at play. For example, Radio Toco and
JET FM are two rural-based agriculture focused radio stations in Trinidad and Jamaica, respectively, while Radio Ak’Kutan and Paiwomak are indigenous people’s radio stations primarily serving native Indian communities in remote rural communities in Belize and
Guyana. All the aforementioned radio stations, except for Soufriere Radio in St. Lucia, are owned and operated by the people they serve. The Soufriere Radio in St Lucia is rural and community based and is managed and funded by the State. The power dynamics at play in this instance may be manifested differently. The opportunity for cross-country interrogation, both at the level of rural focus and how the community radio stations serve specific cultures and agendas, is critical.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 63 The research however focused on three of the cases identified because of their advanced similarities in rural development, support mechanism, and centrality to the community’s development agenda. For example, Radio Toco as the original community media system and JET FM as the newest of the selected cases, received in-depth treatment. All the methods for the case study were applied to both Radio Toco and JET FM while for
Soufriere Radio, focus groups and in-depth interviews at all levels identified were conducted. Radio Ak’Kutan and Paiwomak are representative of cultural preservations of largely indigenous Indian populations, were treated as outliers of significant experience at both ends of the old-new spectrum. In these two communities the researcher conducted focus groups and community meetings, as, well as interviews.
The five specific indices of empowerment identified by Alsop and Heinsohm (2005) and the individual and collective components of empowerment identified by Mann Hyung
Hur (2006) framed the design of the main data collection instruments – survey questionnaire, focus group guide, and interview schedule – that were utilized in this research.
The questionnaires and interview schedules were therefore structured around interrogating, exploring, or uncovering the dynamics of four key theories at play in the community, among the listeners or volunteers, and within the media systems and their support organizations. These theories include:
1. Power: Questions of power as control or influence and distinguishing between the
two lead to discussions about what is coercive; where do authority, legitimacy and
reward lie; and what is the nexus between expert and referent power. It also
raises for the participants issues of connecting and informational power. All the
interviewees were, therefore, asked to distinguish between power and influence
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 64 and to speak to the degree of power either brought to the radio station or gained
from being engaged with the radio station.
2. Dependency: This has to do with the unequal relationships between dominant and
dependent or subordinate states at the national level, but also at the local level
between dominant and dependent communities and individuals. Funding, for
example, is a major concern for the sustainability of development activities,
including community radio, and therefore becomes a key factor in how
relationships evolve between nation states, community organizations and
individuals. In rural communities the economic environment is not as dynamic
and often not as prosperous as in urban centres, and so, depending on the local
support available, funding becomes even more challenging for a rural based
community empowerment apparatus.
The main issue with community radio is the fact that their broadcast licence
forbids them from operating as a commercially viable entity. This means two
things, developing their own skills and competencies for fundraising, and
increased dependency on international funding agencies. The latter, which also
results in reliance on external sources for the development of expertise, is even
more difficult to overcome. This dependency can be self-perpetuating and
anemic to empowerment.
3. Systems (Open or closed): Community radio is a system and has to be managed as
such. Usually though, there is conflict between the practices of management as
closed and controlling versus the open, transparent and democratic ideals of
empowerment communication. Power distinctions also keep the debate constant
and by extension how the expectations of the majority volunteers are measured
and performances and outcomes treated.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 65 4. Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) The diffusion of innovation communication model
speaks to distance from the innovation and the time it takes for an innovation to
diffuse to a community. These two elements sometimes lead to unexpected
interferences and delays in the acceptance or rejection of a new initiative. The
source of the innovation and the attitudes towards that source are critical
interferences to be considered. For example, the perception of a community
towards a particular political party or professional involvement could either speed
up or slow down the pace at which an innovation is accepted by the community.
In the same way, the philosophical or political view of the individual source
towards the community could have a similar impact on the process.
3.6 Limitations
A major challenge with this research undertaking was the geographical spread of the cases, their remote locations, and the high level of difficulty in reaching them on a consistent and sustained basis. In a couple instances, communication limitations were of such where, without the physical presence of the researcher, it was virtually impossible to mobilize or organize the research activities. This was especially critical where training of field workers would have been necessary to ensure consistency in validity and reduced bias in the administering of, for example, the survey questionnaire. The difficulty in traversing the various locations could also impact the number of instruments covered in a particular period, especially where a random systematic sampling requires the field worker to visit a set number of households with a particular area.
Additionally, methodological eclecticism in its very construct as an alternative is inherently a cause for debate. This opens the construct to limitations. Especially in an environment where higher respect for knowledge generated from primarily qualitative
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 66 rigour, the attempt to shape a model or approach to fit with the researcher’s philosophical beliefs about power relations and social action, highlights, if not underscores, the strong possibility of researcher bias in the design. The paradigmatic shifts being looked for are already rooted in the debate about the inherent value of qualitative versus quantitative research. Even while accepting the position of Nastasi &
Hitchcock, that research is “a monolithic endeavor with qualitative and quantitative components that are typically needed to best undertake phenomena” (2016; pg. 170).
Also, qualitative interviews and focus groups raise questions of validity and reliability.
Though qualitative research tend to have a swing more towards validity than reliability, but the use of surveys helps to provide a basis for making statistical generalization to the wider populations.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 67 CHAPTER 4
COMMUNITY RADIO IN THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING CARIBBEAN – THE
PEOPLES’ VOICES TAKE TO THE AIR
4.1 Overview
The five community radio stations selected (JET, Toco, Paiwomak, Soufriere, Ak’Kutan) represent different aspects of the survival of community radio systems in the Anglo-
Caribbean over the last two decades. Sixteen radio stations have been established across the region as part of the Communication for Development (C4D) process in the last 20 years. In 2000, Jocelyne Josiah, then UNESCO communication specialist noted that,
“Since 1994, UNESCO has been making concerted efforts in the support of community radio in the Caribbean. There are now five stations in the English-speaking Caribbean, one in Dutch-speaking Suriname, four in Haiti and one soon to be on air in Cuba.” (FES
Pre-Conference Seminar on Mixed Media in Latin America and the Caribbean , Tampa,
Florida 23-24 September 2000).
Fifteen years later the number of radio stations established has been tripled.
Paradoxically, some would say, many of these stations face survival challenges. The community radio systems set up across the Caribbean with the support of UNESCO struggle to operate as genuine community radio systems for many reasons. Nevertheless,
UNESCO continues to support the establishment of these community based systems because wherever these systems survive it is believed that they work well in serving the communities in which they are located. It is felt that community radio stations best underscore the perspective that “media’s contribution to the creation and sustaining of
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 68 functioning democracies and their potential to serve as a catalyst for human development provide justification for UNESCO’s media development efforts” (UNESCO 2008).
It is also noted that the failure rate among community radio systems in the English- speaking Caribbean is relative compared to what is happening across the rest of the
Third World including the Franco and Latino Caribbean. In the Spanish and French speaking Caribbean, especially in Haiti, community radio stations are an integral part of the cultural and political fabric of the society. In these countries, community radio serves as a critical centre of political agitation and points of reference for participation in governance processes – which are in fact, the expectations of community radio stations.
The organizational and informational functions of communication in these societies take priority over their entertainment functions. After all, communication and access to information are seen as bedrocks to the development and evolution of democratic societies, and that is the outcome most desired in the Caribbean.
The qualitatively higher value placed on communication in the contemporary thinking about development through the United Nations Communication for Empowerment
(C4E) project led by the Communication for Social Change (CfSC) Consortium, for example, makes the study of the experiences within the Anglo-Caribbean even more critical in understanding both the development and empowerment processes involved in community radio. In the preface to the 2010 C4E Global Report, it states:
Communication underpins human development because it enables people to access, produce and
transfer to others information that is important for their empowerment and progress. Through
communication people are able to arrive at their own understanding of issues, to consider and
discuss ideas, and to engage in national public debates. Communication thus enables people to
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 69 negotiate, develop and act on knowledge, and it facilitates the formation of public opinion
without which democracy cannot exist. (OGC & CFSC)
Caribbean societies are so mired in an environment of uncertainty around perpetual social and political violence, failing economic policies, poor environmental stewardship, and cultural and identity subordination, that externally driven and funded interventions for development purposes remain an inevitability. The people are in constant compulsion to find space for their own voices, but also to find a platform from which to launch the kind of social change that will lead to the sustainable management of a better life. The evidence is clear that rural poor face the harshest end of the failures of the modernity programmes in the Caribbean.
This is the context in which community radio stations exist. People want to become. But becoming has to be with dignity, respect and confidence that their future will not be constantly dependent on the power and resources of external agencies. It is not easy to move people to that point of confidence and capacity to do for self. Empowerment is not just a product, but a process; and communication systems which in themselves are significant bases for power are also products of the very processes in which they have such critical constructive role to play in both giving voice and mobilizing action.
Community radio stations are alternatives to mainstream commercial and entertainment driven media. They have special mandates in terms of local reach, content, and programming. But, they face the same challenges as other development projects, especially in the area of funding. The capacity to deliver on their mandate as ‘the voice of the people’ within a non-profit, community based and community managed framework is limited – extremely limited.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 70 The competing mainstream radio with a national reach operates in a commercial and largely private-business and entrepreneurial framework; and even while facing the challenge of possible large operational costs and maintaining market share, they still have a greater capacity than the community radio stations to deliver on their mandates. This is primarily because main stream media outlets can appeal to the advertising and commercial sectors which the community radio cannot do, due to regulatory licensing that forbids them from operating as commercial entities.
The selected cases identified in this research have demonstrated to various degrees how the need for funding simultaneously poses both a risk to sustainability, as well as, an opportunity for individual and collective empowerment. The transforming roles of these systems are seen in the way they respond to those risks and opportunities for capturing and keeping volunteers, learning and building capacity for fundraising, writing project and grant funding proposals, designing and delivering training programmes for its usually unexposed volunteer staff, and learning from trial and error in many instances the technical, engineering and management skills necessary to keep a radio station on air. All of this without a commercial broadcast licence and with limited audience/geographic reach/coverage.
Two of the newest entities among the selected cases, Radio Ak’Kutan in Blue Creek,
Belize and JET FM in Jeffrey Town, Jamaica, have had tremendous benefit from the inter-governmental organisation Commonwealth of Learning (COL) through its healthy community’s initiative and its introduction of a community learning programme process which actively engages media, policy, experts and beneficiaries. In rural Trinidad and
Tobago, there is Radio Toco 106.7Fm which is currently the longest existing community system in the region. The station has become the defining entity for a region of Trinidad
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 71 that, in the past, suffered from significant negative imaging. Like JET FM 88.7 in the rural Jamaican parish of St. Mary, Radio Toco has been able to lift the positive imaging of its remote community from ‘behind God’s back’, as the locals would say. Through an emphasis on the development of the rural agricultural life of its people, focusing on health issues and addressing the environmental concerns which attract funding through their parent organisations, these two townships have been able to create new pathways to development for its people. The Toco Foundation (TF) supports Radio Toco, while the
Jeffrey Town Farmers Association (JTFA) supports JET FM.
Another longstanding community radio system, which shares similar focus on indigenous people’s well-being as Radio Ak’Kutan in Belize, is Radio Paiwomak in the remote community of Annai in Guyana. Both have parent organisations that are rooted in the communities from which they come and serve. Radio Soufriere in St Lucia is different though. The supporting community organisation for Soufriere radio is both structured and operationalized around government’s development agenda and therefore could not be considered to be genuinely controlled by the people in the community, though established as community radio system.
However, all the cases are part of the continued presence and drive of UNESCO in ensuring that information and communication remain active elements of the democratisation of the communities. With support from other UN agencies such as
United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) , United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO), The Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Corporation
(CTA), the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) and the World Assembly of Community
Radio Associations (AMARC), these community-based and operated radio systems are
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 72 able to make a positive impact on the life of their communities. They remain solid examples of how the poor and powerless can have some semblance of social activism and change. They are the channels through which the voice of the marginalized take to the air and become a catalyst for change.
4.2 Radio Toco: The original community radio in Trinidad and Tobago
4.2.1 Introduction
Contemporarily, the community radio outfit located in North East Trinidad, Toco Radio
106.7 FM, is considered a model among community radio systems across the Caribbean.
Established in 1997 with the assistance of UNESCO through its Women-speaking-to-
Women Programme, Radio Toco has evolved over the years into the communication and information arm of the Toco Foundation (TF), and has become a force of social change and youth empowerment in the rural agriculture-centred Trinidad community of Toco and its adjoining communities. The first and only community-based radio system in
Trinidad and Tobago, Radio Toco stands as a testament to overcoming the challenges and capitalizing on the opportunities faced by community radio, especially in poor rural communities in the Caribbean.
From Matura to Matelot in North east Trinidad, and across the seas to sister island
Tobago, Radio Toco is seen as a champion of the poor and an example of how giving voice to the marginalized can be translated into social justice and development. The villages of North East Trinidad are primarily sustained by an ever declining agriculture and fishing economy. Eco-tourism has had some spurts of growth in recent years, following on the emergence of nature lobbyists and the establishment of developmental institutions such as the Turtle Village Trust (TVT). The TVT ensures that one of the best
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 73 turtle sites, Matura Beach, is maintained to the benefit of the community. Matura sits south of Toco village with Matelot further to its east along the Trinidadian coastline.
Matelot is a small ever declining village with a history woven in wealth and decay and almost mythical reference to being ‘behind God’s back”. The Trinidad Express, a leading newspaper in the country describes it thus: “Located as far from everywhere else as you can get in Trinidad, the village of less than 900 people has been in decline for as far back as anyone can remember. And as its economic importance and political relevance diminished, so have the resources needed for its development and upkeep”
(http://www.trinidadexpress.com/20161204/features/why-does-matelot-even-exist).
Essentially, Matelot is among the poorest of the several villages dotting the T&T coastline that are being reached by Radio Toco. With a population of approximately 1000 persons of mainly Venezuelan descent, a once thriving cocoa industry is collapsing and its attendant indicators of early wealth, diminished to village type fishing. Matelot is today a symbol of survival against all odds, a long lingering legacy of might and decay as summarized in the conclusion of Dane Morton Gittens essay, The Golden Age and Decline of Matelot, Trinidad:
We must give both cocoa production and the Catholic Church some praise for
bringing development to Matelot, and placing it on the map during the period
1890-1920. Even so, the history of Matelot is one of constant struggle to improve
living conditions, especially in the area of transportation and communication.
The roads were bad and needed constant repair, and even when they were fixed
and the steamer service was introduced, these did not last long; for cocoa, which
brought about change, declined and took the village down with it. But cocoa was
not the only important influence in Matelot’s history; much of its development
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 74 revolved around the Roman Catholic Church. The Church took an interest in the
well-being of the people and also in their daily lives (economic, social and
political). Sadly this was all embodied in one man, Father Bariou, who had a
sustained interest in Matelot. When Father Bariou died, the church lost interest
and the village reverted to being administered from Toco. Matelot once again
became isolated” (Morton-Gittens (2011) in History in Action, Vol. 2 No. 2,
September 2011, The University of the West Indies (St. Augustine, Trinidad and
Tobago) Dept. of History).
Toco is one of the furthermost villages on the North East tip of T&T and is just less than 90 kilometers from the capital city of Port of Spain which is located on the Western side of the twin island republic. At the centre of the community’s recent transformation is another of those institutions that have become integral to the empowerment processes in rural communities, the Toco Foundation (TF). The TF seeks to bring some level of sustainable development planning to a region that has been traditionally ignored by State agencies. With poor physical, educational, and communication infrastructure, social disengagement, a rising inimical youth population, unresolved unemployment, weak health services, and unsustainable economic activities, Toco was always ripe for a new development paradigm at which both the TF and Radio Toco are at the centre.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 75
Plate 1: Map of Trinidad and Tobago locating Toco community
In the words of Michael Als, Toco Foundation late founder and leader:
I go back to the issue of development because in communities where underdevelopment has
impacted very heavily on people’s lives there is very limited growth, vision, passion about
anything because…underdevelopment beats down people.
When (the people) are able to get a sense of this energy, this power that affects them; when they
hear their voices on radio they come alive; they not only come alive but people greet them as if
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 76 they are radio stars. Just some ordinary little lady did an interview and so much excitement is
generated; just the fact that someone is heard on the radio speaking about something that is
affecting them for months or weeks, possibly years….
And when they hear it they have a big sense of what justice can be; they have a big sense of how
their dreams could possibly come alive; they have a big sense of the question of even social
development and of social freedom and social participation and social empowerment because when
these people speak on the radio they come alive. They see themselves in a different light and the
radio therefore gives them the power to communicate with others and the society and even with
the power brokers…the big people! Because when the small people start to speak big people
listen, you know. (Michael Als, personal communication, March 18, 2013)
4.2.2 Giving voice to the powerless
The poets of the Caribbean, especially through the strains of its original music forms, reggae and calypso, speak consistently to the rise of the small people when they are afforded access to their own resources. Those who have been historically marginalized to the fringes of economic activity, the periphery of educational advancement, and the edges of social and political organization, will rise up when given an equitable and fair chance to participate in the empowerment process. Participation provides the platform upon which the people build their self- esteem and self-worth, and express value to their community.
As Eugene (Ken), a young male member of the Toco community member puts it:
It makes me conscious of the fact that I belong to the North Coast… I have a special affiliation
with her. My heritage and family going way back and Radio Toco facilitates the linking to that.
Other radio stations don’t recognise us. Locally, a lot of other stations don’t recognise the rural
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 77 communities. We have a reputation of being ‘beyond God’s back’ and there is not much out here
that the community could hold on to. There is clearly a weakness in the link between the
communities on the North coast and Radio Toco strengthens that link, to fill that void. I am
involved in some community work and we see some clear problems in terms of building strong
community spirit. There is a lot of room for going beyond the voice to action (FG discussion,
March 15, 2013).
As noted in much of the community radio literature, there is always room for going
‘beyond voice to action’. It is one thing to have a voice, but the fundamental test of action is how that collective voice leads to a better community. Eugene’s comment also speaks to a major element of development and empowerment – the sustainability of community radio systems as non-profits or non-commercial entities. Sustainability is a real dilemma for community radio systems given that by philosophy and usually by policy regulations, they cannot garner revenues from large scale commercial advertising. This financial limitation has negatively impacted overall sustainability and resulted in the death of many community-based initiatives, such as community stations/systems, across the
Caribbean.
Radio Toco’s longevity makes it therefore, both an example of survival and a model of sustainability among the family of community radio systems. This model includes its adoption of a unique funding model, expansion of its participatory communication both in content generation and technology, human and technical capacity development, and its social impact on the communities reached by the radio and serviced by the Toco
Foundation. While the challenges have not been totally erased, they have certainly been minimized, making Radio Toco and the Foundation an award winning outfit for its technological innovation in agriculture, and its sustainable approach to community
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 78 development. Additional benefits have also accrued from its application of participatory information and communication as a tool for the empowerment of women and girls, young people generally, and rural folks broadly speaking.
As explained by Linda Hinds, Manager of the Toco Foundation, which is the parent body for the radio station, Radio Toco’s pivotal role in the community is largely due to the ways in which radio has managed to capture the imagination of the various groupings spread across North East Trinidad; developing an empowerment pathway for them, particularly the young people of Toco.
Once people are able to do things they were not able to do before; have access to things that they
did not have(access to) before; the ability to (seek) and make use of certain, of anything… so
that gives them then, that empowerment that says, “hey, when I started this project I was at this
point…when I started the training I was able to do this and at the end I was now able to do
something that I was not able to do”, that is empowerment to me (Linda Hinds, personal
communication, March 18, 2013)
The big question in the context of empowerment communication analysis is how has
Radio Toco done that? What are the ways in which Radio Toco allows the community to have that sense of achievement of which its leaders and beneficiaries speak? What are the changes made to the community’s individual and collective capacity to do things differently, and even better? Are there specific ways in which these changes advance the communication and information needs of the community and importantly, lead to social change?
Hinds, like Als, believes the answer is found by putting the people and their issues at the centre of the communication process.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 79
For instance, I always draw reference to the “Farmers in Mind” programme and this other
programme “Hold on to Your Land” that aired where they encouraged the community to do just
that; and, you know, it came out of the utterances of the community itself.
That’s why the programme was developed because they realized that people were coming into
Toco and purchasing up the land and some of the residents were being encouraged to sell their
land that they inherited and was handed down from generation to generation; and this
programme was produced to tell them “hey, hold on to your land…this is your wealth, this is
your own…you have children who are coming up who can inherit as well, so don’t just go and
selling it all because somebody offer you a certain amount ”; and we got that from the community
because this was a concern too that they had! (Hinds, personal communication March
18, 2013)
Because you are looking at issues, take for example Matelot, which has a reputation for bad
roads, no transport system, if Radio Toco would go live and broadcast it live and get the people’s
frustration out to other communities live it would spur action and support from other
communities. Matelot could translate into wider community action because the radio has taken
it not just to Matelot but the wider community of Toco (Playweh, male FG participant,
March 15, 2013).
Empowerment therefore takes place in programming designed around the issues faced by the community, with messages of hope and change. Of significance is the fact that these programmes and issues are presented by the very people being affected.
Empowerment also takes place in the training and education provided by the radio station – both face to face and over the airwaves – and by the varied and widely scattered
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 80 supporting agencies and institutions solicited by Radio Toco and the Toco Foundation.
These training opportunities are a deliberate part of the station’s capacity building mandate and sustainability strategy.
Training includes home-based workshops, conferences, seminars, study tours, and field experiences. The opportunities for personal growth and professional development are created around core sustainable development issues such as agriculture, family life and parenting, health and gender issues, as well as education. These are important development issues for the community, but also core content areas for Radio Toco. Of course, with media and communication as platform for social change, opportunities must also be created for capacity building in radio programming, programme design, production and management, presentation and interviewing skills, and sound engineering and station management.
Radio Toco draws on the expertise of individual professionals, as well as, local, regional and international institutions to provide ongoing training and education for its volunteers. These individuals include radio professionals in Trinidad & Tobago,
University of the West Indies through its Faculty of Agriculture at the St Augustine campus and the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication at the Mona campus.
International institutions include the Paris-based United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Netherlands-based Technical Centre for
Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), and the Vancouver-based Commonwealth of
Learning (COL), an inter-governmental organisation of the Commonwealth of Nations.
The impact on both the community as a collective and the individual volunteers is tremendous.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 81
(T)he education programmes being broadcast (now) encourage the young ones, (show) the
importance of education, the importance of learning and not only the traditional learning. The
programmes are developed in a way to capture everybody; to bring awareness to people.
Sometimes simple things like saying good morning, thank you…. Stuff like that.
Wendy has been with Radio Toco before I came into the Toco Foundation… When I see the
Wendy today, there is a vast difference. Her literacy, her education level has improved; her
ability to understand some of the challenges that the community has and with her being on radio
she is developing the ability to address those challenges (she has a greater capacity to respond to
the challenges that she did not have before); she does it with such a calm sense of spirit; she
doesn’t get flustered in the way she responds to things…it is really amazing; and being a mother,
a wife, career person.
(It is) training…! A lot of training – capacity building; it just does not stop. And, with
opportunities to go abroad, go to conferences, training programmes and so on really does help.
(Hinds, personal communication March 18, 2013)
4.2.3 Building collective and individual capacity
If the testimonials are anything to go by, Hinds and Als are absolutely right about the impact of the radio station on the collective and individual growth of the community and its peoples. The messages springing from the individual interviews, the focus groups and the community survey done by the researcher are in fact aligned with the fundamentals of empowerment as providing access, converting new access into benefits, and developing sustainable pathways to transformation.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 82 Wendy Diaz, is the current radio manager:
I started with the radio not wanting to be an announcer… and I remember Mr Als saying that
some of us would never have radio voices…the way we spoke at the time; and then we were
people taken from all the communities from Grand Revere all the way down to Matura and
there were 25 of us…and when he heard us he said, “my God what am I going to do all with
these people?
But none-the-less we got the theoretical part of it through the experienced people (Julian Rogers,
Jones P Madera (TV) and Elizabeth Solomon)… and a mix of other people in different areas
to come to do speech, voice, advertising etc… We had to actually get the practical work on our
own using just what was there and at that time we had just a little microphone and cassette
player… we never had CDs yet. Then somebody else came and we got a Mirant but I still only
wanted to be in administration handling the accounts, doing up letters…and so on, but Mr Als
said no, once you are here you have the opportunity to be in every aspect, every sphere of the
operation of the radio; and today I am happy to say I have taken his challenge and I have never
one day say no, I can’t do it, I tried and if I was not good enough he would say, “Sister, you not
there yet; but you will get there.
And, now I can sign on the radio, I can do the interviews, I can do news, I can do a bit of
everything - production as well (Wendy Diaz, personal communication, March 19,
2013).
Are there others in the community who could make that same claim who would say, were it not for the radio station I would not be where I am today?
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 83 Yes, a lot of people who have started and gotten the opportunity to go national media. They have
started here and it’s because of the experience and exposure they have had with the radio station
and by extension Toco Foundation they are now where they are at.
We have a lot of people who are both in television and radio now that is at the national and
from time to time they get an opportunity to tour the Caribbean and do a little private stuff and
again it’s because of being here at Radio Toco.
And even people who are not from within the community – Arima and beyond Port of Spain –
knowing of the radio and they have come to Radio Toco to get their first feel of radio. One such
person is Onika James, she’s now a daily knock on the Hi 95, and she came from Arima day
after day, 5 days a week for about a year to get her first experience on radio.
We have another person Karen Cozier-Phillips; she’s now at TV 6, who got her first experience
on Radio Toco. So, not only the community seeing it as something important to them but people
from the outside seeing the opportunity they could come here get a feel for it and then move on
from there (Wendy Diaz, personal communication, March 19, 2013).
And the impact is fundamental but far reaching.
Some of the projects that now exist in Toco Foundation came out of the Radio Toco
programmes. The whole idea of community radio gave us opportunity to develop other projects,
for example, a newspaper and we had “Eye on the Environment”, an HIV and AIDS
programme called “AIDS and YOU”…and coming out of the “AIDS and You” programme
was the Youth and Sexuality project which evolved into the Parenting programme (This is a
flagship programme being run by the Toco Foundation)
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 84 When we started that project we saw that when we go to the homes we were not seeing the males
and recognising that we were losing the males we saw the opportunity to bring out the all-male
project as a way of bringing back the males in the community and all of this came out of doing
radio in the schools as well. Using the opportunity of the Radio Toco and the interaction with
the community I see it as one thing evolving into another. (Wendy Diaz, personal
communication, March 19, 2013).
Wendy Diaz, a 37 year-old (at the time of interview) college level educated (Arthur Lock
Jock Institute and UWI, Continuing Studies) mother is the full time station manager of
Radio Toco. She is also the Chief Presenter and Administrative Assistant to the Toco
Foundation. Though she manages the day-to-day operations of this dynamic community media system, she is also on air six days per week as the main news reader. As Station
Manager she is assisted with news by two part time volunteers from the community, one a University educated primary school teacher, and the other, a 24 year-old male community-based disc jockey who is also host of an afternoon music and entertainment programme, announcer, and resident technical producer of Radio Toco’s recorded features and promos.
Asked about the significance of the Radio Toco experience to her personally, Deana
Pulter Caraballo, a teacher at the local primary school is confident in her response:
Basically being able to do almost anything in production… producing my own programme, that
for one. Using the computer at a higher level – before I came here I used the computer just to
type and general word related things – now I use it all the time. I go on air alone…I thought a
technician had to be there; now I am my own technician, playing the music, reading the news,
multitasking…these are things I never did before. (I) am also taking on multiple roles. If
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 85 Wendy says Deanna you have to do this for me I find myself saying yes, I could do it and then
finding out how way to do it…. It gives you that extra push and people are expecting certain
things of you and you say listen I will be able to meet your expectation even if you have to go and
learn (Deana Punter Caraballo, personal communication, March 12, 2013).
Plate 2: Photograph of local teacher Deana Caraballo volunteer presenter at Radio
Toco
Caraballo produces and presents a couple programmes driven by the needs and aspirations of the community. One is called Inspirational Sundays, which is a Christian centred music and word programme that has become a staple in the growing popularity of gospel radio that has emerged on many community radio stations across the
Caribbean. The other programme is Education Forum which uses the talk show format mixed with music to discuss issues pertaining to the education sector and relevant to the communities reached by Radio Toco. As Deanna reassures:
Anything that is current in education I would tend to want to address it because those are the
topics people are interested in. I talk from that perspective of the grass roots level in terms of
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 86 listening to what they are saying and not really talking at them from a University level but
understanding where they are coming from and trying to answer certain questions about the topic
(Deana Punter Caraballo, personal communication, March 12, 2013).
But how valuable is this kind of people-centred, issues driven programming to the community of Toco? All involved in the operation of Radio Toco seem convinced that the people find tremendous value in not only having such a powerful informational and entertainment resource in their community, but more by the fact that they have come to own the system. Ownership of the resource itself is a critical part of the empowerment paradigm in as much as ownership of the content, the voice and the outcome. Generally, the people of Toco feel better listening to and having their own radio station. They feel better about themselves and they feel better about their community.
In a listenership and empowerment survey conducted by the researcher between March and May 2013, the respondents were able to identify the programmes that they liked as well as those that made a difference to the community. When asked about the programmes that made a difference to the community, respondents answered in broad terms with religious programming being rated as number one followed by health programmes and “every programme aired”.
When asked what programmes resulted in changes to people’s behaviour the responses were more specific, but generally grouped as either educational or health related programmes. These include programmes, such as AIDS and You, Health Focus and Eye on the Environment.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 87
The list identified by the respondents in rank order is as follows:
AIDS & YOU
Health in Focus
All the Programmes
Educational Forum
Gospel
Eye on the Environment
Focus on the Family
Living Life with a Purpose
Youth & Sexuality
Training Programmes
Safety & Health Advisories
The Music
One male participant in the focus group who is a former volunteer presenter noted the value of Radio Toco to the community in an even wider sense:
One of the things about the 106.7 that I know is that Radio Toco 106.7 sets the pace for
national stations… because Radio Toco connects with the community. People can call and
connect with you on the radio. You never use to get that from some of the other radio stations…
others are now using that strategy to connect with people.
I use to be a volunteer presenter and sometimes we connect with 200 persons across Tobago,
Trinidad. We use to keep track (of) who is calling and where they calling from; now you can
call in to the national stations but they give limited time but with radio Toco you have more
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 88 (time). Because of the community structure of Radio Toco you can interact with the community.
(Male 3, Focus Group participant, March 15, 2013).
Connection or feeling connected is very important to the community. The feeling of belonging through the sharing of local news, the assistance provided on a personal level, the possibilities of hope coming from the radio programmes and even its playlist, make
Radio Toco unique and special.
What I think makes Radio Toco unique to other stations is that someone may call in for advice
but coming from a background where Radio Toco is part of a foundation that delivers services to
the community the presenters can recommend you. It is unique in that it gives you much more
than an idea because it can put you to a parental service or any part of the different units at
Toco Foundation, which the other stations don’t have. The other stations have call in
programmes but they don’t have the support programmes (Male 4, Focus Group
participant, March 15, 2013).
4.2.4 Support systems and sustainability
Capacity building is clearly a critical element of empowerment. The professional and attitudinal change exhibited by the members of the community, the radio station and its volunteers also demonstrate that targeted training aimed at developing both the technological and human resources advances the empowerment process. But it also underscores the importance of capacity building in sustaining the projects and by extension the symbiotic relationship between sustainability initiatives and strong support systems.
The Radio Toco experience shows that having the right type of support systems is also critical to the empowerment process on two levels of import. The first is to be found in
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 89 how the human and technical resources are accessed, developed, and managed. The second is seen in the creative responses to maintaining financial sustainability, which as identified by the 2015 End of Year (EOY) Report, will continue to revolve around the station being a community-based entity meeting the informational needs of multiple agencies of State as well as private and international development institutions. The unique revenue generation model developed by Radio Toco, as a community station, has a three pronged approach that has been adopted by other community radio stations across the region – donor funding, sale of talk time to non-governmental organisations, and low cost-advertising.
Low cost advertising is critical to the development of community enterprise and entrepreneurship, but is also a consequence of the limitations of the community designation that come with the community broadcast licencing. The second option provides simultaneous channels for revenue and programme content consistent with community empowerment. As explained by the 2015 End of Year Report, Radio Toco earns revenue by allowing groups such as Nature Seekers and Creative Parenting to promote their organisations, services and educational material about the specific niche areas they operate.
For example, the Youth Business Trinidad and Tobago would host an entrepreneurial programme educating listeners on how to go about starting, managing, and growing their own businesses, while Creative Parenting for a New Era provides listeners with helpful tips and strategies (Radio Toco Project EOY Report 2015). The first option in the revenue model is also uniquely aligned to the existence of the Toco Foundation wherein,
“all grant proposals submitted to potential and existing donors of the Toco Foundation
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 90 consist of a line item component geared towards building awareness of the specific project and its benefits” (EOY Report 2015).
The advantage that Radio Toco has, being a part of the Toco Foundation, is a very dynamic one. In the early days Radio Toco was central to the development of the Toco
Foundation. Today, the Foundation has seen a programmatic growth and spread according the demands and needs of the people. The symbiotic relationship between the foundation and the radio system is consistently referenced by the founder of the Toco
Foundation, and so the question is, has Radio Toco’s value to the Toco Foundation diminished?
We (Toco Foundation) could not have done it without Radio Toco. Because the star ship at one
point in time in the Foundation was Radio Toco. And that gave us a paradigm shift ahead of
everybody else that we actually had a radio station that was running, we were controlling, was on
air Sunday to Sunday and we were given a sense of, well, it was a powerful organisation that
could do something like that.
But then again at the same time the environmental wing of the Toco Foundation also developed,
the social services wing also developed. Radio Toco is one of seven projects that the Foundation
has and in each case, part of how Radio Toco survives, is the provision of support from these
activities in terms of advertising.
By utilizing Radio Toco as the mother load, so to speak, in terms of the capacity to bring to
people other opportunities so we would always be talking about the Eye on the Environment,
always talking about social issues, parenting and gatekeeping, and today for instance we have a
big programme with the state on water harvesting from Matura to Matlock for which the State
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 91 has provided us 17million (TT) dollars over 4 years. If we did not have Radio Toco we would
not have got that water harvesting project.
So, I am saying things complement one another and some other things go beyond others not with
any planned measure but as the needs of the community expand people have asked us to come in
to so many other communities now that we have come to see our office is now on the street.
It is not a question of saying that we can’t, the people come and tell us and so we have to go.
One development engages another and now the Toco Foundation is recognised as a national
organisation and Toco is one of those communities. That is why we are so anxious to get the
national broadcasting licence. Because when we get it all the communities have a readymade
community group structure to bring them alive and voiced at the national level (Michael Als,
personal communication, March 18. 2013).
Radio Toco could therefore be considered as a community-based resource that is valuable to the community to the extent that this kind of impact remains consistent with the expected mandate of Community Radio. This position comes into question however, when entertainment and religious programmes are the top choices for listening or liking the station. The aim is always to make a shift towards more social and behaviour impact, rather than the purely entertainment value, which is often the hallmark of commercial entities, and not community radio.
4.2.5 Who is listening to Radio Toco and why?
The listenership and empowerment survey revealed that Radio Toco has a high listenership rate in the community with approximately 97% of those who listen to radio indicating Radio Toco 106.7 FM as their choice of radio. Approximately 54 percent of
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 92 Radio Toco’s listenership is female compared to 41 percent male. There is also a high listenership rate among the 20 to 30 year olds (26.2) and those 51 and over (23.2).
However when combined, the youth age (13 to 30 year old) trails in listenership to those between 31 and 50 years old by 4 percentage points. In all age categories the females outstrip the males in listenership by between 2 and 7 percentage points; but the research failed to establish a significant relationship between listenership of Radio Toco and the listener’s sex. There is also a weak relationship between the listener’s age and listenership of Radio Toco.
On the other hand, the survey indicates not only a slight relationship between listenership and highest level of school attended, but also a level of significance (.02) that makes it generalizable to the population. Approximately 62% of respondents identified
‘secondary level’ as their highest level of schooling, while only 12.1% identified university as the highest level. But more importantly, for respondents whose level of education was at the secondary or college level, the listenership was at 100% compared to approximately 91 percent among the university educated.
The majority of the population being secondary level educated is consistent with the educational standards across the Caribbean, and is particularly so for rural areas where generally the economic and social realities tend to run far below that of the national average. But with Trinidad and Tobago’s strong emphasis on, and State support for, tertiary level educational attainment, the near 20% of the listening population indicating college/university level education is likely to be consistent with that emphasis. However, the possibility that these may be migrants from the cities or suburbs has to be considered especially in the context of the increased need to employ trained professionals in the areas of training and human resource development.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 93 It is also noteworthy that the highest number of respondents is among the professional grouping (27.5%), while those indicating agriculture and fisheries stand at only 7.3%. The latter grouping is even lower than the student listenership (11.2%), but is almost similar to housewives at 7.9%. This has to be noted because Toco is a rural coastline agricultural and fisheries community and the radio station is programmed around serving the informational and educational needs of the community.
So, while the data show that respondents with secondary and college level education are most likely to listen to radio and those with university level education the least likely; and though the listenership is above 90% in all occupational groupings with the secondary and college level educated both at maximum listenership; and with the professional grouping likely to come from the higher levels of education, it underscores the need for contemporary community radio programming to evolve in its emphasis to broader developmental issues such as health, education, and environment and not just the main livelihood of the community.
The fact is, the profile of the listenership has become more mature, the capacity of the station is different, and the expectations of the station are shifting with the times.
Therefore, as Michael Als points out, with the changing times the radio station must simultaneously be an active part of that change, and where other changes are taking place be cognizant of its own role in explaining that change.
For example, when Radio Toco was established almost 20 years ago the penetration of
Internet platforms such as allowed by Smart Phones was obviously not as deep as it is today In fact, the formal definition of the term Internet had only taken place a mere two years before the establishment of this remote rural located communication channel; but as has been the case in many developing countries, Trinidad also had tremendous growth in Internet access and use. According to the Global Internet Society Report 2014, which
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 94 was the first such report to be produced by the Internet Society, Trinidad and Tobago stood at 53rd at 63.8% usage.
The main competition in terms of information source then would have been television and newspaper. Now radio is sharing almost equally with the others as primary sources of information for the Toco communities and even with a statistically insignificant .5% difference between TV and radio usage, the fact that Internet is at 14.0% shows that the traditional sources of information are losing its hold on the market. This is underscored by the 2016 ICT Development Index where TT sits at 67 of 175 countries, moving one place up from the 2015 ranking. 65 percent of the Trinidadian households have access to Internet with 69.2 percent actually using the Internet (www.itu.int/net4/ITU-
D/idi/2016#idi2016countrycard-tab&TTO accessed October 14, 2017).
The high indicator for Internet as source of information could also mean that the novelty of a community having its own radio station and therefore its own voice is also wearing thin. The operators of Radio Toco must therefore be as cognizant of the novelty factor in sustaining interest, as much as as it is proactive in ensuring participation in the life of the radio. The classic diffusion of innovation cycle is in full effect and so the station will need to revisit the novelty factor from time to time. It is critical to the survival of old media – in this case radio – to explore ways in which the system can be integrated with new ICT platforms and the interactive potentials made possible by the growing Internet access. In other words, it is time for another round of innovation – not just creative manipulation of the existing models or approaches – but an active and deliberate application of the intellectual capacity to reach back and project in a sort of reflexive approach to identifying new ways of thinking and doing things in the use of information and communication technologies for rural development.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 95 This integrated approach may find support in the fact that already some 20% of the listenership indicates a combination of radio & internet, radio & newspaper, or radio &
TV as their main source of information. It is quite clear that radio still has a significant role to play in meeting the informational needs of the community; but the widening of the reach will depend on the success of the operators at integrating with the new platforms as access to and affordability of newer technologies become easier and cheaper.
For those listening, the research finds consistency in reasons for listening between the findings of the survey and the focus groups. Entertainment, religious programming and informative programmes are listed as top likeability factors. However, the focus groups identified news and information as the main area of programing needing attention, while in the survey the top reasons for not liking the station includes poor programme content, poor frequency, and prolonged unnecessary talking from the announcers. Again, this has implications for the operators of Radio Toco in terms of their own plans for responding to the changes of the times – a big part of which the radio system itself would have helped to usher and will still be needed in the fashioning of the change.
With just about 51% of the respondents holding the view that the programmes of Radio
Toco, more often than not, discussed events and subjects that were relevant to their everyday life; and with females being more likely than male to state that the programmes discussed events and subjects relevant to their everyday life; and the older population finding greater relevance to their everyday life than the younger population, Radio Toco will still need to examine its programming to have wider appeal among both the younger population, a broader occupational grouping, and definitely among the males.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 96 Altering the knowledge base broadly speaking is important to the change process to which community radio is committed. But there has to be consistency in effort at addressing the novelty factor. Als is very conscious of the changes.
(K)nowledge is far more advanced now than it was then (in the earlier days of the station). There
was a tremendous amount of excitement in setting up the radio; and asking people about how
they feel and what should be on the air.
I think that we pass through many phases of the process of empowerment. People take it for
granted now and so it is not as exciting now. People take it for granted because now it becomes
standard; and since it becomes standard you find that, not that it is boring, but people are now
pulling you up; and are responding around programmes – not just simple issues.
They want programmes; what can actualize in their lives. They want to hear what can take
place in the distribution of water, land. People raise all things because now they are beginning to
understand that things happen much more broadly and in a more engaging manner.
I see it in my own understanding that there is a flourishing growth of engagement through the
process. Now they are saying, ok, we do that, we have established the radio, how comes we are
not seeing this or that in terms of what is on the radio. They see things much more differently
than in the beginning (Michael Als, personal communication March 18, 2013).
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 97 4.2.6 Conclusion
Twenty years after its establishment Radio Toco remains an important tool in the development process for the people of the rural Trinidadian communities it serves and in which it is located. Its longevity is testament to the belief and conviction of its creator that people participation at the highest level is fundamental to both the process and outcome of empowerment. But while this is supported by the many who have expressed varying degrees of empowerment as a consequence of the radio’s presence, its survival is always at risk, consistently being challenged by resources limitations, the very nature of empowerment itself, and certainly the new technologies.
For Radio Toco to continue playing a major empowerment role both at the individual and collective levels and certainly in all its dimensions, its survival strategy has to be in constant review mode. This endurance will depend on how the process of engagement brings new and innovative energy to bear on the technological integration needed to maintain its credibility as an important information source. New energy does not always mean youth. The older members of the community must be given an opportunity to learn and apply the new technologies to their own experiences. Whether this is done by building new platforms for their engagement as listeners, as active players in the design of content and programming, or being the voice on the radio themselves, it has to be at the front of mind for the managers of the system.
Another critical element of the survival strategy for Radio Toco is to be found in maintaining a critical balance between the mix of community interests and the mix of programmes developed. While the voice and aspirations of the community are important to the notion of identity, ownership, community support and by extension the overall feeling of empowerment among the citizens, it is also important for the community to
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 98 feel that they can stay tuned to their own source of information and communication, but be just as connected with the outside world, so to speak. That is why the managers of this important community system called Radio Toco must actively engage in constant review of the novelty factor, the dynamism of the evolving technologies, and the ease of access to both the old and new technologies, especially those that offer the kind of community and citizen centred activism as made possible by the Internet.
4.3 JET FM 88.7 – The voice from rural Jamaica
4.3.1 Introduction
“Jamaica Wins Big At Caribbean Week of Agriculture” – Jamaica Gleaner.
This headline has become a sort of a standard for the members of the Jeffrey Town
Farmers Association (JTFA). The outstanding awards being racked up by the JTFA span the Jamaican prestigious Michael Manley Foundation Award for Self Reliance (2006 and
2011) to the internationally recognized United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) 2014 Equator Prize. Both awards, in their own way, recognise local groups for developing sustainable community-based solutions to environmental, poverty and climate change challenges. In between these awards, they have won accolades from the
University of Queensland Centre for Communication and Social Change, as well as a prize from the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) for innovation in technology and climate change. Subsequent to that, the farmers’ association and the strong linkage between its primary communication platform, JET
FM, has attracted substantial funded projects to the deep rural community of Jeffrey
Town, in the north eastern parish of St Mary, Jamaica.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 99
Plate 3: Members of JET FM receiving the Michael Manley Foundation Award for Self Reliance (2011) from Delano Franklyn of the Foundation (2nd left).
The Jamaica Gleaner news story reflects a consistency in performance across the recognised institutions:
The Jeffrey Town Farmers and Community Radio Operators out of St Mary took the award
for Best Radio Story entitled ‘Climate Change’. Chief judge, Wesley Gibbings, president of the
Association of Caribbean Media Workers was impressed by the entry. “The winning
submission displayed a good understanding of what is required in the production of a radio
feature – a good script, tight inserts, the appropriate use of sound of bites and solid vocal
delivery,” Gibbings said. (Christopher Serju, Gleaner Writer (Jamaica Gleaner Online
| Wednesday October 17, 2012 | 9:23 am)
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 100 JET FM is a relatively small community radio outfit serving Jeffrey Town and its adjoining communities populated by mainly subsistence farmers, skilled workers and a growing youth population faced with the challenges of rural poverty and weak education.
The community radio station emerged within the first decade of the 21st century as a source of information and support system to some of the developmental work that were being pursued by some of the international development agencies in the rural Jamaican village. The station is part of a multimedia centre which has support from The United
Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Information
Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) Jamaica, and the Environmental
Foundation of Jamaica (EFJ), among other international and local development organisations.
Plate 4: Map locating Jeffrey town in St Mary, Jamaica
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 101 Jeffrey Town did not always have the pedigree reference it boasts today. As president of the JTFA Wordsworth Gordon underscores:
There was a time before the radio station and the work of the farmers’ association and the
recognition we have been getting Jeffrey Town was a name that people did not want to associate
with; now people are walking proud to the fact that they come from Jeffrey Town. They can give
their address as Jeffrey Town. (Personal communication, July 2013)
Despite its headline making ways since the emergence of the JTFA and JET FM, Jeffrey
Town still remains a relatively poor community in one of the poorest parishes in the country. Jeffrey Town has an official population of just less than 3000 spread across six districts or villages and is itself part of the greater Gayle Development Area according to state agencies, the Social Development Commission (SDC) and the Statistical Institute of
Jamaica (STATIN). The latter is the lead agency with responsibility for conducting the national census; the last of which was done in 2011.
Among the larger populations located around the radio station are the districts of Jeffrey
Town and Carter Mountain/Top Road. Two small towns or commercial areas sit at either end of the radio’s reach – Guys Hill to the North and Gayle to the South – both of which have the poorest reception of the radio station. There are more males than females
(53 to 47 per cent) in the greater Jeffrey Town community. A similar head of household ratio (56:44) obtains with an average family size of just over 3 among the 877 households officially recognised by the State. The community also has a high pregnancy rate among its youth population.
The working age population (15-64 years old) is approximately 61 per cent; but the adult
(25 and over) unemployment rate is 33.3%, while 50% of those employed work in
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 102 agriculture. In fact, 70% of households are involved in agriculture/farming. That may or may not be related to the fact that near 75% of the land used in agriculture is family owned. The radio station is owned and operated by the Jeffrey Town Farmers
Association (JTFA) and was established as a prompt from the UNESCO for them to identify the best way for that community-based organisation, which was itself started in
1999, to meet their information communication needs.
Given its remote location, its high rate of unemployed youth population, and the traditional attachment of rural folks to radio, particularly farmers, the novelty of a radio station located in the community was an easy catch. UNESCO would apply its international experience in designing small radio outfits for marginalized communities and provide the basic radio-in-a-box, while the community through the farmers’ association would identify the other requisite resources to have the station established.
These include the identification of an appropriate location to which the community would have access, as well as, meeting the criteria for a broadcast licence to be granted by the Jamaican Spectrum Management Authority and the Broadcasting Commission.
JET FM 88.7 went on air as the voice from the hills of St. Mary in 2008. The establishment of the radio station and its operation, however, required training a cadre of volunteers, all of whom had either no background in any form of information-communication activity or too little to be a significant boost to the start-up of such a system. Strong relationship building, therefore, became the motivation from the get go. Collaborations between formal and informal institutions and organisations, civic and public entities, and individuals of some influence, internally and externally of the community, would become the organising model for the establishment of a radio station and the strengthening of the JTFA.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 103 These collaborations and partnerships provided answers to the lack of technical, knowledge, and human resources necessary for the establishment, operation and management of what was surely an innovation for the communities of Jeffrey town and its environs. Programming was needed. Content was needed. Voices were needed.
Volunteers were needed to meet these needs. Training had to be provided for both start up and maintaining the effort. Critically, ways had to be found to finance the undertaking
– even within a framework of community participation and voluntary service.
With training support from established institutions of learning and some international development projects, such as the University of the West Indies (UWI), the ICT4D
Jamaica project, and the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), a critical start was made in addressing the obvious needs. The Environmental Foundation of Jamaica (EFJ) and
PANOS Caribbean were critical in the station developing environmental communication content relevant to the farming community. These organisations also assisted in providing critical financial resources needed to address some of the infrastructure support necessary to sustain the operations. In fact, the installation of renewable energy facilities and the production of a radio series on Climate Change literally redefined the way forward for both the radio station itself, and importantly, how the farmers themselves related to the radio.
The farmers did not only need to own JET FM, they also needed to have the knowledge and technical competencies to keep it operational. Therein was the true test of the station as an empowerment tool for the community generally, but more specifically for the farmers who were now owning and operating a resource for which education and training were so critical to the process. A process that must provide critical informational content for the well-being of its owners and listeners, as well as, create opportunities that
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 104 reduce their dependence on outsiders to increase their capacity to produce quality programming for what could become a more informed and sophisticated audience. JET
FM would therefore become central to the JTFA’s thrust towards an empowered community.
As the President of the JTFA, Wordsworth Gordon affirms:
“Empowerment is when someone who has new information is able to utilize such information to
benefit self and others to live a better life style; so it’s not just to have information but to use
it… to be able to determine the value of the information to their advantage, the benefit of
community and the benefit of family”.
JET FM radio station has clearly been able to provide not only an opportunity for the community of Jeffrey Town and its environs to hear their own voices. It has also created a channel through which a cadre of young volunteers have the chance to learn and hone their skills in radio production, programming, content creation and presentation. For example, the training and education opportunities afforded by the radio station’s partnership with the Caribbean School of Communication (CARIMAC) at the UWI
Mona campus and COL resulted in the design and production of several radio programme forms and formats, as well as, a group of volunteers prepared with basic production and programme development skills.
At least five of the initially trained volunteers have gone on to do advanced studies in media and communication at colleges and universities. Two have also returned to the community to serve the radio station in programme management, production and presentation roles. But more importantly, the training and education initiatives have resulted in several outstanding programmes on community health, safe agricultural
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 105 practices, and climate change. Some of the programming is also being aired in the community schools and health centres.
So the farmers own the radio station and, as volunteers, they also create and produce content for their own applications along with many young volunteers who are not only drawn to the technology of radio, but are developing new found interest in agriculture and general community development work. As underscored by the then JTFA Vice
President, Paul Lincoln, “as a farmer associated with a radio station, farming is not only just tilling, reaping and sowing, it is also the craftsmanship of building a community and a society in general” (personal communication, September 2012). Membership in the
JTFA has also seen a shift from a male to female ratio of 9:1 at its establishment to a current ratio of 7:3, attributed to the growing involvement of the young people. The increased participation of the young people in particular has also been attributed to the radio station and the activities at the multimedia centre.
4.3.2 JET FM changing attitudes and behaviour
The Jeffrey Town Farmers Association and their ownership of a small community radio system called JET FM 88.7 is a significant milestone on many levels. The government of
Jamaica had completed its hegemonic hold on media systems by 2004 and the rise of profit driven private media enterprises was now on in earnest. This is a phenomenon taking place right across the Caribbean. A corollary to that privatization of media over the last and early decade at the turn of the 21st century was a renewed drive in community and citizen media initiatives, such as JET FM. As these community driven media systems settle on their own voice and content, training and education, and capacity building, opportunities for becoming a non-formal educational and information platform around the livelihoods of the community take on even more potency for the farmers.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 106 JET FM is, therefore, making some critical linkages between the value of information communication technology, empowerment communication, and sustainable development which further advance the need for identifying new ways of empowerment even as the development processes tend towards a more inclusive participatory approach. One critical link is to be found in the context appropriate application of technology giving due consideration to the historical, social and cultural dynamics of the community. Another is the way in which the human agency and capacity building are factored highly in the relationship between social change, technological adoption, and communication as a process of transformation. A third link is between community development and human capital development. Overall, JET FM has become a central point of community reference where both the individual and collective dimensions of empowerment are actively at play.
Within two years of establishment, the community radio station embarked on programming and content that was designed to meet the informational and educational needs of the community on a whole and the farmers in particular. As Gordon says,
We produce radio that informs and educate farmers…and they are interested and listening. We
are giving them information that is out there but nobody ever gives it to them. We are giving
them something that is available but they don’t have the resources to get the information so we
are giving them information that is relevant and affecting their lives.
According to Miss Hilda Townsend, the Public Relations Officer of the JTFA since the start of the group in 1991:
We have seen a lot of changes…and as a farmer lady we have learnt to help ourselves…but the
challenges as females are great because we have to see that everything is alright…men alone
cannot farm, one hand cannot (catch) lice, we have to work together to make life a little easier
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 107 and so I would encourage the young ladies of the community to try and help yourself, plant
something, start somewhere… as for the radio station I am rejoicing…it helps in many
ways…I listen to the farmers time in the morning and we get better understanding of how to
help with weeding for example!
Paul Brown, long term member of the JTFA, outlines an evolution of the movement in
Jeffrey Town.
We have seen practices evolve from slash and burn type farming producing staples to a
development where small farmers are trying to satisfy the bigger demands of the hotel trade where
you have fruits and vegetables that are not normally grown by the farmers around. I see people
switching to these types of produce to satisfy the environment that they find themselves in.
We also have to look at the technology being introduced such as green house and mechanization.
The cost of greenhouse technology seems to be a limitation…so too mechanization given that we
have a hilly topography…and so the radio station is a medium which can be used to educate us
on the changing conditions and technologies available to us and if you can educate the population
it is more than enough… it is very important in bring the new technologies to the people…we
can teach people how to manage their farms for better profits, we can market for people. There
are a lot of things that JET FM can do for agriculture. The radio can be used to raise questions
and suggest new ways of getting involved in agriculture as well as proposing new directions and
alternative uses.
The programmes designed for and by the farmers are broadcasted at times decided by the farmers at their monthly meetings. The most popular times have been early morning when the farmers are heading to their fields and six o’clock in the evening when they are back at their homes for a meal. The ‘Farmers Time’ programme therefore becomes a focal point on important and current information that could affect the day’s activities, as
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 108 well as, future outcomes. Information, such as the farm gate pricing which the Rural
Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), the technical field support arm of the
Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, places on the Internet, and to which the farmers do not have ready access, is now made available via JET FM.
Another example of JET FM making a difference is in its 12 episode half hour series on
Climate change called Drought, Look Out! This radio series ran for a year and is credited with having a greater than anticipated impact on the community’s attitude and behaviour.
A comparative analysis done by this researcher in 2014 on the specific programme showed that there has been change, for example, among the general population towards proper disposal of garbage. Specifically, among the farmers, there was a decrease in the slash and burn method of farming. In cases where they are still burning, they do so in a confined area. Importantly, there has be a concomitant increase in composting. The research also showed that rain water harvesting as an indicator of drought management practice was high among both men and women. In the general discussions with the farmers, it was quite clear that the participants were very appreciative of the reminder of both the importance of rain water harvesting and the procedures involved. Their new level of appreciation is in recognising the need to be prepared for drought.
The research found that persons who listened to the radio programme were more likely than those who do not listen, to say ‘yes’ when asked if they practiced rain water harvesting (see table 2). Since there is a statistical significance which makes the relationship between listenership and practice generalizable to the larger population, it could be safe to conclude that the programme, if listened by the majority, could have even more far reaching effect on the practice of rain water harvesting and the maintenance of such practice.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 109 Additionally, though approximately 67% of the respondents stated ‘yes’ when asked if they knew the steps involved in rain water harvesting, cross tabulation revealed a 13.5 percentage point difference between those who listened and those who did not (78.7% to
65.2%). Again, listeners of the programme Drought, Look Out! Were more likely than non- listeners to indicate that they knew the steps involved in rain water harvesting. In other words, non-listeners of the programme Drought, Look Out! (34.8%) are more likely than those who listen to the programme to indicate that they did not know the steps involved in water harvesting. This is 13.5% percentage point greater than those who do not listen but said ‘yes’ to knowing the steps involved in rain water harvesting.
Table 2: Awareness of drought management practices promoted by the Drought, Look Out! radio programme
Practice Yes No Drought, Look Out! 36.4 63.6 (listeners) Rain Water Harvesting 73.6 26.4
Knowledge of steps in 78.7 65.2 water harvesting (listeners) Knowledge of steps in 21.3 34.8 water harvesting (non- listeners) Water storage at home 97.5 2.5
The research also found that there was an increasing trend towards organic farming, which the radio station supports along with ongoing training and education among farmers by the Jamaica Organic Agriculture Movement. The station creatively transfers training workshops, meetings, and field services activities to radio programming content to the benefit the people within the community. It is important to note that, JETFM is
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 110 the only source of information with continuous material on land husbandry, proper trenching, and protection of top soil – all critical matters to the agricultural community.
Other content driven programmes include features on anti-human trafficking and HIV-
AIDS.
4.3.3 Who is listening to JET FM and why?
The station managers and volunteers boast of the attitudinal and practice changes taking place among the citizenship of this largely farming community as a consequence of the radio station’s presence. But who is listening? A baseline survey conducted in July 2013 among members of the wider Jeffrey Town area identified JET FM 88.7 as the favourite station, confirming at least the station’s hold on the listenership. Twenty one percent
(21.0%) of the valid responses (N=238) chose the community-based outfit above six others, all with national profiles and reach (Table 3). The national mainstream radio stations, IRIE FM and Zip 103 FM, with 13.6% and 12.6% of the respondents, enjoyed second and third favourite positions, respectively.
A note of interest here, is that both IRIE FM and ZIP FM belong to the same management company – Grove Broadcasting. The former made its breakthrough in the very early days of the 1990s privatization of media in Jamaica, and immediately scored highly with its audience as being a Jamaican all-reggae station. The latter, on the other hand, is among a suite of emerging contemporary mainstream stations targeting the younger demographics and with a wide and international popular culture music sound.
However, the emphasis, in both cases, is on music and entertainment, even though, with
IRIE FM, there is a strong emphasis on rural based news coverage.
This point is significant to the sustainability of a community radio station, which in order to be so designated community radio, must be reflecting the voice of the community.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 111 IRIE FM is located in the same parish as JET FM, but unlike JET FM, it has a national reach and still manages to maintain certain identification as community-based through its news content. In other words, though IRIE FM is a commercial entity with nationwide coverage it has not lost the core touch of its original incarnation as a rural-based community-centred outpost of the radio station arm of the government owned Jamaica
Broadcasting Corporation, before its divestment into private hands.
Figure 7: Favourite Radio Station among listeners in Jeffrey Town
25
20 Zip 103 FM Hitz 92 FM 15 Fyah 105 FM RJR 94 FM 10 Love 101 FM IRIE FM 5 JET FM 88.7
0 Radio Station
Another significant note is that during the mid-morning hours, JET FM loses its favourite station position to longstanding national station RJR 94 FM. This period is the time of morning when call-in talk-show programmes are extremely popular across all media outlets in Jamaica, and across both rural and urban audiences. And yet, not only does JET FM not have such a participatory and interactive current affairs programme format, but cannot afford to develop one. So, in terms of listener participation as an indicator of empowerment being supported by its programming, not having such a popular format would definitely be a drawback for the station. That then, would have to
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 112 be addressed if community radio is going to improve its empowerment standing, high as it may already be.
The highest level of JETFM listenership by occupational grouping is found to be the unemployed and housewives at 88.2% and 82.4%, respectively. However, the favourability rating for JET FM remains highest among housewives (53.3%) and females
(71.1%). In terms of age, all the groups from 13 year olds to 51 and over show above
60% listenership. The age group with the highest listenership is the 41-50 grouping with
72.4%.
The members of the community are not only listening to JETFM as a favourite, but do so quite regularly. This is good for the station and community radio generally. 82.2% of those who listen to JETFM do so either every day or every week with the rest listening between 2-3 times per month (11.4%) and once per month (5.9%). Disaggregated, the highest proportion (48.0%) of those who listen to JET FM 88.7 indicate that they listened every day, while 34.2% listened every week. The lowest proportion (0.5%) listened as often as possible (See Figure 8).
Figure 8: Regularity of Listenership to JET FM
60
50
40 30 20
10 0
Every Day Every 2-3 times Once Per As Often Week per month Month As Possible
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 113
As mentioned before, programming is a critical partner in the empowerment process and in consolidating the listenership. For JET FM listenership, First Flight, an early morning magazine type programme with emphasis on religious music and commentary, is the most listened. This programme accounted for 66.1% of the valid responses which far outstrips the second most popular programme, Jet Vybz accounting for 12.6% of the distribution (Table 3). It is worth noting also that it is during the First Flight that most of the popular informational, educational and special features are broadcasted.
The good news for those who see the radio station as significant to the development of the community is that one-half or 50% of the respondents were of the view that the programmes on the station discussed events and subjects relevant to their everyday lives.
Approximately 40% were of the view that relevant issues were discussed sometimes on the programmes. For a community radio station, this is significant because the premise of community radio station is that issues relevant to the livelihood of the communities in which they are located would be the primary content.
A near 90% approval rating, and without even an interactive call-in programme which would take the issues in a more participatory way to the community, has to be seen as a positive for the radio station in terms of its empowerment standing. Additionally, the positive rating of the quality of educational programmes and the high approval rating of issues-based programming, under conditions which do not allow for full capacity of production and delivery both at the human and technical resource levels, show the potential for an even greater impact of the radio station on the lives of the community.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 114 Table 3: Programming on JET FM 88.7 in order of listenership
Programme/Features Listeners
First Flight 66.1
Jet Vybz 12.6
Jet Express 2.7
Jet Town Buzz 4.9
Climate Change 2.7
Other programmes less than 2% 7.7
Don’t know/Not Sure 3.3
Total 100
Additionally, what is the empowerment value from the perspective of the volunteers and managers of JET FM? Romae Ormsby, a volunteer with JET since its inception in 2008, is currently a co-programme manager. In response to the question of value to the community Ormsby says,
I think it is one of the greatest values we have in JT as not every community you can walk in
and say oh, they have a radio station…It is a voice for people… Jeffery Town also won a lot of
awards locally and internationally… JET also puts us on the map as the only radio station in
St Mary…It is very valuable. It gives people a voice to say that yes we are somebody or we can
be heard on a radio just like Alan Magnus or Rosamond Brown… so you don’t have to be
looking at RJR and dreaming and wondering and wishing if you can see a radio station but you
do have one in your community (personal communication, July 17, 2013).
Allan Magnus and Rosamond Brown are seasoned broadcasters recognized as among the best on-air presenters in the country. The former dominated early morning radio for
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 115 more than 46 years at the oldest radio station, RJR FM94, while the latter has also been involved in training and development of community radio station talent both as a station manager for an urban community radio station (ROOTS FM) and ICT4D partner with international agencies such as UNESCO and COL.
There is also the question of impact in terms of programming leading to change in the community which Ormsby summarizes in the following example:
We made a programme on social issues that was a lead part in why people stopped having
burials without a permit in their yards. Because, first time people would do burials without
caring about the parish council but now people take it up to say, we are going to parish council
and they come and test the land before they try to bury on there and that was because of JET,
because we built the programme around that issue. It was not practiced before… sometimes even
on the burial day the parish council would come and stop it and it would be big a ‘great issue’.
Now people are doing what is right. (Personal communication, July 17, 2013)
Programmes are not only seen as relevant to the community, but also in contributing to change in the community’s attitude and practice around social issues that affect their relationships within the communities, as well as, with external authorities. It is also a powerful source for capacity building.
4.3.4 Sustainability
One of the greatest values that community-based, non- governmental, and civil society organizations have is their access to international gatherings of institutions with similar mandates. Often these confabs are staged by the very donor agencies supporting these organizations and who are also interested in ensuring that best practices are shared. One
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 116 best practice that has been adopted by JET FM is the revenue generation model developed by Radio Toco.
JET FM has been providing information and educational services to the many international agency grant funded programmes that have come to the farmer’s association. In fact, this particular option has had direct impact on the human capacity building of the Association, as well as, that of the radio station. For example, the JTFA has invested in proposal writing and grant funding, and have actively sought after and successfully brought developmental projects to the community of Jeffrey Town through a focused and deliberate strategy of rebranding the radio station as a climate change station. Additionally, there has been a direct link to the success of the climate change projects being run in the community and the radio station.
Of course, the early consciousness of climate change as a developmental issue for the farming community played a significant role in how easily this transition was made. The radio station is located at the central offices of the JTFA and had within short order of its establishment showed how difficult it was going to be for the Association to maintain the high electricity costs associated with operating a radio station. That building was retrofitted with wind and solar renewables through funding from local and international partners such as the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica and the Global Fund for
Climate Change.
One of the largest allocations of funding ever made in the English speaking Caribbean by the Inter-American Development Bank, for example, was made for climate change mitigation programme located in Jeffrey Town, managed by the Jeffrey Town Farmers
Association, and with deliberate communication support by JET FM. Subsequently, the
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 117 farmers’ association and the radio station have managed to generate other interests in the development of such projects and, of course, the rolling out of development support communication to the projects by the radio station. As the UNDP concludes:
The climate change series was catalytic for the station, allowing them to move on and tackle
issues such as HIV/AIDS, child abuse, maternal health, and human trafficking through
subsequent programming. In addition, the station has created an annual environmental
education and awareness series that works to highlight and explain the actions being taken by
Jeffrey Town Farmers in conservation, organic farming, and sustainable livelihoods. (UNDP,
2015: 10).
4.3.5 Conclusion
The impact of JET FM and its critical communication support role to the JFTA could be summarized in the following newspaper headline: Farmers Make a Difference in Jeffrey Town
– Jamaica Gleaner
“After securing a grant of more than US$645,000 last year from the Caribbean Development
Bank (CDB), a progressive group of agriculturalists from Jeffrey Town, St Mary, is planning to
use the funding to launch a series of local community development projects throughout 2016.”
(Jamaica Gleaner Published Online: Thursday | January 28, 2016 | 12:00 AM |
Orantes Moore)
This is what the JET FM experience is set out to be about. It is involving the community in a process of creating and producing content relevant to the lived experience. It is also about advancing the relationships that positively responds to the needs and aspirations of the people in a drive to improve the overall well-being of the community. This is probably best captured in the following statement by longstanding secretary of the JTFA,
Ivy Gordon in her account of the Jeffrey Town Story – A Resilient Community (2012):
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 118 This group is dynamic, planning and preparing for the future; it has become an institution of
service and volunteerism for the development of the rural area of St. Mary known as Jeffrey
Town and been given many awards for its efforts. It is a beacon for others to follow, and is
regarded as a model Jamaican community having built resilience into every layer of country life.
4.4 88.5 Soufriere FM – The voice and light of rural St. Lucia
4.4.1 Introduction
On September 1, 2010 when 88.5 FM Soufriere started broadcasting, it was yet another avenue by which the people and community of Soufriere would be heard. St Lucia’s first community radio station was born under the call Your Voice, Your Light, thus acknowledging the enlightening and empowering nature of radio as a platform for social change. The station would serve Soufriere, a rural fishing village located on the West coast of St. Lucia, and its surrounding population of just under 8,000 persons. The station was launched in 2010, but those close to the long process involved in getting such a system established speak to the four years of getting to the stage of operation.
The Soufriere community radio station was yet another among the many attempts by
UNESCO at supporting opportunities for improved communication and information activities at the community level across the Caribbean. Since 1994, UNESCO has been building and supporting community media activities in Barbados, Belize, Dominica,
Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and
Tobago as part of fulfilling one of its core mandates – ensuring people’s participation in the democratic processes that affect their lives. St. Lucia was not to be deprived of that opportunity to be an active part of building out the information society, especially among the traditionally poor and marginalized. As Dr Kwame Boafa, then director of UNESCO
Caribbean argued at the launch of 88.5 FM Soufriere, “If you want to get communities
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 119 involved in sustainable development… you must provide them with access to information that will help them.” (http://soufrierefoundation.org/blog/entry/st.-lucias- first-community-radio-station-88.5-soufriere-fm-is-officially-la/).
As a non-commercial media outlet, 88.5 Soufriere FM was expected to continue in the tradition of the community radio systems already established by UNESCO. Chief among that tradition is being a volunteer managed and operated entity responding to the needs and aspirations of the community. Other values were to be found in what parent organisation, the Soufriere Foundation, outlined as the four key objectives of Soufriere
Radio. The station was to:
Provide a voice to the marginalized of the community;
Educate the citizenry;
Identify, raise awareness and solve community development issues; and
Promote democracy and good governance.
However, despite what could be considered a relative success in short order – reaching the hearts and minds of the people – there were many challenges from the get go, particularly with access and participation, which are key indicators of empowerment.
As the first project officer of the radio station, Malcolm Mathurin points out.
One of the challenges was getting a place. UNESCO gives money for the equipment but after
that we had to bear the cost for setting up the equipment (and) find a place to house the location
at minimal costs. We had space at our building up there (Soufriere Hills), but that is kind of a
disadvantage because it is detached from the community; it’s not really accessible with no regular
transportation system.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 120 What we wanted to do is programming reflective of the community so the farmers could have a
voice, the fishermen would have a voice, tourism, the religious people… People would have a
feeling of what is happening in their hometown; but that has not happened largely because of the
accessibility of the radio station to the community itself. If it was better situated like in the town
(centre) it would be more accessible and people would come in (personal communication,
Tuesday March 26, 2013).
Greater access as an indicator of empowerment is a point that was raised in all the interviews – formal and informal – as well as in the Focus Group discussion among those who listened to the radio station and found it important. In fact, even without being raised by the researcher, the focus group participants kept mentioning the location as a major disconnect. As one focus group participant stressed, “The radio station is detached from the community and a way should be found to bring it closer to the people in the town”.
Jeremy George, the man who did the survey to support the establishment of the radio station in 2006, found that the demographics of Soufriere was largely young people and noted that they were more interested in music. That description of the community had not changed almost a decade later; but it does not preclude the radio station from doing what the Foundation and the people themselves think a community radio station should be about. As Mathurin complains:
“The radio station right now is primarily music; which serves its demographic but that is not
what I personally think it was intended for. It should be something more educational, something
that would give a voice to people so they can use it as medium to see what changes they can force
to happen, to their benefit or to just let their voice be heard! And I don’t think it’s on that
purpose right now.”
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 121 Mathurin was the first project officer in charge of the radio station with responsibility to develop programmes, attract advertising, and settling on a general programme format; but according to him, this had to be done “with zero experience in radio”.
On this matter, Soufriere Radio is certainly not alone. Most community radio stations across the Caribbean start with this basic but critical gap – little knowledge in radio programming and operation. UNESCO, however, provides training for all its supported community radio operations across the Caribbean. Fortunately for systems such as
Soufriere Radio, and depending on the level of leadership, initiative, and enterprise within the community, this basic training can and does quickly evolve into a more intensive exercise of capacity building.
In the case of Soufriere FM, UNESCO supported the expertise of Julius Gittens from one of the major national commercial radio stations, Radio St Lucia to provide the introductory exposure needed to fill that ‘zero experience’ gap. The Soufriere
Foundation’s own IT staff also helped with setting up the system and producing station identification and promotional material. But as Mathurin points out, radio is something that needs somebody to cater to it and to ensure at least some semblance of stability and continuity. Unfortunately, the Foundation was never able to provide neither person nor technical resources for any consistent period of time.
The Foundation’s continued management of the radio station was therefore becoming quite a challenge not only in terms of its operation, but from a true empowerment perspective of having the people involved at all levels. According to Mathurin, discussions about the sustainability of the radio station were on the agenda inception and have remained there always.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 122 “It became quite apparent that if we were to let it go, make it real community, and
finding the resources required to make it so, it (the radio station) would fail. You want
to go on voluntary but people don’t stay too long with the voluntary thing. There would
have to be salary, operation costs (and) these things are not for profit-making. The
foundation is right now subsidising to keep the operation going… it is like lifeblood
keeping it running right now.” (Personal communication, Tuesday March 26,
2013).
Mathurin is pointing to a major dilemma of community radio stations. They cannot make money and yet they have to produce educational programmes which can be extremely costly. They must also be able to create a quality production that would keep them competitive and relevant to the people – even if they are generating programme content from within. Additionally, even with the fact that as exciting as the prospects of radio may be, it is very difficult to find volunteers within the small populations being served. Sustainability of the human resource beyond the novel stages of the operation of the radio station is, therefore, a real threat to the system reaching its full empowerment potential.
“I don’t think enough is being done to use it (the radio station) as a form of
empowerment. If it were used… people would have regard, hold it up in high esteem
and say, well this is what people are saying on the radio and we should be listening…
people would be listening and be conscious of this radio station; and these people are a
force to be responsive….” (Personal communication, Tuesday March 26,
2013).
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 123 4.4.2 Soufriere as an empowerment tool
Mathurin speaks to the issue of empowerment and sustainability as twin partners. It may be that empowerment is an under planned dimension of sustainability. Certainly the feeling of ownership and identity are critical elements of empowerment that when converted to better management of a community resource should lead to some continuity of purpose and transformation. Radio Soufriere must, therefore, be able to bring its community issues and voices to air, so that the people can identify with and own the initiatives, the advocacy for change, and the change itself.
As the following exchange between three male listeners of differing ages and professional background reveals, there is a feeling of identity and importance that is derived from the
Radio Soufriere experience among the members of the community. Seki is a 32 year old farmer with primary school education while his farmer colleague, Tony is a 53 year old of similar high school education and claims to have the experience of age on his side. Keos, on the other hand, is a secondary school educated member of the community plying his trade as a photographer. The question being answered is how important is Radio
Soufriere?
It gives people a conscious vibes…develop the youths to stay out of trouble…it helps me a lot…
normally listen on Saturday (Seki, FG participant, March 25, 2013)
Radio on a whole educate(s) me a lot. Listening to Radio Soufriere FM and BBC that helps
me a lot with my English and that really helps me (Tony, FG participant, March 25,
2013)
I feel it is important for a community like Soufriere being the breadbasket so that we have a
sense of our own, especially the programmes they have. In general it breathes life in the
community. For instance, the religious programme in the morning, they have sports…. The
programmes have a nice blend and so people find themselves somewhere. They can fit somewhere
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 124 and that in itself helps out just not me but in general (Keos, FG participant, March 25,
2013)
Another statement by Keos which brought spontaneous approval from the group, speaks to the sense of proprietorship and pride that tend to come with the presence of community-based systems like Radio Soufriere. As Keos says: “Having our own radio station makes us feel proud. To have something that you could call your own always makes you feel more uplifting than anything else…” And without a beat Anita, a 19 year old secondary educated unemployed female, chimes in, “It puts the cherry on the cheesecake!” to the collective approval of the group of listeners participating in the focus group. (FG discussion, March 25, 2013)
The call signal of 88.5 FM Soufriere is Your voice – Your light! However, there seems to be a general feeling that the station being operated by the Soufriere Development
Foundation, which is funded by the government, implies that the station is not free to truly be a community radio station representing the community of Soufriere. This notion of a divergence between the management and the stations tag line is an important one because it interconnects the degree of ownership with the level of participation by the people in the empowerment process. Currently, participation and access are limited to phone calls. The listeners say they also do not know exactly where the station is located and they feel it is important that people know this information! Access is as much important to the community sustaining its feeling of pride and ownership, as it is to hearing their voices or their own stories.
The process of empowerment is about initiative, action, outcome and impact. The people must recognise the power of their voices and bring that to bear on the process of both
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 125 identifying and resolving the problem, through their own proactive exploration of ideas, and owning the leadership of the advocacy, as well, as the action towards change. They must also be highly engaged in maintaining an effective management of the outcome and ensuring that the impact on both the present and the future is lasting. The programmes aired on the community radio station must, therefore, be good examples of understanding of that role, influence and responsibility to the community.
A programme that is held up as laying the foundation for converting voice, into action and impact is Meet Your Representative. This is a programme where the political representative for the Soufriere area is engaged in a moderated discussion with the members of the community through a call-in radio programme. However, there is consensus between the managers and listeners on the potential of voice and action, and most certainly, there is common ground about the impact – not just of the programme, but also of Radio Soufriere itself.
We cannot speak to impact because it is fairly new. But at the same time, the fact that
the foundation is in charge of the radio station limits it to really being truly
community… Both the influence the foundation would have; they would tilt to what the
foundation is about. For example, you would not have someone go and have a
programme bashing the Foundation. They would just know you cannot come there and
do that…. So I don’t think it is truly community in the sense that the foundation is
the one running it…if it was free and really community I think then everybody would
have a voice to say what they want – even to bash the foundation! (Mathurin,
Personal communication, Tuesday March 26, 2013).
In the case of St Lucia, the Soufriere Development Foundation (SDF) is a government funded entity and its leaders are appointed by the government of the day. Logically then,
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 126 the perception of government intervention is evident. If the SDF has responsibility for the radio, Mathurin rightfully argues, the community radio station is more likely to be perceived as being incapable of truly reflecting the voice of the community. This observation in part underscores the reluctance of people to make comments they believe to be negative about Radio Soufriere. It may be a reflection even of how difficult it was to organise a focus group that does not find the radio station important to their lives.
There is what is called a lingering “fear of chastisement”. Victimization and corruption are two of the unfortunate and negative features of the political and governance structures in the Caribbean region and the people are not only weary from it, but are very wary of how close they are to both given the smallness of the societies and by extension the close degree of separation at and across all levels of the communities.
Methodologically, an independent organiser would be best suited for these settings, but again, the ambiguities of the Caribbean space are stark.
A seemingly open, friendly, all together community is simultaneously operating as a close-linked fearful group consistently cognizant of the potential danger lurking in their presence! For example, if the head of the SDF is government appointed, then one cannot blame the volunteers for believing that new people coming in to the station would therefore be government sympathisers, if not supporters. If the Programme Officer for
Radio is also new and a supporter of the government, the argument is that unless the government sees value in advancing its own agenda via the community radio station, the radio station could easily be dropped from the books of the Foundation. If the radio station does not already have the capacity to fend for itself then it would just simply fold.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 127 Conclusion
The radio station will have to manage the process of empowerment as it evolves; but it is quite clear that those who are involved as volunteers and as managers have an appreciation for their own power broker role, as well as, that of the radio station itself.
Who speaks and in what voice, whose language is appropriate for broadcast versus what is representative of the true community spirit are all issues related to managing the empowerment process. What is the management model to be used? How will the issues related to financial viability and sustainability of human resources be resolved with a volunteer non-profit, non-commercial business model, especially when the skills set with which the community comes to the table are already needing higher level training and education?
Take the issue of language, for example, this is a central symbol of any community and right across the community radio systems, including communities of indigenous peoples, the question is raised as to what is the language to be utilized on radio (Mayan, Garifuna,
Creole or Patois). The constant debate is about what is standard or official as against what is of the people. This has antecedents in the heritage of slavery and the movements towards emancipation, colonialism, and even independence and reflects the way
Caribbean people value its own. There is a history of placing greater value on the language of the outsider. The cultural representations of the colonial masters take pride of place over those of the majority natives and especially the descendants of slaves. The concern here is what should community radio do to reflect the community? How does community radio move the community along a sustainable path of empowerment and development if it does not settle the debate about the value of the people’s language?
How does Soufriere leverage the power it has?
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 128 Radio is powerful you know. It is a very powerful medium… With the radio station you have a
loud voice; you have a voice that can reach the people, so obviously, when you are heard you are
able to influence. Depending on how articulate you are, you are able to influence people’s
thoughts and people’s attitude, and their whole behaviour so you have that power…that 20/30
minutes of you giving out your message and it can influence stuff. That’s the power I think you
have with radio.
Community radio is about mobilizing people to act and I don’t think we have done that at all.
We made some attempts; but we could have done so more in terms of community based or
community oriented activities. For example, get people to go paint the school; have programmes
that would encourage people… and get them to move and do something positive. But for some
reason we don’t get there.
That’s where I think UNESCO is the most likely agency to help us in terms of training. We
don’t have the resource within the community to come in and train the people in the community
and so it would have to be sourced from outside and I think UNESCO could help us.
The other way is to send our people out to the bigger more established radio stations or overseas.
I heard Radio Toco is one of the successful community radio stations… you know, send
somebody there to see how it’s done, see what they are doing how they’re doing and then come
back and hope that they can bring some of what they learnt back to this radio station.
(Malcom Mathurin, Personal Communication, March 26, 2013)
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 129 CHAPTER 5
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION – EMPOWERMENT AS ALTERNATIVE VOICE AND ACTION WITHIN A CULTURE OF DOMINATION
5.1 Introduction
Four key concepts and theories and related elements are identified as the points from which old and new typologies will evolve – power, dependency, systems management, and diffusion. As expected, they are all interconnected at multiple dimensions and levels.
The focus here is on power as the umbilical link or controlling metaphor for the study.
This is more the choice because the questions of power as control or influence, and distinguishing between the two, did lead to broader discussions about the negative value of coercive power in a predominantly voluntary environment and the location of authority, legitimacy and reward in that context.
The external-internal contestation of power also creates legitimacy issues about expert and referent power and, particularly with a community communication system, whether connecting and informational power is properly managed. In other words, if empowerment is about building the capacity to own and manage resources what old power relations are being challenged and what new power relations are to be created?
The construction-deconstruction-reconstruction approach becomes a controlling metaphor for the research. How people place meaning and by extension treat with issues of power in the Caribbean space is a matter of how the institutions of power have been socially constructed.
All the interviewees across all five cases – Radio Ak’Kutan, JET FM, Radio Paiwomak,
Radio Toco, and Soufriere Radio – were asked to distinguish between power and influence and to speak to the degree of power either brought to the radio station or
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 130 gained from being engaged with the radio station. Not surprisingly, most see themselves as gaining power, but more of the influential type rather than the controlling type.
Especially for the volunteers, exercising power is about compelling (coercive or hard power), while influence is about gently taking people from where they are to some place that is better (discursive or soft power).
A young male volunteer producer/on-air presenter at Radio Toco in Trinidad describes the power-influence dynamic thus:
I don’t really think about the power because all of us is one (sic). No one is better
than anyone. That is why I use the word influence… I could get people to come to visit
the radio station but I can’t compel them to call. You have to encourage, to influence…
we ask them for their feedback on certain important things and that is
influence…power is about forcing people to call. (Personal communication,
March 14, 2013)
When it comes to how people feel about the radio station as a community resource and their relationship with this important empowerment tool, the survey finding is consistent with the general sentiments of the focus groups. In the case of Radio Toco, approximately 82.0% of the respondents are in agreement with the statement that listening to the radio station make them feel better about their community, 9.1% are in disagreement, whilst the remaining 8.6% are undecided (Figure 9). A similarly high percentage of respondents (75.4%) are in agreement with the statement that listening to the radio make them feel better about themselves, 12.8% are undecided whilst 11.8% are in disagreement (Figure 10).
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 131 Interestingly, the higher levels of appreciation for the community radio station both as a community and an individual source of self-esteem is seen among the older age groups – even if cross tabulation shows that there is a weak relationship between age of listenership and how it makes them feel about the community.
Figure 9: Listening to Programmes on Radio Toco 106.7 FM Makes One Feel Better about One's Community
60
50 Strongly Disagree 40 Disagree 30 Undecided 20 Agree Strongly Agree 10
0 Response
Figure 10: Listening to Programmes on Radio Toco 106.7 FM Makes One Feel Better about Myself
50 45 40 35 Strongly Disagree 30 Disagree 25 Undecided 20 Agree 15 Strongly Agree 10 5 0
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 132 When it comes to ownership ninety-one percent (91%) of the respondents say having their own radio station make them feel better about their community, with a slight increase to 97% saying it makes them feel better about themselves. Some 92% of the respondents believed the radio station is important in their accessing other community resources primarily through sharing information (61%), building awareness (18.1%) and encouraging action (10.4%). From among this grouping 81% valued the radio station in terms of improving their ability to make informed decision.
However, while this is consistent with the sentiments of the focus group discussions right across all five cases, the leaders of Radio Toco and JET FM confessed in their interviews that as leaders they were not seeing improvement in informed decision making manifesting in their community. This, the researcher contends, may be related to the ways in which people wear deep rooted ambivalence towards power and the powerful and how they mask or unmask these attitudes depending on their level of trust in the particular circumstance.
In all five cases, while political action may be the most inconsistent and least quantifiable across the region, the evidence is overwhelming that all the individuals who come to the radio station whether with prior power or not, gained a measure of influence that made for greater impact on the collective empowerment of the community. It is noted however, that this increased influence does not automatically convert to leadership and management consistent with the expectations of higher level participation and decision- making. Except in the case of Soufriere Radio, where management is government appointed, the highest level of management and seat of power within all the other cases remain intact, even after 15 years of operation. Issues to do with capacity building as a measure of sustainability are therefore more than a constant in this kind of scenario.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 133 The two cases in which an empowerment survey was conducted (Radio Toco and JET
FM) will serve to frame the discussion, while drawing on the focus groups and in-depth interviews conducted among participants of the other cases. The key variables have to do with how people feel about owning the critical resource of radio, access to the resource, the significance of the resource in advancing the sustainable development of their communities, and the level at which those who benefit from the existence of the system participate in the management of the resource and the delivery of change to the community.
5.2 Feelings of empowerment
Approximately 82.0% of the respondents are in agreement with the statement that listening to programmes on Radio Toco 106.7 FM make them feel better about their community. 9.1% are in disagreement, whilst the remaining 8.6% are undecided (Figure
9). On a five point scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree 50.0% of the total sample agreed that listening to programmes on Radio Toco makes them feel better about the community. For males, however, the figure is higher at 53.9% and for female it is lower at 46.7%. Thus, the findings can be described as males are more likely than females to agree that listening to programmes on Radio Toco make them feel better about the community. This could be attributed to the vibrancy of the male dominated agricultural and fishing sectors in the community. However, the relationship between whether or not listening to programmes on Radio Toco makes them feel better about the community and their sex was not statistically significant at p < .05 and is, therefore, not generalizable to the population.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 134 Table 4: Listening to Programmes on Radio Toco 106.7 FM Makes One Feel Better about One's Community by Sex of Respondent
Listening to Programmes on Radio Toco 106.7 FM Makes Sex of Respondent Total
One Feel Better About One's Community Female Male
Count 3 3 6 Strongly Disagree % within Sex of Respondent 3.3% 3.9% 3.6%
Count 6 4 10 Disagree % within Sex of Respondent 6.7% 5.3% 6.0%
Count 13 3 16 Undecided % within Sex of Respondent 14.4% 3.9% 9.6%
Count 42 41 83 Agree % within Sex of Respondent 46.7% 53.9% 50.0%
Count 26 25 51 Strongly Agree % within Sex of Respondent 28.9% 32.9% 30.7%
Count 90 76 166 Total % within Sex of Respondent 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
The data for JET FM shows that in the ‘agree’ category, 45.5% of the total sample agreed that listening to programmes on JET FM 88.7 makes them feel better about the community, but for the male respondents the figure is higher at 49.4% and for females it is lower at 42.0%. The findings can be described as male respondents are more likely than female respondents to agree that listening to programmes on JET FM 88.7 makes them feel better about the community, but in the ‘strongly agree’ category, the data revealed that 41.0% of females strongly agreed that listening to programmes on JET FM
88.7 make them feel better about the community compared with 36.0% of males.
Therefore, it can be concluded that female respondents are more likely than male respondents to strongly agree that listening to programmes on JET FM 88.7 make them
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 135 feel better about the community than is the case for Radio Toco where there is a four point advantage of males (32.9%) over females (28.9%).
In other words, generally speaking more females are likely to feel better about their community from listening to JET FM, while the converse seems more likely in the case of Radio Toco. This may be related to the diversity in focus of the JET FM radio programmes beyond the traditionally agriculture content to include mothers and children health care programming.
Though there is a relatively weak association between sex and feeling better about their community from listening to programmes on JET FM 88.7 (Cramer’s V value of 0.104) and a slight relationship between sex and feeling better about community from listening to programmes on Radio Toco (Cramer’s V value of .183), one would still not be able to generalize to the larger population. It is noted that in both cases, there are more women working as volunteers and in a more consistent ways than men, even though the male: female ratio in the population is generally even (STATIN Jamaica 2011 Population
Census; CSO 2011 Population and Housing Census) and the unemployment rate among young males tend to be higher than that among younger females. It is believed that the women are more likely than men to engage in voluntary work because of the perceived potential for mobility and success on the part of the women.
Interestingly, when we look at feelings about self and listening to programmes on radio in the ‘strongly agree’ category, females (29.2%) are more likely than males (26.0%) to strongly agree that listening to programmes on Radio Toco make them feel better about themselves, while approximately an equal proportion of females and males are undecided on this said issue. However, for JET FM, males (29.2%) are more likely than females
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 136 (19.8%) to strongly agree that listening to programmes on JET FM make them feel better about themselves, even though overall the data indicate that females (61.5%) are more likely than males (55.1%) (Table 8) to agree that listening to programmes on JET FM make them feel better about themselves.
In both cases it is clear that those who listen to their community-based radio systems do not only feel better about their community from listening, but also feel better about themselves. This is true especially among females who listen to JET FM. People also feel better about themselves and their community knowing that they own the radio systems.
Again, females (60.6%) indicate stronger affinity towards the community in relation to ownership of the radio station than the males (51.7%), as is the case of JET FM. While a sense of ownership makes a difference to how listeners feel about themselves or their community, ownership itself is manifested in access to the radio station and the levels of participation by the listeners. Both Radio Toco and JET FM claim to have an open door policy where members of the communities are free to walk in and share their perspectives on matters to do with the community or the station itself.
5.3 Empowerment as access
Right across all the cases, from Belize to Guyana, Jamaica to Trinidad and St. Lucia, the main technology for engaging with the programmes and the station management is telephony. For example, in the case of Radio Toco, the majority (56.0%) of the respondents identified telephone calls as the most popular way to access the radio station, with ‘visits and telephone calls’ accounting for 20.4% of the respondents and
‘visits’ accounting for 17.3% confirming the administrators’ open access policy. In the case of JET FM. the respondents identified visits (35.8%), meetings (11.9%), and telephone calls (36.8%) as among the most popular ways to access the radio station.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 137 However, the penetration of telephony has not benefited JET FM much in contrast to the ways it has benefited Toco. This could be due to the fact that JET FM is a more recently established outfit than Radio Toco. Both Radio Toco and JET FM are, however, strong on community meetings and training. It should also be noted that the broad ownership of JET FM by the farmers of the community does increase the traffic at the radio station for both the farmers’ association meetings and for the regular assessment of the programmes being produced for broadcast.
Additionally, even with an increased penetration of telephony among the general population, rural communities still remain relatively outside of and behind the adoption of technological innovation. This is due largely to the slow rate of economic development, poor infrastructure, low education, and higher levels of unemployment often associated with remote rural agricultural communities. The increased penetration of wireless telephony has made communication a little easier in rural communities, but the affordability divide becomes even more challenging. Nevertheless, access is significant both to people’s feeling of ownership and identity as well as in determining the extent to which the empowerment of the community is attributable to the community system itself.
Feelings of ownership and participation are argued to be important indicators of the value of a community radio station. The choice of participation could also be linked to the technological support of the radio station itself. For example, at JET FM in rural
Jamaica, the telephone system is not as integral to the technological support as it is with
Radio Toco in rural Trinidad. In the case of the latter, people can in fact hear their own voices when they participate via telephone. Hearing their own voices is in itself an added incentive or motivation for calling. People are also given an opportunity to select music,
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 138 have dialogue with the presenter, and raise issues of concern which are of importance to the community if such a programme exists. In the case of JET FM, the caller can only leave messages whether he or she is calling about any of the choices a caller from Toco may have. This is because the technological support for live broadcast via telephone is not at capacity at JET FM.
5.4 Levels of participation
The management of JET FM and Radio Toco have had ongoing effort at getting both an issues-based programme and live broadcast of telephone conversations with the community. There are, however, some challenges to overcome. Among the challenges is the critical matter of training and preparation of the hosts to ensure that broadcasting standards are fully appreciated and understood. These standards include, an understanding and appreciation of the ethical and legal implications of public discourse.
In the case of Jamaica, the matter of language and communication, especially when it comes to public dialogue about national issues of politics and development, can be quite sensitive, partisan and elitist. The managers, for example, at JET FM do not feel that the language and political literacy of the community is strong enough to engage and sustain meaningful and productive discourse. In other words, the social, economic, and political consciousness of the volunteers would have to be improved before such a programme could effectively be broadcasted.
Of course, such matters are tell-tale signs of how people feel about the community media system because arguably, community ownership would be reflected by not only who or what is on the radio, but also by the sound of the station – language and expression included.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 139 Interestingly, information and empowerment were the two main reasons identified by the community as ways in which, for example, Radio Toco makes it better for the community. As high as 71% of the respondents say they have personally benefited from the existence of the radio station in the community, citing receiving reliable informative and educational information as among the many benefits. Other benefits identified are employment opportunities, receiving inspiration from the programmes aired, personal development, and participation in the activities/programmes. Most of these benefits mentioned could be said to be intangibles, but are consistent with the far reaching impact of the soft, influential or discursive power that members of the community identified in the focus group as having deeper meaning to them.
Females also have a higher positive response rate than males to the question of personal benefit though not by much (68.9 to 66.7 percent, respectively) (Table 5). With the 13-19 age groups (85%) among the Radio Toco demographic indicating the highest level of positive response to personal benefit, one cannot help but think that it is the people who grow up with the radio station in the community who have benefited from its presence the most. The expectation should have been the converse, where those who at least had something to compare would be better able to speak to either the individual or collective level benefit of empowerment. The level of benefit expressed by the age group could also be attributable to the youth focus of the programming on Radio Toco. Interestingly, the
20-30 age group at 61.2% happens to be the least likely to indicate a personal benefit
(Table 6).
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 140 Table 5: Benefits Personally from Radio Toco 106.7 FM Being in the Community by Sex of Respondent
Benefits Personally from Radio Toco 106.7 FM Sex of Respondent
Being in the Community Female Male
Yes 68.9% 66.7%
No 31.1% 33.3%
Total 100.0% 100.0%
Table 6: Benefits Personally from Radio Toco 106.7 FM Being in the Community by Age Grouping of Respondents
Benefits Personally from Radio Toco Age Grouping of Respondents Total
106.7 FM Being in the Community 13-19 20-30 31-40 41-50 51 &
over
Yes 85.0% 61.2% 64.1% 68.8% 81.4% 70.5%
No 15.0% 38.8% 35.9% 31.2% 18.6% 29.5%
As it relates to community benefit, the data revealed that 91.8% of those who responded indicated that the community is better able to make informed decisions because of Radio
Toco (Table 7). Here though, it is the respondents in the 51 and over and 13 - 19 age groups that are most likely to believe that the community is better able to make informed decisions because of Radio Toco. Those in the 31-40 age group are the least likely to believe this. Respondents in the 41-50 age group (11.1%) are most likely to believe that
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 141 the community is not better able to make informed decisions because of Radio Toco, while those in the 51 and over age group are the least likely to believe this (Table 8).
Table 7: Whether Community Is Better Able to Make Informed Decision Because of Radio Toco 106.7 FM
Responses Frequency Percent Valid Cumulative
Percent Percent
Yes 157 80.9 91.8 91.8
No 12 6.2 7.0 98.8 Valid Not Sure 2 1.0 1.2 100.0
Total 171 88.1 100.0
Missing No Response 23 11.9
Total 194 100.0
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 142 Table 8: Whether Community Better Able to Make Informed Decision Because of Radio Toco 106.7 FM by Age Grouping of Respondents
Whether Community Better Able Age Grouping of Respondents Total to Make Informed Decision 13-19 20-30 31-40 41-50 51 &
Because of Radio Toco 106.7 FM over
Count 19 41 31 24 37 152
Yes % within Age 95.0% 89.1% 88.6% 88.9% 97.4% 91.6% Grouping
Count 1 4 3 3 1 12
No % within Age 5.0% 8.7% 8.6% 11.1% 2.6% 7.2% Grouping
Count 0 1 1 0 0 2
Not Sure % within Age 0.0% 2.2% 2.9% 0.0% 0.0% 1.2% Grouping
Count 20 46 35 27 38 166
Total % within Age 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% Grouping
As it relates to the individuals making informed decision as a benefit, males are more likely than females to make important decisions based on the information provided by
Radio Toco most of the times. A vast majority of respondents (64.8%) say sometimes they make important decisions based on the information provided by Radio Toco.
However, when combined with another 17% who do so most times, this gives the individual decision-making in relation to information received from Radio Toco a
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 143 significant rating. When disaggregated by sex, age, education and location, the data reveal that a higher proportion of males (20.8%) make important decisions based on information provided by Radio Toco. In contrast, 16.1% females use the station for the same reason. Those in the 41-50 age group (27.3%) are most likely to use the information ‘most times’. In terms of education, those respondents with primary education (25.7%) are most likely to use the information provided to make important decisions ‘most times’, but college level respondents (83.3%) are most likely to do so
‘sometimes’.
Generally, in as much as there is a weak relationship between age and attitude to decision making based on information provided by radio station, the trend suggests that older people are more likely to make important decisions based on the information provided by Radio Toco. It should be noted, however, that a significant portion of the population that listen to Radio Toco are among those with primary to secondary education and that those with primary education listen to Radio Toco most consistently and every day. If those with primary education are more likely to be the older folks in the community then it is easy to see why attitude to decision making based on information from the radio station would be more significant to the older folks. But it could also be seen as a contradiction that the vast majority of those who listen radio are in the younger population which, for the most part, reflect average attitude towards positive use of the information provided by radio in important decision making. This contrast may be because the younger folks mostly listen for the music and entertainment content, while the older folks listen for the educational and informational type content.
Even though the relationship between how people feel about the personal benefit of
Radio Toco and its value to the community may be relatively weak, the statistical
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 144 significance of the relationship (p<.05) makes it generalizable to the population. Of course, its significance and meaning are arguable; but for any indicator of individual and communal or collective empowerment to be established as having some positive correlation it is worthy of note. The statistical significance is important in a context where 71% of the respondents say they benefit directly from Radio Toco being in the community. Even more critical are the ways in which the people say they benefit which include the ‘feeling of empowerment’.
5.5 Empowerment and ownership
Empowerment is not just about ownership, but more about how that ownership manifests itself in practice. The community radio is both a channel for promoting empowerment and itself a measure of how empowerment is played out in the community in which it is located. Therefore, if two or more elements of empowerment – personal benefit and community value – are aligning, then it is justifiable to say that Radio Toco is demonstrating more than the potential of being a viable catalyst for empowerment; it is a tool for empowerment. It is, therefore, justifiable to conclude that properly used community radio does not only benefit individuals of a community, but the community itself as a collective.
In the same way, JET FM can be said to be a highly valuable empowerment resource to both the individuals and the community of Jeffrey Town in rural Jamaica. In this case approximately three quarters (74.5%) of the respondents say they benefit from the radio station being in the community (Table 8). The vast majority (92.5%) indicated “yes” the radio station is important to accessing community resources (Table 9). This was especially so for the younger population and was highest among the 31-40 age group
(97.4%); bearing in mind that the cross tabulation did not show a significant enough
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 145 relationship between age and the station’s importance to accessing community resources to be generalized to the wider population.
Table 8: Individuals Benefit from the Radio Station (JET FM) Being in the
Community
Response Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
Yes 74.5 74.5
No 25.5 100.0
Total 100.0
Table 9: Whether or Not the Radio Station is Important to Accessing Community
Resources
Response Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
Important 92.5 92.5
Not Important 7.5 100.0
Total 100.0
On the other hand, there is enough significance between the variables location and the station’s importance to access community resources to make it generalizable to the population. The majority (61.5%) of the respondents indicated that the radio station makes access to community resources possible through the sharing of information.
Additionally, the people believe that JET FM 88.7 makes access to community resources possible by building awareness (18.1%) and by encouraging action (10.4%), respectively
(Tables 10 and 11).
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 146 Table 10: Way in Which the Radio Station (JET FM) Makes Access to
Community Resources Possible
Access to Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Resources Build Awareness 18.1 18.1 Share Information 61.5 79.7 Advocacy .5 80.2 Encourage Action 10.4 90.7 Other 8.8 99.5 All Of The Above .5 100.0 Total 100.0
Table 11: Combination of Ways in which the Radio Station (JET FM) Makes
Access to Community Resources Possible
Access to Resources Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Build Awareness & Share 12.5 12.5 Information Build Awareness, Share 12.5 25.0 Information & Encourage Act Build Awareness & Advocacy 6.25 31.25 Build Awareness & Encourage 6.25 37.5 Action Build Awareness & Share 50.0 87.5 Information Build Awareness And Share 6.25 93.75 Information Build Awareness, Share 6.25 100.0 Information & Advocacy Total 100.0
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 147 So both rural based community radio stations, JET FM and Radio Toco have value to the community in terms of the personal and collective benefit and both are seen as important to the people’s access to community resources. Empowerment is about gaining access to resources and ultimately, ownership of such resources; but importantly it is also about being prepared for the responsibilities that come with that access and ownership. Such consequences include, but are not limited to, being able to manage the resources in an efficient and sustainable manner. Information sharing, awareness building and encouragement to take action and social responsibility are critical to the process of gaining access and having ownership. So too are creating opportunities for capacity building – both at the human, technical and practical levels – thus ensuring that the requisite skills for efficient and effective management and sustainability are in place.
Otherwise, the people could end up in new positions of access, ownership and power that become meaningless in short order.
5.6 Sustainability of social action and change
The ways in which the community radio stations operate as community resources – even as they lead the charge in advocacy and action towards empowering the community – are important indicators of how valuable the community radio systems are to empowerment.
The power relations within and outside of the community radio system tell a story. How community people looking on and how the volunteers feel about the management of the system are important elements of that story. Are management decisions taken in a collective-driven and empowerment-focused way? And critically, do the various partners see themselves as important to decision making as the highest level of participation in the empowerment process?
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 148 Empowerment is about access, ownership, and participation. It is also about action and sustainability. Full participation encourages and promotes involvement in every component and at every level of the partnership – from consultation to decision making
– and requires leadership and management that builds capacity and sustains change.
When the question do you believe the station is being managed in a sustainable manner was asked, in the case of JET FM, a majority (67.0%) of the respondents replied yes and
30.9% replied no (Table12).
With approximately 72% of males responding in the affirmative compared to 61.1% of females, it can be concluded that males are more likely than females to have said yes when asked if they believe the station is being managed in a sustainable way (Table 13).
There does not seem to be a significant enough relationship between the belief that radio station is being managed in a sustainable manner and the sex of the respondents.
However, the statistical significance of the relationship between the belief that the station is being managed sustainably and levels of education and occupational grouping make it possible to generalize to the wider population.
Table 12: Belief as to whether or not the JET FM is being managed in a sustainable manner
Response Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
Yes 67.0 67.0
No 30.9 97.9
Not Sure 1.5 99.5
Sometimes .5 100.0
Total 100.0
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 149 Table 13: Belief as to whether or not JET FM is Being Managed in a Sustainable Way by Sex
Response Male Female Total
Yes 61.1% 72.4% 66.5%
No 35.8% 26.4% 31.3%
Not Sure 2.1% 1.1% 1.6%
Sometimes 1.1% 0.0% 0.5%
Total 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
The fact is, the rural poor tend to have a lower level of educational attainment and, consequently, lower level employment opportunities. In the case of JET FM, the radio station is being managed by a collective of predominantly primary school educated subsistent farmers, which in itself gives greater access to the operations of the system.
The belief or perception of sustainable management could therefore be based on their proximity to the process and the level at which they participate. For example, the farmers’ association holds a monthly general meeting where the operations of the radio station are a standing item on the agenda. But probably a more striking observation is the fact that decisions regarding programming, production, staffing, and financing of the radio station itself are either taken at or ratified by the general meetings of the association. The individual and collective components of empowerment are therefore activated in this scenario.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 150 Table 14: Belief that the Radio Toco is being managed in a sustainable manner
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative
Percent
Yes 133 68.6 78.2 78.2
Valid No 37 19.1 21.8 100.0
Total 170 87.6 100.0
Missing No Response 24 12.4
Total 194 100.0
In the case of Radio Toco, more than three quarters of the respondents (78.2%) answered yes they believed the radio station is being managed in a sustainable way (Table
15). The same kind of generalization to the wider population was not possible in the case of Radio Toco, but both radio stations shared similar responses in terms of sex (more males answered in the affirmative), educational level (highest among secondary education and lowest among university), and occupational grouping (affirmation highest among the skilled grouping).
In terms of management structure, Radio Toco is operated by the Toco Foundation which, unlike the Jeffery Town Farmers Association, has a broad-based board of directors representing a wide mix of professional and community personnel, with an executive director at the centre of the organisational structure. The management structure and processes are therefore seen as open and democratic in principle and to an extent in practice.
So while the management may find solace in the overwhelming positive perception or belief that the systems are being managed in a sustainable manner, it is still worthy to note the recommendations by those who say it is not being managed sustainably. In the
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 151 case of Radio Toco, for example, the respondents provided a list of things that could be done differently to ensure sustainability. These include the long-standing wish by the management and the community for a national license to be obtained, which would expand the reach of the station. Of course, for community radio purists the question that arises is whether the station would not lose its true community-orientation and concomitantly its empowering value to the community.
The desire for national radio licence also raises another set of values which are worth exploring, especially given that a large number of the operations that initially get community radio licences have failed because their intent was always to be a national radio broadcaster. However, Michael Als, who is considered the father of community radio in the Caribbean and the brainchild behind Radio Toco, asserts:
They don’t have our experience. Nor do they have our involvement in the communities. What we
are doing as we expand is seeing opportunities that will enrich Community Radion where it will
be heard throughout the nation but also at the community base. Today it could be (one
community), tomorrow (another) and next day (still another). All these communities could take
charge of the radio every day; every night they could be voicing and raising issues that affect them.
That is how we see it.
Those persons who look at National Radio are only looking at it in a myopic way because they
don’t have Community Radio experience and they cannot see then that the communities could
come alive; that’s how people come alive in Toco and the surrounding areas. We have a hundred
thousand people listening and I have no doubt that with the (national) licence we are going to
quadruple. We may not even need to advertise. Some people say we may not even need to
advertise because our voice will be the advertisement. I say, well alright that’s a nice concept; but
that is what the people tell us.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 152 As mentioned elsewhere in this research paper, there is a fundamental dilemma between operating at the community level and going national. in that national radio operates with an opportunity to earn from commercials and do make a lot of money from advertising; but yet they do not have the costs associated with producing educational programmes at the level at which it is expected of community radio. In other words, community radio cannot operate for profit, yet they need money to produce programmes while national radio can operate for profit but are not obligated to meeting programme production standards. So how will community radio stations address that dilemma, when the production of informational and social action programmes remain a fundamental part of why people find the community radio systems empowering.
I don’t worry about that…not even a moment of worry for me; and it never has been because
what has been able to provide support to Radio Toco is the other programmes. It is simply by
expanding that capacity that we are able to deliver the other programmes. So what is the point?
When we have 20 other communities we will also have commercial advertising. It will come – it
has to come - because now (at that stage) it is national voice at the community level. And
everybody will be going around and be able to hear themselves at the national level. Because
when they talk about Maruga it is just talking about Maruga but everybody in Trinidad and
Tobago hearing will now be hearing about the community. So I don’t even give that a moment’s
notice.
Such is the confidence of someone who had been at the helm of the development agenda in Trinidad and Tobago for several decades. But has that confidence been transferred to the people of the communities who for the most part tend not to understand the developmental role and function of a community radio system, even while appreciating its impact on their individual and collective sense of identity and
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 153 ownership? In other words, as the history of the failing stations is believed to have shown, most community radio licensees merely use the platform for take-off into national and mainstream commercial operations which are, simply put, a different system of governance, production, programming – one that is based on economic viability and not community sustainability.
The financial viability and sustainability dilemma is very real for community radio stations, especially those in rural townships that are lacking the networking, fundraising, and proposal writing capacities of the experienced Toco Foundation or the dynamic adaptive Jeffrey Town Farmers Association. Other suggestions from the respondents to help with the sustainable management of the community radio system include holding more fundraising events, increasing advertising and marketing, employing more personnel to include the hiring of a programme director, improving programme content and obtaining more financing and sponsorship. These are all things the management would say are being done; but those who say the system is not being managed sustainably are probably pointing to the need for even more to be done. They also recommend additional training programmes for locals to learn more about the radio station and for the adoption of a more proactive approach to the democratic governance of the systems.
5.7 Conclusion
There are three important linkages to be made between the development/empowerment process and the role of information communication technology, particularly community media systems. First, the link between the objectives of social change, technology, and communication are symbiotically intertwined. Secondly, not only are human agency and the practice of power contextual, but also unequivocally essential to the completeness of the relationship between social change, technology and communication. And, thirdly,
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 154 new ways of approaching development must involve initiating communication strategies for social change not as a support to empowerment, but as a critical dimension of empowerment. This added dimension of empowerment enhances the shift from complete exogenous intervention to indigenous community-based initiatives; but more critically begins to answer questions about the imperative of building networks, stakeholder groups and partners that share equally and at all levels of empowerment.
It is evident that access to the radio stations brought about increased access to other resources including training opportunities and local and international networking.
Consequently, there has been improved capacity both at the individual and collective levels either as individuals or groups or as radio station and community. But again, this means that where empowerment is consistent across all dimensions, increased self- identity and ownership of resources also increase the desire to maintain the community system. Unfortunately for the communities reached by JET FM and Radio Toco, individual empowerment, especially in relation to increased capacity, also increases skills- migration as the newly empowered seek to find economic avenues beyond the voluntary means of the community initiative. This new-found desire therefore raises other questions of agency, dependency, and sustainability that need to be further interrogated.
However, assessing community empowerment through the lenses of an empowerment communication system demonstrates that the process cannot any longer be just about giving consideration to people’s culture, knowledge and sense of identity. Neither is it just about the use of context appropriate technology as support to development. The proposed Caribbean typology of community empowerment and communication places greater value on people-participation at the highest level of decision making; but even more fundamentally, it acknowledges that increased power affects the quality of social
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 155 action and that new powers will also have serious implications for the sustainability of both the empowered individual and collective.
In a society where the dominant media of print and broadcast present severe financial challenges for the ordinary people, it is easy for community-based groups of whatever interest to be marginalized. It is bad in the urban setting, but given the hegemony of cosmopolitan trends and lifestyles, it is understandably worst in rural communities where the traditional and indigenous cultures are probably the only surviving symbols of identity. It is also in these poor and marginalised communities that international development agencies and their local partners in civic and non-governmental organisations find fertile ground for empowerment work.
The awareness building and opportunities created for training and education to match the introduction of technologies such as radio, for example, serve as important platforms from which both the individual and community can participate in a process that makes life better and changes the balance of power – albeit slightly – in their favour.
Community radio stations like JET FM (Jamaica), Soufriere Radio (St. Lucia), Radio
Ak’Kutan (Belize), Radio Paiwomak (Guyana), and Radio Toco (Trinidad and Tobago) are therefore extremely popular within their rural communities precisely because they give communities a sense of location and identity, a voice, and a mobilizing arm for action. Community radio gives these communities power.
As Wendy Diaz, the station manager at Radio Toco affirms:
In community radio it is about people; it is the people’s own; you cannot tell the people no, they
have to come back tomorrow, it is their own. You have to find a way to help that person there
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 156 and that in itself is empowerment to the people…when they know they can come and have their
voices heard! (Personal communication, March 19, 2013)
Dennis James, a former volunteer who is now working with one of the national radio stations in the city, says:
(Having Radio Toco) leads to a bond between the radio and listeners who have interest in, for
example, agriculture, environment, and the fisher men. People attribute certain learning in these
areas because of the radio station. So there is impact, especially because of the kind of
programming which is not just music but learning, for example, about financial literacy. So
while popular radio is about entertainment (and most people listen for that) it is the
responsibility of the radio station to find that right balance between education and entertainment.
Radio Toco is about uplifting the individuals and the people to take them to another level of
thinking… (Personal communication, March 14, 2013)
It is important to note the difference between the Toco Foundation and Soufriere
Foundation in terms of community ownership and, of course, the Jeffrey Town Farmers
Association and what it means to be seen as truly community centres and how much voice can be translated into action by the community radio station. For example, the
Toco Foundation is doing several developmental projects in the community and each project budget has a line item for communication support. How that financing support serves more than a promotional or informational dissemination function, though, requires another round of training in developing educational and community transformational programmes to realize its benefits.
The survival of the community radio station is always at the forefront, but the community radio mandate means finding even more creative ways to get financial
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 157 support and still meet the educational expectations. That is what empowerment is about
– how do the stations sustain themselves as part of taking people to the point where there can be consistency in the quality of output. Too often, too soon in the project cycles stipulated by the international funding agencies the issue of financial sustainability emerges. The community radio stations are faced with the dilemma of empowering themselves, while empowering the people they serve, but the paradox of development stymies the effort.
Neither community radio nor empowerment is about providing voice only. Voice must be activated into action that brings better to the community at both individual and the collective levels. Bringing about better is a critical element of empowerment as a transformational process and product. Better means improvement in social services, human and intellectual capital, health and the environment, social relations, cultural identity and self-worth. These are fundamental indicators of development and, therefore, the outcomes of an empowerment process which seeks to allow for the articulation of peoples aspirations, the identification and mobilization of resources, and the management of such resources in a sustainable way. This means that the resources are not only making them better for now, but also for their children and their children’s children.
What is needed are programmes which have a more all-embracing and long term dynamic built into their design, therefore, allowing for a more sustainable path. This gives time for capacity building both at the technical, human and financial levels. Possibly the most interesting note that emerged out of the interview with Malcolm Mathurin,
Project Officer of the Soufriere Foundation for example, is his youthful openness and brutal frankness about the limitations of the relationship between the Foundation and
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 158 Soufriere Radio. He was quite clear that community radio needs to have a certain level of independence – freedom if you will – for it to truly operate as a genuine community radio. He was explicitly articulating another dilemma of Caribbean society which is the perceived dependent relationships between governments, political parties and the non- governmental organisations, civil society groups, and foundations.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 159 CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS – NEW CHALLENGES TO EMPOWERMENT IN COMMUNMITY RADIO
6.1 Building new platforms for new voices
The true measure of development is to be found in the improvement of the human condition – an increase in the human capacity to respond to circumstances of the day in a manner that demonstrates both resilience and sustainability of a progressive path to the future. Agency is at the heart of human development and empowerment. Development, as propagated by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is about the enlargement of the opportunities for people to actively participate in the processes that will make a better tomorrow for all (UNDP, Human Development Report 1990; Sen
1999; Ul Haq, 1995).
And yet, for most people, particularly in the developing world, development and empowerment remain an externally driven activity in which ‘the people’ are nothing more than mere ‘receivers of development’ rather than active initiators. Human agency is not prioritized in this approach. There is no doubt however, that contemporary changes in the information communication age have forced many to recognise that the contemporary discourse about development has brought technological determinism back to the table as a critical factor in how development is defined and measured. The new information and communication technologies, particularly those which rely on the
Internet for its highway, are showing that the challenge to people’s understanding of how relationships around survival are negotiated and by extension managed is not over and needs deeper contestation.
The link between modernity and technological determinism has taken on an even greater significance given the success at establishing a global knowledge and information society
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 160 propelled by the application of information communication technologies to almost every sphere of human existence. How a society measures its success at modernity as a dimension of development has umbilical links to discourses about the need for and meaning of empowerment. The discourse between those who occupy the traditionally dominant, but narrowing positions, and those of the more subordinate, but widening positions, is increasingly more public and global. With the new cultures and values evolving from globalization then, all communities – both of interests and geography – have to find new ways of co-existing. This includes new ways of thinking about communication in development.
Communication is central to human survival. Improving the quality of life, expanding opportunities for better, and enlarging the human capacity for sustainable living must revolve around communication strategies that advance the notion of development as an empowering and transformative process. However, locating communication as core to the development process still requires a major paradigm shift.
That shift has long been required. The paradigm that holds up external innovator- innovation and source biased one-way information flow as the measures of development can no longer stand. The longstanding call for development measures to acknowledge people’s culture, knowledge and sense of identity as critical factors in the development process must take centre stage. Development and empowerment are twinned processes that promote socio-cultural-appropriateness in the application of technology. They prioritize people’s participation at the highest level of decision-taking, from design to implementation and management to evaluation. That paradigmatic shift underlines these critical social, human and technological imperatives in finding new ways of thinking about empowerment and development. This is especially so for the Caribbean region that
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 161 has long been subject to relationships of subordination through forced free labour, colonialism, and inequities in the arrangements for economic trade and cultural space.
As already established , empowerment is “an intentional, ongoing process centred in the local community, involving mutual respect, critical reflection, caring and group participation, through which people lacking an equal share of valued resources gain greater access to and control over those resources” (The Cornell Empowerment Group
1989:2 in Melkote and Steeves, 2001: 354). This is fundamentally counter to the modernization framework within which and with which the Caribbean as a region has struggled to survive for more than 500 years.
Today’s Caribbean society is one rooted in continuous economic stagflation, prolonged social crises, protracted cultural conflicts around hegemony, unpardonable environmental squalor, unrelenting devaluation of the human resource, and a perpetual struggle by the peoples of the region to find their own social, economic, cultural and intellectual identity, place and voice. The varied versions of empowerment projects would have all found fertile ground in this kind of history. The economically poor, culturally vulnerable, and socially marginalized have always seemed to be in the right place for taking control over their own resources. This has been demonstrated by the many riots and uprisings decorating the history of the Caribbean region since the Christmas rebellion of 1831 that laid the foundation for the Emancipation Acts of 1834 and full freedom from slavery in
1838.
It is arguable that the empowerment projects that led to the political independence movement across the Caribbean in the early 1960s, starting with Jamaica and Trinidad in
1962, and still later, the economic reform programmes of the last two decades, have not
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 162 really moved the people to taking full control over their resources. The argument is that such projects were not only conceived, but also implemented, within the traditional external and interventionist approach of modernity. This means that all knowledge and expertise comes from outside, thus allowing the people to participate only as beneficiaries. This is the lowest level of participation and by extension the lowest rung of the empowerment process.
It is good that there has been recognition over the years that capacity building should also include mechanisms for reducing dependence on external agencies, be that as project initiators or funders. As seen with the two major cases cited in this research, Radio Toco and JET FM, grant funding has become a central strategy in the sustainability of the community media systems. On one hand, the receipt of funding is a positive, but on the other, funding as a critical factor in sustainability is still being mobilized from the same external sources. The difference to note is that on the surface, the community is being proactive in its sourcing of funds, as well as, in the management of the funds granted to the community. However, there is still no real mechanism for internal generation of revenues from these community based initiatives, which is an important factor in reducing the dependence of these systems on external agency.
UNESCO has been instrumental in the establishment of all the cases of community radio within the Caribbean space for more than four decades. The same is true in other parts of the developing world. From the interviews and focus group discussions undertaken for this research, it is evident that without that start up by UNESCO, these community media systems would not have been a reality. The value of the UNESCO is deep in their DNA. The test is to actually manage without the external help as community media systems, whether that is via organisations like UNESCO or a local
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 163 foundation with direct line to the community and the radio system itself. Soufriere
Radio’s Mathurin feels that something has to be done to take the station off the books of the foundations and by extension the direct funding agenda of the international agencies.
It almost came to a point where we had to make a decision. Are we going to go fully commercial
or remain community? And UNESCO would have to understand that this could not work.
But it really cannot be truly community, I don’t ever think, if the foundation keeps subsidising
it. It has to be given out to some kind of Board representing organisations in the community to
manage it so it can live and breathe on its own (Malcom Mathurin, personal
communication, March 26, 2013)
In relation to Radio Toco, Linda Hinds points out that:
Initially UNESCO was very supportive in setting up the radio station because we got part
funding for setting up the radio station; the other part was by UNDP. After the setting up of
the radio station then we were lobbying to get the (community) multimedia centre and
UNESCO was very involved in that… the relationship was that type. If we had to order
equipment or so, the National Commission for UNESCO, Trinidad will assist. They tried to
engage us somewhere along the line but it was nothing substantial. More or less the relationship
was more that UNESCO wanted to protect its own investment so that was the type of
relationship we had with UNESCO! (Linda Hinds, personal communication, March
18, 2013)
New ways of thinking about empowerment and overcoming must be embraced and extended beyond access to, and management of, their own resources. It must include redefining and reshaping values and attitudes that would have been shaped by what
Frantz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth (1963) and Black Skin White Masks (1967) identify as
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 164 deliberate use of power and violence as tools of subornation in Africa, and by extension the colonial Third World, of which the Caribbean region has been generally accepted as being a part. In other words, there must be a deliberate demolition of the old and the construction of new relationships of power that are not control-centric, but more about shared relationships and responsibilities for collective human survival.
This approach to empowerment therefore necessitates a re-humanizing process in which notions of selfishness towards fellow human beings and the environment, the accumulation of resources for individual over communal interests, and the intolerance towards difference and diversity are stripped from the ways in which we shape human relationships. It requires a platform for communication that is grounded in its message to translate people’s aspirations and desires for a better life into real action and change.
Communication systems located at the community level and involving the people as initiators of their own development form the strongest foundation upon which to initiate the necessary changes to building more meaningful and empowering human relationships.
Media and the construction of society
Media as techniques and technologies have both cultural and accounting functions. They shape cultural norms and practices as well as help to authenticate the standards and principles of such cultures. Their centrality as tools of the modernity project is due largely to their potency and capacity for information dissemination and technological adaptability.
These are the same values that make media themselves both significant indicators of development and simultaneously significant communication platforms for the modernity
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 165 project. As Escobar argues, media and communication technologies provide both direction and significance to modernist ideals (1995: 36). If, for example, increased access to modern ICT – computer, cell phones, Internet – improves the developed status of a society; then more sustained messages about new ways of thinking on these new contemporary ICT platforms should also signify the direction of a new empowered society.
In other words, since media and communication have been significant to the construction of the various notions of development, they must also play a critical role in both the deconstruction as well as the re-socialization of society. A deeper understanding and appreciation of the role of media and communication in the evolution of Caribbean societies and, particularly their function as simultaneously giving voice and being a catalyst for social action and political change, will however have to be embraced by those leading the new construct.
But more importantly, the people who have always been left on the outside of this process must come to terms with their own potential and possibilities and the power of their own voice and agency in bringing about social change. Together, both the traditional and alternative media and communication institutions will have to bring emphasis to the educational function of media and communication and create new opportunities for social change, people participation, and empowerment. If the shift is not made from media and communication as a purely financial or economic and information dissemination enterprise, then development communication, and by extension the people, suffer.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 166 Community media audiences are both consumers and creators of media content and by extension the main validation of local knowledge and expertise. This knowledge and expertise should not be ignored. The cry for those with “urban, commercial and professional values, interests and power…(to) step down off their pedestals, and sit down, listen and learn” (Chambers, 1983: 101) has been much too long. Though the necessary paradigmatic shifts have been too long in coming, the reality is that it is taking place. The alternatives to be found in JET FM, Radio Toco, Soufriere Radio, and Radio
Paiwomak and Radio Ak’Kutan are confirmation that radio from the grassroots, for the grassroots, and by the grassroots can survive. However, survival has to be rooted in the creativity and innovation of the people who now own, lead, and manage their own resources.
Despite their critical function as alternatives to mainstream media, Caribbean community media systems have been plagued with similar challenges to the development projects constructed around the diffusion of technology as modernization. Community media are about providing genuine platforms for the people’s voice, talent and expertise to be harnessed, honed and heard within a space owned and managed by the people themselves. This also requires similar resources akin to those in mainstream media – a recognition affirmed by the leadership of the cases of Caribbean media systems under study, and to which proactive measures are being applied.
Community media systems as tools for empowerment should reflect a higher degree of ownership and management by the people served. Community radio must, therefore, encourage and promote the highest level of participation by its owners and audiences.
Incidentally, community radio audiences are themselves the owners. As a fundamental principle of community media, the people must participate at the highest level in
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 167 developing and producing content and products that reflect their own realities, dreams and aspirations. However, by the very management structure and financial model that they embrace, the level of participation attained may not be as desired.
Unfortunately, the commitment to meeting this mandate is extremely difficult to sustain without guaranteed financial viability of the community radio system. The challenge is further compounded by the success of commercial media as conveyors and creators of social and cultural norms and values that originate outside the Caribbean. The dominance of cable news networks, especially originating in the USA is harder to break.
The discourse about cultural imperialism, cultural dependency, the colonization of
Caribbean experiences, and sometimes schizophrenic relationship with Caribbean cultural identity therefore continues. Even with the increased opportunities for cultural diversity and ease of access as a consequence of globalization, there is still a very high consumption of imported programming content in mainstream media in the Caribbean.
This is attributed largely to cheaper content being available due to economies of scale.
The most disturbing finding, therefore, is the socio-economic responsibility dilemma faced by community media systems and the extreme difficulty in overhauling that dilemma.
In the Caribbean, community media systems generally, and community radio in particular, are not licensed to make a profit, but rather to serve a public education function. The capacity to fulfil this function while maintaining the highest production values, however, requires the kind of funding that can only be met by operating under a commercial licence. Conversely, the commercial radio station does not have a legal obligation to fulfil a public education mandate in as much as it must the information and entertainment function – which have reach and marketability – and therefore keeps it
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 168 financially viable. Community radio needs money to fulfil its mission, but cannot generate it. The dependence, then, on external funding agencies and the need to develop the human capacity to prepare grant-funding stymies the long term sustainability of community radio as a true empowerment platform.
The deliberate design and delivery of non-commercial funding to the community media entity is as important as the careful design and delivery of educational experiences involving and reflecting the educational needs and expertise of the communities in which the technology is located. For community media systems, the audience is both owner and consumer of the station and its message. This makes for a very distinctive partnership.
For example, an expert in a specialized area of healthy lifestyles and climate change can simultaneously be a receiver, beneficiary or learner of messages promoting healthy relationships between mothers and children or how to become better farmers.
Importantly, though, all are contributing in significant ways to the radio as a space for active individual and collective participation.
In this collaborative and inclusive relationship, everyone plays an equally valued and critical role in the design, development, and production of the radio content and programmes intended for educational purposes. There is full-fledged acknowledgement of education as a participatory process and not just a performance measure. These community radio stations are creatively transferring agricultural training workshops, meetings, and field service activities into radio programming content which, in turn, is building informational capacity while explaining technical and technological trends and changes among the farmers who are themselves the producers of these learning programmes. As underscored by Wordsworth Gordon president of the JTFA,
“empowerment is when someone who has new information is able to utilize such
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 169 information to benefit self and others to live a better life style; so it’s not just to have information but to use it… to be able to determine the value of the information to their advantage, the benefit of community and the benefit of family” (personal communication). This is indeed a good social value for any community.
When the farmers of Jeffrey Town and the fisher folks of Toco in East rural Trinidad become involved in creating and producing content which responds to their informational and practical needs while simultaneously advancing their aspirations for a better community, they are indeed involved in radio for education. Rural development also takes on a higher dimension when both Jet FM and Radio Toco, as little known rural outfits in their own countries, receive recognition from globally recognised institutions such as the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA). The CTA is a joint international institution of the African Caribbean and Pacific Groups of Countries
(ACP) and the European Union (EU) working on ensuring food and nutritional security and greater cooperation between states on issues of natural resource management
The CTA also promotes the integrated uses of communication and information technologies in rural and agricultural development. Along with other recognised bodies, like the European Union, the CTA is a part of a group of important development partners for rural agricultural communities such as those served by JET FM in Jamaica and Radio Toco in Trinidad. Both radio stations have been acknowledged for their contribution to innovation in technological application to development issues, and with that recognition, can consolidate their impact on the communities.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 170 6.2 New approaches to empowerment communication in the Caribbean
It is evident that the contestation between communication as information transmission systems for mind control and communication as a dialogic process of becoming within the Caribbean space is still significant to defining the relationships between the marginalized and the centre of society within the Caribbean space. The examples of JET
FM and Radio Toco, however, show that with a more deliberate approach and commitment to shifting the focus from the technology to the message and the process of messaging, rural communities can undergo significant changes for better. The greater involvement of the majority of the people in decision making though still remains a challenge. This can however be overcome with more sustained work on the part of the international funders to ensure that higher level participation is guaranteed in the design of the empowerment projects.
It is also clear that the old, Eurocentric and western economic growth and diffusional definitions of empowerment, development, and the role media and communication technologies play in constructing social systems must give way to media and communication practices that go beyond information to encourage dialogic experiences and relationships between those on both sides of the microphone or communication technology (receiver and sender). Sustained action and change within the Caribbean context requires that shift and so empowerment communication programming and content development must revolve around education and training, understanding and practice, appreciation and commitment to process.
All the cases presented in this research would have demonstrated the success that is possible with sustained effort and consistent application of empowerment communication principles. The corollary to that is a validation that Caribbean
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 171 community media providing alternative content and programming do have a space in the broader media landscape, in as much as it provides new spaces for new voices at and from the community level. This space is one that needs support from the regulatory bodies across the region, so that community media can perform their rightful responsibilities and serve their developmental function both as part of the established traditional designation in the Fourth Estate, and in helping to inform and shape sustainable and empowered communities.
As new typologies of empowerment are uncovered within the Caribbean space, there must also be a coming to terms with the innovative discourse that is a consequence of perplexing, multi-layered, and constantly evolving Caribbean reality. This would also require on the part of the traditional scientists, both acknowledgement and recognition of the serendipitous ways in which scientific enquiry can find epistemological justification within the Caribbean context.
It is clear from the research findings, that the degree to which a community feels empowered is positively relational to the higher degree of ownership of community resources, such as a community media system. However, it is not as clear cut that by themselves, the community radio experience guarantee higher success rate at promoting ownership, participation, and empowerment within the communities in which they are located. The educational institutions and, especially, the international funders, must therefore be critical players in that process.
More importantly, the conversion of the empowered feeling to empowered action is not as evidenced without the added political, social and economic support systems spread across the communities. It is fair to say then that while the cultures of the communities
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 172 have found new spaces and garnered new levels of respect and acceptance by the communities, social change and empowerment require an even deeper involvement of the people and more sustained translation of information and awareness into action.
Specifically, in relation to hypothesis 1 which posits that, the higher the level of participation by the community the more established the media system will be, the research concludes that while individual empowerment may be elevated, the longevity of the media system itself remains fragile and dependent on its revenue generation capacity.
The premise is that, the operational sustainability of the community media system is dependent on the level of involvement of the community people in its operation.
However, as is the case with Radio Toco and Radio Paiwomak, even after 15 years of establishment, the leadership of the organizations remained in the hands of the original leaders. A similar situation obtains, even with the later established entities such as Radio
Ak’Kutan and JET FM. Consequent on these findings, it seems that the sustainability of these systems have more to do with the capacity of the leaders to find the resources to maintain operation than the level at which the people participate. In other words, while people participation at the highest level is important to feelings of empowerment, it is not as critical as finding the resources to ensure the sustainable operation of the system.
It is important to note that voluntary service is a significant factor in the survival of community radio systems, but in poor rural communities the level and nature of volunteerism is not based on the individual capacity to give back, but more on the individual’s availability and willingness to serve due largely to unemployment. The higher level leaders though, are usually gainfully employed either by the community projects themselves or by other external institutions. This could be the influencing factor in the sustainability of the leadership over protracted periods.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 173 The empowerment-participation matrix developed by this researcher, shows that those who come to the community radio station with already established higher position of power do gain access to the system at the higher level of participation. They are also able to maintain that position of power, which when combined with the skills and competencies brought to the system, make them even more powerful in the management of the system. The programme managers who are already empowered will now have even more influence over the process than the volunteers who are programme managers, but did not come with already established positions of power.
In the case of Radio Paiwomak, for example, the teacher who started out as manager of the system still remains manager and is still held in a high position of power by the community as a teacher, even if retired. A similar situation exists at JET FM. A teacher who has retired subsequent to having access to the system at the decision making level is now able to expand her power by virtue of her capacity to maximize the empowerment opportunities gained as lead fundraiser and grant-writer for the organization. These are self-empowerment capacities that have increased as part of the empowerment processes within the community media system. The individual dimension of empowerment takes precedence over the collective at the higher level of participation. Those involved in the content development and evaluation or consultation are at the base of the system and the community, and are empowered only at the collective dimensions, but not at the higher levels of participation, that is, in implementation and decision-making.
In other words, community radio, though rich in its capacity and delivery of community empowerment, particularly in terms of feelings and to some extent in its ability to convert community awareness to social change, also perpetuates the traditional systems of power where those who already have power are more likely to continue their position
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 174 of dominance and individual empowerment having gained access to the resource.
Notwithstanding the empowerment capacity of community media systems, and them having all the variables for self and collective empowerment and participation, community media systems do not widen the scope for collective empowerment at the higher levels; but rather, are merely maintaining the status quo. This is worth further interrogation across other non-governmental and civil society groupings that have become strident alternatives to the traditional dominant power structures and systems.
It may also be instructive to further explore the hypothesis that a community’s level of acceptance, sense of recognition and collective identity with a particular media system is dependent on the communication focus of that media system. While there may be some degree of correlation between the individual’s need for information and education versus national news and entertainment (Hypothesis 2), the research has shown that there is no clear evidence that where there is a gap in that provision, the community radio station audience will stay committed to listening merely because of its local ownership, voices or content. The trend seems to lean more towards an audience filling the gap wherever it is found, reinforcing elements of the uses and gratification media theory, rather than slavish connection based on community ownership. This may, however, be the result of inconsistencies in the capacity of the cases to provide full and equal offerings of all the areas identified.
As posited by hypothesis 3, the degree to which a community contests established power is linked to the ways in which power is contested in and by the community media system itself. The community action for change (social and political) is dependent on both the ratio of power agitation in the media content and the extent to which power relations are manifested within the media system itself. This is true in the case of the Radio Toco experience, where the community changes identified since the
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 175 establishment of the station are directly linked to the kinds of programming, as well as, the consistency in messaging by the radio station. For example, Radio Toco’s continuous and multi-programme messaging about the community’s challenges particularly in relation to the Water and Sewage Authority of Trinidad and Tobago, and especially through the call-in programme, has led to improved water supply in Toco.
In fact, as Michael Als and Linda Hinds, two of the leading players in the Radio Toco outfit argue, the station has become even more of a platform for social change because the people have pushed for it to be so. The corollary to that push can be quite impactful, as is cited in this example by Als:
Today, for instance, we have a big programme with the State on water harvesting from Matura
to Matlock, for which the State has provided us 17million dollars over 4 years. If we did not
have Radio Toco we would not have got that water harvesting project. So I am saying, things
complement one another and some other things go beyond others, not with any planned measure,
but as the needs of the community expand. People have asked us to come in to so many other
communities now that we have come to see our office is now on the street (Personal
communication, March 18, 2013).
Linda Hinds explains the synergy between the station and the growing advocacy of the people thus,
People are talking out more and they have made conscious decisions to act – slowly – but to do
things outside of what they are accustomed to; and they are doing this because of that ability to
speak, and to say things, and to say how you feel, and if you do not agree with something in the
first instance you are able to say let’s try it… (Personal communication, March 18,
2013).
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 176 In the case of JET FM for example, the young volunteer, Romae Ormsby sees the significant of JET FM’s contribution to community change in what she says some people would consider a small matter, but having huge impact on the community.
We made a programme on social issues that was a lead part in why people stopped having
burials without a permit in their yards. Because, first time people would do burials without
caring about the parish council but now people take it up to say, we are going to parish council
and they come and test the land before they try to bury on there and that was because of JET
because we built the programme around that issue. It was not practiced before and sometimes
even on the burial day the parish council would come and stop it and it would be big, a ‘great
issue’! (Ormsby, Personal communication, July 17, 2013)
There is, however, an inconsistency in this kind of social action and change across the
Caribbean communities in which the media systems are located. This inconsistency may speak to the levels of participation at which individuals and collectives are engaged in and with the community media systems. It may also speak to, as was discussed earlier, the capacity of those who access the radio station and their pre-existing power relations, and how those preexisting power-relation are converted into even more powerful positioning and, by extension, their ability to drive change both internally and externally of the media system. This research has shown the latter to be true, that while many of the volunteers at the radio station feel they now have more power of influence than before, it is those who were already powerful before gaining access that still participate at the higher level of participation – decision-making.
This inconsistency makes it difficult for the researcher to say definitively that hypothesis
4, which says that the degree to which a community is empowered has direct relationship to the presence of a community media system, holds true at all times. What the research
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 177 findings implies is that empowerment at both the personal and community levels are manifested differently, and may or may not be directly related to neither the presence of the radio system nor its total ownership by the people of the community. That is an ambivalence that could benefit from further interrogation in future research.
Additionally, interesting contradictions have been seen in some instances between deliberate encouragement and forthrightness in community media’s creative and innovative sensibilities and the emergence of a platform for either imitation or mimicry of external styles, techniques, approaches. Consequently, there is more a reinforcement of alien cultural values, norms, and notions of self rather than a promotion of those unique cultural symbols which are identifiable with the communities. For example, the programming and sound of JET FM and Radio Toco, as well as the other radio systems, are similar in sound to those in the traditional/popular media space. Left on their own, the design and development of the programming and content, even within those entities such as radio Paiwomak and Ak’Kutan, which were established to preserve the indigenous cultures of the communities in which they are located, also take on a format that is not necessarily connected to the culture of its location. This is so, despite the effort in increasing local content.
The creative arts industries – particularly in Caribbean literatures and music – have become standard bearers of the strong oral tradition upon which the region has defined itself. The political rhetoric, the musical banter, the character rich stories which have emerged from, for example, the English-speaking Caribbean are probably the best testament of a resilient oral tradition of the region. However, while this oral tradition does have a robust presence in some productions of the community radio systems, the emergence of new symbols of community and the people, as was evident in the early
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 178 independence and grassroots movement, is not happening at the level and pace expected of community media systems owned by the community.
Through literary greats such as novelist VS Naipaul, Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott and playwright Denis Scott; accomplished songwriters and performers like Bob Marley, the
Mighty Sparrow and David Rudder; and the eloquence and intellectual acumen of political thinkers such as Michael Manley, Eric Williams and CLR James, the world has been able to experience a Caribbean dynamism that could only be the result of the convergences of inner, outer, singularity and variety, all rolled into one, but distinguishing enough to be recognized as what MG Smith cites as the unique Caribbean plurality, which the community radio systems are best poised to promote. So, while the training opportunities in voice and content development may be present, the technological support for consistent local programming and content production reflective of the community’s culture is not there. Simply put, the speed with which the community media systems can keep pace with the changing technologies is stymied by the lack of resources
– both financial and human capital.
In conclusion, community radio then, while definitely empowering the particularly communities in which they are located, still have a far way to go in the sustainable transformation of these Caribbean communities. They cannot do it on their own. The partners that must be engaged, will have to make serious adjustments to their philosophy about people participation and their understanding of the individual and collective dimensions of empowerment. There must also be adjustments in the way licences are granted, so that there can be greater support for the propagation of policies that encourage public service as viable economic enterprises, without losing the mandate of fulfilling their educational, transformational and empowerment functions.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 179 Critically, the people themselves must also change their own thinking about self- empowerment, and take an active and conscious decision towards their own agency.
While the community media system provides a platform for their voice and activism, the individual must also take responsibility for advancing himself/herself beyond the agitation of the media system. Continued dependence on the system and waiting for the opportunities to be created by others, including the community radio station, and still not being able to capitalize on those opportunities because of lack of capacity is not empowering. Community empowerment is made so much more sustainable and stronger when individuals recognise their agency, act on building their own capacities, and put themselves in a position to manage not just the community’s resources, but critically, their own.
Finally, the media systems themselves will have to come to terms with their own vulnerabilities spurred on by limited resources and compounded by their location in poor rural communities compared to the rich commercial entities located in urban centres with a capacity to generate large financial profits. There is also obvious vulnerability to the application of organisational models that on the surface are empowering, but in practice only maintains systems that do not promote wide based agency and upward mobility. Though significant differences can be seen in the evolution of the communities towards improved human capacity, spurred by the existence and operation of these community radio systems, the potential for greater good is possible. However, what is needed is a new injection of a broader collective spirit, even as the individual balances his or her own drive towards self-empowerment.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 180 APPENDIX A
EMPOWERMENT AND COMMUNITY MEDIA
INFORMED CONSENT FORM
Thank you for agreeing to participate in this study being conducted by Patrick Prendergast (PhD candidate with the University of Amsterdam and the PhD Research School at the University of Aruba). The study seeks to examine the levels of empowerment between community radio stations and the communities they serve across the Caribbean. Your participation will help us better understand the importance of community radio stations to the everyday lives of people. The study will also benefit the design of future initiatives aimed at empowering communities. The methods to be used include in-depth interviews and focus groups. The sessions will last between one and two hours and will be recorded but only to help the researcher capture your insights and words in the most accurate way. The data gathered will remain confidential and will be used solely for the purpose of this study and shared only with the supervisor of this project. Your participation in this study is voluntary. If at any time you feel uncomfortable with the proceedings you may ask that the recorder be switched off. You may also withdraw from the session at any time in which case all the information provided including the recorded data will be destroyed and left out of the final report. If you have any questions or concerns you may contact me at: Telephone: 1 876 833 8645 Email: [email protected]
By signing this consent form I, (Print your name here) ______agree to the terms of this agreement.
Signature: ______Date: ______
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 181 APPENDIX B
EMPOWERMENT AND COMMUNITY MEDIA
IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW
Demographic Information:
1. Name:
2. Age: Date of Birth:
3. Sex: Male | Female
4. What is the highest level of school attended?
Primary | Secondary | College | University | None
5. What is your main responsibility with the radio station?
6. What is your main occupation?
7. How valuable to the community would you say is Radio Toco?
Very valuable | Valuable | Moderately valuable | Of little value | No value at all
8. For what reason do you think people mostly listen to the station?
Information | Entertainment | Education
9. How important is the radio station to your everyday living?
Very important | Important | Moderately important | Of little importance|
Unimportant
10. Why are you involved with the radio station?
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 182 PERCEPTION OF THE AUDIENCE
Say whether you agree or disagree with the following statements on a scale of
Strongly agree | Agree | Undecided | Disagree | Strongly disagree
11. Listening to the programmes on Radio Toco make people feel better about themselves.
Strongly agree | Agree | Undecided | Disagree | Strongly disagree
12. Listening to the programmes on Radio Toco make PEOPLE feel better about their community.
Strongly agree | Agree | Undecided | Disagree | Strongly disagree
13. Having their our own radio station make people feel better about themselves
Strongly agree | Agree | Undecided | Disagree | Strongly disagree
14. Having their own radio station make people feel better about the community.
Strongly agree | Agree | Undecided | Disagree | Strongly disagree
Increased access:
1. What role do you think the radio station plays in helping people access their own resources?
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 183 2. Rank these outcomes of radio programming from 1 being the highest to 4 the lowest
Build awareness 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Share information 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Advocacy 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Encourage action 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
3. What do you think should be done for members of the community to have greater access to the radio station?
Increased capacity:
1. What are the ways in which the radio station has increased the capacity of the staff and members of the community?
2. What are some of the new skills learnt because of the radio station?
3. What are the main things being done by the community currently that it could not do before the radio station existed?
4. What things have been done by the radio station which to your mind makes it a more sustainable station?
Informed decision making:
1. Do you think the community is better able to make informed decisions in their everyday lives because of the radio station and how do you know that?
2. In relation to other sources of information such as the Church, School, Citizens
Association, or National media where does the radio station stand?
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 184 Participation:
1. How/in what ways do people participate in the operations or programmes of the radio station? a. Do people for example, have a say in what programmes are produced and how the programme is done? b. How do you know what people want?
2. Who is participating the most? And why so you think this is so?
Men Women
Older folks Young folks
Professionals Skilled worker
3. What is the level of participation taking place? And what do you think could be done by the radio station to have more people participate and at a higher level?
4. Who do you consider to be most powerful within the community?
Teacher Politician Health worker Farmer
Radio DJ Radio producer Radio manager Listener
5. Who do you consider to be most powerful within the radio station?
Radio DJ | Radio producer | Radio manager | Listener
6. How much power or influence did you have before coming to the radio station?
7. How much power or influence do you think you have now within the community?
8. Give a response to the following statements and say why you respond in that way:
Working with the radio station makes me:
More powerful Less powerful
More confident in speaking Less confident in speaking
Builds my self-esteem Does not make a difference to self-esteem
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 185 More knowledgeable Less knowledgeable
More accepted by community Less accepted by the community
Have a voice of my own No voice to speak on my own
More prepared to take action Reluctant to take action
More influential Less influential
9. How do you distinguish power and influence?
Action:
1. Do you think the radio station is getting people to take important social and
political action? If yes, how. If no, why not?
2. How can the radio station get people to be more proactive in taking social and
political action?
Thank you for taking the time to talk with me.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 186 APPENDIX C
EMPOWERMENT AND COMMUNITY MEDIA
FOCUS GROUP GUIDE
What are the specific ways in which the radio station has value to your everyday life?
In other words, a. how is it important to you as an individual? b. how is it important to the community?
What are some of the things you like about the radio station?
What are some of the things you don’t like about the radio station?
What are the ways in which the radio station could improve its value to both the individual and the community?
In other words, are there things they should be doing that they are not or things you think they could be doing and they are not doing?
What are the other sources of information that you find important to your everyday living?
Where do these sources fall in relation to the radio station?
When you hear the word power what comes to mind?
What does power mean to you?
What kind of power does the radio station have?
CR is about giving people a voice. In what ways do you feel the radio station is giving you a voice?
What does having a voice mean to you?
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 187 How do you feel about the level of participation from the community in the radio station itself?
CR is also about getting people to make informed decisions. How important is the radio station to your making important decisions about your lives both as individuals and as a community?
CR is also about getting people to translate their voice to action? Do you think your communities are taking the kind of action that leads to social and political change? If yes, how? If no, why not?
How do you think the radio station can get people to be more proactive in taking that kind of action?
Is there any final comment you want to make about the radio station?
Thank you for taking the time to participate in this discussion.
There is light refreshment provided if you feel like having something before you go.
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 188 APPENDIX D
EMPOWERMENT AND COMMUNITY MEDIA
FOCUS GROUP PARTICIPANT DATA
Please take a few moments to complete the following questions. The information will remain totally confidential and used solely for the purpose of this study. Thank you very much for your assistance.
______
Demographic Information:
1. Name:
2. Age:______Date of Birth: (optional ______
3. Sex: (Tick one) Male | Female
4. What is the highest level of school attended? (Tick one)
Primary | Secondary | College | University
| None
5. What is your main occupation? ______
Relevance of radio station:
5. Do you listen to the community radio station 88.5 Soufriere FM? Yes
| No
6. How important is this radio station to your everyday life?
Very important | Important | Moderately important | Of little importance
| Unimportant
7. Do you consider 88.5 Soufriere FM to be an important resource to the community?
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 189 Very important | Important | Moderately important | Of little importance
| Unimportant
Thank you for taking the time to complete this questionnaire
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 190 APPENDIX E
SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE
RADIO LISTENERSHIP AND EMPOWERMENT
Hello, my name is ______and I am part of a team collecting data on behalf of
Patrick Prendergast, a PhD candidate with the University of Amsterdam. The survey seeks to get information on radio listenership and issues of empowerment in the Toco communities.
We are asking you to give us about 10 minutes of your time to respond to some questions. The responses will be recorded by me and you are not required to give your name or address and your responses will remain anonymous and confidential. . Thank you very much for your assistance.
Section A (Demographics)
1. Sex: Female Male
2. Age 13-19 20-30 31-40 41-50 51 and over
3. What is the highest level of school attended?
Primary Secondary College University None
4. What is your main occupation? ______
5. What is your main source of information?
Radio TV Newspaper Internet Other ___
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 191 Section B (Listenership)
6. Do you listen to radio?
Yes No (If No, why not?) ______
7. What is your favourite radio station and programme? ______
8. Do you listen to Radio Toco 106.7 FM?
Yes No (If No, why not?) ______
9. What one thing do you like most about Radio Toco 106.7 FM? ______
10. What is the one thing you do not like about Radio Toco 106.7 FM? ______
11. How often do you listen to Radio Toco 106.7 FM?
Every day Every week Once per month 2-3 times per month
12. Which programme do you listen to most on Radio Toco 106.7 FM? ______
13. Do the programmes discuss events and subjects that are relevant to your everyday life? Yes No Sometimes
14. Which programme aired on Radio Toco 106.7 FM do you think has made a difference to your community? ______
15. Name a programme on Radio Toco 106.7 FM that you think has resulted in changes to people’s behaviour? ______
Section C (Empowerment)
On a scale of 1 – 5 with 1 being strongly disagree and 5 strongly agree rate the following statements
Strongly agree (5) | Agree (4) | Undecided (3) | Disagree (2) | Strongly disagree (1)
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 192 16. Listening to programmes on Radio Toco 106.7 FM makes me feel better about my community
Strongly agree Agree Undecided Disagree
Strongly disagree
17. Listening to programmes on Radio Toco 106.7 FM makes me feel better about myself.
Strongly agree Agree Undecided Disagree
Strongly disagree
18. Having our own radio station makes me feel better about my community.
Strongly agree Agree Undecided Disagree
Strongly disagree
19. Having our own radio station makes me feel better about myself.
Strongly agree Agree Undecided Disagree
Strongly disagree
20. People in the community have open access to Radio Toco 106.7 FM?
Strongly agree Agree Undecided Disagree
Strongly disagree
21. What is the most popular way to access the radio station?
Visits Meetings Telephone calls Text messaging
Training
22. Is Radio Toco 106.7 FM important to accessing community resources?
Yes No
23. If yes, how does the community radio make this access possible?
Build awareness Share information Advocacy
Encourage action
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 193 24. Name one way the community is better because of Radio Toco 106.7 FM?
______
25. Do YOU personally benefit from Radio Toco 106.7 FM being in the community? Yes No
26. If yes, in what specific way do you benefit? ______
27. Do you believe the station is being managed in a sustainable way?
Yes No
28. If no, name one thing that should be done to ensure sustainability?
______
29. Is the community better able to make informed decision because of Radio Toco
106.7 FM? Yes No
30. Do YOU make important decisions based on the information provided by Radio
Toco 106.7 FM?
Most times Sometimes Seldom Never
31. What kind of information is mostly provided by Radio Toco 106.7 FM?
Education | Agriculture | Health | Social justice | Gender | Entertainment
Other (specify) ______
32. Do you participate in the activities of Radio Toco 106.7 FM?
Yes No
33. If yes, how do you participate? ______
34. If no, give one reason why you don’t
______
35. Do you feel like Radio Toco 106.7 FM is yours?
Yes No
36. If yes, in what way?
______
PhD Dissertation/Prendergast/November 2018 194 37. If no, what would make you feel like you own it?
______
END OF QUESTIONNAIRE
Thank you for taking the time out to complete this questionnaire
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