CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0. Introduction

Community media has been defined by different scholars in many different ways to reflect varying opinions and understanding of the concept as it has been developing over the years. The concept of community is generally new, especially in Zambia where Community media have only been in existence for just over two decades. Despite this, there are assumptions that community media are beginning to benefit local communities through gradual removal of barriers to social inclusion, stimulation of poverty alleviation through access to knowledge of better health, education, resource management, agriculture practices and the creation of new livelihood opportunities (UNESCO Evaluation Report 2006). But there was need during the study to critically examine whether this assumption reflects the situation on the ground in areas where the concept of local community media has been implemented in Zambia.

This chapter, therefore, defines community media in general from a variety of perspectives and further gives an overview to the background of the study. The background of community media in Zambia with regards to newspapers, television and radio is also examined in general. The study is, however, about community radio hence the focus will specifically be on community radio. The chapter will give the background to community radio in some parts of the world in general and in Zambia in particular and further look at the history of Chikuni Parish as well as Chikuni Radio station in the context of the broader study theme.

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1.1. Background of the study

1.1.1. Community media

As earlier stated, community media has been defined by different scholars in many different ways to reflect varying opinions and understanding of the concept as it has been developing over the years. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) defines community media as any form of media that is created and controlled by a community, either a geographic community or a community of identity or interest. Its fundamental premise is to engage those groups that are categorically excluded and marginalized from the media making process (UNESCO Evaluation Report 2006).

The National Federation of Community Broadcasters (NFCB), an umbrella organization for community radio stations in the United States of America (USA) defines community media on the basis of the key values around which the concept is built and these are localism, encouraging collaboration, diversity of media ownership in operation and programming, cultural preservation, empowering people with information and building community (Fairbairn 2009, p.65). The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) defines community media around four principles that are pillars of community media and these are: community ownership, community service, community participation and a nonprofit business model (Fairbairn 2009, p.7).

For the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services (MIBS) in Zambia as contained in the National Information and Media Policy (Final Draft 2011), community media is defined as “Any form of media that are initiated and controlled by a community, either a geographic community or a community of identity or interest.” Any form of media implies that community media can be a Newspaper, a television station, a radio station or any medium for that matter as long as it is initiated and controlled by a local community.

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Mhlanga (2006, p.18) defines community media in case of community radio as “A station built by the community, is used by the community and serves the interests of the community.” In this definition, emphasis is on community ownership, autonomy, participation and representation.

The Community Media Sustainable Guide (2009, p.6) characterizes community media as dynamic entities which some people see as processes, or communities using technology to take control of their own development. Others see them more as communication tools or institutions organized around information and communication technologies.

While the concept of community media can take so many forms, be applied by so many different groups of people and directed at so many issues, it is premised on being a facilitatory tool for the discussion and engagement of the ordinary citizenry.

Dalene (2007, p.10) says community media is an alternative to the private and the public media sector with a specific focus on a certain community, selected either by interest or geographically. Community radio is owned and operated by its local citizens, and therefore it is seen as a developmental tool. It empowers listeners through education and knowledge and provides opportunities to gain new skills, in addition to creating access to the larger media sector.

Community media generally and Community radio in particular, is an alternative form of mass communications that allows for community participation, an alternative to mainstream media which is largely a one way and top-down communication process (Phiri 2002, pp.3-8). Community media is the almost opposite of mass communication which McQuail describes as a means of communications that operates on a large scale,

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reaching and involving virtually everyone in society to a greater or lesser degree (McQuail 2008, p.4).

According to Bwalya (2008, p.139) the term community media is difficult to define because it is composed of two words which have their own meaning different from each other. Bwalya adopted the definition of community as a group of people who have a sense of common purpose(s) for which they assume mutual responsibility, who acknowledge their interconnectedness, who respect the individual differences among members, and commit themselves to the well-being of each other and the integrity and well-being of the group. On the other hand, Bwalya defines media as something through which or by which something is accomplished, conveyed or carried, and as the material or technical means for artistic expression, it is therefore, an instrument for which a community shares its values and organizational vision, a tool for personal commitment and service to a common good; a tool for sharing of social norms and provide guidelines for cooperative action [.…] (Bwalya 2008, p.143).

Community media, therefore, is a means by which local news and information is disseminated. The consolidation of ownership of media outlets into fewer hands has translated into neglect for reporting of local news that impacts communities. Community media is a remedy to the gate-keeping and agenda setting of the mainstream media by allowing citizens to inform themselves about the issues taking place around them. The fact that in the vast majority of instances community media finds its expressions in local and independent outlets is a commentary on the lack of democratic participation in the more mainstream media sources that are completely out of the sphere of the ordinary citizens. Community media is a media that is easily accessible and where people participate, a media where poor people could be both the audience and producer, a media concerned about the social welfare, the daily concerns, development activities, the call for justice and cultural activities of the people. Community media is decentralised, available to all, restores local democracy and a real horizontal, non-hierarchical 4

communication whose model is two-way and all encompassing. It defends the rights and freedom of the simple voiceless marginalized people in society, making it a protection against neglect, insensitivity and insanity of the conventional media. Community media, therefore, becomes an urgent of change towards a more equitable social, cultural and economic whole in which the individual is not reduced to an object of the media and political power, but is able to find fulfillment as a total human being. It is a tool that provides for a vital counterbalance to the increasing globalization and commercialization of the media, playing a vital role on reaching out to people and communities at risk of exclusion and disadvantaged […] (Bwalya 2008, pp.150-151). For this study, the working definition of community media will be as defined by Bwalya (2008, pp.150- 151).

Kwame Karikari writing about the Development of Community Media in English- speaking West Africa in Promoting Community Media in Africa (Boafo 2000, pp.45-47) suggests that in the 1970s and 1980s, disenchantment with the authoritarian centralised state-owned and controlled media in Africa encouraged experiments with new forms of media that would address the needs and interests, particularly of rural communities. This was also motivated by a strong desire to use mass media in promoting the socio- economic development of the rural population in the face of intensifying poverty. Many projects for rural-based mass media were experimented with. He says the new perspective on mass media development necessarily elicited definitions of community and community media.

Karikari points out that in South Africa for instance, the demand for popular participation in media ownership and production took considerable place in the debates to reorganise and reshape mass media in a post-apartheid democratic construction. There, the idea of community media, particularly radio, received some of the more substantial attempts at conceptualisation on the continent. The Jabulani Freedom of the Airwaves Conference in the Netherlands to discuss democratisation of broadcasting 5

gave a formal declaration that “Community or Participatory Broadcasting is initiated and controlled by members of a community of interest, or a geographical community, to express their concerns, needs and aspirations without outside interference.” (Boafo 2000, pp.45-47).

Here again ‘community’ recalls audience, common interest and geographical space. Further, it also stresses the participation of its members in almost all aspects of the process of Promoting Community Media in Africa mass communication: from ownership and establishment of the means of communication to management and production. Others would also equate this system with the concept of ‘alternative’ media. Alternative media are distinguished by their ownership and management structures, their financing, their regulation, their programming and their policy stances on issues of access and participation. In terms of their ownership and management, alternative media are community-owned and managed through duly elected representatives or direct and voluntary community participation. In terms of their programming, alternative media carry community-oriented programming produced by community members for community members. In terms of their policy stances on issues of access and participation, alternative media are highly responsive to highly targeted audiences and use interactive methods as much as possible (Boafo 2000, p.47).

Community media have a number of characteristics, among them that they are without market influences and they are a form in which local news and information is spread directly to affected communities. Their fundamental difference from the commercial media, state run media or public broadcasting stations is mainly in their focus on engaging with groups that are believed to be excluded and marginalized by the mainstream media. Community media is now widely recognized and accepted by governments and the international development community both for its reach and its practices, that is, the way in which it reaches people. This has led to more and more countries, sometimes, reluctantly and under pressure to democratize to introduce laws 6

and regulation that are media inclusive. This is a shift from the past, when community media developed in opposition to mainstream media, to represent and give a voice to the oppressed, marginalized and excluded communities (Fairbairn 2009, p.8).

Available literature suggests that community media have been recognized as critical tools for the local communities to mediate changes brought on by globalization and the advent of new technologies. This is done through fostering of cultural resilience and the communities’ capacity to retain critical knowledge while at the same time adapt to external influences and pressure.

The Ministry of Broadcasting and Information Services (MIBS) (1996 Information and Media Policy Paper) saw the setting up and promotion of community based media as one of the prerequisites for promoting and facilitating the growth of sustainable media industry, capable of enhancing free flow of information and freedom of expression for national development.

There is an assumption by UNESCO that community media are beginning to benefit local communities through gradual removal of barriers to social inclusion, stimulation of poverty alleviation through access to knowledge of better health, education, resource management, agriculture practices and the creation of new livelihood opportunities (UNESCO Evaluation Report 2006).

But there was need during the study to critically examine whether this assumption reflects the situation on the ground in areas where the concept of local community media has been implemented in Zambia. This research, therefore, examined the effectiveness of the community radio in bridging the information gap of the rural communities and their social, political and economic well-being, focusing on local communities of 7

Chikuni in Chisekesi and the surrounding areas which are being serviced by Radio Chikuni.

From what has been discussed concerning Community Media, this research adopts the definition given by Bwalya as a working definition of this study.

1.1.2. Community Radio

The concept of community radio, like that of community media, has been defined differently by different scholars. Bwalya (2003, p.17) defines community radio as “A social process or event in which members of the community associate together to design programmes and produce and air them, thus taking the primary role of actors in their own destiny.” The emphasis is on the ownership, participation, democratic and development efforts by the members of the community themselves. It is a process, not just a technology and not merely a means because the people are part of that means and so are the messages and the audience. It responds to the needs of the community it serves, it is a medium that gives voice to the voiceless that serves as a mouthpiece of the marginalised and is at the heart of communication and democratic processes within society.

For Zane Ibrahim, pioneering founder of Bush Radio in South Africa, community radio is defined within the context of the much quoted phrase he coined that “community radio is ten percent radio and 90 percent community, a case of the community moving into broadcasting than broadcasting moving into the community.” (Peter Lewis 2008, p.13).

According to the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) working Group Report (2007, pp.1-4) community radio plays a vital role in building vibrant communities, in mobilizing groups to action by informing and empowering citizens, in 8

giving voice to the marginalized groups of society, and in bringing community needs to the attention of local and even national governments.

The scope of the actual and potential impact of community radio is wide-ranging, many agree, as are the challenges associated with community radio development. Community radio that serves a geographic group or community of interest is a licensed nonprofit organization to serve the public interest by: electing a governing board that reflects the diversity of the community, defines the mission, sets policy, is financially responsible, and appoints the manager, creating structures and processes to identify community needs and interests that inform programming decisions and evaluate the effectiveness of the programming. It ensures broad participation in programming, giving value to communication among the people to facilitate positive change, not simply relaying information to the citizens and ensuring that the service is trustworthy, accurate, and independent of outside influences, be they government, commercial, special interests, or religions (Kasoma 2001, pp. 51-63). Figure 1, shows in general terms an adaptable structure of a community radio station designed to ensure broad community participation.

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1.1.3. Management structure of a community radio station

General Meeting or Assembly

Board or Council

Management

Station Manager

Adv. Manager Programme Manager News Director

Adv. Officers Chief Engineer

Programme Director Assist. Engineer

Technicians

Announcers

News Editor

Sub-Editors

Reporters

Figure 1: Community Radio, Its Management and Organisation in Zambia 10

( Source: Kasoma, 2001, pp.51,66)

The CIMA Working Group Report (2007, pp.1-4) says that the slogan of a community radio station in Mongolia “Your radio is listening” speaks volumes about the nature of this medium. The report posits that community radio is about the horizontal exchange of information—a participatory interaction between the community and the radio station rather than a vertical, one-way communication method, delivering information from a medium to the public.

The participants in the Working Group report emphasised that the most important aspects of community radio include broad participation by community members, often on a volunteer basis and the ownership and control of the station by the community through a board of governors that is representative of the community and responsive to the diversity of its needs. Community radio involves community organization, joint thinking and decision-making, all of which entail great potential for empowering communities and building a democratic society (CIMA 2007, p.4).

The tendency to associate community media or radio with the poor, the politically and socially marginalised or powerless in society, the so-called ‘voiceless’, those who traditionally have little access to media in terms of ownership, use and expression, as it is posited above, receives endorsement by AMARC: rural radio, co-operative radio, participatory radio, free radio, alternative radio, popular radio, educational radio … in isolated rural villages and in the heart of the largest cities in the world are all the same. They are the voice of the poor and voiceless, landless peasants, urban shack dwellers, impoverished indigenous nations, trade unions, amongst others, and also a tool of development […] (Boafo 2000, p.47).

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In Zambia, the concept of community radio is still relatively new covering only the last two decades and, therefore, not entrenched. The media landscape in the country prior to the re-introduction of multipartism in the 1990s had a predominant Government presence both in the print and electronic media.

The wide spread social and economic reforms that came with the change of regime to multipartism in the 1990s changed the media landscape in the country as media pluralism was now permissible both in practice and legislation (Banda & Fourie 2004, p.57). To date, the country is host to a big number of Radio Stations with a good number of these being Community Radio Stations. The growth in the community radio sector since the 1990s has been unprecedented (Djokotoe, 2012).

1.2. Community Radio and Media Context

Traditionally, the role of the media is at least perceived as one of informing, providing a public service and entertaining audiences (AMARC 2007, pp. 81-82). Some, with a somewhat wider perspective, consider that the two dominant forms of radio, public and commercial, also play an important role in rendering governments’ accountable, thus supporting democracy and good governance. In the last decades, community radio has evolved into a new radio sector worldwide, as a natural result, both of the evolution of civil societies and the breakthroughs in communications technologies. Radio is the most widespread electronic communication device in the world and a unique means of reaching the world’s poorest communities. Supporters of community radio say that community radio in particular puts the tools of communications into the hands of communities for cultural expression, news and information, dialogue and development. The specificity of community radio is that it facilitates the empowerment of local communities, inclusiveness, and cultural diversity. In that sense, community radio is closer to what is called "new media", as it erases the boundary between those who receive and those who impart information.

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In spite of recent technological developments, radio remains the most widespread and accessible communication technology. It is an oral medium, one that is low cost and that is already receivable by 90 per cent of the world’s population (AMARC 2007, p.82). For just a few thousand dollars’ worth of equipment, a community radio station can serve a community of 100,000 people or more. The ideal model for sharing the radio spectrum is one that reflects the diversity of society’s communication needs. In the North as well as in the South, democratic societies need public (not state), commercial and community radios if they want to reflect the diversity and the needs of their societies.

In Nepal for instance, the alliance between community and independent radios in the Save the Independent Radio Movement (SIRM) shows that both can effectively work together in the struggle for press freedom, freedom of expression and democracy. Also in conflict or post-conflict situations the media landscape needs to build a plurality of voices. This is even more important when it is a question of giving voice to the voiceless and addressing the development agenda. Community radio has had to advocate strongly in the past for a place in the radio spectrum but there is increasing recognition of the importance to include community radio as a specific radio sector. The existence and the practice of community broadcasting are an expression of a participatory attitude to democracy and the growth of strong and dynamic civil society organizations. It can be considered a form of public service broadcasting, but this is public service broadcasting not from the top - down, but rather from the grassroots – up (Bwalya 2004, pp.12-13).

The development of community radio is closely linked to the needs of local communities that were not being addressed by traditional media in terms of media outreach or audience access to the media. Community radio is characterized by its social objective and by benefiting the community it serves; its aim should not encompass the creation of financial wealth and it should be owned by and be accountable to the community. Community radio should encourage participation in its programming and management, and support a strong democratic and dynamic civil society. According to AMARC, 13

technological breakthroughs and social demands for access to the media encouraged the birth and expansion of community radio in the fifties, sixties and seventies in the Americas and Europe, and in the last twenty years in Africa and Asia. There has been a legitimacy crisis of the traditional mass media since the 1970s as they abandoned the minority and local issues whilst global social trends showed an increased interest in them. This trend started with the first community radio, known as "people’s radio", built in the 1950s by Bolivian coal miners angered by traditional media coverage (AMARC 2007, p. 82).

1.2.1. Background of Community Radio in Zambia

Banda and Fourie (2004, pp.50-79) in their article “towards a policy model for community radio broadcasting in Zambia” in the South African Journal for Communication Theory and Research point to the direction that the most momentous episode in the history of mass media in Zambia can be understood better within the context of the mass media development that took place in Zambia during the last two decades. They argue that the evolution in the media landscape in the country started as an attempt aimed at fulfilling campaign promises by the Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) after winning the 1991 historical general and presidential elections that reintroduced multipartism.

The decision to liberalise the media landscape in Zambia by the newly elected MMD government was a step towards making good of the pre-election promises since one of the strong campaign platform of the then movement was a free media dispensation. The government fulfilled the promise by lifting the restrictions on broadcasting which had, hitherto, been the preserve of government (Muzyamba 2009, pp.1-25). Accordingly, new broadcasters led by Radio Phoenix in 1994, started new stations and later on along the way, many other radio stations of different characteristics in terms of ownership sprung

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up, to the extent that to date, the country is host to a number of community radio stations.

At the same time, scholars and donors on the global scene had realized that conventional mainstream media were not fully making their expected contribution to the attainment of development goals. Some even blamed the lack of progress, and in some cases retrogression, to the use of conventional mass media. The “lost decades” of development have partly been blamed on conventional mass media which were based in main cities, and quite incapable of addressing the numerous problems faced around a country such as Zambia (Muzyamba 2009, pp.1-25).

Conventional media, which were largely based in the city of Lusaka, could not conceivably cover or focus sufficient attention upon the myriads of issues and problems facing the hundreds and thousands of communities in Zambia. The overall policy reforms of the early 1990s led to the popularisation of community media especially radio. The reforms in media policy of Zambia can be examined in a number of key areas as they were seen as responses to the liberalization and deregulation of media markets. Banda argues that liberalization refers in this context to the opening up of the market, largely in anticipation of competition while deregulation refers to the removal of state controls that may have been seen to stifle the growth of business. It is not necessarily the absence of regulation; rather, it is the application of lighter regulatory rules. Instituting these media reforms involved deciding whether to privatize or commercialize state-run broadcasting. Privatization would mean a situation in which the state ceases to own businesses and sells them off to private hands (Banda 2003, pp.50-79).

Banda goes further to suggest that commercialization on the other hand places emphasis on replacing of all forms of regulation based on public interest and related standards with ones based on market standards that emphasize profit maximization. A commercial undertaking can be under state control. These analytical categories, all integral to media

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policy reform, serve as a prism through which to view media pluralism in general and the development of community media in particular in Zambia.

The genesis of all this was in the new political changes of the 1990s which saw the unfolding of the process of liberalization across southern Africa, with its attendant deregulatory policy and legislative implications. At the time, Zambia was caught up in a political reform towards embracing liberal democracy. This reflected the wider global shift from authoritarian regimes to plural politics. In 1993 the new government, elected into office in 1991, passed the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (Licensing) Regulations to liberalize the broadcasting sector for private investment (Matibini 2006, p.67).

Collin Fraser and Sonia Restrepo Estrada in their 2001 Community Radio Handbook amplify the issue of political reforms as one of the reasons for the growth of the concept of community radio when they said “Among the reasons for the rapid expansion of community radio stations are the democratization and decentralisation process in many parts of the world, deregulation of the media and the relaxing of broadcasting monopolies by state institutions and disaffection with commercial radio channels.” (Fraser. C & Estrada Sonia .R, 2001, pp.1-4).

Matibini (2006, p.66) says although this piece of legislation, together with the ZNBC Act and the Radio Communication Act provided the framework for regulating broadcasting institution, the legislations gave the Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services the power to issue or deny licences in consultation with ZNBC, vesting the absolute power to regulate the sector in the Minister as well as ZNBC. This also gave ZNBC undue advantage over other potential competitors. This, as will be shown later, were among the many ills that the Independent Broadcasting Authority Act (IBA) intended to resolve.

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This was "cautious deregulation," however, as licences were mostly issued to "Christian" applicants. It was this "Christian determinism" that resulted in a rather skewed distribution of radio broadcasting licences, with the majority given to Christian groupings (Banda 2003, pp.50-79). The new government of the MMD had replaced the United National Independence Party (UNIP) regime which had a firm grip on the media and never allowed any private or community ownership. It was solely owned by the government with the exception of only two print media newspapers: Icengelo Magazine and the National Mirror owned by the Church. They were allowed only for one purpose, to share matters of faith. Therefore, in embracing a cautious deregulation of the broadcasting market, the MMD wanted to be seen to be reformist, while at the same time remaining firmly in command of broadcasting. Against all this background, the direction taken to popularize community media was an attempt to respond to the challenges identified with the media policy and regulations, which hitherto, had not been supportive in addressing the information needs of people in the rural communities.

1.3. Overview of Southern Province

Southern Province where the research was based still remains predominantly rural populated with the figures captured during the 2010 Census of Population and Housing indicating an increase in rural population by 25.4 percent from 955,268 in 2000 to 1,197,751 in 2010 while the urban population grew by 52.7 percent from 256,856 in 2000 to 392,175 as captured in the 2010 census.

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Figure 2: Map of Southern Province (Chirundu and Itezhi Tezhi have since been realigned to Lusaka and Central Provinces respectively).

1.4. Political and social economic background of Zambia

According to Banda (2004, p.7) the country’s social-economic situation started deteriorating in the 1970s under the United National Independence Party (UNIP)’s term of office, largely on account of the falling copper prices on the international market and the rising oil prices which strained the Zambian. The strain on the Zambian economy was mainly due to the fact that economy was a copper based mono-economy. The country’s poverty datum deteriorated to around almost 80 percent of the people living

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below the poverty datum line while employment in the formal sector reached as low as 11 percent. Various reasons have been cited for this economic performance both in relation to external factors and internal factors. Internal factors included among other factors the nationalization and Zambianisation process, embezzlement of public funds and lack of education among the majority of Zambians then while external factors amongst others included the sharp fall in copper prices as earlier alluded to and sanctions against South Africa and Zimbabwe during the liberation struggles (Bwalya 2008, pp. 218-233).

While civil society commentators say the poverty datum line in Zambia is estimated at 80 percent affecting both the urban and rural areas, Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda puts the current poverty levels in Zambia at 80 percent for the rural and 65 percent for the urban areas (ZNBC TV News, November 9, 2012).

The consequence of this was the agitation that sought to re-introduce multipartism in the late 1980s and subsequently the ushering in of the second republic under the rule of the MMD in 1991. The MMD upon assuming office embarked upon a market driven economic reforms that saw many changes in lifestyles of many, especially the large and middle class that had been built over the years of wealth accumulation as a result of heavy copper production (Banda 2004, p.7). The World Bank and International monetary Fund (IMF) associated free market economy, demanded the structural adjustments in form of liberalized economy to allow for greater competition and foreign direct investment (FDI), privatization of state firms to make them more efficient and productive, deregulation of the exchange rate and further, restructuring of the public service, an initiative that came to be known as the Public Service Reform Programme (PSRP). It is these “stabilization measures” that made life difficult for the majority of the people in Zambia, resulting in the creation of a category of the “new poor” called retrenchees, retirees and others with incomes too low to sustain them in the process, limiting the ability of many to access social amenities including access to the media. 19

And yet, the media is an irreplaceable institution in a democratic society like Zambia (Matibini 2006, p.1).

1.5. Mass Media and the Development Process

The media is important in the process of social development and at the centre of such development are the people. However, its effectiveness in such development depends on how firmly placed they are into the social framework (Banda 2010, p.7). The mass media are at the centre of any country’s development process because of their power in reaching out to the mass audience. They have an inherent potential to mobilize people for a cause in any region, state and indeed community. Matibini (2006, p.1) says that “the principle of the right to freedom of expression has always been central to the development of democratic institutions and to the press in any society.” The importance of the right of citizens to express themselves freely and to have access to information of importance to their existence and role in society was particularly heightened in the 1990s. This, he says, is to a large degree a result of the new interest internationally, in the demand for respect of human rights and the campaign for the development of democratic systems to be formed in formerly dictatorial and authoritarian societies. In many countries, the media have been granted privileged positions in relation to the fundamental rights of freedom of expression. They have been seen as a safeguard in a democratic society, an institution which through its activities of bringing abuse of power into the open, defends the rights of the citizens and also informs them of their rights. It is, therefore, an institution that is irreplaceable in a democratic society.

1.6. Brief history of Chikuni Parish in Monze

According to Radio Chikuni Station Manager Mr. Jyde Hamoonga, in 1905 a French Jesuit, Fr Moreau, established Chikuni Parish. Midway between Lusaka and Livingstone, Chikuni Parish is a living example of the strength of community and how the people are grasping opportunities to develop themselves. Since the beginning, there has been a constant drive to help the local population – now some 25,000 Batonga

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farmers – to develop themselves in all areas of human life (Hamoonga 2012 Interview). It was realised from the beginning of the mission’s existence that education is the key in achieving St. Augustine’s motto: “A human being fully alive”. Having this goal in mind over the years, the Jesuits have set up 48 primary schools, Canisius Secondary School and Charles Lwanga Teacher Training College. Today, the main problems faced by the rural communities are associated with their isolation. Playing an integral part in informing, developing and empowering the people, the Jesuits are working on a vast range of projects. The parish has many AIDS patients and they have set up a Home Based Care project. This helps dying AIDS patients return to their families to receive their last days' care in the loving environment of their homes: freeing up scarce hospital beds and helping break down the taboos surrounding people with AIDS. The parish has its own Retreat House where people can spend time in prayer and meditation. The Christian Life Community team offers neighbourhood retreats to the people in the outstations. The parish provides hammer mills for the grinding of maize, sports equipment to each of the 21 outstations, giving people the chance of watching educational and entertainment videos at the remote locations. Strong catechetical teams look after preparations for baptisms, first communion and confirmation. Adults can also prepare for the sacrament of matrimony under their direction.

There are 21 outstations in the mission which covers an area of 10,000 square kilometers. Walking is the most feasible means of transport for the majority of the population. With such a large area to cover, it is impossible for the local community to fully participate in the wider community life. In the world today, access to information is indispensable and must play a central role in any effort of development. It soon became clear that the Batonga people needed a means of receiving relevant information which will help develop themselves individually and communally. This was the reason for the inception of Radio Chikuni. Within Chikuni centre there are a number of institutions, mostly run by a Catholic religious order. These include the following in Education: Chikuni Basic School, Chikuni Girls (High School), Canisius (Boys High School), Charles Lwanga Teacher Training College. In Health they include, Chikuni Mission 21

Hospital, Home Based Care (HBC) and Gwembe Clinic. There are also many small markets and shops supplying essential items to the people living there. These include the HBC Shop, HBC Bakery, Hospital Shop, Chikuni Market and Mundali Market.

Figure 3: Location Map for Chikuni Parish in Zambia Source: http://www.chikuniradio.org/IMAGES/chikuni_map.jpg (accessed on April 08, 2013)

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Figure 4: Chikuni Parish

Source: Source: http://www.chikuniradio.org/IMAGES/chikuni_map.jpg (accessed on April 08, 2013) 23

1.6.1. Brief history of Radio Chikuni

The idea to establish the radio station was conceived by Father Andresz Lesniara S.J the then managing director of Chikuni Radio, as a way of keeping in touch. This idea grew from his experiences whilst working as a missionary in Namwala around 1994. Because of the flooding Kafue flats in Namwala, Father Andresz found it extremely difficult crossing the flooded Kafue with its soft river banks prompting him to entertain the idea of commissioning a ground radio communication system commonly known as “Walkie- talkie”. It was this flooding experience that kept pushing him to establish a Radio station even after he had been transferred to Chikuni from Namwala.

At first, Father Andresz Lesniara was requested by the late Jesuit Bishop Paul Lungu to establish a radio station for the whole diocese of Monze but he thought of the size of the whole diocese and that it could cause problems hence his preference for a station that focused on a single parish. The construction of the radio station started in 1999 with local Tonga speaking people donating materials and labour to construct the building that houses the radio station. By the end of the same year, a tune so familiar today to all the ardent listeners: Nwyee Nobantu Bamucuundu muteelele, ing’anda Yaku Chikuni yajulwa muteelele (you the people of cuundu, Southern Province, listen, radio Chikuni is on air); hit the airwaves (Joseph Braun 2005 cited in Bwalya 2008, p. 374). It started the test transmission in October 1999. The radio station has developed from a mere eight hours of transmission per day in 1999 to 17 hours in 2006. From as few as five programmes per day on average in 2000, radio Chikuni was offering more than 12 programmes per day on average in 2006, touching all angles of human development. The radio station has a radius of about 150 km with an estimated minimum potential audience of 250,000 and a maximum of 1,000,000 listeners.

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1.6.1.1. FM Frequencies

Radio Chikuni broadcasts on 91.9 FM covering a radius of about 60 kilometers to all the 21 outstations in the Parish. The signal is also accessible in other districts of Gwembe, Mazabuka, Choma, Kafue, Siavonga and Namwala.

1.6.1.2. Broadcasting Languages

Two broadcasting languages are predominant due to the geographical set up and coverage of the radio station. The two broadcasting languages are English and Tonga.

1.6.1.3. Vision, Mission and Objectives of the radio station

The Vision of Radio Chikuni is to be a vibrant self-sustaining Community Radio station that provides a platform for community development. The Mission of the Radio station is a community driven media organisation that provides news, information and entertainment and education for evangelical and integral human development.

In terms of its objectives, radio Chikuni aims at evangelizing by strengthening the Christian faith of the people and by promoting justice. It aims at promoting development by focusing on integral human development in particular by focusing on social, cultural, agricultural, health and appropriate technological development and that as a community radio, is aims at broadcasting news and issues which were helpful to the local community (Bwalya 2008, p.375).

1.6.1.4. Target Audience

The radio station’s targeted audience is estimated at between 250,000 and 600,000 in the catchment area where the broadcast signal reaches (Bwalya 2008, p. 374). 25

1.6.1.5. Programming

In terms of programming and the work schedules, the station broadcasts from 06:00 in the morning when the station opens to 23:00 hours in the evening when the station closes down. The station has established several levels of community participation in the station: the listening clubs, news gathering clubs and volunteers or media scholars as they preferred to call them. There are about 55 radio listening clubs whose members listen to the radio and make programmes. The listening clubs also provide feedback about what was aired and make suggestions for future programmes. The news gatherers are adults in the villages who walk and cycle in different catchment areas of the station searching for local information and news and pass it on to the station while the media scholars are young people who do a year-long internship with the radio station during the period between finishing secondary school and getting into tertiary education (Bwalya, pp.378-379).

The station has a strong focus on community participation. According to Jyde Hamoonga the station manager, the entire community is encouraged to submit programme ideas and is invited to participate in the broadcasting as much as possible. To ensure this is possible, each of the 21 centres in Chikuni has its own news gatherers whose role is not just to gather important news but also to give detailed and constructive feedback on programmes, content and style and further to identify people in their areas that might take a more active role at the radio station. This, he said, has helped in filling in the information vacuum with topics that include programmes on agriculture, health, nutrition, HIV and AIDS, education, culture, justice, women, youths, family, profiles of local talents, local issues and events. According to Hamoonga, the radio station had become a neutral forum where people are able to openly discuss topics that were considered taboos like sexual abuse of young girls, property grabbing and many more such topics.

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The station manager says that a large portion of the radio station’s activities are concerned with the support for the local music artists because music is the traditional medium of passing on wisdom. Other important projects of the radio station include the radio schools known as the Taonga Market, the annual Tonga concert and tape production. Hamoonga said the radio is an example of how people can find for themselves answers to real problems that they face in their lives. He sums it up by saying:

“Radio is changing lives, developing minds and bringing people together in an environment based on their own needs and on their own terms.”

With an approximated 80 percent of the children in some areas around Chikuni unable to attend school, the educational programmes that the station runs in conjunction with the Ministry of Education’s Directorate of Distance Education (DODE) have become very popular. The children that attend these radio schools or the Taonga Market as they are referred to are usually those children that are unable to walk the long distances (which can be up to 25 Km from their homes) to formal schools or are unable to carry the load of being farmers and pupils despite their tender age. In such cases, the locals have set up Radio Schools using battery-less wind up radios that are run by the local volunteer teachers called mentors (Taonga Annual Report 2011, p. 4).

At the time of the research, there were 63 mentors across the 21 outstations of the Chikuni Parish and these helped the children to follow the educational programmes or classes that are broadcast daily on radio as well as helping them do exercises and drills before and after the broadcast. The Taonga market annual report indicates that children from these schools have achieved excellent results with many getting top places in the National Schools Tests. The Taonga market has been able to offer children in such circumstances with a full education up to Grade Seven while ensuring that they, at the same time, remain an active part of their tight knit farming communities. At the time of

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the research, there were Seventeen schools with 48 classes which had an estimated pupil population of 1,305 pupils (Taonga Annual Report 2011, p, 4).

Figure : 5 Figure: 6

A new IRI school under construction. Pupils learning in an open area

Figure: 7 Figure: 8

An IRI class Giving education opportunity for all

Source of Pictures 5,6,7 and 8: Taonga School 2011 Annual Report

The CIMA (2007, p.11) Working Group Report reinforced this position when it stated that “Community radio is generally the best tool for getting information to illiterate and 28

poor communities, as it requires neither reading skills nor money to buy newspapers. Since in many countries most media are concentrated in capital cities and heavily populated areas, and even national media fail to reach remote areas, community radio provides the opportunity of “reaching powerless communities and giving them a voice. Even in areas where national media broadcast, the impact of a community radio broadcasting in a local language or languages is incomparable, an implementer observed.”

1.6.1.6. PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE FOR RADIO CHIKUNI

PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE FOR RADIO CHIKUNI

MON TUES WED THUR FRI SAT SUN

06:00hrs 06:00hrs 06:00hrs 06:00hrs 06:00hrs 06:00hrs 06:00hrs Tone, Station Tone, Station Tone, Station Tone, Station Tone, Station Tone, Station ID, Thought Tone, Station ID, Thought ID, Thought ID, Thought ID, Thought ID, Thought & Prayer ID, Thought & Prayer & Prayer & Prayer & Prayer & Prayer & Prayer

06:15hrs 06:15hrs 06:15hrs 06:15hrs 06:15hrs 06:15hrs 06:15hrs Programme Programme Programme Programme Programme Programme Programme Line up Line up Line up Line up Line up Line up Line up

06:30hrs 06:30hrs 06:30hrs 06:30hrs 06:30hrs 06:30hrs 06:30hrs Community Community Community Community Community Community Community announcemen Announceme Announceme Announceme Announceme Announceme Announceme ts/ nts/ nts/ nts/ nts/ nts/ nts/ Commercials Commercials Commercials Commercials Commercials Commercials Commercials

07:15hrs 07:15hrs 07:15hrs 07:15hrs 07:00hrs 07:00hrs 07:00hrs News in News in News in News in Music Music Gospel Music English English English English

07:30hrs 07:30hrs 07:30hrs 07:30hrs 07:15hrs 07:15hrs 07:30hrs Africa in Music Music Music News in News in Catholic progress English English Panorama

08:00hrs 08:00hrs 08:00hrs 08:00hrs 07:30hrs 07:30hrs 08:00hrs Music Sports News Gospel Music News in News in News in News in and Tonga Tonga Tonga Tonga Information

08:45hrs 08:30hrs 08:30hrs 08:30hrs 08:00hrs 08:00hrs 09:00hrs Music Nseba Zyesu Music News in News in Transmission Music (Our Health) Tonga Tonga breaks off for the morning

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09:00hrs 10:00hrs Bu 09:00hrs 10:00hrs 08:30hrs 08:15hrs OFF AIR Music Tonga Music Haamaleke Music Sports Info Bwasanduka Amukwashi Continues (Repeat) (Repeat)

09:30 hrs 10:30hrs 10:00hrs 10:30hrs 10:00hrs 08:45hrs 12:00hrs Music Music Fighting Music Twaambo Music Thought for Malaria – (Burning the Day Monze Issues) Medical Office

10:00hrs 11:55hrs 10:15hrs 10:50hrs 10:30hrs 09:00hrs 12:10hrs Fighting Latest News Music Amubabuzye Music Nyimbo Music Cholera – Headlines (Face the Zyiyanda Monze Media)-Live Baswiilizyi Medical Office

10:15hrs 12:00hrs 11:55hrs 11:55hrs 11:55hrs 10:00hrs 12:30hrs Music Thought for Latest News Latest News Latest News Bbokesi Learning by the Day Headlines Headlines Headlines Lyaambaula Ear – DW (feedback Prog)

11:00hrs Ma 12:10hrs 12:00hrs 12:00hrs 12:00hrs 10:30hrs 13:00hrs Centre aamu Strictly Thought for Thought for Thought for Dreadlocks Music Chikuni Children’s the Day the Day the Day Parish Songs

11:30 hrs 12:15hrs 12:10hrs 12:10hrs 12:10hrs 11:00hrs 13:30hrs Music Taonga Strictly Strictly Strictly Hallo Patients Kutembaula Market Grade Children’s Children’s Children’s Mwami 7 Songs Songs Songs Munyimbo

11:55hrs 12:45hrs 12:15hrs 12:15hrs 12:15hrs 11:55hrs 14:00hrs Latest News Strictly Taonga Taonga Taonga Latest News Music Headlines Children’s Market Grade Market Grade Market Grade Headlines Songs 7 7 7

12:00hrs 12:55hrs 12:45hrs 12:45hrs 12:45hrs 12:00hrs 15:00hrs Thought for Taonga Strictly Strictly Strictly Thought for Events of the the Day Market Grade Children’s Children’s Children’s the Day Week in 5 Songs Songs Songs Tonga

12:10hrs 13:25hrs 12:55hrs 12:55hrs 12:55hrs 12:10hrs 15:30hrs Strictly Strictly Taonga Taonga Taonga Music Community Children’s Children’s Market Grade Market Grade Market Grade Announceme Songs Songs 5 5 5 nts & Commercials

12:15hrs 13:35hrs 13:25hrs 13:25hrs 13:25hrs 12:30hrs 16:00hrs Taonga Taonga Strictly Strictly Strictly Around Gwembe Market Grade Market - Children’s Children’s Children’s Africa Land 7 Grade 1 Songs Songs Songs (Current Alliance

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Affairs)

12:45hrs 14:05hrs 13:35hrs 13:35hrs 13:35hrs 13:00hrs 16:30hrs Strictly Children’s Taonga Taonga Taonga Music Music Children’s Songs Market - Market - Market - Songs Grade 1 Grade 1 Grade 1

12:55hrs 14:10hrs 14:05hrs 14:05hrs 14:05hrs 13:30hrs 17:00hrs Taonga Taonga Children’s Children’s Children’s Mulomo Events of the Market Grade Market – Songs Songs Songs Mpande Week in 5 Grade 3 (Live English Greetings)

13:25hrs 14:40hrs 14:10hrs 14:10hrs 14:10hrs 14:30hrs 17:30hrs Strictly Music Taonga Taonga Taonga Music HBC Children’s Market – Market – Market – Information Songs Grade 3 Grade 3 Grade 3

15:00hrs 14:40hrs 15:00hrs 15:00hrs 15:00hrs 18:00hrs 13:35hrs News in Music News in News in News in Music Taonga Tonga, Tonga, Tonga, Tonga, Market - Community Community Community Community Grade 1 Announceme Announceme Announceme Announceme nts & nts & nts & nts & Commercials Commercials Commercials Commercials

14:05hrs 15:30hrs 15:00hrs 15:30hrs 15:30hrs 15:30hrs 18:30hrs Children’s Music News in Music Music Music Fighting Songs Tonga, Poverty – Community MISA Announceme Zambia nts & Commercials

14:10hrs 16:00hrs 15:30hrs 17:00hrs 17:00hrs 16:00hrs 19:00hrs Taonga Mwakotoka Music News in News in Gama Cuulu Community Market - Nobalimi English English Antangalala Announceme Grade 3 nts and Commercials

14:40hrs 16:30hrs 16:00hrs 17:30hrs 17:30hrs 16:30hrs 19:30hrs Music Music Radio Hodi Music Music Fighting TB – Listening Basibbuku Monze Clubs Medical Office

15:00hrs 17:00hrs 16:30hrs 18:00hrs 18:00hrs 17:00hrs 20:30hrs News in News in Music SAFAIDS Education for News in Gamma Tonga, English All English Cuulu Community Announceme nts & Commercials

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15:30hrs 17:30hrs 17:00hrs 18:40hrs 18:30hrs 17:30hrs 21:00hrs Music SAFAIDS News in Markerting Cuundu Acisi PALS Music (The English Information Coonse Befrienders) Services (Community Current Affairs)

16:15hrs 18:00hrs 18:00hrs 19:00hrs 19:00hrs 18:00hrs 21:30hrs Radio Bunyina Kulasa kwaa Fighting Music Music Nyimbo Zya Listening Centre – HIV Chikko(Famil HIV/AIDS – Leza Clubs Positive y Talk) – Monze Zyiyanda Children MISA medical Baswiilizi Zambia Office

17:00hrs 18:30hrs 18:15hrs 19:30hrs 19:30hrs 18:30hrs Get 22:30hrs News in MUSIC Music News in News in Ready for Gospel Music English Tonga, Tonga, Sunday Community Community Announceme Announceme nts/Commerci nts/Commerci als als

17:30hrs 19:00hrs 18:30hrs 20:00hrs 20:00hrs 19:00hrs 22:45hrs Music Twalumba Fighting HIV Nsonje Ya Music Music Prayer of – MISA Bulimi Awareness Documentary (Agricultural Tips)

18:30hrs 19:30hrs 18:45hrs 20:15hrs 20:30hrs 19:30hrs 23:00hrs Church News in Music Music Haamaleke News in Station ID & Documents Tonga, 19:00hrs Amukwasyi( Tonga, Close Down Community Maanu Drama) Community Announceme Mabuulanwa Announceme nts/Commerci nts/Commerci als als

19:00hrs 20:30hrs 19:30hrs 20:30hrs 21:00hrs 20:00hrs Twaano Bumwi News in Kaulu Music Zyamumabbu Buzuba Tonga, kalaamutwe – ku (Tonga Community Mukanzubo Book Announceme Reviews) nts/Commerci als

19:30hrs 21:00hrs Pa 20:30hrs 21:00hrs 22:00hrs 20:30hrs News in Zed Music Bulimi Music Gospel Music Butonga Tonga, Show Bwesu Bwasanduka Community (Taonga (Tonga Announceme Agro- Culture) nts/Commerci Forestry) als

20:00hrs 22:00hrs 21:00hrs 22:00hrs 22:45hrs 21:00hrs Top Random Talk Gospel Music Music Gospel Music Prayer of Ten

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Reflection

21:00hrs 22:45hrs 22:00hrs 22:45hrs 23:00 hrs 22:00hrs Butebuzi Prayer of Gospel Music Prayer of Station ID & Gospel Music Bwesu Reflection Reflection Close Down

21:30hrs 23:00 hrs 22:45hrs 23:00 hrs 22:45hrs Kuzundana Station ID & Prayer of Station ID & Prayer of Kwabaimbi Close Down Reflection Close Down Reflection

22:15hrs 23:00 hrs 23:00hrs Gospel Music Station ID & Station ID & Close Down Close Down

22:45hrs Prayer of Reflection

23:00 hrs Station ID and Close Down

Table 1: Radio Chikuni programming schedule at the time of research

Source: Radio Chikuni

1.7. Statement of the Problem

The effectiveness of Chikuni community radio in particular and community radio in general in bridging the information gap in rural communities remains unclear in spite of the growth in community media over the last decade.

The last decade in Zambia has witnessed an unprecedented growth in community media targeting the hitherto, socially closed out rural communities with regard to the provision of information. However, in spite of this growth in community media, the effectiveness of community radio in bridging the information gap in rural communities has not been ascertained.

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Radio Chikuni was established by Fr Andresz Lesricara S.J, as a way of keeping the community in touch. Fr Andresz Lesricara first thought of establishing Radio Chikuni based on his experiences of the flooding Kafue River whilst working in Namwala around 1994. This idea continued growing even after he was transferred to Chikuni. He conceived radio as a way of keeping in touch under such circumstances in order to bridge the information gap. The station has been in existence for the past decade now but it’s effectiveness in bridging the information gap in rural communities around Chikuni has not been clearly established. This was the problem identified that needed to be examined so that the growth of the community media remains focused and achieved the intended goals.

1.8. Justification of the study

The media, the world over is viewed as an integral part of the process of development through ensuring that there is information available to all for better and informed decision making. This, hitherto, tended to neglect the rural communities as mainstream media did not adequately focus on the interest of the rural communities both in terms of coverage and programming. The research was significant in that it would assist in evaluating the impact of community radio in bridging the information gap in rural communities of Zambia. The research would further assist in the development of policies that ensure that community radio stations meet the desired aspirations of the rural communities with regard to access to information. According to the Center for International Media Association (CIMA) working group report, the impact of independent media on society is cross-cutting, encompassing and should be regarded as a unique development sector. Within media development, it is essential to focus on community as a powerful source for empowerment, especially for disenfranchised and marginalized groups in society. Therefore, research effort to quantify, analyse and draw conclusions regarding the effectiveness and impact of community radio is essential and can serve as a sound basis for assistance advocacy in the development process of community media (CIMA 2009, p.6). It is generally acknowledged that there is not

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much research work so far done in trying to understand what impact community radio have had with regard to bridging the information gap in rural communities. Peter Lewis (2008, p.24) observed from the AMARC community media social impact assessment that community radio achievements are not properly highlighted and disseminated in spite of a large body of evidence on community radio social impact. Community radio practitioners and stakeholders have not taken the time and efforts needed to present systematically the achievements of community radio worldwide.

It is, however, generally recognized that one of the drivers of the growth in alternative media was the desire to demolish the social barriers that existed in rural communities due to lack of access to information on a myriad of issues of local and national interest. Some research have been done but mainly focusing on the internal capacities of community media with regard to the availability of both human and technological resources, the management systems of community media and legal, institutional and regulatory reforms that have so far been undertaken to foster the growth of community media. This study focused specifically on trying to understand what has been the role of the community media in bridging the information gap in rural areas as a means of demolishing the social barriers and improve inclusiveness of rural communities in the national affairs through access to information. The research would further supplement already done researches on the policy and regulatory framework and challenges being faced by community radio by adding a new dimension to the operation of community radio. This is away from just looking at capacities and other internal challenges but to also review the kind of impact it is having on the rural communities especially as this relates to the identified problem of lack of access to information by these rural communities. It is hoped that the research would enable further researchers to examine the extent to which the policies, institutional and regulatory regimes that have come with the birth of community media in Zambia were supportive of the desire to bridge the information gap in rural areas.

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It is acknowledged that the concept of community media in Zambia is just beginning to emerge as an important medium of localized communication (Banda & Fourie 2004, p.51), hence there being very little comprehensive, systematic and coherent research data on the phenomenon. As a result of this, there is very little comprehensive, systematic and coherent research data on community media. This research would, therefore, in addition to the above justifications, help in building a comprehensive, systematic and coherent body of research data in the development of the alternative media phenomenon in the country.

The choice of Chikuni Community Radio Station was on account of convenience of reach in view of a limited budget available to undertake the study. The radio station is also one of the few that have operated for a much longer period from the time of the introduction of the community media concept and therefore, would provide much more reliable data from its operations over the years.

1.9. Objectives of the study

The general objective of this study was to examine the effectiveness of Chikuni Community Radio in bridging the information gap in Chikuni rural community of Zambia.

The specific objectives were:

i. To examine the community’s perception of Radio Chikuni’s contribution to their access to health, educational, agricultural, commerce, trade, and political information.

ii. To examine the community assessment of the impact of the information from Radio Chikuni in improving their social, economic well-being and political awareness.

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iii. To examine the extent to which Radio Chikuni has allowed service providers and change agents to introduce new innovations to rural communities.

iv. To examine the role of Radio Chikuni in developing the cultural heritage of the rural communities.

v. To examine if Radio Chikuni has the required professional and technical capacities to meet the communication needs of rural communities.

vi. To examine how far people participate in the running of Radio Chikuni as a community radio

1.10. Research Questions

Based on the research objectives above, the following were the specific research questions in this study:

i. Does the community have access to health, education, agricultural, commerce and trade information through Radio Chikuni?

ii. Does the information the community receive impact their political awareness, social and economic well-being?

iii. Do service providers and other change agents use Radio Chikuni to reach the community?

iv. Does the Radio Station play a role in developing and preserving the cultural heritage of the community?

v. How is Chikuni Radio Station staffed technically and professionally in order to meet the communication needs of the local community?

vi. Do the local people participate in the running of the community radio?

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1.11. Scope of the study

The study focused on the local community’s access to information during the time the community radio station has been operational, compared to the time the station was not in existence with the view to establishing the impact of the Radio Chikuni community station in bridging the information gap among the rural people.

1.12. Limitations of the study

The research only focused on one community radio station, Radio Chikuni because of limited resources to cover many such community Radio Stations. To this extent, the findings of the research may not be easily generalized to reflect the national picture. However, the findings would be useful in developing further research in the topic at a national level.

1.13. Expected outcomes

It was expected that the study would show the extent to which Chikuni radio station has been able to fill the information vacuum that existed in the local community prior to the establishment of the community radio station.

1.14. Summary

This chapter considered the definitions of community media in general and community radio in particular from a variety of perspectives and further gave an overview to the background of the study. The background of the community radio in Zambia was also examined and further looked at the history of Chikuni Parish as well as Chikuni radio station in the context of the broader study theme. The chapter further gave the reason for undertaking this research after identifying the research need in trying to understand the effectiveness of community radio in bridging the information gap in rural communities 38

and resolving the myriad of problems of lack of access to information in rural areas, social exclusion of the poor and marginalised that had not been seriously taken care of by the mainstream media.

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CHAPTER TWO

THE MEDIA IN ZAMBIA

2.0. Introduction

This chapter traces the history of the media in Zambia. Both the print media and broadcasting in general and radio broadcasting in particular in Zambia are discussed in order to contextualize the study topic.

2.1. Newspapers in Zambia

2.1.1. Newspapers in the colonial era

Very little is known about what is generally accepted to be the first newspaper to be published in Zambia, The Livingstone Pioneer which was published in 1906. According to Makungu (2004, pp.8-14), the partly hectograph and partly print newspaper which appears to have been published weekly was owned and published by W. Tranter and appeared only for a few months. Tranter later inspired Leopold Frank More, a politically ambitious chemist to start a rival newspaper in the same year, the Livingstone Mail. It was a paper for white settlers as it did not run any stories about Africans unless they were of direct concern to the whites. The paper had low circulation and impact because of the small number of settlers in Livingstone then.

On the Copperbelt, the first paper to be published was the Copperbelt Times, first published on March 18, 1932 in Chingola. It was started by two miners E.C Wykerd and E.B. Hovelmeier and ran for eleven years until the Northern News superseded it in 1943.

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Then came the Northern Rhodesia Advertiser on February 9, 1935 started and edited by F. Mackenzie (Makungu 2004, pp.8-14).

The colonial government later in 1936 established the first newspaper for the Africans called Mutende which was replaced by the African Eagle in 1952 after Africans rejected the Mutende for its paternalistic politics and bias towards news and information favourable to the colonial government. It was also discontinued in 1962 following disagreements with African Newspapers about editorial independence of the newspaper (Makungu 2004, pp.8-14).

Makungu says that Northern Rhodesia’s national press proper had its beginning in 1943 with the founding of the Northern News which several years later also became the first newspaper in the country to be owned by a foreign company outside Northern Rhodesia. The Northern News which was later superseded by the Times of Zambia came into being when Wykerd and Hovelmeier after being joined by Roy Welensky, moved the Copperbelt Times presses from Chingola to Ndola. Welensky later became the sole owner of the newspaper before he sold it to a South African based Argus Company.

In the late 1940s, a Scottish medical doctor Alexander Scott founded the Central African Post which became the first paper to be published in the capital city of Lusaka. Scott later founded the African Times in 1957 and the African Mail in 1960. After the demise of the African Times, the African Life emerged as a magazine in 1958 and changed into a newspaper in 1959 when the publisher and editor Sikota Wina turned it into a fortnightly journal before it folded up in 1961 due to hard economic realities. In 1960, (Bwalya 2008, p.235) the African Mail which later changed its name to Central African Mail in 1962 and was co-owned by David Astor, the then editor of the Sunday Observer in London and Alexander Scott, a former Scottish doctor came on the scene. The new Zambian government under Dr Kenneth Kaunda bought the Central African Mail in 41

1965 and the paper became a by-weekly two years later. It was now called the Zambian Mail. In 1970, the Zambian Mail became known as the Zambia Daily Mail, a state owned daily newspaper.

Just before buying the Northern News, Lonrho had also acquired Northern Rhodesia’ only other daily newspapers, the Zambian Times and its Sunday version the Zambian News, the first, and at the time, the only Sunday newspaper in the country. The two newspapers had been established in 1963 by Max Heinrich who had subsidized them with profits from his brewing business. Lonrho acquired the papers when it bought Heinrich’s opaque beer brewing enterprise. Lonrho Managing Director Tiny Rowland wanted to close down both the Zambian Times and the Zambian News because his company did not want them, but the Government, whose opinion he had sought, advised him to at least keep the Sunday newspaper. He, however, closed down the Kitwe plant and moved the Zambian News to the Northern News plant in Ndola where it continued under the same name. Rowland killed the Zambian Times, but cleverly renamed the Northern News as the Times of Zambia. It first appeared with the new name on June 30, 1965. Ten years later in June 1975 then President Dr. Kenneth Kaunda announced the takeover of the Times of Zambia and the takeover became effective in October 1982 when the UNIP as a party bought the Lonrho enterprise (Makungu 2004, p.14).

2.1.2. Newspapers during the UNIP era

According to Makungu (2004, pp. 18-19), after the death of the second Church newspaper, the Northern Star in 1964, it took eight years for the Church in the country to start another national newspaper, this time called the Mirror, first published in January 1972. The paper started as a monthly publication but by 1983 had become a well-established fortnightly. It was owned by Multimedia Zambia, a communication organisation for Christian Churches in the country. In its first policy statement, the Mirror promised to be non-aligned with no political affiliations, free to praise or

42

criticize where praise or criticism was due. During this same period of the country’s history, especially between 1975 and 1983, there was unprecedented struggle by the two national dailies, The Times of Zambia and the Zambia Daily Mail for press freedom. The struggle was in the perception of press freedom between the media practitioners and the politicians where the practitioners believed freedom as derived from the right of every individual to spread and receive ideas as was guaranteed by the constitution while for the politicians, the party (UNIP) had a right to stop the media from publishing news and ideas which painted the party in an unfavourable light. Matibini (2006, p.4) says, during the One Party State era, the media was firmly under the control of the Party and its Government. The media were seen as a tool for national development and operated as propaganda machinery. Almost all media institutions in the country were owned and controlled by the government. Control of the media, both print and electronic, continued in this manner up to the end of the UNIP rule in 1991 when the country reverted back to political pluralism (Makungu 2004, p.20)

2.1.3. Newspapers after Multipartism era – 1990 onwards

Many other publications came into being in the post-colonial Zambia among them the Post Newspaper. The Post newspaper was born in July 1991 in the politically murky situation as Zambia was changing from an authoritative government to a democratic government in early 1990s. In this political climate, there were only two notable independent private media engaged in some critical journalism, The National Mirror and Icengelo magazine (Bwalya 2008, p.277). Towards the end of the Kaunda regime when voices of the dissent began to be heard, the tabloid provided a bit of space to those trade unionists, business leaders, professionals, intellectuals and the clergymen who had little or no access to the state owned mass media, thereby raising the muffled human rights discourse to a higher pedestal in the public sphere. Since it was a Christian newspaper, whose much emphasis was on faith related issues, it could only bring out divergent voices in a rather moderate manner. There was need for a stronger voice that

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could hit on the head of the nail, hence the birth of the Post newspaper, initially known as the Weekly Post.

Claiming to be independent as to ‘dig deeper’, the tabloid became the voice of most literate Zambians who wanted to see change in Zambia. Political discourse characterized most of its columns. As the political landscape changed in earnest, the opposition political parties, through the Post newspaper raised such issues as the need for an open political system that would ensure a liberalised economy, enhanced human rights protection programme, a professional government bureaucracy, an independent judiciary, an unfettered media system, a development oriented foreign policy among other pertinent issues. After the fall of the Kaunda regime and the coming of a multiparty democratic government, the Post newspaper continued on the same path.

Banda (2004, pp. 47-80) catalogues other newspapers like the National Mirror, The Monitor, The Mining Mirror, The Chronicle, The Sun, The Lusakan, The Citizen, Today Newspaper and The Zambian Fortune as some of the newspapers that have been published and accounts for the history of the print media in Zambia. The trend has continued with latest publications like the Daily Nation coming on the scene.

2.2. Broadcasting in Zambia

It is generally acknowledged that most African countries inherited national broadcasting institutions at independence created for propaganda purposes during the colonial area (Matibini 2006, pp.37-38). Zambia was not exceptional as the country did not only retain the monopoly but also, the tradition of using broadcasting as an instrument to propagate ideas and policies. In practice therefore, the national broadcaster in Zambia as was the case elsewhere in Africa, although officially designated as public broadcaster, became state broadcaster where broadcasting in all aspects was owned, controlled and

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financed by the state. The political culture of the colonial state which conflated rather than distinguished the government in power and the state institutions, was carried into the post-colonial period. State control was therefore, government control. The post- colonial state broadcasters did not enjoy the operational and editorial autonomy that their European equivalents enjoyed. The role of the national broadcaster in both colonial and post-colonial Africa has been mainly to support the ideology of the government and party in power and generally to play a propaganda role for the government. To ensure that broadcasting played this role, editorial independence was not respected and the justification used by the post-colonial government was that the media, and in particular broadcasting with its wide reach was an important tool for forging national unity, promoting development and fostering a national identity and protecting national culture (Matibini 2006, p.37). This point is also stressed by Makungu (2004, p.5) who says that after getting independent on October 24, 1964, the new African government in Zambia simply put itself in the shoes of the colonial governments and continued to see and use the media as tools for the mobilization of the people to achieve whatever goals it thought were good for the country. So in Zambia like many other African countries, the mass media has functioned as a tool of the ruling class to help it mobilize people, purportedly for economic and social development of the country, but in reality, to help it remain in power. This has mainly been due to the government ownership and control of, until just over a decade ago, all the means of communication which include the two national daily newspapers (the Times of Zambia and its sister Sunday paper and the Zambia Daily Mail and its sister Sunday paper) and the national broadcaster, the national radio and television broadcasting station, the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC).

2.2.1. Public Broadcasting

According to McQuail (2005, p.566), Public Broadcasting is a system of broadcasting that is publicly funded and operated in a non-profit way in order to meet the various public communication needs of all citizens. Public broadcasting is neither government nor party broadcasting nor government broadcasting nor should it be commercial

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broadcasting. Public broadcasting must be dedicated to the principles of serving both the needs of a general audience and the needs of more specialized audiences (Matibini 2006, p.36). Some of the principles of public broadcasting in the Zambian case relate to editorial independence, independent governing boards, promotion of diversity, election coverage and public funding among others. However, these principles are embodied in the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (Amendment) Bill of 2002 whose main objectives were to remove the regulatory and licensing functions of the broadcasting industry from ZNBC, provide for the licensing of television receivers by ZNBC and empower it to collect license fees amongst others. The ZNBC Act of 1987 was amended in 2002 in order to transform the Corporation from a state owned and controlled broadcaster into a public broadcaster. The amendment Act has, at the time of the research, not been implemented or operationalized and ZNBC has continued to report to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, making the debate on whether there is a public broadcaster in Zambia rage on.(The Post, March 28, 2013,p.36)

2.2.2. Radio Broadcasting in Zambia

Historian Robert Heinze from the University of Berne, Switzerland, in his Doctorate thesis on “ Promoting national Unity: The Role of Radio Broadcasting in the Decolonisation in Namibia and Zambia” gives an extensive account of the genesis of radio broadcasting in Zambia tracing the development of the radio sector in the pre- independent Zambia (Heinze 2012, pp.36-51). According to Heinze, the development of broadcasting in the British Colonies in Central Africa was exemplary for colonial broadcasting on the whole of the African continent and had a major influence on it through the invention of the first relatively cheap battery-operated radio. The Colonial Office started to take interest in possible broadcasts to the African population in the late 1930s. A 'Committee on Broadcasting Services in the Colonies' in 1936 recommended to use broadcasting as "'an instrument of advanced government' to improve communication between governments and governed and to enlighten and educate the masses as well as to entertain them."

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But only towards the end of the decade did the officers in charge begin the realisation of the plans. The initial motivation for broadcasting to "natives" had been the growing fear that if it were not done by the colonial administration, African listeners would be susceptible to "propaganda of foreign origin." The decisive elements that seemed to make colonial broadcasting necessary were the Cold War and resulting ideological competition in Africa as well as the newly awakened African nationalism after the Second World War. The Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Relations Office, have been planning measures which could be taken to combat the growth of Communist influence, not only by direct counter propaganda but also and perhaps chiefly by the positive projection both of the accurate appreciation of the democratic point of view and the principles upon which Western civilization is based. Among these measures was the development of broadcasting in the Colonies.

Heinze indicates that the origins of the Northern Rhodesian and later the Zambian broadcasting system lay in the Second World War. In the 1930s, radio broadcasting had been limited to an extension of the BBC Overseas Service, targeting mainly settlers and administrators. Although the colonial administration had considered broadcasting for natives since 1937, it was only established after the recruitment of African troops made an extensive propaganda effort necessary. The first station to address the African as well as the European population was established in Lusaka in 1941 primarily to keep the Africans of Northern Rhodesia informed of the progress of the war, to stimulate their war efforts and to convey orders to the native population in the event of grave emergency arising. This small broadcasting station operated from a rented room at the Lusaka airport with the support of local radio enthusiasts. It had to grapple with frequent power failures, patched equipment and a general lack of interest on the part of the administration. The station only broadcast a few hours per day, the reception was unreliable and the actual target audience had scarcely any access to listening facilities. But its mission was clear from the beginning: "Radio would bring the government and the people closer together" (Heinze 2012, p.37). From its inception state broadcasting in the colonies was not committed to an ideal of a critical public. What was happening in 47

Northern Rhodesia was that the administration had got to the point of starting an official government broadcasting station not to enlighten, educate, or entertain, but for what was a political and administrative purpose; to broadcast news and refute rumours during a national emergency, in this case, the Second World War. One of the most important supporters of broadcasting to the African population, the director of the Northern Rhodesian Information Department, Harry Franklin, phrased the problems in the paternalistic jargon of the colonial administration that are said to have found that:

i. Many Africans had a natural gift for broadcasting, and were hardly ever shy of the microphone.

ii. Africans liked to listen where listening conditions were suitable and when programmes were interesting. This may appear obvious, but it was still not believed by some Europeans, and it still had to be proved on a larger scale.

iii. Community Receivers, although they may fill a breach, provided the worst kind of listening facilities. In practice it was only rarely that any European or trained African would take the trouble to be present every evening to work the receiver. The receiver was often not properly looked after. Speaker horns got out of alignment, sets got wheezy and so on. Listeners soon lost interest under such conditions (Heinze 2012, p.38).

However, this first experimental phase continued only until 1945. The colonial government was not convinced of the effectiveness of the radio as a mass medium and withdrew its financial support from the station, until proof of its usefulness could be provided. But at this point, around two hundred private receivers existed in the territory, most of them in possession of European settlers. Most Africans listened to radio on the communal sets, public loudspeakers, or at the local BOMA if and when the District Officer exhibited his private set for public use (Bwalya 2008, p. 234).

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The further development of broadcasting directed at an African audience was strongly due to the two information officers that were responsible for the wireless, Harry Franklin and Kenneth Bradley. From the beginning they were interested in, among other things, the use of radio for education. Already in 1942 they had started the first "enlightenment programme" for educated Africans, and Franklin campaigned further for the access of the African population to the medium. In 1944 and again in 1946 he presented plans for a regional broadcasting service to the Public Relations Committee of the Central African Council (Heinze 2012, p.39).

The plan stipulated the constitution of a station for the settlers in Salisbury, and another in Lusaka that was directed at the African population in all three territories – Northern and Southern Rhodesia as well as Nyasaland (Heinze 2012, p.39).

Eventually, in 1947, the Council agreed to support the project, and the 'African' part of the arrangement was executed in 1948 .The Central African Broadcasting Station (CABS) was lodged in a separate building in Lusaka and significantly better equipped than its predecessor. Due to his untiring commitment to a medium that should bring "education and enlightenment" to an African audience, Harry Franklin became the most important figure in the development of broadcasting in Northern Rhodesia. But his contribution to radio in Africa goes further. Franklin knew that broadcasting to an African audience was possible only when it had access to receivers. The technical possibilities for this had yet to be created; cheap, battery-powered receivers that were affordable at least for the African working and middle class and that had an independent power supply, were a basic prerequisite for the diffusion of radio not only in the urban areas (Heinze 2012, p.39). Franklin searched for three years for a solution to the problem. Eventually the Ever Ready Company in London (a big battery producer) decided to support Franklin's project. The Managing Director hoped for an access to a huge uninvested market for a "poor man's radio." (Heinze 2012, p.40).

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The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) helped with the development of a prototype, and the first twenty radio sets were sold to Africans in Northern Rhodesia for £5 in the course of just two weeks. It has to be noted that the average income of an African family in the territories was 1£ per week. Seen against this background, Franklin, although again striking a paternalistic note, was correctly asserting the interest Africans showed towards the medium in claiming that this showed "the African's awakening thirst for knowledge” (Heinze 2012, p.40).

Heinze says this was the birth of the famous "Saucepan Special", a predecessor of the transistor radio that looked like a saucepan with its characteristic cylindrical shape. It was this invention that ensured the distribution of radio receivers throughout all African colonies and made broadcasting to a significant African audience possible in the first place (Heinze 2012, p.40). A solution to provide radio listening facilities, at least for town dwellers came in 1945 when, the colonial administration placed receivers at certain points in town. Employers were encouraged to provide loudspeakers for the wireless receiving sets in the compounds at public places like the pubs and markets. The provision of public listening to radio transmissions was done partially because most of the indigenous people could not afford to buy their own radio sets. As the working class indigenous people became more affluent in the course of time, desires to having their own radios and listen from their own homes like their European counterparts developed. Bwalya points to a 1949 report on the development of broadcasting to Africans in Zambia as evidence of the desire by the indigenous people to own radios and not to listen from public receivers but from their own homes. Thus a solution to providing radio receivers that Africans could afford came when the first Director of the Department of Information, Harry Franklin, designed a radio set called the saucepan special, so named because of the resemblance it had to a saucepan. The first batch of 2000 saucepan special arrived in the country in September 1949 from Britain where they had been manufactured (Bwalya 2008, p. 234).

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Figure 9: A family using a saucepan

Source: (Heinze 2012, p.38).

Soon the station received enthusiastic letters from listeners. The government of Southern Rhodesia was still afraid that a radio directed at African listeners could politicise them particularly as the CABS in Lusaka were under control of the Colonial Office that was far too liberal in the minds of the Southern Rhodesian settler politicians. They continually tried to put spoke in the wheel of African broadcasting. But nevertheless the period from 1948 to 1952 can be described as "The golden years of African

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Broadcasting in Northern Rhodesia" (Heinze 2012, p.41). Franklin allowed for much experimentation and assembled around him a group of highly committed broadcasters, African and European alike. In those years programmes and techniques were advanced farther than in any other colony in Africa. At CABS, African programme managers, announcers, journalists and technicians were educated and trained.

In 1949, an African Broadcasting Advisory Board was drafted to exert greater and more direct control, and at the same time integrate interested parties from all three territories. The committee consisted of Secretaries for Native Affairs from Northern and Southern Rhodesia, Members of Parliament from both colonies, two representatives of the employers, the chairman of the Central African Council, the director of the Northern Rhodesian Department of Information and the Public Relations Officer of Nyasaland. Soon, according to Heinze (2012, p.44), the Central African Broadcasting Station was extremely popular with the African listeners.

The situation changed, however, when the station was forced to propagate the official politics of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland that had been formed in 1953. Many Africans in the territories were afraid, with good reason that the Federation would first of all ensure that the northern copper mines supported the Southern Rhodesian economy, and secondly, that Federation would primarily be an instrument of the Southern Rhodesian settlers' hegemony. The political hegemony of settlers, they feared, would mean that the North where most of the land was as "Native Trust Land" still in African hands would be subjected to the same land redistribution measures as the south had been where settlers had taken over vast stretches of land. The CABS, who had to communicate the official ideology, lost the trust of its listenership because of its uncritical support of Federation. This loss of trust even went so far that journalists and producers especially the African ones were suspected of having been “bitten by vampires” (Heinze 2012, p.44).

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In the process of restructuring the broadcasting system in the Central African Federation the interest groups that determined broadcasting policies in Northern Rhodesia as well as the other colonies became visible. Harry Franklin, director of CABS until 1951, wanted to build upon the good reputation the station had earned with programmes that appealed to African listenership and the employment of Africans as broadcasters. His plan was to transform the station, over time, into an independent corporation: But Lord Malvern saw it as an 'excellent propaganda instrument' with which to hammer the virtues of the federation into African ears, a process which would only have made them more deliberately deaf (Heinze 2012, p.45).

The government of Northern Rhodesia had to let Lord Malvern, alias Sir Geoffrey Huggins, take control of African broadcasting as he was entitled to by the Constitution; however, Franklin, who had just been appointed as representative of African interests in the Legislative Council, intervened and pointed out that the station would lose listeners' trust completely, if it was directly and openly subordinate to the government. Using public pressure, he managed to force Huggins to appoint a commission headed by BBC experts. In 1955, the Broadcasting Commission of Inquiry, headed by Hugh Carleton- Greene, who was at the time a member of the BBC External Service, recommended the centralisation of the three stations of the Central African territories in one overarching institution. But it also recommended the organisation of this institution as an independent corporation. This was done in 1958, and the headquarters transferred to Salisbury. The new broadcasting institution, the Federal Broadcasting Corporation (FBC), united broadcasting for "Africans" and "Europeans" under one roof. The FBC was, following the recommendations of the commission, established as a nominally independent corporation led by a broadcasting board; however, among the members of the Board there was no representation of African interests, although broadcasting to Africans was one of the declared goals of the FBC (Heinze 2012, p.45).

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The Southern Rhodesian line eventually won out, and in 1958, with the incorporation of the CABS as "African Service", the FBC was established. The same year, a small contribution studio for programming in African languages in Southern Rhodesia was established in Harare.

Further, Heinze says while the African Services continued to be based in Lusaka, former FBC broadcaster Cyril Sapseid replaced Donald Lightfoot as Head of the African Service, who, except for a year managing the studio in Kitwe, stayed in Lusaka. Additionally, an Advisory Committee on African programming was established. Although the Report had recommended a preponderance of unofficial, listener representatives were in the minority (Heinze 2012, p.46).

Broadcasting to Africans in the colonies had been introduced after governments felt the pressure of other media and its main role was to establish an information monopoly. At the same time, it was also part of a more general modernisation project undertaken in the colonies after the Second World War. Information Departments, established during the War for precisely the purpose of controlling information flows, now undertook the effort to educate colonial audiences and guide them to the path of modernity and development. The Saucepan Special itself was depicted as a distinctly modern apparatus, one that enabled the listener to overcome spatial boundaries and to connect with the world outside his or her direct surroundings (Heinze 2012, p.47). While the FBC tightened censorship and control, it retained the policy of employing African broadcasters, who themselves embodied the new, rising African middle class. Nevertheless, the desires of colonial governments for information control, not letting Africans come under the spell of “Moscow" determined the structure of colonial broadcasting systems (Heinze 2012, p.47).

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After the dissolution of the Central African Federation in 1963, broadcasting had to be reorganised. The Northern Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation (NRBC), planned since October 1963, was established in January 1964 to accompany Northern Rhodesia/Zambia on its way to Independence. This time African representatives were included from the beginning, the chairman of the committee that had been established by government was the local Chief Mapanza. First, however, the committee had to acquire the old equipment that was released after the dissolution of the FBC. The NRBC was nominally following the BBC model an independent corporation financed through licence fees, advertising fees and financial support from the state. Although state support was a necessity, it effectively opened up the corporation to government influence. It was directed by a Board of Governors that was assigned the definition of guidelines for broadcasting. The Director General of the NRBC, Donald Lightfoot, was a member of the Board, together with another civil servant. Four members of the Board were representatives of African interests (Heinze 2012, p.48).

Chief Mapanza remained chairman. Local elites were deliberately incorporated into the broadcasting structure, pursuant to the plan to prepare the country for Independence. This structure at first glance was geared to the example of the BBC, and the colonial government stated that it had decided for an "independent statutory corporation."(Heinze 2012, p.49). But there were important differences to the archetype. The Board was not independent, as it was answerable to the Minister of Information and Postal Services, and he could even prevent programmes from being broadcast, "should he consider the broadcast not in the public interest” (Heinze 2012, p.49).

This was an instrument of significant government control, albeit much less than in the FBC. The management subordinate to the Director General was divided into Administration, Engineering, News and Programme Departments. A Religious Advisory Board exerted an advisory function. Although broadcasting fees were collected, the corporation was financially backed by the state. This was a necessity, given the fact that 55

the largest part of the population wouldn't have been able to afford a receiver set if the collected fees were too high. But it also ensured government control over the station.

The General Service of the FBC, which had broadcast from Salisbury to the settlers in the territories, was replaced by a National Service that broadcast in English. The African Service was renamed "Vernacular Service" and broadcast in ChiBemba, ChiNyanja, ChiTonga, SiLozi, Lunda, Luvale and Kaonde (the seven biggest language groups in Zambia). But the NRBC still followed the policy of 'educating the Africans' in the sense of western civilisation. The NRBC served as a transmitter for the modernisation ideology that formed the late colonial system. Nevertheless the policy of the Northern Rhodesian government was liberal to a certain extent: the NRBC, as its predecessors had, trained Africans in different professions and enabled a large part of the population to access information about the world in general, the politics of the colony and their own situation in Northern Rhodesia. It carried information about the African nationalist parties and provided them with programming slots for election campaigning. Unlike its predecessors, its purpose was, above all, to enable a smooth takeover after independence, for which the date was already set (Heinze 2012, p.50).

The National Service catered for the election broadcasts in January 1964, and nationalist parties were allocated slots in the run-up to the election. It also reported extensively from the Northern Rhodesian Constitutional Conference that was taking place in London, where Zambian nationalist politicians negotiated with the British government on the future of the territory. BBC courses for Zambian announcers and journalists aimed at the mastery of perfect English (Heinze 2012, p.50).

Following the independence of Northern Rhodesia on October 1964, Zambian Radio was not immediately reorganised. The NRBC had been established as an institution that was to survive in the independent Zambia and remain an autonomous corporation, an institution the British colonial administration considered as essential prerequisite for a

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democratic state. For this reason, it was simply renamed as Zambian Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC). However, the corporation was open to government influence on several levels. In 1965, the Zambian government started a restructuring process that was to convert the corporation into an administrative service, and, as a result, subject it to direct government control. At the same time, the Zambianisation of administrative services and parastatals influenced the newly named Zambia Broadcasting Services (ZBS). In the process, broadcasters were again employed as civil servants, a practice the FBC had abandoned (Heinze 2012, p.51).

This is the reason why media scholar Kenny Makungu summarises the process as follows: "After the country became a Republic in October 1964, the new African Government simply put it-self in the status of the colonialist Government and continued to see and use the mass media as a tool for the mobilisation of the people to achieve whatever goals it thought were good for it and the country. So in Zambia, like many other African countries, the mass media has functioned as a tool of the ruling class, to help it mobilise people, purportedly for the economic and social development of the country, but in reality, to help it remain in power (Makungu 2004, p.5).

2.2.3. Television Broadcasting in Zambia

Twenty years later after the introduction of radio broadcasting, television arrived in Zambia courtesy of the privately London Rhodesia Company (Bwalya 2008, p.234). At the time, not many Africans could afford to buy a television set and understand English which was the only medium of communication for the television. This could be said to have been intended to serve the interest of the white community only considering the many factors that negated the Africans’ access to television, among them, lack of access to electricity in their houses.

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2.2.4. Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC)

As alluded to earlier, in 1953 the federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was created and in 1958, a new broadcasting organisation, the Federal Broadcasting Corporation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was founded with the headquarters in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe (Banda 2010, pp.28-30). According to Banda, Lusaka continued to use African languages as well as English but this spirit which had animated the original station had long since been drowned by the rising tide of animosity between races. In 1964, Northern Rhodesia eventually broke away from the federation and became Zambia and the station in Lusaka was then called the Zambia Broadcasting Corporation which was later in 1966 changed to Zambia Broadcasting Services (ZBS). It was again changed to the Zambia National broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) in 1988, a public broadcaster under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services.

ZNBC was the sole broadcaster in Zambia until the early 1990s when the broadcast policies were changed to allow for independent actors in the sector (Banda 2010, p.29). It ran a television service and two radio networks, Radio 1 and 2. The television service does not reach the remotest parts of the country. With the coming of multiparty politics, broadcasting in Zambia started to take a new turn. A new piece of legislation was enacted, the ZNBC (Licensing) Regulation Zambia 1994). This was at the time the then government of the MMD was saying that it had embarked on a liberalisation programme of the Zambian economy and their appeared to have been a cautious de-regulation of the media. The ZNBC (Licensing) Act was meant to pave way for the liberalisation of the broadcasting sector, though it still vested the final authority for the awarding of radio and television licenses in the Ministry of Broadcasting and Information. This tended to create problems as the awarding of licenses was subject to the influence of the political ideology of a minister who was a politician (Banda 2010, p.30). The Act, nevertheless, led to the emergency of private, commercial and religious radio stations. To date, the country is host to about 50 radio stations operating as private, commercial, religious and community radio stations (MIBS status report 2012).

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2.3. Mainstream Media

In order to make dissemination of information on various national and societal issues possible, most governments decided to establish national media institutions. This was upon realizing the need for the media that could define national identity, foster national unity and also provide cover for the information gap created by changes in societal economic structures (Banda 2010, p.37). The national media institutions created are what are termed as mainstream media on account of their relative large scale design and reach. In most cases, such media are centrally planned and government owned national broadcast or newspapers and magazines (Banda 2010, p.38). The mainstream media have both its good and bad sides. Proponents of mainstream media say macro media as they are sometimes referred, have the general characteristics and advantages that include that, a central message about national unity could, for example, be easily encouraged due to its geographical coverage, national media generally have a countrywide reach and such media could assist in the development of national languages (McQuail 2000,p.45). Critics on the other hand contend that mainstream media have failed to take care of the interest of the minority communities in society because they are used as tools for the ruling class to help mobilize people, purportedly for the economic and social development of the country but in reality helps it remain in power….. (Makungu 2004, p.5).

This was the view of UNIP and the then President Kenneth Kaunda who saw the media as handmaidens of the government and the party UNIP and existed to propagate, spread pro-government views and policies. Kaunda thought the media had one purpose; to serve and propagate his policies and those of his ruling party then. In their view, opposition parties were enemies whose views should never be published or spread by the media, especially public media which had become an integral part of the propaganda machinery of the government. Dissenting voices had no chance at all in the state-owned media and to make sure that dissenting voices were completely silenced, the media was integrated into UNIP party and its government. With this ideological framework, the media was

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seen not as sovereign in their own right, but as tools for the government to utilize in bringing about national integration. The consequence was that critics of Kaunda then, no matter how well intentioned, were exposed to possible prosecution using a myriad of prohibitive legislations and in the long run, muffled both the freedom of the press and freedom of expression (Bwalya 2008, pp. 290-292).

The state used such prohibitive laws as those found in the Penal Code Cap 87 of the Laws of Zambia to perpetuate its grip on the media. These include the following sections of the Penal Code, amongst others, the prohibited publication Act (section 53), which confers on the President absolute discretion to prohibit any publication or a series of publications within or outside the country which he/she considers contrary to public interest, Seditious libel (section 57), which prohibits publication of seditious words, publication of false news (section 67) which means publication of any statement likely to disturb pubic peace, defamation of the President (section 69), which is said to seek to protect the dignity of the State President, criminal defamation (section 191), which is the publication of defamatory matter against another person, obscene materials (section 177) which refers to laws that seeks to protect public morality. Other pieces of legislation that remained prohibitive to the operations of the media were the State Security Act Cap 11 of the laws of Zambia and sought to make better provision of State security, deal with issues of espionage, sabotage and others, the Printed Publications Act Cap161 which provides for the registration of all printed publications in Zambia (Chanda & Liswaniso 1999, pp.12, 74, Matibini 2006, p.14).

The government knew about the gap that these laws had created between the media and the audiences and attempts were now being made to create other media departments within the government set up to mitigate the limitations of the reaching to the national audience imposed by the partisan media. One such was the National Agricultural Information Services (NAIS) as it is known today which started as a broadcasting unit called Rural Information Services under the then Ministry of Rural Bevelopment. The 60

aim was to ensure that farmers in the country could learn various agricultural skills and information from radio. The rural information service was responsible for producing various programmes for farmers. Listeners to the agricultural programmes were organized in radio farm fora which were started in 1966 after the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) sponsored survey (Bwalya 2008, p.246).

The state grip on the media through what are perceived to be prohibitive laws has continued to be a concern amongst stakeholders in the media industry as it tends to inhibit the freedom of expression and of the press. This has led to Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) demand for review of laws impeding freedom of expression (Kuweme 2013 p.13). Civil Society Organisations that include Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI), Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR), The Press Freedom Committee of The Post, Panos Southern Africa, Zambia Community Media Forum (ZACOMeF), Caritas Zambia, Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP), Zambia National Women’s Lobby (ZNWL), Southern African Centre for Constructive Resolution of Disputes (SACCORD), Catholic Media Services, Network for Orphans and Vulnerable Children, Zambia Union of Journalists (ZUJ), Zambia Centre for Social Policy and the Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) in a communique jointly stated that “We demand and recommend that the Government should review and in some cases repeal other pieces of legislation that would render access to information law ineffective. Most of these laws subsist in the Penal Code Cap 87 of the laws of Zambia and they include the prohibited publication and seditious practices, public order act Cap 113, Contempt of Court, Defamation of the President, State Security Act Cap 11, obscene matters or things and unlawful assemblies and riots…,” (Kuweme M. 2013 p.13).

Banda on the other hand says such media is elitist and ignores the needs especially of the underprivileged in society, the poor and rural communities that may not have much 61

influence on the market forces of demand and supply. It is these limitations of the macro media that gave rise to the idea of an alternative media that could be accommodative, have a much broader participation and be easily accessible to communities with no specific regards to the class of people. This was the genesis of the community media concept and this was not a problem of the developing world alone but all countries at a global level (Banda 2010, pp. 40-41).

2.4. Community radio in Zambia

There are currently about 50 community radio stations in Zambia according to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services (MIBS) update as of October 2012. The community radio station take the form of commercial, religious, education and community radio station but they all fall under the category of community radio station for they are confined to a specific geographically defined areas, serving defined group or interest. Below is the table showing the existing community radio stations data in Zambia.

2.4.1. Community Radio Stations in Zambia

NO STATION FREQUENCY COVERAGE AREA LICENCCE DATE

1 Radio Phoenix 89.5 MHZ(FM) Lusaka, Kapiri, Kabwe, 1994 (Commercial) Ndola, Chingola

2 Radio Christian Voice 106.2 MHZ(FM) Lusaka, Kabwe, Kitwe, 1st December, 1994 (Religious) Kapiri

3 Radio Icengelo 89.1 MHZ(FM) Kitwe 15th April 1996 (Religious)

4 Q-FM (Commercial) 93.2 Lusaka Lusaka, Mumbwa, Pemba, 13th September 2001 Namwala 96.7 Kabwe

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5 Radio Sky FM 104.0 Monze Monze 13th September 2001 (Commercial) 88.5 Lusaka

88.9 Choma

93.8 Zimba

6 Radio Maria 90.0 MHZ(FM) Chipata 19th November, 2001 (Religious)

7 Radio Chikaya 98.1 MHZ(FM) Lundazi 17th January, 2002 (Community)

8 Radio Chikuni 91.8 MHZ(FM) Monze 6th May, 2003 (Religious)

9 Radio Lyambai 104.5 MHZ(FM) Mongu 22nd December 2003 (Community)

10 Radio Mano 89.2 MHZ(FM) Kasama 2nd January 2004 (Community)

11 Radio Breeze 99.6 MHZ(FM) Chipata 31st January 2004 (Commercial)

12 Radio Yangeni 98.2 MHZ(FM) Mansa 28th July 2004 (Religious)

13 5FM Radio 105.1 MHZ(FM) Lusaka 22nd March 2004 (Commercial)

14 Hone FM Radio 94.2 MHZ(FM) Lusaka 28th October 2004 (Educational)

15 Radio Oblates Liseli 105.5 MHZ(FM) Mongu 2nd December 2004 (Religious)

16 Radio Maranatha 103.5 MHZ(FM) Kabwe 1st April 2005 (Religious)

17 Radio Musi-O-Tunya 106.0 MHZ(FM) Livingstone 28th August 2005 (Religious)

18 Hot FM Radio 96.8 MHZ(FM) Lusaka 7th October 2005 (Commercial)

19 Mkushi Radio 93.3 MHZ(FM) Mkushi 7th October 2005 (Community)

20 UNZA Radio 91.5 MHZ(FM) Lusaka 13th December 2005 (Educational)

21 Radio FCC 89.7 MHZ(FM) Solwezi 24th March 2006 (Religious)

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22 Radio Petauke 88.3 MHZ(FM) Petauke 25th July 2006 Explorer (Commercial)

23 Radio Zambezi FM 107.5 MHZ(FM) Livingstone 27th July 2006 (Commercial)

24 Radio Yatsani 99.1 MHZ(FM) Lusaka - (Religious)

25 PASME Radio Station 91.4 MHZ(FM) Petauke 3rd September 2007 (Commercial)

26 Yar FM (Commercial) 89.8 MHZ(FM) Kitwe 23rd September 2007

27 Flava Radio Station 96.4 MHZ(FM) Kitwe 28th February 2008 (Commercial)

28 Salvation Army Radio 90.9 MHZ(FM) Chikankata 2nd March 2008 Station (Religious)

29 Isoka Radio Station 90.3 MHZ(FM) Isoka 3rd October 2008 (Community)

30 Luapula Radio Station 98.8 MHZ(FM) Lusaka 29th January 2009 (Community)

31 Mwinilunga Radio 88.2 MHZ(FM) Mwinilunga 29th January 2009 Station (Community)

32 Joy Radio Station 106.9 MHZ(FM) Lusaka 29th January 2009 (Commercial)

33 Namwianga Radio 90.5 MHZ(FM) Kalomo January 2010 Station (Religious)

34 Kasempa Radio 91.9 MHZ(FM) Kasempa 21st September 2009 (Community)

35 Itezhi-tezhi Radio Itezhi-tezhi August 2010 Station (Community)

36 Lumba Radio Station 90.7 MHZ(FM) Kasempa August 2010 (Religious)

37 Independent Faith 106.8 MHZ(FM) Kitwe August 2010 BMCA (Religious)

38 Mphangwe Radio Katete August 2010 Station (Community)

39 Vision Macha Radio 92.9 MHZ(FM) Choma January 2010 (Community)

40 Feel Free Radio 93.7 MHZ(FM) Chipata June 2011

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Station (Commercial)

41 Kariba FM Siavonga 11th May 2012 (Commercial)

42 Kafue FM Kafue 11th May 2012 (Community)

43 Mpika FM Mpika 11th May 2012 (Community)

44 Comet Radio 93.7 MHZ(FM) Lusaka 11th May 2012 (Commercial)

45 Ama Radio 93.3 MHZ(FM) Lusaka 11th May 2012 (Commercial)

46 Pan African Radio 105.1 MHZ(FM) Lusaka 11th May 2012 (Commercial)

47 Millennium FM Radio 90.5 MHZ(FM) Lusaka 11th May 2012 (Commercial)

48 Falls FM Radio 90.1 MHZ(FM) Lusaka 7th August 2012 (Commercial)

49 K-FM Radio 95.5 MHZ(FM) Lusaka 7th August 2012 (Commercial)

50 Komboni Radio 94.9 MHZ(FM) Lusaka

Table 2: List of Radio Stations in Zambia Source: MIBS October 2012 Status Update

2.4.2. Features of community radio

The characteristics of community radio are that they are: owned and controlled by people in the community; usually small and low-cost; providing interactive two-way communication; non-profit and autonomous, therefore, non-commercial; having limited coverage or reach; utilising appropriate indigenous materials and resources; reflecting community needs and interests; and supporting community development with a large part of the programme or content. Bwalya (2008, pp.177-185) further outlines the following as some of the characteristics of community media as being a reflection and

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promotion of local identity and culture, openness to a diversity of voices and opinions, encourage dialogue and democracy, promotion of development and social change, promotion of civil society, being a voice to the voiceless, widening horizons for the people, focusing the attention of the people on issues of prime importance, affecting attitudes lightly held and canalizing attitudes strongly held, promoting education and entertainment and by being a watchdog against the violation of human rights.

2.4.2.1. Community radio promote development and social change

Development and social change become easier when there is commonness in knowledge, perception, aspirations, goals and processes. This is possible through community radio because people take part, not only in the message reception but also in the message construction, production and presentation. The people themselves are the presenters, the broadcasters and audience. This approach to the use of the media in rural and local community development makes community radio part of the daily lives of the people instead of merely being targeted objects of mass media mostly for its selfish motives. Indeed community radio provides a platform where people have access to come and participate in these internal discussions and for reaching a collective perception of the situation (Bwalya 2008, p.177).

2.4.2.2. Community radio promotes civil society

Civil society is that multiplicity of social institutions that allows society to live in harmonious coexistence. It creates its own values and standards for individuals and group behaviour rather than having them imposed from above. This promotes bottom-up participative democratic governance. Some community radio stations focus on explaining the implications of democracy and civil society, raising awareness about the rights of the people and their obligations too (Bwalya 2008, p.178).

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2.4.2.3. Community radio provides a social service

One of the social services that community radio provides in poor rural areas is to serve as telephones. Community radio places social services to an important extent by broadcasting messages. A community radio also helps people in knowing where to direct their attention by way of emphasizing the importance of the matter. (Bwalya 2008, p.178).

2.4.2.4. Community radio promotes development and social change

Education in this context involves both formal and informal education that is at school and out of school extension and training, what people learn from parents, peers and through experience. Through education, people are stimulated to learn the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes which they need in order to be successful in life and ideally, education develops curiosity and an eagerness to learn in such a way that people will continue to learn throughout their lives. In the Zambian context, the insaka concept acted as a kind of community school for youths where they were taught some facts of life and how to generally behave in the community and relate to other people. While this structure may not be in existent today, community radio serves the same purpose by playing the role of folk school for youths. Through community radio, young people learn facts of life, they are initiated in the community so that they are brought up as responsible members of the community (Bwalya 2008, pp.179-180).

2.4.2.5. Community radio helps to focus attention on community problems

The media serves as a meeting point where people meet together. That is why as traditional society moves towards modernity, it too begins to depend on the media. It is helpful in directing people on what to focus their attention on. Community radio helps to educate the community (Bwalya 2008, p.179).

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2.4.2.6. Community radio promote local identity

In the spirit of concentrating on a particular community, community radio being run by its own people makes programmes in accordance with the taste and interests of the community it serves. This is done by ensuring that the programming of the community radio deals with the needs, culture, language and interests of the community (Bwalya 2008, p.180).

2.4.2.7. Community radio promotes democracy and dialogue

This again is developed around the concept of insaka, (Gobelo in Tonga) in the olden times in Zambia where people, especially men of the village used to meet at a central place called insaka, a normally large shelter or a place under a big tree to share ideas and discuss issues confronting the community. With the world becoming more complex, it is hard and practically impossible for all the people to participate in public issues in an open and face to face debate. It is therefore, the function of the community radio to provide an independent platform for interactive discussion about matters and decisions of importance to its community (Bwalya 2008, p.183).

2.4.2.8. Community radio is voice of the voiceless

In many traditional societies, women, children, ethnic and linguistic minorities are often treated as second class citizens, ignored in community affairs. Community radio offers a platform for such groups for communication purposes to encourage and educate themselves over their roles in society as well as to resist being dominated and demand for equal and rightful place in society. It is possible to do this at a community radio because the gate-keeping and agenda setting is not set by some few powerful people but by the community (Bwalya 2008, p.184). Community radio includes minority and marginalised groups on equal terms rather than giving them occasional voices as is the case in many public broadcasters. Its programming ensures a wide range of diversity of

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voices and views from marginalised groups such as women and youths and it promotes and protects the interests, cultural and linguistic diversity of ethnic minorities in the community (Banda 2010, pp.43-45).

2.4.2.9. Community radio as watchdogs

Power is said to be a pervasive social phenomenon that is characteristic of different kinds of action and encounter, from the recognizably political action of state officials to the mundane encounter between individuals in the street. Power therefore, can be dangerous and there is need to cage it so that it is not abused especially for those in authority. Community radio is then the watchdog of the citizens that help to make checks and balances in political leaders and people of influence in society. Community radio can lend the existence of political power more open and accountable to the citizens (Bwalya 2008, p.185).

2.4.2.10. Special slant on news, entertainment and education

Banda contends that news on a community radio station, unlike that in the mainstream media is not an isolated story or event alone, it aims at being part of an ongoing process which supports changes and development in the community. Entertainment is provided in a form that is a collective cultural expression, rather than a featuring of refined performers. Education on the other hand is more of sharing experiences and learning from others in the community than listening to an expert or teacher talking (Banda 2010, pp.43-45).

2.4.2.11. Principles of public access and participation

Citizens have a democratic right to reliable, accurate and timely information. Based on this right, it is a public interest of broadcasting that it should incorporate the principle of

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access and participation. Access implies the availability of broadcasting services to citizens while participation implies that the public is actively involved in planning and management and also provides producers and performers (Banda 2010, pp.43-45).

2.4.2.12. Ownership

The facilities of a community radio are almost invariably owned by the community through a trust, foundation, cooperative or some similar vehicle. There could be cases where ownership was in the hands of a body external to the community but has passed the facility to the community for its independent and exclusive use (Banda 2010, pp.43- 45).

2.4.2.13. Management

Irrespective of formal ownership, the station’s policies, management and programming must be the responsibility of the community in order for it to be considered a true community radio. There should be a representative community committee or Board of Directors to set overall policies while day to day administrative and operational decisions are left to the station management team (Banda 2010, pp.43-45).

2.4.2.14. Funding

A community radio station is set up and managed as a non-profit making organisation relying on financial support from a diversity of sources which include donations, grants, membership fees, sponsorship and advertising. A combination of these is the most desirable to ensure independence (Banda 2010, pp.43-45).

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2.4.2.15. Editorial Independence

Community radio is editorially independent of central and local government, of political parties, of commercial and religious interests in determining its policies and programming. Overall policies are set by the community-level representative committee (Banda 2010, pp.43-45).

2.4.2.16. Representation of different groups and interests in the community

Communities are inevitably made up of different groups and interests. Community radio broadcasts programmes that cater for these and also encourages them to express themselves on air. Time and programme allocation are proportional to the size of any particular group of interest in the community, taking into account any special circumstances and needs (Banda 2010, pp.43-45).

2.5. Summary

This chapter has discussed the overview of the media industry in general with particular emphasis on the broadcasting sector especially radio broadcasting in Zambia. Various media institutions in Zambia have been discussed while the central study theme of community radio and its major characteristics has also been shown within the context of the broader study areas.

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CHAPTER THREE

LITERATURE REVIEW

3.0. Introduction

This chapter reviews the literature available from research on community radio in Europe, Latin America, South East Asia, French and English speaking West Africa, South Africa and Zambia and establishes gaps that call for further research in this field, especially as this relates to the role of community radio in bridging of the information gap in rural communities.

3.1. Community media in Latin America

The development of community media in Latin America, according to Vicentte Brunetti in his article “The Development of Community Media in Latin America” in Promoting Community Media in Africa, responded to different people and situations. But there is some common ground due to the region’s strong underdevelopment. From the distributors of wall posters of past times to the community radio people of today, there has not been a lack of those who have struggled to place communication at the service of democratization. Over the years, that struggle has taken several forms, it has involved several actors and it has obtained worthy successes both theoretical and practical (Boafo 2000, pp. 119-122). Brunetti contends that many countries consider their frontiers, their energy resources or their means of communication as strategic areas that need to be looked after and defended. But it is not generally recognised that mass media are equally strategic, not for defence but for development. Without them a country’s development would be slowed down or at least would not be promoted. When poverty indices show that there is a deterioration that affects more and more members of society, it is necessary to seek effective ways of fighting this tendency. One way is through popular 72

and mass education that cannot be offered in schools because some members of society have left it too early or have not had access to it. Radio is a good option because of its extensive coverage, the speed by which its messages can reach their target audiences and it’s relatively low cost.

According to Brunetti, without a massive international effort and the participation of community media it would not have been possible to defeat smallpox, polio or measles in most countries. The dangers of HIV and AIDS are still present partly because there has not been sufficient, appropriate and timely information about it. In the commercial media, economic profitability prevails and in other situations it is the logic of political profitability that seeks an easy clientele, eroding the needs of the unprotected social sectors. Thus community media are more important than ever and educational, popular or community radio are especially so, not only for their positive accomplishments in the region, but because they can be both from the communities and at their service (Boafo 2000, p. 120). The simple production, great mobility and relative low costs, the possibility of listening to it while performing other activities, the increasing presence of receivers in vehicles and its service vocation make radio an ideal community medium. Apart from these more obvious advantages, it can create a powerful bond among the listeners and be an important source for the expression of their worries and ideals. Community radio started in Latin America at the end of the 1940s with radio schools in Colombia and the educational radios that appeared in 1947-48 in many countries, in much the same way as they had in Central Europe and England in the 1930’s. In the 1950s, there were the miners’ radios and the peasant radios in Bolivia. Later on, there were the radio cabins in Latacunga, Ecuador, the rural cassette-forums of Mario Kaplún in Uruguay and a similar experience with the Pila Project in Guatemala.

The two basic models of radio schools that started to operate in Latin America used a combination of media with an educational agent at their base to maintain an interpersonal or face-to-face relationship with the participants. The first, the Integrated 73

Fundamental Education (EFI) model was used by the Popular Cultural Action (ACPO) in Colombia; the Federate Schools in FEGER in Guatemala; the Honduran Popular Cultural Action (ACPH) in Honduras; the Popular Radio Schools (ERPE) in Ecuador; and the Institute of Popular Culture (INCUPO) in Argentina. In this model, education has a promotional sense and teachers have the responsibility of organizing, supervising and evaluating the group of participants. They also promote and stimulate, in each community, the necessary steps for the improvement of the conditions and the quality of life of the population. In general, the teachers are volunteers and they concentrate in a town or a peasant community as educational agents who work face-to-face with participants at a radio school. Their main task is to facilitate and stimulate the expression of culture in the community (Boafo 2000, p. 120).

The second model originated in the Canary Islands, Spain, and was adopted in Latin America by Radio Santa María in the Dominican Republic; the Faith and Happiness Radio Institutes (IRFA) in Venezuela and Bolivia; the Costa Rican Institute for Radio Education (ICER) in Costa Rica; as well as by stations in Guatemala, Ecuador and Paraguay. In this model, the teachers are called ‘correctors, guides or trainers’. Their role in the teaching-learning experience, individual or in a group, when stimulating participants, is to complement and enrich the information received by each person, and to create opportunities for discussion, exercises or practical applications to reinforce what has been learned (Boafo 2000, p. 121).

There are other important and more recent experiences of communication that started from the impulse to denounce anti-democratic situations where communication options in favour of the dominant communities went against the majority of the people. In many countries, some small educational and community radios prospered, generally with the backing of the Catholic Church that helped whenever it could with ideas, people, places and contacts. Some of these addressed the local peasants and others the new rural immigrants who lived in great numbers on the outskirts of the cities. The best 74

representatives of these are in Mexico, Guatemala (Federate Schools), Honduras (ACPH), Nicaragua and Costa Rica. In Costa Rica in 1983, the ICER launched a programme of 24 community radios managed by an association of community organisations. The staff was voluntary and the funds came from local subscribers, limited advertising and sporadic subventions (grants) from local government. This project received support from the Ministry of Communications and has its own licensing category. Also outstanding are those in the Dominican Republic (Radio Santa María), Argentina (INCUPO), Peru and Ecuador (ERPE). The latter, as already mentioned, successfully created the radio cabins strategy, which are posts for rural recordings from where peasants with some education send their dispatches to a central radio station that broadcasts them. This underscores the element of community participation in community media.

In countries such as Uruguay, Venezuela and Guatemala, the rural cassette-fora strategy has given good results. This is a dialogue system among groups of farmers based on the circulation of tapes with debates. It links rural organisations and creates a means of communication among peasant co-operatives. In many other countries the popular reporter’s strategy has been successful. It consists of the training of volunteers to act as correspondents for educational and community radios in small communities.

The operational costs, the strong pressure from commercial radios and the legal difficulties due to the lack of a license mean that some of these experiments are short- lived. The Polytechnic Radio is still on the air. The Network has some 10 stations broadcasting and another five are in different stages of preparation. Comunica has more than 20 stations on the air and another 15 in different stages of preparation. Community media have emerged throughout Latin America and the Caribbean mainly in the form of radio. They are similar to those that promote people’s participation and the defence of their interests in other parts of the world. This particular aspect supports the theory of Marxism whose relevance to the study of mass communication lies in its` proposition 75

that the media are an ideological asset that can be used to either defend or attack a dominant class position (McQuail 2005, pp.559-560). For example, in Canada they are known as community radios, while in Europe they chose the name of associative radios. In Africa, they are referred to as rural radios but Bwalya (2008, p.139) says many different authors have defined community radio in many different ways as small-scale radio, village radio, local radio, alternative radio amongst other definitions depicting the place, the way the media evolved and its objectives. In Australia, it is known as public radios. In Latin America the variety of names reflects different practical experiences: educational radio in Bolivia, free radio in Brazil, popular radio in Ecuador, community radio in Paraguay, participating radio in El Salvador, native radio in México, citizen radio in some parts, interactive radio in others and communal radio in yet others. The experiences in community media in Latin America have not been exclusively with rural areas or marginalised communities. Many have been developed within urban areas and not necessarily in marginalised communities. The legitimisation of community media does not have to do with their geographic location or with the community’s marginal character, but with the development of a collective conscience to define the experience (Boafo 2000, p.126).

The expression ‘community media’ or ‘media for the community’ does not necessarily mean that because they are intended for the ‘community’ or are from the ‘community’, they have to be small, rustic, simple and the result of the work of some neighbourhood volunteers. Community media are not restricted to cheap or modest technology. This does not mean that they need to have the latest in technology. It means that the common effort can accomplish what many governments cannot do. The future is promising because there are more and better options for community advancement. Community media are born in spaces where there is participation, sharing and building of citizenship. The experiences can be multiplied when the logic of educational-cultural and socio-com-munity profitability is respected (Boafo 2000, p. 126). From the two models of the development of radio in Latin America, it is evident that community media served to promote and stimulate, in each community, the necessary steps for the 76

improvement of the conditions and the quality of life of the population. It also served in the teaching-learning experience of individual and groups to stimulate participants, complement and enrich the information received by each person, and to create opportunities for discussion, exercises or practical applications to reinforce what they had learned. Hence, community radio in this part of the world can be said to have been effective in bridging the information gap especially among the socially excluded and marginalised rural poor populations.

3.2. Community radio in Europe

The development of community radio in selected countries of Switzerland, Ireland and Belarus with Switzerland in Europe shows Switzerland as having a unique tele- distribution and local television as a consequence of its original politico-cultural characteristics. The country is a federal state with three main linguistic communities and divided into 23 cantons that enjoy some relative degree of autonomy from one another (Bwalya 2008, pp.157-162).

In Ireland, the earliest community media emerged in 1975 called Corkabout station in Cork. Apart from the general issues that were discussed at this community radio station, there were three main issues that the community radio station dealt with. These were poverty, Gaelic language and the role of the priests in Irish life.

In the 19th century, Ireland was devastated by a famine that saw some people dying of hunger while others migrated to England and the United States of America (USA). The community radio was used in the aftermath of the famine to restore the lost glory and also in promoting the ideas of how the country could be developed with the booming economy. One way was to open borders and do business with other countries and

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accommodate people from different countries with varying professions which could be used in developing the country (Bwalya 2008, p.159).

The other issues concerned the local language of Ireland. This was Gaelic language which was suppressed by the British colonial government. The authorities saw the need to restore the language since the young generation did not show interest in learning Gaelic. A lot of presentations were made on how to entice the young generation into liking their mother language. Government on the other hand obliged to take Gaelic as a compulsory subject in schools. The issues of the role of priests in the Irish life also took a centre stage. The country had deep Christian beliefs such that the priests had gained authority in almost all areas of life. Questions were raised on the role of the Church in certain issues and this made the people start defining the parameters of the role of priests in public life (Bwalya 2008, pp.159-60).

Other general issues were discussed on the community radio relating to gender equality, sex education, young people and religion, mixed schools, history and local news and entertainment among others. There are currently a number of community radio stations that have emerged in Ireland and because of unemployment, the government has taken the initiative to pay volunteers through grants given to the community radio stations. This is a way of appreciating the role of the community radio in helping out solve community issues thereby improving the standard of living for the people. Mass media has little time on issues in communities because it applies a blanket national coverage and besides, it has very little interest in spending time on issues where it cannot make good money. Thus the community radio fills up this gap.

In Belarus, this was a country that was under the Soviet Union and broke away. The autumn of 1988 saw a changing tense political situation in the Belarus especially in Minsk. The tense political situation in the Soviet Union in breaking down communism 78

and totalitarianism spilled into the Belarus. New social-political organisations were emerging, inter alia the confederation of Belarusian youth association, the public historical and educational association in memory of Stalinist victims and the organizing committee of the Belarusian popular front. The main proclaimed purpose of their activities was the political and economic revival of the Belarusian people. (Bwalya 2008, p.161).

The communist leadership of the Republic felt threatened and in an effort to crack down on what seemed to be an uprising against the state, government started unprecedented persecutions of these organisations and their leaders. One of the main weapons was mass media: lies, slander, denunciations, skillfully fabricated indignation of ordinary Soviet people started to flow from State newspapers and magazines. In the conditions in which new social subjects had practically no possibility to express themselves through official structures and mass media, the alternative press had to appear. The first alternative newspaper appeared in November 1988 and was called News. In December 1988, another alternative newspaper started called Belarusian tribune. The news was initiated by a group called Belarusian front. The alternative media challenged the totalitarian system of government and offered more credible information than mass media. The alternative media broke down the top-down style of development, hegemony, spiral of silence and dependency and ushered in bottom-up participatory development. Bwalya (2008, p.62) concluded that the community media in Europe led to local development and democracy and facilitated the citizens to know and participate in their government. It broke down the monopoly of government media and pushed to be more open and truthful. Community media, unlike mass media which applies blanket national coverage of issues, has been able to concentrate on particular communities, particular poor voiceless individuals and conscientise them to uplift their standard of living. The spiral of silence, hegemony, top-down theories and dependency were thwarted to allow for multiplicity type of development, thereby bridging the information gaps.

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From the literature, community radio in Switzerland have played the role of schools for foreigners to teach foreign students in places where they could reach them in cultural building initiatives and also to sensitise the community about the goodness of the constituent assembly and further sensitized the community about the rights of the people and how they wanted to govern themselves by promoting citizens participation in governance issues. In Ireland, the three main general issues that were discussed at the community radio station were poverty, the Gaelic language and the role of the priests in Irish life addressing the most immediate needs of rural poor communities of poverty, culture and religion.

3.3. Community radio in Asia

The development of community radio in Asia is traced in the three countries of India, Nepal and the Philippines. In India, the government established a state radio called All India Radio (AIR) in 1935 and enjoyed the monopoly. In a country of 835 million then, with diverse cultures, languages and customs, the desire of the government and in particular the ruling party was to feel being in charge and hence to enhance a strong hand and control the media. But people lived in abject poverty, cardinal needs such as food, clean water, housing, education and jobs were not met. The feudal social relations such as bonded labour, subordination of women, dowry and cast exploitation persisted. The average people were generally dissatisfied with life and at the same time the desire of the majority of Indians to have decentralized institutions was very strong. This pushed the vast majority of the low class people to desire to have their own radio station which could address some of their needs.

The struggle continued until in 1995 when the Supreme Court passed a judgment declaring that “the airwaves were public good and stressing the importance of marinating a balance in broadcasting between market (commercial) forces, government monopoly and meeting the people’s needs and the rights to receive and impart

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information.” With this ruling, the citizen groups and activists began pushing for legislations that would free the airwaves from government control. The first community radio station was Namma Dhwani radio station (Our Voices) which was established in March 2003 (Bwalya 2004, pp12-13).

In Nepal, the government owned radio service was the only one broadcasting until May 1997. During this period, the minority languages suffered heavily because of lack of recognition by the national radio station. Most of the programmes were meant to drive the national economy forward like issues of technology, capital investments and privatization and fertilizers which rarely touched the concerns of the less privileged people in rural areas. At the same time, the injustice against the poor was becoming rife as they were made to lose their traditional land to multimillion international investors. Issues of clean water, housing, health, jobs, farming in rural areas, food and many other necessities for the rural poor people were rarely aired. People felt that the only way they could help themselves was to have a radio station for the community. They requested for the liberalisation of the airwaves and in 1993, government passed a law in favour of a mix of government, commercial and community broadcasting. Despite this law, government was still not willing to let go of the airwaves and so in 1995, a pirate radio station Sagarmatha started operating until in 1997 when it was officially awarded a licence as the first community radio station (Bwalya 2004, pp.12-13).

In the Phillipines in the 1970s, the Islands of Olutanga and Mindanao province was a scene of frequent fighting between Muslims and Christians. Town centres were razed to the ground following one such encounter. Most of the people in this area live on non- irrigated agriculture and marginal fishing captured in over exploited marine grounds. The social facilities were very little and there was abject poverty. The government used the state radio for propaganda and wanted to silence divergent voices. Thus in a move aimed at economic and political development, the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) and UNESCO initiated the Tambuli community radio station in 1993 (Bwalya 2004, pp.13).

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3.4. Community radio in Africa.

The first attempt to initiate community radio in Africa were done through listening groups of agricultural farm fora as a way of teaching peasant farmers about farming methods. These were usually set up as cooperatives. Under this system, in 1964, with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and Canadian aid, about 40 villages got involved in a project to start radio fora with an intention of improving farming (Bwalya 2008, pp163-164). This was adopted widely and eventually involved some 400 groups in Ghana, Zambia, Malawi and Nigeria. But people were more on a listening side and eventually, these cooperatives died a natural death. One of the reasons was that since people were on a listening side, some of the issues they listened to did not have much to do with them in certain areas. These were generally not true community radio as what is depicted is simply a state or public service broadcasting extended to the rural areas. The radio fora were on target groups for the top-down hegemony of the government which perpetuated a dependency syndrome. The actual involvement of the people to participate was missing. It was no better than mass media which is a one way process.

The birth of community radio in Africa came between the 1970s and 1980s due to the disenchantment with the state owned media where “the utilization of communication technology in Black African societies seems to be oriented generally to other purposes other than genuine national development and societal change. What is typical and outstanding in Black African societies is the use and management of communication systems to propagate the views and values and to perpetuate the interests and positions of the political leadership of the elites. The contents of mass communication in Black African countries abound in propaganda, demagogy, cheap entertainment, empty promises and farfetched ideologies of dubious significance or relevance to individual or societal development” (Bwalya 2008, p.163). This type of broadcasting disillusioned and discouraged people from having credibility in the state mass media and instead made

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them hungry and thirsty for an alternative media which could give relevance to the marginalised in society by dealing with issues which dealt with their real problems.

In Ghana for instance, radio Ada situated on the coast of Atlantic Ocean in Accra has been instrumental in dealing with the particular problem faced by fishermen. The radio station was set up with assistance in form of equipment and facilities from some inter- governmental agencies and donor organisation. It broadcasts in local languages and depends mostly on volunteer staff from the community for programme production and management. One of the problems identified in the area was that government did not have a radar system to offer surveillance for the fishermen on the lake especially in an event of an accident. It was difficult, therefore, to offer assistance to the fishermen in case of emergencies and so the coming of the community radio offered an alternative. Through dialogue and participation on the radio, fishermen came up with an initiative of going with radios and phone in their boats and used them to call the radio station once they sensed danger of capsizing. The community radio station would then broadcast about the dangerous situation and call for assistance either from other fishermen. This was a demonstration of a case where a radio station answered to a special need of a particular place by giving a voice to the fishermen who are rarely considered by the mainstream mass media. (Bwalya 2008, pp165-166).

In Sierra Leone, some community media like Radio Gbafth were born out of a need to play a specific role in the post conflict situation, the need to bring people together, discuss their differences and promote peace. Radio Gbafth in Mile 91 is one of the several community stations in Sierra Leone that took the role of peacemakers as the country rose to the challenges of reconstruction after the ten years civil war which ended in 2002 (Fairbairn 2009, p.54). The Radio station was secretly started by a rebel soldier of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) Ahmed Muckson Sesay who sought forgiveness from government as he wanted to be a bridge between the rebels and

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Government. He wrote to government asking for forgiveness and permission to form an organization of ex-combatants to work for peace and working with Talking Drum Studios (TDS), a media production unit dedicated to conflict resolution, the station was born. Today, the station whose mission is “to give a voice to the poor and marginalized to gain access to information and education through radio pertaining to their welfare and development” is broadcasting in open (Fairbairn 2009, pp. 54-60).

Yao Ahade in the article “The Development of Community Media in French Speaking West Africa says that the development of community radio in Africa means giving the remote and marginalized rural communities the means to participate in national development through knowledge and information through the promotion of public, decentralised, free and independent community media (Boafo 2000, pp-61-73).

Ahade suggests that the idea of creating appropriate community radio in their different forms for the exclusive benefit of people in the remotest parts of the country stemmed from the acknowledgement that there was a huge disparity in information and communication between towns and villages. The objectives of the community radio in this part of Africa are therefore, to promote dialogue and popular participation in the communities and the exchange of information, knowledge and techniques among these communities. They are also to enable those who wished to broadcast information or to introduce innovations into the different sectors of the rural development to have social and educational communication instruments at their disposal. The community media’ objectives is also meant to provide all parties in the rural world with training, information and communication based strategies of dialogue, unity and participation rather than a vertical flow of messages. While the report on the West African experience gives insights into a number of ways in which problems hindering the functioning community media could be addressed, the role of the community media play in bridging the information gap in the rural communities is not clearly defined. The report focuses mainly on the development of the community media, citing a number of issues that need 84

addressed and possible solutions ranging from issues of staff development, funding, equipment and effective involvement of the communities of the operations of the local media, but not necessarily the role of the community media in reaching out to the needs of the communities that are to be serviced. This focus does not emphasise the role of the community media making this part of literature requiring further exploring, as is the aim of this research, to establish, in light of what is available, the role of the community media in bridging the information gap in rural communities.

Kwame Karikari in his article “The development of Community Media in English Speaking West Africa says a number of developments in the West Africa region provide a favourable context for rethinking the role of community media in development. In the last few decades, the mass media landscape has undergone radical changes (Boafo 2000, pp. 43-51). There is the growth in the number of independent private media and the extension into the region of new communications and information technologies. But the most significant is that the region has experienced political developments and social commotions which are, on the one hand, of extraordinarily destructive proportions, and, on the other, of significant inclinations towards democracy. These political and social developments have raised critical issues concerning human rights, democratic institutions and culture. Above all, they have raised questions of the integration of different ethnic communities in post-colonial societies. In these developments, there is a stark absence of communities participating, in autonomous ways, in the processes of seeking change. The popular voices from the communities in the democratic transition process are at best mute. Processes of resolving major conflicts drown out popular voices and smother independent community initiatives. What is more, the radical changes in the mass media landscape do not seem to have engendered corresponding initiatives from communities of the poor, the marginalised, unempowered and isolated. In other words, the mass media, despite tremendous progress, tend to be inherently limited as alternative voices for the people. Karikari further says concept of community in communications discourse has tended to be a construct of spatial or social parameters, or both. In the first case, community refers to a specific geographical territory of or 85

within or under a particular political entity. This may be defined as such to include a population under a particular political administration, traditional or otherwise, but certainly constituting only a small portion of the whole of the jurisdiction of the state of a country. The spatial definition is often interchanged with the expression ‘local’. The social conception sees community in terms of “shared interests, tastes and values,” and even in “demographic or psychographic terms”. This would mean that groups of people who identify themselves with particular social, economic, cultural or political- ideological interests, views and orientations, might constitute a community. They may or may not all reside in a particular geographical area such as a city, a county, or a district under a common political administrative jurisdiction. In this case, the members of the community so defined could be found in different spatial locations, contiguous to each other or not. Developments in public and ‘local’ radio systems indicate that definitions of community in mass communication discourse are not static. They seem to be influenced more by the purposes, or specifically the character, of the audiences for whom the media are intended. It could be a community of people residing in a particular geographic locality, or a population sharing a particular social, economic, cultural or political interest, vision or aspiration. AMARC (the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters), with members on five continents, put a stamp of acceptability to this dual character of community and endorsed the definition that the term could mean “a geographically based group of persons and/or a social group or sector of the public who have common or specific interests.”

Muthoni Wanyaki, in writing about the development of community media in East and Southern Africa, suggests that the 1990s were ushered in by significant changes in the political systems of East and Southern Africa. The shift from one-party to pluralist political systems and the first post-apartheid elections in South Africa were accompanied and, in part, achieved by popular movements seeking greater freedom of expression, information and association. The impact of these movements was also reflected in the region’s media, which, until the 1990s, had been largely either ruling party or

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government owned and managed. The 1990s thus witnessed the birth of more independently owned and managed media (Boafo 2000, pp. 25-31).

At the same time, the principle that deemed participation in decision-making a requisite basis for successful development was gaining ground. The political context of socio- economic development has been characterised in many instances by over-centralisation of power and impediments to the effective participation of the overwhelming majority of the people in social, political and economic development. As a result, the motivation of the majority of the African people and their organisations to contribute to the development process and to the betterment of their well-being as well as their say in national development has been severely constrained and curtailed and their collective and individual creativity has been undervalued and under-utilised.

Wanyaki observed that the development industry has increasingly striven to incorporate the principle of participation into its policy and project work, and to use it to assess the impact of that work. This required greater recognition of the role of communication in development – communication which was participatory. And thus communications for development came to imply two-way communication rather than the top-bottom communication approach more in use previously. The perspectives, interpretations and solutions posed by recipient communities of development interventions began to be sought to inform decision-making within and about the recipient communities as well as at the national level. To initiate, collect and disseminate these perspectives, interpretations and solutions, participatory information and communications initiatives emerged at the community level, integrated into broader development interventions. Some of these initiatives later achieved a more or less autonomous status as community media initiatives. And their emergence necessarily deepened the debates on media development at the national level. A distinction began to be drawn between independent commercial media and independent com-munity media. The advent of new information and communication technologies (ICTs), according to Wanyaki, coupled with concerns 87

about the growing information gaps between the North and the South, as well as between the urban and the rural populations within the South, only served to underline the importance of resolving these debates on media development. The issues were no longer solely those relating to protecting and promoting the freedoms of expression, information and association. The issues included defining the role of traditional cultural forms of communication, preserving indigenous knowledge and achieving universal access to the means of information production and dissemination so as to close the information gaps.

According to Wanyaki (Boafo 2000, pp. 26-29) the 1990s have seen the establishment and growth of media which are neither publicly – nor strictly corporately – owned and managed and which can be roughly grouped into two categories. First, there are media which are independent and corporately owned and managed with a community development orientation, and which are produced with some level of community participation. And second, there are the communications initiatives of the development industry which seek to incorporate community participation in their ownership, management and production. The development, environment and religious sectors of the development industry have tended so far to achieve greater community participation in the ownership and management aspects of these media than the human rights and legal sectors, which have tended to address community participation only in the production aspects. This is probably because the civic education and human rights education messages of the human rights and legal sectors are yet to be viewed as messages equally capable of being generated in the two-way communication approach articulated above.

The strategic range of these media to achieve their community development agenda is broad. Puppetry is used to initiate discussion on ‘taboo’ issues. Theatres for Development or ‘theatre of the oppressed’ techniques are used to stimulate participatory debate on issues requiring community consensus regarding interpretation or strategies. Local languages are used even in print to create a sense of com-munity ownership. 88

Audio listening groups are used not just to circumvent reluctantly-changing government broadcast regimes, but also as a means of sharing experiences among different communities. Radio broadcasting is used where possible to reach largely non-literate communities. Participatory video is also used with an especially effective impact when targeting external audiences for urgent action and/or redress. Community-based puppet and theatre groups are found throughout the region. In Eastern Africa, they are perhaps most common in Kenya, which has yet to fully open up its broadcasting to non-ruling party aligned players. The members of the Kenya Community Media Network (KCOMNET) are, for the most part, puppetry and theatre groups which address issues ranging from basic, reproductive and sexual health to civic education and constitutional change.

Local language print media are also found throughout the region, but are less prevalent in Tanzania, where Kiswahili has in fact become the language of national use. For the most part, the community-based, local language print media seek to make mainstream politics accessible and relevant to particular ethnic communities. Some examples are the short-lived Gikuyu language magazine Inooroof the Roman Catholic Church in Kenya, which was eventually banned, and the Dholuo language Promoting Community Media in Africa magazine Mayienga of Kenyan ex-detainees and exiles, which closed down due to problems with distribution and financing. Other local community-based print initiatives focus on the particular underdevelopment issues of lower-income urban com- munities in specific geographic areas. The Habari vya Vijijiof the Majengo slums in Nairobi and the High Density Mirror of Harare are two examples. Audio listening groups are also prevalent in the region. Zimbabwe’s Development Through Radio Project provides a model for participatory listening women’s groups within distinct geographic communities to share and learn from one another on a range of issues. That model has been taken up by the Uganda Media Women’s Association to address issues of gender and development, as well as by South Africa’s Kwazulu-Natal Community Based Organisation (CBO) Network to address issues of peace and reconciliation in an area where inter-political party violence is rife. Of note are the growing number of 89

specifically peace-oriented audio and radio production houses and stations, supported largely by religious organisations such as the Roman Catholic Church, bilateral funders such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and intergovernmental organisations such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). These are situated specifically in the conflict areas of the so-called Great Lakes region (including, for example, Studio Ijambo of Burundi, a proposed women’s radio station in Rwanda and Radio Kwizera of Tanzania’s Kagera Refugee Camps) and in the conflict areas of the Horn of Africa (including, for example, the Civic Education and Peace Radio Project of Somalia and the new project of ACROSS in south Sudan).

While clearly initiated by these external organisations, some have come to include higher levels of community participation in both management and production. Outside of the so-called Great Lakes region and the Horn of Africa, as broad-casting regulation opens up, community radio initiatives are increasing. South Africa’s National Community Radio Forum (NCRF), an umbrella for community radio, groups together over 60 community radio initiatives. Community radio initiatives are also now found in almost every country of the region. Kenya’s Mang’elete Community Radio, Malawi’s new women’s radio station, Namibia’s Katutura Community Radio, Tanzania’s Simanjiro Community Radio, Uganda’s Kagadi Community Radio and Zambia’s Radio Icengelo are all examples of the community radio initiatives outside of South Africa.

These community radio initiatives focus on a broad range of community development issues, from education to land use and management systems. Many of these initiatives are also keen to devise means of sharing information with one another, to learn how different communities address similar issues, and to develop their own community radio practice. Participatory video is still not widely used in the region. Although there is a tradition of video for development, this tradition has not been participatory. Part of the problem relates to the cost of independent film and video production. Many African 90

independent film and video makers, in the absence of public and private funding for the arts, draw on development funding for their work and make a living by doing development documentaries for the development industry. Recently, some independent producers have begun to challenge traditional documentary formats, allowing for greater participation by the communities with whom they work.

At the same time, the development industry has recognised the potential of video in community education, giving rise to a few community based video screening and production initiatives. The advent of digital video technologies for editing has made the medium more accessible as a participatory tool for development and is being used by, for example, the Mtwara Media Centre in southern Tanzania and Maneno Mingi in Zanzibar to pro-mote traditional fishing rights and community participation in resolving the conflict between dynamite and traditional fisher people. And community video practitioners in South Africa are now debating how to develop community access television.

A number of these initiatives incorporate access to ICTs into their work, finding innovative solutions, such as solar and high frequency (HF) or very high frequency (VHF) radio, to address the problems of lack of electricity and unreliable telephone lines. This is being done, for example, by the East African Community Media Pilot Project coordinated by EcoNews Africa.

In South Africa, community radio stated in the late 1980s as a pirate radio station. It started as a small group of people interested in the development of an alternative audio communication system that recorded information on cassettes in radio format, made duplicates and distributed them in and around Cape Town. This organisation was known as Cassett Education Trust (CASET). It was operating from a small office in Salt River (Bwalya 2008, pp. 164-165). During this time, apartheid was well entrenched in all 91

sectors of life in South Africa as social amenities, schools and health facilities were all appalling for black Africans. CASET came in without being a wing of any political party but acting together with political parties to fight for equal rights for everybody. In 1992, CASET started a pirate radio station called Bush radio located near the University of Western Cape. Its objectives were the same. It was subjected to a lot of harassment by the authorities. Its fight could be seen in the release of Nelson Mandela from prison and at least the official political end of apartheid.

Bwalya goes further to show that Bush radio in 1995 officially started as the first community radio station in South Africa after the liberalisation of the airwaves. The radio station’s fight for justice and equal rights improved the social amenities of the black communities among other gains. While the state media was busy muzzling the freedom of expression and only being the public relations wing of the racist government, the community media was busy spearheading for a just course. CASET managed to breakdown the hegemony and the spiral of silence and brought in bottom-up development which allowed the participation of black people in government as well as improve the living conditions.

The Spiral of silence concept describes one version of the third party effect in opinion formation, the tendency for people to be influenced in what they think, say or do, or by what they think other people think. It was first applied by Elizabeth Noelle-Neuman to refer to the tendency for those who think they hold a minority or deviant view to refrain from expressing them in public, thus accelerating the dominance of the supposed consensus. It’s related to the better known “bandwagon effect” whereby apparent front runners pick up support on that basis alone (McQuail 2005, p.568).

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3.5. Community radio in Zambia

The concept of community radio in Africa in general and Zambia in particular, as alluded to earlier on, is relatively new. Due to this, there is quiet very little and scanty literature related to the issues around the establishment, management and development of community radio. This being the case, it may be important and useful to position Zambia’s community radio development within a wider perspective of the Global and African media landscape. The research done by Banda and others in the South African Journal for Communication Theory and Research, is one of the close attempts to look at the role of the community radio in bridging the information gap with rural communities in Zambia (Banda & Fourie 2004, pp50-79).

In this research, emphasis was, however, on understanding media factors that have shaped the development of community radio in Zambia and on the establishment of a policy model that would foster the development of community broadcasting in Zambia. The summary of this research is that the policy model formulated in Zambia with the development of the community radio concept was underpinned on three principles (Banda & Fourie 2004, p.69) as follows:

i. That the airwaves were an exhaustible public property which should be allocated, controlled and used in the public good and public interest.

ii. That the government, as the custodian of all public interest and public good, should put in place laws and other regulatory bodies that will ensure that the allocation, control and use of the airwaves in broadcasting is done in a free, fair and transparent manner that gives equal opportunity to everyone, particularly the vulnerable and marginalized voices in society.

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iii. That the executive wing of government, which had tended to monopolise policy formulation and implementation, must not have undue influence and control over the acquisition, control and use of the airwaves in broadcasting.

As indicated earlier, this research focused on factors that affect the development of community media and proposed a policy model for community radio broadcasting in Zambia. Even earlier research by the same author (Banda 2003) in which four Community Radio initiative of Mazabuka Community radio Station, Radio Lyambai, Yatsani Radio and Chikuni Community Radio is not categorical on what the role of the community media have been in as far as bridging the information gap in rural communities is concerned.

The research on the four Community radio stations brought out more of the internal problems and challenges of the community radio station and not their role in engaging what had been closed out communities in terms of information. Thus Banda in the research of the four community radio stations identified problems related to inadequate production facilities, lack of local content, volunteer discontent, dependency on donor funding, poor community radio management structures and practices and technology and skills amongst other problems. There is no much indication of what has been the role of the community radio even in the face of the above cited problems, making a good case for further research to establish what this role by community media has been with regard to being an information bridge to rural and information starved communities. The situation is the same even in other studies done on community radio. For instance, in the study commissioned by the Zambia Community Media Forum (ZACOMeF) (Muzyamba.F & Nyondo.R, 2009, pp1-25) was again a general needs assessment of community mass media, focusing on the needs of the institutions themselves and not necessarily the needs of the people and how the community media have played out their roles in meeting these community needs.

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Kasoma (2002, pp.174- 186) in Community Radio: Its Management and Organisation in Zambia, outlines the role that community radio can play in the development process of a community as being a community or folk school, a source of news and other information, as a form of socialization, promoting development and preserving language amongst others. The rather theoretical perspective of the role of the community media in development is also outlined with regards to amongst other things, help directing people’s attention to a particular issue or problem through news reporting. But only to the extent that it is theorized and not based on the findings of an empirical research to show practically what has been the role of the community radio in community development.

3.6. Summary

The successfully created radio cabins strategy in the Latin America case underscores the usefulness of community radio in bridging information gap in rural or marginalised communities. These were posts for rural recordings from where peasants with some education send their dispatches to a central radio station that broadcasts them underscores the element of community participation in community radio in dealing with issues concerned with the marginalised and usually rural communities, the promotion of people’s participation and the defence of their interests. The European experience and in Switzerland in particular, they used the community radio to sensitise the community about the goodness of the constituent assembly and further sensitized the community about the rights of the people and how they wanted to govern themselves. The end result was that there was a good response from the community about the constituent assembly and issues to be taken into account. This also underscores the power of community radio in community mobilization. In Ireland, community radio was used to entrench their cultural heritage by making Gaelic language a compulsory subject in schools while other general issues were discussed on the community radio relating to gender equality, sex education, young people and religion, mixed schools, history and local news and 95

entertainment among others as mass media had little time on issues in communities because it applies a blanket national coverage and besides, it has very little interest in spending time on issues where it cannot make good money. Thus the community radio filling up the information gap. The Asian experience in India, Nepal and the Philippines where the media in general, in most cases was not controlled or animated by the community but by political bureaucrats and elite sectors or families, maintain exclusive control of and access to most of them brings to the fore another important aspect of ownership in community radio. These communication media serve as one-way channels of government information, advertisements, and religious propaganda for those who control the facilities going contrary to the spirit of communitarianism in community radio initiatives.

In West Africa experiences of Ghana, Sierra Leonne, it has been observed that the mass media, despite tremendous progress, tended to be inherently limited as alternative voices for the people like the fishermen in the Ghana case and war victims in the case of Sierra Leone. There are traceable successes of community radio in Latin America and Europe, and this research, therefore, was aimed at ascertaining to what extent community radio in Zambia has served the information starved rural communities as demonstrated by community radio elsewhere in the world from the experiences above.

In Zambia, both Government and the Zambia Community Media forum (ZACOMef) see the growth of community radio as a cardinal preliquisite for taking development to the rural areas, according to Information and Broadcasting Minister Mwansa Kapeya and Community Media Board Chairman Ntutuma Simukoko (Zambia Daily Mail, November 30, 2012). Again, surveyed literature does not clearly indicate if this has been achieved in places where community radio has been in existence over the last two decades.

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Wanyaki made this conclusion that, community radio is still growing and evolving in East and Southern Africa. Specific community radio experiences are still largely undocumented and the documentation that does exist has neither been widely circulated nor analysed. Because of this, it is difficult to definitely assess the nature and impact of community radio initiatives in the region, and to determine whether existing problems indicate a failure of theory (idealising community radio potential) or a failure of implementation (an inability to translate theory in practice) (Boafo 2000, pp.39-41).

This is true of the concept of community radio in all the parts of the world surveyed by the above literature and the assertion that community radio experiences are still largely undocumented and the documented ones are neither widely circulated underscores the whole essence of this research, to study the impact of community radio in bridging the information gap in the community of Chikuni, document findings and circulate them as a way on enriching the body of knowledge in this area through research based findings.

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CHAPTER FOUR

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

4.0. Introduction

This chapter discusses the methodology used in the research, describe the research design which was used as well as the target population, sample size and the sampling procedures used. It also outlines the data collection and data analysis procedures that were employed in the research, the research instruments used are also discussed.

4.1. Methodology

Triangulation was used in this research which Wimmer and Dominick (2003, pp.48, 467) describes as the use of both qualitative and quantitative research methods to fully understand the nature of the research problem, using a combined qualitative and quantitative approach to solve a research problem. As in marine navigation where the term triangulation is commonly used to refer to ships not only picking navigational signals from one source but from more than one source and then use elementary geometry to pin point the ship’s exact location, researchers in communication studies and other disciplines, after several years of friction, have now come to realize that both quantitative and qualitative methods are important in understanding any phenomenon (Wimmer & Dominick 2003, pp.48). The use of a triangulation approach in the research was meant to seal any loopholes of each of the two methods, hence complement each other thereby having a refined research work. This was also done to foster confidence in the findings of the research as observed by Wimmer and Dominick when they declared “the use of interviews along with field observation and analysis of existing documents suggests that the topic was examined from several different perspectives which help build confidence in the finding” (Wimmer and Dominick 2003, p.115). So, the use of the 98

triangulation approach in this research was to build confidence in the findings as the topic under study was examined from several different perspectives through the use of quantitative techniques such as the use of self-administered questionnaire and the qualitative technique from the in-depth interviews conducted and the review of several relevant pieces of literature and documentation in relation to the topic of study. Banda (2010, p.75) also confirms that triangulation is the application and combination of two or more research methodologies in the study of the same phenomenon.

The advantages of using triangulation is that in many cases, the researcher has several objectives of study and some of these objectives are better assessed using qualitative methods while others are better assessed using quantitative methods. Both methods supplement each other in that qualitative methods provide in-depth explanations while quantitative methods provide the hard data needed to meet required objectives. Since both methods have some bias, using both in the research helped to avoid such bias in that each method was used to check the other in that the subjectivity associated with qualitative research was minimized by the objectivity in quantitative thereby each method validating the findings found from each approach (Mugenda and Mugenda 2003, p. 156).

4.2. Research design

This research was a descriptive survey, a non-interventional study design described by Wimmer and Dominick (2003, p.461) as a survey that attempts to picture or document current conditions or attitudes. A descriptive survey is a process of collecting data in order to answer questions concerning the current state of the subject under study, it determines and reports the way things are (Mugenda and Mugenda 2003, p. 160). The research only sought to describe and analyse researchable objects or situation in Chikuni area with regards to how effective Chikuni radio have been in reducing the information

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gap in rural communities but with no manipulation or interventions put in place beyond just describing the situation.

4.3. Population

Population is a complete set of individuals, cases or objects with some common observable characteristics (Mugenda and Mugenda 2003, p. 41). The target population for this research was all the listeners of radio Chikuni who are estimated to be between 250,000 and 600,000 from the districts of Monze, Gwembe, Mazabuka, Choma, Kafue, Siavonga and some parts of Namwala. This represents just a part of the larger Southern Province population of about 1,589,926 people (CSO 2010 population summery report). This was the population to which these research findings could be generalized.

4.4. Sample size

It is often impossible to study the whole of the target population and, therefore, researchers identify and define an experimentally accessible population, sometimes referred to as a survey population (Mugenda and Mugenda 2003, p. 41). According to Wimmer and Dominick (2003, p. 84), an entire population cannot be examined in a research due to time and resource constraint. Studying the entire population is also generally cost prohibitive. The usual procedure in these instances is to take a sample, which is a subset of a particular population that is representative of the entire population (Mugenda and Mugenda 2003, p. 41). The sample size used in the research was 150 households from the 15 villages selected randomly from all villages around the radio station. From each randomly selected village, 10 households were randomly selected as part of the 150 households sample surveyed.

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4.5. Sampling method

Sampling is the selection of a number of study units from a defined study population and can be anything ranging from people, cases, objects or indeed anything. It’s a procedure the researcher formulates in selecting the subjects or cases to be included in the sample to be studied (Mugenda and Mugenda 2003, p. 44).

4.5.1. Simple random sampling method

A simple random sampling method was used in selecting the 15 villages surrounding the radio station. A randomized list of villages surrounding the station was listed and 15 villages were randomly selected for inclusion in the sample.

4.5.2. Systematic random sampling method

From the 15 villages randomly selected, 10 households were picked from each village through a systematic random sampling method to come up with the 150 households that were in the sample surveyed. These were the households where 150 questionnaires were administered. A systematic sampling method was such that, the total number of households in each village was divided by 10, being the sampling interval for each village. According to Mugenda and Mugenda (2003, p. 41), a sampling interval is the distance between the cases that are selected for the sample and the thumb of the rule in deciding the sampling interval is to divide the total population by the sample size, in this case 10 for each village. From a randomized list of households in each village, divided by the sample number of 10 to get the sampling interval of a Kth household which was selected for inclusion into the sample. The value of ‘K’ varied from one village to another as the number of households also differed from one village to another, hence the value of ‘K’ was not the same or constant across the villages surveyed.

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The use of a systematic sampling method was preferred because of its advantages of being easy and could be more accurate than in a simple random sampling. Systematic sampling also saves time, resources and effort when compared to other sampling methods (Wimmer and Dominick 2003, p.91,). The sample of 150 households was considered representative enough of the larger population of people in Chikuni Radio Catchment area.

4.6. Research Methods

Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used in this research. The application of both methods was meant to complement each other by sealing the loopholes that could have been created if just one method was used.

4.7 Data Collection methods

In data collection, the researcher used two ways in which data was collected and these were, primary and secondary data collection methods.

4.7.1. Primary Data Collection

In the primary data, the researcher used both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods. In the quantitative method, the researcher uses 150 structured and self- administered questionnaires to the 150 randomly selected respondents. In the qualitative method, the researcher used literature review and in-depth interviews conducted among 15 people representing the various interest groups in the study area.

4.7.1.1 Quantitative method

i) Self-Administered Questionnaires

Quantitative survey according to (Mugenda and Mugenda 2003, p. 166) relates to the designs, techniques and measures that produce discreet numerical or quantifiable data.

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One instrument in form of a self-administered questionnaire was used to pursue a quantitative approach to this research from the selected respondents in the sampled households. Prior to data being collected, the instrument was piloted in the same area. Piloting refers to the testing out of a research instrument before embarking on full scale data collection. It is a particularly important step to undertake when using highly formalized research instruments such as a self-completion questionnaire or a standardized interview schedule. This is because these methods are not flexible and adaptable and cannot easily be adjusted in the course of data collection process. Piloting helped to identify any glaring problems in the design of the research instrument, as well as any areas of confusion in the terminology employed. Further, it allowed the researcher to orient himself in the field and to gain a sense of the relevance and validity of the initial research concerns (Deacon et al.,2007, p.388). Further, the use of self- administered questionnaires as an instrument of data collection helped in standardizing data and providing for easy analysis and hence reduced on the time taken to complete the research. This method had the advantage of permitting anonymity which ensured high rates of honest responses.

4.7.1.2. Qualitative method

i) In-depth interviews

Another method employed in this research was the qualitative method. According to Mugenda and Mugenda (2003, p.155), qualitative research methods includes designs, techniques and measures that do not produce discreet numerical data. More often, the data are in form of words rather than numbers and these words are usually grouped into categories. From the available options for collection of qualitative data, in-depth interviews and document reviews from verified data sources were used in this research.

Qualitative data was collected through the use of in-depth interviews from a total number of Fifteen (15) respondents selected as follows: 103

i. Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services

ii. Executive Director, Panos Institute Southern Africa

iii. District Agricultural Coordinator , Monze District

iv. Education Standards Officer, Monze District

v. Land Alliance Zambia, Monze Chapter

vi. Director, Home Based Care Project, Chikuni Mission/Taonga School Project

vii. Law and Development Association (LADA) viii. Director, Mukanzubo Kalinda Institute

ix. Assistant Director, Mukanzubo Kalinda Institute

x. Executive Director, Chikuni Mission Hospital

xi. Committee Member, Lwanguluko Radio Listening Club

xii. Headman Chipembele xiii. Headman Namakube xiv. Headman Hambaale

xv. Station Manager, Chikuni Community Radio Station

The interviewees represented wide societal interests as they came from different interest groups which included traditional leadership, cultural activists, health professionals, agriculturalist, radio listening clubs, Ministry of Education, Law and Development Association, Zambia Land Alliance among others. A standardized interview schedule was used in collecting qualitative data. Standardized interviews are highly structured interviews where the interviewers are required to follow strictly standardized procedures in asking questions and eliciting responses. They use a formal interview schedule which 104

precisely lists the questions wording, ordering and response frameworks. Although interviewers are sometimes allowed to use prompts to get interviewees to elaborate their answers and clarify apparent misunderstandings, these are prescribed at the outset of the research and are designed to be neutral in tone and detail as possible. The reason for seeking such standardization in the conduct of interviews is to minimize the impact of interviewer bias and thereby strengthen the grounds for aggregating and comparing interviews (Deacon et al.,2007, p.392).

A total of fifteen (15) in-depth interviews were conducted to collect qualitative data. The list was selected to take into account all various interest groups like traditional leaders, education, civil society, agriculture, health and many more. Both the self-administered questionnaires and the in-depth interviews provided access to primary data.

The method adopted has the advantage because of its suitability in a community with high rates of illiteracy like Chikuni. The method permitted for clarification of questions and generally yielded a higher response rate than in written questionnaires. Of course the researcher had to take care of the disadvantages that come through the possibility of the interviewer influencing responses, the difficulties they are inherent in anaysing open ended questions and also the possibilities of missing important information from the interviewee as spontaneous remarks by the respondents may have been missed or simply not explored. This was done mainly by employing high level of objectivity and accuracy in recording responses.

ii) Literature review

The researcher also used literature review method in collecting primary qualitative data. This included literature from Chikuni Community Radio station, publications from

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institutions like the Taonga Market School, Land Alliance – Monze and newspapers and this helped to contextualize some of the information gathered during the research.

4.7.2. Secondary Data Collection

Secondary data was collected from a review of records and documents with relevance to Chikuni Community Radio Station and other community media in Zambia and these were accessed from:

i. Internet with verified sources

ii. Written reports, books and publications from various sources, published and unpublished research results.

iii. Publications from organization working with community media in Zambia like the Panos Institute of Southern Africa (PSAF).

This was done in order to reinforce the primary data as well as the entire research so that there was more substance and evidence and further, add up to the credibility of the findings.

4.8. Data Entry and Analysis

After the data was collected, the research instruments were coded by the researcher to create data sheets that would facilitate for analysis. This data was then fed into the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPPS) from the 150 questionnaires which were the units of analysis. The SPSS software was used for data analysis for formulation of relevant statistical table and frequencies. The data analysis approach looked at the research objectives and research questions and used the formulated statistical tables to answer these questions. Each questionnaire constituted a unit of analysis. From the SPSS analysis, descriptive proportions and tables were generated and these provided the basis for overview and analysis of characteristics of interest. Qualitative data on the other

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hand was anaysed by categorizing all the responses from the open ended questions through emerging themes.

4.9. Study Place

The research was centered around Chikuni Parish and the surrounding villages that are serviced by Chikuni Community Radio station. Chikuni itself is in Monze District of Southern Province of Zambia as shown in Figure 1.

4.10. Ethical considerations

Ethics are defined as a branch of philosophy that deals with one’s conduct and serves as a guide to one’s behavior (Mugenda and Mugenda 2003, p.190), it’s the liberal arts discipline that appraises voluntary human conduct insofar as it can be judged right or wrong in reference to determinative principles, a systematic study of the principles that underlie behaviour, according to the Greek philosophical tradition (Christians.G.C, Kim B.R and Mark F.1991, p.xvii). In this research a deliberate effort was made to adhere and follow ethical standard practices which included the following:

4.10.1 Voluntary and Informed Consent: It is a requirement that a researcher must conform to the principle of voluntary consent where respondents willingly participate in research as it is unethical for the researcher not to disclose the actual purpose of the study for fear that subjects will refuse to participate (Mugenda and Mugenda 2003, p.192). In this research, permission was sought and adequate information was given to the potential participants on the topics so that they understand properly what was involved in the study and consequently made an informed, voluntary decision out of their own volition to participate in the study without manipulation or coercion.

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4.10.2 Confidentiality, Anonymity and Privacy: According to Mugenda and Mugenda (2003, p.190), respondents in a research should be protected by keeping the information given confidential, especially if confidentiality has been promised as lack of confidentiality and mishandling the information provided may cause respondents physical or even psychological harm. Anonymity means protecting the names and identities of respondents and these are not disclosed. In the research, the privacy and identity of the responded were highly safeguarded. To ensure maximum privacy, anonymity and confidentiality, all interviewees or respondents were just known by code numbers which were written on the questionnaire. Similar levels of privacy and confidentiality was assured even for those met in person for in-depth interviews.

4.10.3 Physical and Psychological harm: A researcher should never undertake a research that causes physical and psychological harm, do all preliminary tests and obtain all the background information in an effort to avoid imparting any harm to the respondents. Psychological harm can be caused by asking embarrassing questions, expressing shock or disgust while collecting data, using threatening statements or compelling people to say something they don’t believe in or causing fear and anxiety among respondents (Mugenda and Mugenda 2003, p.192). It was deliberately decided during the research that none of such things occurred to the respondents including asking them questions that tended to lower the respondents’ esteem or self-worth.

4.10.4 Objectivity: During the research, all efforts were made to ensure that the researcher remained focused without any biases, prejudices, spinning or manipulating the findings because any such things would undermine the research findings.

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4.11. Limitations of study

While Radio Chikuni covers more than just one district in Southern Province, the research was confined to only one district on account of financial and time limitations. The research, therefore, may not be exhaustive but gives valuable insights into the impact of community media in bridging the information gap in rural communities upon which further research could be built.

4.12. Summary

This chapter looked at the methodology employed in carrying out the research, from subject identification, research designs which was a descriptive survey and non- interventional, research methods both quantitative and qualitative, the research population, the sample and sampling techniques and finally how the data was coded and analysed for the final findings both from quantitative data and qualitative data were compiled.

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CHAPTER FIVE

CONCEPTUAL AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

5.0. Introduction

This chapter discusses the conceptual and theoretical frameworks that were used in this study especially as they relate to the study of community radio. Scholars in the study of Mass Communication have adopted a number of theories and approaches that can be used to conceptualize and explain the relationship between various variables. This study will, therefore, be informed by a number of theories relevant to the subject under study. These theories are the knowledge gap theory and the citizen participation theory.

5.1. Conceptual and operational definitions of concepts

According to Mugende and Mugende (2003, pp.11-13) conceptual definition of variables is a way of specifying precisely what is meant when a particular term is used to refer to a variable. It allows a researcher to effectively study a variable by first agreeing and assigning a working definition of the variable. Operational definition on the other hand refers to the measurement of the variable, it is the description of the operation that will be used in measuring the variable and this can either be stated quantitatively or categorically.

5.1.1. Community: Christelle Swart in the South African Journal for Communication Theory and Research (2004, p.116) defines community as including the concept of commonality and people which can thus be understood to refer to commonalities shared by its people, a geographic community bound together by common aims, affinities, fellowship, common culture, cooperation 110

and strong bonds. It’s a collection of people, usually living in the same area, with common interests that include the sharing of the same history, traditions and cultural background (Kasoma 2002, p.23). It can also be an idealized form of human association in which the members share boundaries of space, identity and interaction. A community is typically a largish and enduring social group based on residence but it can also be formed on the basis of some other significant identity. In its ideal form, community is characterised by mutual liking and assistance and relative equity between members who put the common welfare ahead of individual wants (McQuail 2005, p.551). He also says in earlier thinking, a community is referred to as a set of people sharing a place or some other bounded space, an identity and certain norms, values and cultural practices and usually small enough to know or interact with each other (McQuail 2005, p.148). A community can be gleaned from a geographical and a sociological sense, implying that a community is a basic unit for “horizontal social organisation as quoted in Mhlanga (2006, p.18).

5.1.2. Community media: Bwalya (2008, p.143) defines community media as “an instrument for which a community shares its values and organizational vision, a tool for personal commitment and service to a common good, a tool for sharing of social norms that provide guidelines for cooperative action, a tool for collective history and traditions, a medium for containing interaction, dialogue and share experiences, a tool for relationships grounded in mutual respect and trust, a tool for integrating everybody, a tool for value based participation and service, a tool for collaborative leadership and group work, a tool for a sense of membership based on voluntary choice [……]”

5.1.3. Community Radio: A social process or event in which members of the community associate together to design programmes and produce and air them, taking the primary role of actors in their own destiny. It is characterized by its 111

ownership and programming and the community it is authorized to serve. It is owned and controlled by a non-profit organisation whose structure provides for membership, operation and programming primarily by members of the community (Fraser C & Estrada S.R 2001, p.4).

5.1.4. Access: According to McQuail (2005, p.547) access in a communication process or system refers to the possibility either for the sender to reach a chosen audience or for an audience to receive certain messages or channels. In practice it mainly relates to the degree of openness of media channels to a wide range of voices especially those with little power or limited resources. Access in this research was assessed by asking respondents whether they have radio sets and they do actually tune in to listen to radio Chikuni.

5.1.5. Rural communities: the term community will be used in relation to what Denis McQuail calls an idealized form of human association in which members share boundaries of space, identity and interaction (McQuail 2005, p.551). He describes a community as typically a largish and enduring social group based on residence but it can also be formed on the basis of some other significant identity. In its ideal form, McQuail says a community is characterized by a mutual liking and assistance and relative equality between members who put the common welfare ahead of individual wants. This will be measured using the geographical information respondents will provide including other social economical factors that will emerge from the respondents. Questions on occupation will assist in defining the concept of rural community in this study.

5.1.6. Communication: McQuail (2005,p.551) says communication has many different meanings and definitions but the central idea is of a process of

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increased commonality or sharing between participants on the basis of sending and receiving messages.

5.1.7. Audience turnover: According to McQuail (1992, pp.155-157), audience can be defined in different ways and sometimes taken to mean the set of regular readers, viewers of a given media channel, or a set reached by a given media sector at a given point in time. Wimmer & Dominick (2003, p.459) define audience turnover in radio research as the number of times the audience changes station during a given day part. It will be assessed in this research by the frequency with which respondents listen to radio.

5.1.8. Information: According to McQuail (2005, p.558) is, in a broader sense, the content or message of all meaningful communication. It refers to verifiable and reliable factual data about the real world and includes opinions as well as reports. This will be measured by questions that seek to get the respondents understanding of the kind, sufficiency and relevance of the information they get from the radio station.

5.1.9. Culture: While it is sometimes used to refer to the wider framework of beliefs and ideology of society, in media studies, it has a primary reference to the symbolic artifacts produced by media industries but it also has a wider reference to customs, practices and meanings associated with the mass communication process (McQuail 2005, p.553).

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5.2. Theoretical framework

A theoretical framework is a conceptual model of how one theorises or makes logical sense of the relationships between several factors identified as important to the research problem. Wimmer and Dominick (2003, p.467) says it’s a set of related proposition that presents a systematic view of phenomena by specifying relationships among concepts. It’s a roadmap intended to help or guide in realizing the objectives of the research. In this research, one major theory, the knowledge gap theory was considered together with a supporting theory of citizen participation theory. The supporting theory was used in order to strengthen the research theoretical framework because communication in a wide and cross cutting subject that touches on many different study areas, hence the use of a supporting theory.

5.2.1. The Knowledge Gap Theory

This is a theory that was coined to refer to the structured differences in information levels between groups in society (McQuail 2005, p.559). McQuail argues that the original promise of mass communication was that it would help close the gaps between the information rich and the information poor. The concept has stimulated research to investigate how far this has happened and what types of media use and conditions are associated with such an effect or indeed its reversal. The dominant outcome has been that newspapers have been better at closing gaps than television while current expectations are that the new media are more likely to widen than close the gaps because of their differential availability to the already better informed. This assumption, however, is only true to the extent that the examined audience is in an urban set up with demographics that are more cosmopolitan than rural. An investigation into the rural set- up thus, would still provide better insight into the role of the media, especially the community radio in bridging the information gap in rural communities. The knowledge gap can result in an increased gap between people of lower and higher socioeconomic status. The attempt to improve people’s life with information via the mass media might not always work the way this is planned. Mass media might have the effect of increasing 114

the difference gap between members of social classes. This was assessed in this research by asking respondents whether in their view they have become better informed with the introduction of a community radio station or not.

The knowledge gap theory was first proposed by Tichenor, Donohue and Olien at the University of Minnesota in the 1970s (Tichenor, Donohue & Olien 1970, pp.159-160). They believe that the increase of information in society is not evenly acquired by every member of society: people with higher socioeconomic status tend to have better ability to acquire information. This leads to a division of two groups: a group of better-educated people who know more about most things, and those with low education who know less. Lower socio-economic status (SES) people, defined partly by educational levels, have little or no knowledge about public affairs issues, are disconnected from news events and important new discoveries, and usually aren’t concerned about their lack of knowledge.

Tichenor, Donohue and Olien present five reasons for justifying the knowledge gap: 1) People of higher socioeconomic status have better communication skills, education, reading, comprehending and remembering information. 2) People of higher socioeconomic status can store information more easily or remember the topic from background knowledge 3) People of higher socioeconomic status might have a more relevant social context. 4) People of higher socioeconomic status are better in selective exposure, acceptance and retention. 5) The nature of the mass media itself is that it is geared towards persons of higher socioeconomic status (Tichenor, Donohue & Olien 1970, pp.159-160).

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5.2.2. Citizen participation theory

There are a number of other theories in the study of Mass Communication that have so far been developed within which the concept of community media in general and in Zambia in particular can be explained and contextualized. Among them is the Citizen Participation Theory (Christians C. et al., 2009, pp.25-50). Its distant roots are found in the dissident religious and political movements of the 16th century and the struggles for a right to the freedom of the press in the 18th century. Precursors also include the radical press of the early labour movements in the 19th century. Even so, the modern notion of citizen participatory press is more useful dated from the alternative presses and then through the free radio of the 1960s and 1970s, and inspired by the wide range of ideas and motivations. Not least important were grassroots activities media in many protorevolutionery situations spanning much of the 20th century. The basis of legitimacy of this tradition is the idea that the media belong to the people, with an emancipator, expressive and crucial purpose. The media are typically engaged in some form of struggle for collective rights. Where political change is achieved, they may expire or become institutionalized as the true voice of the citizens without being beholden to the market or government authority. Citizen participatory media are rightly placed at the end of the vector that is opposed to the more centralized authoritarian control of the media. This theory has mainly emphasized the role of the local community as well as small- scale and alternative media. In fact, there is intrinsic difficulty in applying this theory’s thinking to extensive, mainstream national and international media like network television or the mass press. Nevertheless, this perspective furnishes a critique of such media set up, certain criteria for desirable operation. Even large scale media can have a concerned and responsible attitude to their audiences and encourage feedback and interactivity. They can employ participatory formats to engage in surveys and debates that are genuinely intended to involve citizens. This is part of the normative theory of public communications. Citizen participation emphasizes the rights of all citizens to directly participate and is far more open to women and many other groups than in the past. The media is said to function as an agent of change.

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In trying to understand media as an instrument of change in society (Christians et al., 2009, pp.25-50) advances an argument that Mass communication can play a vital role in stimulating social and cultural change in society. There are, however, two ways according to the theories of long term influence in which media can be instrumental in bringing about change within society. This can be through the accumulation of minimal effect theory which is a process of continuous presentation of media-provided interpretation of some particular event or situation in a society such as generating a political issue, stopping a war or ameliorating a widespread problem of public health over an extended period of time. The role played by the media in bringing about such change can be explained using a theory of accumulation of minimal effects (Defleur 1996, p.572). It presupposes that the impact of any one message on any specific person may be minimal. However, the theory also states that even minor changes among audiences gradually add up over time. As they do so, increasing numbers of individuals slowly modify their beliefs, interpretations and orientations towards as issue that is repeatedly presented by several media that consistently emphasise a particular point of view. When this has happens, significant changes take place on a long term basis.

The second form of change through what is known as the adoption of innovation theory, is that which occurs within a society as people gradually adopt some new form of technology, a new way of solving an old problem or a particular new way of believing or behaving (Defleur 1996, p.579). That kind of change can be explained in terms of a theory focusing on the adoption of innovation over time. According to this thought, the media influence social change by bringing innovation to the attention of potential adopters who in turn, take it up and begin to use new cultural items on the basis of information that is supplied by the media or mass communication. Three factors must be available for the accumulative theory to work and these are: repeatedly, consistently and corroborated. The accumulation theory explains social and cultural changes in society that are influenced by mass media as a slow adding up of minimal effects. Such effects are brought about when the media repeatedly focus on a particular issue, present in a relatively consistent ways and corroborate each other. The end result can be truly significant changes, with the media playing a relatively inconspicuous but nevertheless

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powerful role. The adoption theory, explaining the communication and behavioral dynamics of the diffusion of innovations provide an understanding of the contributions of the mass media to this kind of accumulative and long term social change.

It remains entirely true according to the long term influence theory that from a short- term perspective, mass communication have very limited and very selective influences on individuals. There is every reason to be confident in that conclusion. However, repeated exposure to a consistent message can change people. The change may be less than dramatic for any particular person but it does happen and such changes add up. Among large populations, repeatedly exposed to the relatively consisted messages that are corroborated across media, an accumulation of individual influence eventually results in significant change.

5.3. Summary

The concepts and theories that guided the research have been discussed in this chapter and these include the theories of knowledge gap and the citizens’ participation theory. The chapter ends with the look at the long term influence with its two facets of the accumulation of minimal effect and the adoption of innovation. These formed the basis of the theoretical framework for this study.

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CHAPTER SIX

PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS/DISCUSSIONS

6.0. Introduction

This chapter gives an analysis, interpretation and discussion of the findings of the study. The aim of the study was to examine whether community media has helped in bridging the information gap in rural communities focusing on Chikuni Community which is serviced by Chikuni Community Radio Station. The study used both quantitative and qualitative research methods in data collection. A total of 150 self-administered questionnaires were administered to 150 randomly selected respondents. Fourteen (15) in-depth interviews were conducted with people of varying backgrounds depicting the diverse social backgrounds of respondents and hence the representativeness of the sample.

6.1. Quantitative Findings

From the quantitative data analysed, there were general findings derived as well as findings specific to the research objectives in the research.

6.1.1. General Findings

Table 3: Gender of the respondents in the study 119

6.1.1.1. Table 3 shows the gender for the respondents that took part in the study by responding to the questionnaires sent to them. The survey had 81 males and 69 females from the total of 150 respondents. The ratio, however, does not represent the gender distribution in the population studied.

Table 4: Respondents’ age distribution

6.1.1.2. Table 4 shows the age distribution of the respondents in the survey. This was an important aspect of the research as age tends to have an effect on media preference. The age distribution was average among all the age groups with the only dip in the 41 - 45 years age group which had only 11 respondents representing a figure below ten percent. The statistics show a balance in terms of respondents across age groupings.

Table 5: Respondents’ occupation

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6.1.1.3. Another variable of interest was the occupation of the respondents and Table 5 shows that the biggest number of the respondents at 52 and representing 34.7 percent of the total sample were farmers, the mainstay of a rural set up like Chikuni. Other than teachers and health workers with 14 percent and 11.3 percent respectively, the rest of the respondents indicated typical occupations found in rural areas.

Table 6: Number of respondents’ that own radio sets in their homes and tune in to Radio Chikuni

6.1.1.4. In Table 6 (Figure 11), out of the 150 respondents, 136 of them, representing 90.7 percent own radio sets in their homes while the remaining 14 or 9.3 percent do not have radio sets in their homes. The researcher took interest in finding out how many respondents owned radio sets because this was critical in determining the respondents’ access to media in their locality especially that the research was concerned with a radio station.

Listenership Yes No Total Radio/Own Yes 136 0 136 No 8 6 14 Total 144 6 150

Table 7: Listenership and Radio Ownership Relationship

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From table 7, Out of the 150 respondents, 136 who said the own radio sets also indicated that they actually do listen to radio. Of the 14 that said they had no radio sets of their own, 6 said they listen to radio despite not having sets of their own while the remaining 6 neither had radio sets nor listen to radio. The statistics shows a strong correlation between owning a radio set and actually tuning in to listen to Radio Chikuni by the respondents. This finding suggests a very strong relationship between owing a radio set and tuning in to actually listen to the station.

Time Total The Not Mornin whole Applicabl g and morning afternoon evening day e Evening Occupatio Self 7 3 10 0 1 0 21 n employed Farmer 15 7 27 1 2 0 52 Teacher 6 2 11 2 0 0 21 Health 3 0 14 0 0 0 17 worker Agricultur 2 0 1 0 0 0 3 alist Housewife 4 2 4 0 0 0 10 Student/ 7 1 9 0 0 0 17 Pupil Others 1 0 6 0 0 2 9 Total 45 15 82 3 3 2 150

Table 8: Respondents’ Occupation and time when they listen to radio

From the findings in table 8, most respondents (82) find time to listen to the radio station after doing their work in the evening followed by 45 that said they listen to radio early in the morning as they start their day, 15 find time in the afternoon while only three have 122

the time to listen to radio the whole day, another three said they do not actually listen to radio while only two listen to radio both in the morning and evening. This finding was very critical in trying to analyses the radio listening trends by the respondents and also in trying to understand why the radio station placed certain programmes during certain times in a bid to reach as many people as possible. It was also significant in order to understand how occupation affects one’s available time to listen to radio. Being a rural set up where people subsist on farming, it was inevitable that the largest number of people found time in the evening to listen to radio. The second largest number of 45 that listen to radio in the morning could be influenced by the presence of workers that want to start each day with new available information, the middle class that are considered opinion leaders in rural set ups.

Tabe 9: Language used by Radio Chikuni

6.1.1.5. A total of 133 or 88.7 percent of the respondents indicated that tonga was the language mostly used on Chikuni Radio Station while 17 respondents representing 11.3 percent said Tonga together with English were the mostly used languages on the radio station as shown in Table 9. The researcher took interest in the language that the radio station mostly use in disseminating its news and information in relation to the language that is widely spoken in the area where the research was conducted.

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Table 10: I understand the language used on Radio Chikuni

6.1.1.6. Table 10 shows the respondents’ capacity to understand the language used on Radio Chikuni as measured on a likert scale. A cummulative 92 percent of the respondents agree that they understand the language used on Radio Chikuni while the 8 percent were either not sure or diasagreed that they understood the language the Radio Station uses most in its broadcast. This assessment was critical in trying to establish the effectivennes of the Radio Station’s communication within the local community as language is a significant determinant of an effective communications system. A comparison was made to establish if the respondents undertand the language that the radio station mostly uses and the findings in Table 10 show that most respondents do understand the language that is mostly used by Chikuni radio station.

Table 11: Prior to Radio Chikuni did you have access to adequate news and information in your community

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Figure 10: Prior to Radio Chikuni did you have access to adequate news and information in your community

6.1.1.7. Figure 10 depict the respondents’ views on whether or not they had access to adequate news and information in their community prior to the introduction of Radio Chikuni in their area. Only 53 respondents or 35.3 percent of the respondents said they had access, 18 respondents or 12 percent had no access and 52.7 percent represented by 79 respondents partially had access. It has been said earlier that Chikuni is one of the areas that had had been eclipsed from ZNBC radio coverage due the poor radio reception the rural people used to experience with the ZNBC Radio prior to the commencement of broadcasting by the community radio station. From Table 11, it can be said that the greater majority of the people either did not have access or only partially had access to adequate news and information compared to those that said they had access to adequate news and information prior to radio Chikuni starting to operate. The researcher took interest in this variable in order to compare respondents’ views on their perception of access to the media before and after radio Chikuni started operating in the area.

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Table 12: Access to news and information after Radio Chikuni

Figure 11: Access to news and information after Radio Chikuni

6.1.1.8. Figure 11 on the other hand shows the respondents’ views on whether now they have access to adequate news and information after the introduction of Radio Chikuni in their area. The figures show that after the introduction of the community radio station, more people had access to news and information than before. A total of 73 respondents representing 48.7 percent strongly agreed that they now have access to adequate news 126

and information in their community, 62 respodents or 41.3 percent agreed they now have access while a cumulative figure of 15 respondents or 9.9 percent were not sure, disagreed or strongly disagreed that they now have access to news and information after the introduction of radio Chikuni to their area. When the two Tables, 9 and 10 are compared, there is a strong indication that the respondents now have access to news and information compared to the time Radio Chikuni was not in existence.

Table 13: Source of news and information prior to Radio Chikuni

Figure 12: Source of news and information prior to Radio Chikuni

6.1.1.9. The respondents were asked to state what their source of information and news was prior to radio Chikuni starting to operate in their communities. Table 13 (Figure 16) shows the respondents’ source of news and information prior to Radio Chikuni starting 127

to operate. Three major sources indicated are ZNBC Radio, ZNBC TV and Sky FM of Monze. In the absence of a local radio station, 42 respondents representing 28 percent said that ZNBC Radio was the main source followed by Sky FM at 25.3 percent and ZNBC TV at 20 percent while 12 percent simply did not have any source of news and information. Others indicated sources like Newspapers, Billboards and pamphlets as their sources. Thus prior to Radio Chikuni, the source of news and information for the people of chikuni and the surrounding areas was mainly ZNBC Radio and ZNBC TV which as earlier indicated, had poor reception in the area. Both ZNBC TV and ZNBC Radio channels have programmes in Tonga language which is the main language spoken in the area of the study. These programmes are Kantuunya Kamunsabata on ZNBC TV which comes once a week and ZNBC Tonga radio programmes which comes every week day for one hour except for Friday and Sunday when the programme is allocated two hours of air time and Saturday for four hours. The attraction to ZNBC TV and Radio could have been due to these Tonga programmes by as earlier mentioned, these were neggeted by the poor reception. There are also issues of programming that are meant for the whole country and these in most instances do not focus on the specific needs of a particular community like the Chikuni community in this case.The other major source was Sky FM radio station which mainly broadcasts in English and only used local languages for some of the news bulletins. This is against the backdrop of high illiterate levels in rural areas which limits access to news and information especially when such news is transmitted in a foreign language like English.

Table 14: Current source of news and information

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Figure 13: Current source of news and information

6.1.1.10. Figure 13 (Table 14) shows that after Radio Chikuni started operating, 91 respodents or 60.7 percent said it was their main source of news and information, 19 respondents or 12.7 percent of the respondents said their current source of news and information is Sky FM while 17 respondents or 11.3 percent have ZNBC TV as their main source and 9 respondents or 6.0 percent went for ZNBC Radio.

The Zambia Daily Mail, The Post, Pamhplets and Brochures, Billboards and other media are each a source to not more than three percent of the respondents. This scenario reinforces the findings in Table 10 where it was discovered that after the introduction of the Radio station, the greater majority of the local people had access to adequate news and information than before. The findings in Table 12 show that Radio Chikuni is the station of choice for the greater majority in the area, therefore, enabling the listeners in the area to have access to news and information they need. The findings suggest a major shift from ZNBC TV and radio being the main sources of news and information to Chikuni radio station when it started operatings. Some of the reasons for this shift could be related to proximity, programming relevance which, unlike in national programmes, do focus on the specific needs of the local community and able to address their needs. It could also be attributed to the use of a language that the locals can easily understand and

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therefore are able to follow and get involved in the programmes of the community radio station.

Table 15: Respondents Listening to Radio Chikuni

With regards to the number of respondents that actually listen to radio Chikuni, Table 15 and indicate that out of the 150 respondents studied, 144 said they listened to Radio Chikuni representing 96 percent of the respondents that listen to the Radio Station while only 6 representing four percent said they did not listen to Radio Chikuni. This particular finding from the study reinforces the earleir finding that the local community radio had become a station of choice among the local people in Chikuni. An estimated 96 percent listenership to Radio Chikuni suggests a huge following for the community radio station and further suggests that the many programmes that the radio station airs have a potential to reach the larger community and therefore, have a much bigger impact than would be the case with other stations or media.

6.1.2. Findings in relation to specific research objectives

6.1.2.1. Objective One: This objective was to examine the community’s perception of Radio Chikuni’s contribution to their access to health, educational, agricultural, commerce and trade and also politcal information. The respondents perceptions were rated on a likert scale and was comparing their views on the information they used to get before the Radion Station started operating and now that there is a community radio station in the area. The following were the findings:

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Table 16: I now get enough information on health than before

Figure 14: I now get enough information on health than before

6.1.2.1.1. Table 16 shows that 72 respondnets or 48 percent strongly agree that they now get enough information on aducation than before, 66 respondnets or 44 percent agree, eight respondets or 5.3 percent are not sure while only four respondents respresenting 2.7 percent said they diasgreed that they now get enough information on health than before the radio station opened in their area. There are many health related programmes that the radio station airs as indicated from the programming schedule of Radio Chikuni in Table 2, covering a wide range of health topics. From the findings, there is a strong indication that from these programmes, many people are getting enough of the information they require in health matters. 131

Table 17: I now get enough information on education than before

Figure 15: I now get enough information on education than before.

6.1.2.1.2. The respondents were asked on whether they now get enough educational information than before and Table 17 shows that 70 respondents representing 46.7 percent strongly agreed that they now have enough information on education than before, a similar percentage said they agreed while those that were not sure, diasgreed and strongly disagreed were less than two percent for each category. There is a strong indication from the findings that the greater majority of the respondents do get enough information on education through radio Chikuni. The most prominent educational programme that the radio station runs in the Taonga radio School programmes which is meant for both the young and vulnerable through the IRI centres and the old through adult literacy programmes. 132

Table 18: I now get enough information on agriculture than before

Figure 16: I now get enough information on agriculture than before

6.1.2.1.3. From Table 18, respondents were asked on whether they now get enough information on agriculure than before and the responses were such that 70 and 71 respondents represnting 46.7 percent and 47.3 percent respectively strongly agreed and agreed that they now get enough information on agriculture than was the case before radio Chikuni strated operating. Seven respondents or 4.7 percent were not sure while two respondents representing 1.3 percent disagreed that they now get enough agro- information. The agricultural programmes are either run independently as agro related programmes on the radio station or indeed are embeded with the educational programmes in the Taonga Schools lessons targeting the children as direct beneficiaries

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and their extended families as auxiliary beneficiaries. The agro programmes, also as shown in Table 2 cover areas such as sustainale agricultural practices, marketing information and conservation farming among others. From the respondents views in Table 18, it can be said that the amount of information both the children and adults receive in this regard appears to be enough and helpful. Headman Chipembele‘s revelations during the interview augments this finding when he said that “the agro marketing information has also helped the locals in understanding the agro market dynamics that have come with the various policy changes in the sector”. The views of the District Agricultural Coordinator in Monze that the office uses the community radio station for dissemination of agricultural related information to farmers in the area also reinforce these findings.

Table 19: I now get enough information on commerce and trade than before

6.1.2.1.4. With regard to information on Commerce and Trade, the highest response was from 50 respondents or 33.3 percent who were not sure if they now get enough information on commerce and trade, further 14 respodents or 9.3 percent disagreed and three respondents or two percent strongly disagreed. 48 respondents representing 32 percent agreed while those that strongly agreed that they now get enough commerce and trade information than before were 32 and represented 23.3 percent as shown in Table 19. While it can be said that a large number of respondents agreed that they get enough commerce and trade information from the radio station, the number of respondents who were not sure and disagreed also points to a gap in commerce related information for the rural communities especialluy for chikuni area in this instance. Many factors to be

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assigned for this scenario among them, the challenge of most media houses in their capacity to report and disseminate business and economics information in terms that are understood by ordinary people.

Table 20: I now get enough information on gender than before

6.1.2.1.5. With regard to getting enough information on gender from Radio Chikuni than was the case before, 52 respondents representing 34.7 percent strongly agreed and 56 or 37.3 percent agreed that they now get adeqauate information on gender than before as shown in Table 20. Only 34 respondents or 22.7 percent were not sure while a cumulative of 8 respondents or 5.4 percent disagreed that they now get adequate information on gender through Radio Chikuni than before. The indications from the above findings are that more people do have access to adequate information on gender than before the radio station started operating in the area. There is evidence also from the number of civil society organisation that work with the radio station in their outreach programmes to sensitise the rural communities on gender and human rights issues and these include institutions like the Law and Development Association (LADA), the Monze Land Alliance and many other membership based NGOs working either as stand alone or through a lead NGO as is the case with the Land Alliance.

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Table 21: I now get enough information on child health and development than before

Figure 17: I now get enough information on child health and development than before

6.1.2.1.6. Table 21 (Figure17) gives the respondents views on whether they now get enough information on child health and development with 59 respondents representing 39.3 percent indicating that they strongly agreed, 68 or 45.3 percent agreed, 18 were not sure while 4 and 1 diasgreed and stroblgy disagreed respectively. Respondents that agreed were able to give examples of child health and development information they get like child health week programme, feeding regimes like exclusive breast feeding, other child immunisation programmes and family planning. The examples of the programmes respondents gave are contained in the programming schedule of the radio station in Table 2 earlier alluded to. According to this programming schedule, health programmes

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include Nseba Zyesu (Health Matter) and Bunyina Centre which is a programme for HIV positve children.

6.1.2.2. Objective Two: The second objective in this study was to examine the community assessment of the impact of the information from Radio Chikuni in improving their social, economic well-being and political awareness. The following were the findings:

Table 22: Information has improved my social well being

6.1.2.2.1. The respondents were asked about the impact of the information they get from the local radio station on their behaviour and Table 22 shows that 51 respondents or 34 percent strongly felt that the information they get has improved their social well being, 78 respondents or 52 percent agreed that the information has improved their social well being while a cummulative of 21 or 14 percent were either not sure or disagreed.

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Table 23: Information has improved my politcal awareness

6.1.2.2.2. With regards to the impact of the information of the respondents’ political awareness, Table 23 indicates that 54 respondents representing 36 percent strongly felt that the information has improved their politcal awareness while 70 respodents or 46.7 percent agreed. 17 of the surveyed total were not sure while eight disagreed and only one strongly felt that the information has not in any away improved their political awareness.

Table 24: Information has improved my economic well being

6.1.2.2.3. From Table 24, it was found that 50 respondents or 33.3 percent strongly agreed that the information they now have access to, has improved their economic well being, 74 respondents representing 49.3 percent agreed. 19 or 12.7 percent of the respondents were not sure while 6 disagreed and only one or 0.7 percent strongly 138

disagreed. In the programming schedule, the Radio Station has programmes on marketing information services which generally gives the communities around commodities information on the market.

Table 25: Information has improved my awareness to gender, child health and development in the community

6.1.2.2.4. Table 25 shows the views of the respondents to the question of whether the information they get through Radio Chikuni has improved their awareness of gender and child health and devlopment issues in the community. 60 respondents which is 40.0 percent strongly agreed to this assertion while 64 which represents 42.7 percent agreed that the information they get from the radio station has improved their awareness of gender and child health and development issues in the community. 19 (12.7 percent) respondents were not sure, 4, (2.7 percent) disagreed and 2, (1.3 percent) strongly disagreed with the above assertion. Further to the responses by the respondents, an interview with Chikuni Radio Station Manager Jyde Hamoonga revealed that the station’s Editorail Policy was anchored on the need of providing a platform that will give a voice to the voiceless majority in the rural areas, especially in the radio station’s catchment area. He said the programmes, activities and broadcast content are a direct response to community needs. “We strike a balance by ensuring that all the objectives of the radio station respond to the needs of the community and if they do not, we do implement any such objectives. Mr Hamoonga explained that it was the practice at the

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radio station to reject running programmes that do not benefit the community even at the expense of losing the much needed revenue to run the station.

6.1.2.3. Objective 3: The third objective was to examine the extent to which Radio Chikuni has allowed service providers and change agents to introduce new innovations to rural communities. The research focused on service providers and change agents only in three categories of health, education and agriculture. There are many service providers and change agents in other fields of interest but it was not possible to consider all of them in this research. The following were the findings:

Table 26: Education providers use radio to reach the community than before

Figure 18: Education providers use radio to reach the community than before 140

6.1.2.3.1. The respondents were asked to give their view on whether education providers use Chikuni Community Radio Station to reach them as shown in Table 26. A total of 68 respondents representing 45.3 percent strongly agreed, 64 which represented 42.7 percent agreed while 13 or 8.7 percent were not sure. Those that disagreed and strongly disagreed were three and one percent respectively with a cummulative percentage of 2.7 percent. Again in the programming schedule for radio Chikuni in Table 2, the radio station has educational programmes which are referred to as Taonga Market which runs from Grade One to Grade Seven. The programmes run every day of the week except for the weekends. Other educational programmes include civic educational programmes like the Land Allianace sponsored programmes. Another notable educational related programmes are the Tonga Book Review (Zyamumabbuku) and another MISA sponsored fighting poverty programme. These findings are consistent with the revelation from the officials at the Monze Land Alliance who revealed that in 2011, the alliance was able to reach out to about 2000 people in the district through community awareness meeting while a further 8000 was reached through radio programmes, underscoring the findings that the radio station actually allowed change agents to reach the rural communities with new innovations and other services aimed uplifting the livelihood of the rural communities.

Table 27: Health providers use radio to reach the community than before

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Figure 19: Health providers use radio to reach the community than before

6.1.2.3.2. Table 27 shows the responses on whether health providers in Chikuni community use the local radio station to reach the community than was the case before. 73 of the respondents or 48.7 percent strongly agreed while another 71 respondents representing 47.3 percent agreed that health providers do actually use the radio station to reach the community than before. Only 4 or 2.7 percent were not sure while only two respondents representing 1.3 percent disagreed. Some of the health programmes that the radio station airs and are included in Table 2 include the following: Nseba Zyesu (Our Health), Fighting Malaria, Cholera, HIV and AIDS and Tuberculosis sponsored by the Monze Health Office, Hallow Patients, HBC Information, SAFAIDS, MISA sponsored fighting HIV and AIDS programme and Bunyina Centre, an HIV AIDS programme for positive children.

Table 28: Agricultural extension service providers use radio to reach the community than before

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Figure 20: Agricultural extension service providers use radio to reach the community than before

6.1.2.3.3. Table 28 (Figure 20) shows the responses the 150 respondents gave to the question of whether agricultural extension service providers use radio and in particular Radio Chikuni to reach the community. 70 respondents representing 46.7 percent strongly agreed and 60 or 46.0 percent agreed that agricultural extension services providers use radio to reach the community than before. Eight respondents or 5.3 perecent were not sure, two disagreed while only one strongly disagreed. The radio station’s programming schedlue in Table 2 indicate that a number of agro related programmes are aired and they include programmes like Mwakotoka Nobalimi, Marketing Information Services, Nsonje Yabulimi, Bulimi Bwesu which is run under the Toanga Radio School programmes and Butebuzi Bwesu.

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Figure: 21:Agro related activities learnt through radio based agricultural lessons

Source: Taonga School 2011 Annual Report

6.1.2.4. Objective 4: The fourth objective was to examine the role of Radio Chikuni in developing the cultural heritage of the rural communities. Again the examination of this role was limited only to what was aired by the station to the community. The following were the findings:

Table 29: The radio station plays an important role in preserving cultural heritage

6.1.2.4.1. From Table 29, it was found that 66 respondents representing 44 percent strongly agreed, 70 respondents or 46.7 percent agreed. 13 respondents or 8.7 percent 144

were not sure while only one and less than one percent disagreed. In the programming schedule in Table 2, the radio station provides a wide range of traditionally inclined programmes among them Hamaleke Amukwashi (Radio Drama), Butonga Bwasanduka, Gama Cuulu Antangalala, Hodi Basibbuku, Cuundu Acisi Coonse, Kusala Kwa Chikko (Family Talk), Maanu Mabulanwa, Kaulu Kalaamutwe-Mukanzubo.

6.1.2.5. Objective 5: The fifth objective was to examine if Radio Chikuni has the required professional and technical capacities to meet the communication needs of the rural community. The following were the findings:

Table 30: The radio station has professional capacity to function well

6.1.2.5.1. Table 30 shows the respondents assessment of the professional capacity of the staff at Radio Chikuni. 50 respondents (33.3 percent) strongly felt that the station has the required professional capacity to function well, 72 (48 percent) agreed while 24 (16 percent) seemed to have been sure with two (1.3 percent) disagreeing and another 2 (1.3 percent) strongly disagreeing. An independent enquiry by the researcher through an interview with Station Manager Jyde Hamoonga in terms of the radio station’s professional capacity to function well, revealed that the Radio station at the time of the research had Sixteen (16) employees, eight (08) of them were professional staff with Diploma qualification in Journalism and Public Relations while the other eight were Grade Twelve School Leavers working as volunteers.

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Table 31: The radio station has the technical capacity to deliver

6.1.2.5.2. From Table 31, the respondents were asked to assess the technical capacity of the radio station to be able to deliver to the community expectation. 54 respondents (36.0 percent) strongly agreed that the radio station has the required technical cacity to deliver while 71 (47.3 percent) agreed. 24 respondents (16 percent) where not sure while one (0.7) disagreed the radio station has the required technical capacity. Assessing the technical capcity of the radion station may not have been easy for the rural community because they may not be aware of what it takes technically to run a radio station. An independent assessment of this technical capacity was therefore necessary to contextualise the respondents views. According to Radio Chikuni Station Manager Jyde Hamoonga, the radio station was adequately equiped at the time of the research. Mr Hamoonga indicated that the radio station had always wanted to acquire an outside broadcasting equipment that would give listerners as much access through community debates. The station had, at the time of the research already ordered for this piece of equipment. “ Our idea is to give as much access to the people as possible through community debates and this equipement will enable us to do that,” Hamoonga observed. Mr Hamoonga further revealed that the radio station was moving towards digitalising its operations in line with the overall Government Policy of doing away with analogue broadcasting by 2015 and to this end, Chikuni Radio Station had, at the time of research, already ordered studio equipment which would enable the station to migrate to digital broadcasting in time for the migration deadline. He, however, noted that while the radio station was well equipment with broadcasting equipment, there were other needy areas 146

that supported the studio operations, among them the problem of transport which Mr Hamoonga said was limiting their versatility in carryig out daily routines especially field work. Overall impact was assesed from the respodents by asking them whether the information they received from the Radio Station had in any way changed their behaviour by changing their perceptions, attidudes and the way the do certain things. The following were the responses.

Table 32: I have changed the way I do certain things because of listening to Radio Chikuni.

Figure 22: I have changed the way I do certain things because of listening to Radio Chikuni

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6.1.2.5.3. From Table 32, 59 respondents representing 39.3 percent strongly felt that the radio station has influenced their way of life by changing the way they do certain things, 65 respondents or 43.3 percent agreed, nine (6 percent) were not sure,14 (9.3 percent disagreed while only 3 (2 percent) strongly disagreed that they have changed the way they do certain things because of listening to Radio Chikuni.

6.1.2.6. Objective 6: The sixth objective was to examine if people participate in the running of radio Chikuni as a community radio station. The following were the findings :

Table 33: There is community involvement in the programmes of the Radio Station

Figure 23: There is community involvement in the programmes of the Radio Station

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6.1.2.6.1. One of the characteristics of a community media is the level of community involvement in the programmes of the Radio Station. The respsondents were asked to rate their involvement in the programmes of Radio Chikuni as a community and Table 33 (Figure 23) is a picture of their response. A cummulative 92.7 percent of the respondents agree that there is community involvement in the programmes of the local Radio station, 6.3 percent are not sure while only 1.3 percent do not agree. Programmes that show that there is community involvement include such programmes as Radio Listening Clubs which are produced by the community members themselves on topics that they choose on their own depending on what is of topical interest in the community at any given time.

Table 34: Iam satisfied with the radius of coverage of Radio Chikuni

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Figure 24: Iam satisfied with the radius of coverage of Radio Chikuni

6.1.2.6.2. The respodents were asked if they are satified with the coverage of Radio Chikuni in terms of the station’s coverage area (radius) and Table 34 (Figure 24) gives an indication of their responses. 27 respondents representing 18 percent said they strongly agree that they are satisfied with the coverage of the Radio station, 48 respondents or 32 percent said they agreed while12 respondents or eight percent said they were not sure, 44 respondents representing 29.7 percent disagreed while a further 19 respondents or 12.7 percents of the respondents strongly disagreed that they are satisfied with the coverage of Radio Chikuni.

Table 35: The Radio Station has an effective feedback system

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6.1.2.6.3. The respondents in Table 35 were asked what they think about the Radio statio’s feedback system and the response shows that 39 respondents representing 26 percent strongly agree that the radio station has an effective feedback system in place while 61 or 40.7 percent agreed. 40 respondents or 28 percent were not sure, five respondents or 3.3 percent said they agree while three respondents or two percent said they strongly diasgree that the radio station has an effective feedback system in place. There is evidence of programmes (Table 2) which show the radio station’s efforts towards ensuring that it gets some feedback from the community, among them, Amubabuzye (Face the media), another feedback programme called Bbokesi Lyaambaula and Mulomo Mpande (Live greetings programme). But Station Manager Jyde Hamoonga also said in an interview during the research that there are other deliberate feedback mechanisms that the Radio Station has in place which give them a feel of the community’s response to several issues. Among such mechanisms, Mr Hamoonga said was the use of Radio Listening Clubs in the communities as explained earlier, the radio station also encourages letter writing to the Station and the use of other modern communication platforms like the Short Messaging System (SMS) using mobile phone services. Mr Hamoonga indicated that the radio Station has been able to provide an effective feedback system through these mechanisms and also that the station itself has been able to get feedback through such initiatives.

Table 36: Which one is your favourite these stations in Zambia.

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6.1.2.6.4 The question in relation to Table 36 was open ended and the response categories reflect what the respondents said and these were grouped into the categories shown in Table 36. From the findings, 101 respondents in the survey, representing 67.3 percent said that Radio Chikuni was their favourite radio station in Zambia. 26 respondents or 17.3 percent settled for Sky FM as their favourite radio station in Zambia, 20 respondents or 13.3 percent indicated that ZNBC radio was their favourite while Radio Christian Voice, Q-FM and Unza Radio where favourite for one respondent each in the survey respresenting less than one percent for each of the three. Other radio stations were not mentioned by the respondents hence their not being included in the categories in Table 36.

Table 37: What is your favourite programme on Chikuni radio Station

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Figure 25: What is your favourite programme on Radio Chikuni?

6.1.2.6.5. The respondents in the Table 37 were asked what they thought was their favourite programme. An array of programmes were given and these included such programmes as Butonga Bwasanduka, Mukanzubo, Agricultural programmes, Gama Cuulu, Radio Drama, Open Forum, Educational programmes and Cuundu Acisi Mbociyalidwe amongst others. The significance of the above listed programmes in Table 37 is a reflection of the desired local content by the community. The programmes in the Table 37 related mainly to the needs of the local community while they also wanted to integrate themselves with the wider community through such programmes as Sports, Open forum and Platform.

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Table 38: Occupation and the time of listening to Radio

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6.1.2.6.6. Table 38 shows the time respondents listen to radio taking into account their occupation. It was found that most respondents, irrespective of their occupation listen to the radio more in the evening than any other time. 84 respondents representing 54 percent said they listened to radio in the evenings while 45 respondents or 30 percent said they did so in the morning, 15 respondents or 10 percent were radio funs in the afternoon.

Figure 26: Respondents final comment

When asked to give their final comment about the overall impressions of the radio station, the respondents had this to say: A total of 12 respondents representing 8 percent said that the station closes early, 6 respondents or 4 percent indicated that the health programmes aired on radio Chikuni have been helpful, 2 respondents or 1.3 percent said that have had access to helpful trade and marketing information from listening to the radio station while 41 people or 27 percent said nothing as their final comment. A total

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of 51 respondents representing 34 percent said the station was doing well and helping them in many ways as 3 respondents or 2 percent indicated that presenters needed to improve on English, 4 of respondents representing 3 percent were interested in seeing that coverage in terms of radius of the radio station’s reach should be expanded in order to reach more people. The remaining 31 respondents or 21 percent said Chikuni generally need to improve.

6.2. Qualitative Research Findings

Qualitative data was collected from a series of 15 in-depth interviews with various individuals representing various interest groups which included traditional leadership, professionals working in the area, service providers, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and other interest groups. Generally, the findings from the quantitative resonate well with the qualitative findings. All the observations tend to back up the statistical findings. The following were the findings in terms of qualitative data from the in-depth interviews conducted all of which agrees with the statistical inferences here:

6.2.1. HEADMAN HAMBAALE (Mr. Sylvester Bukoko) Interviewed on August 28, 2012

Mr. Sylvester Bukoko is the headman of Hambaale Village in Namakube area of Chikuni. He said in an interview with this researcher that through Radio Chikuni, people in his village have come to know a lot about what is happening around the world. He said the villagers now have better access to information than they had before the radio station was established. Mr. Bukoko, however, said that the idea of having the radio station cover the whole country and broadcast in all the seven major Zambian local languages would be better as this would enable many more Zambians have access to information in a language that they understand. According to the Headman, the lifestyles of the rural people were changing in line with the kind of information they were receiving through the radio station. For instance, Mr. Bukoko noted that many parents

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were now interested in sending their children to school after discovering that children can still advance in school even through the interactive radio instruction centres (IRIs) programmes being promoted by Radio Chikuni station through the Taonga Schools programme. There are other programmes being aired on Radio Chikuni that have an impact on the rural communities like the Tonga radio drama series commonly referred to as Hamaleke, agro-forestry programme through which farmers and indeed their children have acquired modern farming skills through the Taonga garden programs. On the cultural front, the rural population has benefited from programmes that seek to revive and promote local traditions and culture through programmes like Butonga Bwasanduka, Zyamumabbuku. Mr. Bukoko said through the Taonga school programme which was initially meant for orphaned and vulnerable children, many children have advanced to higher schools and even tertiary education. At the time of research, there were mentors in the schools who had themselves been IRIs pupils (Taonga Annual Report 2011). The programme which was also initially meant to help children who had no access to education either due to financial problems or because of long distances to the nearest formal school, now offers educational opportunities even for adults through the adult learning programmes for willing adults. Mr. Bukoko observed that the farming skills children learn from Taonga schools were proving useful especially that the children still remained active members of the farming families they belonged to and the knowledge acquired would in the long run be helpful in improving agro-technics for the rural population.

6.2.2. HEADMAN MAKONDO (Mr. Costantino Hakalembe) Interviewed on August 28, 2012

Mr. Hakalembe is headman of Makondo village whose appreciation for Radio Chikuni is in the many lifesaving programmes that the Radio station has been bringing to the people around Chikuni area. He said during an interview that Radio Chikuni has helped a lot of people in his village with information relating to the prevention of HIV and AIDS infection which had threatened to wipe away people. Mr. Hakalembe said with the

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information available from the Radio station, people have leant how to protect themselves from the ravages of the disease and when found sick, the information is available on where to get treatment. The head also noted that other negative vices such as child abuse and violence against women and children are among those the radio station has been emphasizing on and this has benefited his village a lot. He noted that before such education was given to the people, a lot of injustices went on unabated. “People now have come to realize that it is a crime to beat your wife or fail to look after your children properly when you are able to,” Headman Hakalembe observed.

6.2.3. HEADMAN CHIPEMBELE (Mr. Matthews Matongo) Interviewed on August 28, 2012

Mr. Matongo is Headman of Chipembele Village also in Namakube area who feels that the presence of Radio Chikuni in his village has had immense benefits not only in improving the health of the people but also because they have been empowered with a lot of survival skills for their sustainable livelihood. He noted that the agro information the villagers were getting through the Radio programmes had helped them transform their agro practices especially with the changing weather patterns where the once rainy areas where now prone to droughts. Conservation farming for instance had proved to be beneficial in ensuring food security and a source on income for the people. This is in addition to the cultural renaissance the area has witnessed from the many cultural programmes that run at the station. Agro marketing information has also helped the locals in understanding the agro market dynamics that have come with the various policy changes in the sector. Mr. Matongo also said that the literacy levels especially for poor and vulnerable children had also greatly improved through the Radio school programme where children that were not able to attend formal school due to long distances or financial difficulties have an opportunity to learn. He said it would be better one day if the Radio station could start broadcasting to the entire country to benefit more people.

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6.2.4. MONZE DISTRICT EDUCATION STANDARDS OFFICER (Mr. Winfred Hakoola) Interviewed on September 6, 20012.

Mr. Hakoola worked for the Ministry of Education as Education Standards Officer (ESO) in Monze district of Southern Province at the time of the reserach. According to Mr. Hakoola, the radio based learning centres were a response to community demand for the education of their children. The areas did not have access to formal educational system because of the long distances to the nearest facilities which meant that the children had to cover long distances to access formal education. For instance, a child in Nakabwe Area will have to cover a very long distance (about 25 Kilometers) to the nearest formal school in Chiyobola if she/he was to attend school at a formal education system. Thus the communities in these deprived areas saw the need to have community based learning systems and this idea was quickly picked up by the Church, in this case the Roman Catholic Church in the area and working with the District Education Board Secretary (DEBS)’s office introduced radio lessons in the areas of need. The radio lessons are produced by the Education Broadcasting Services (EBS) under the Directorate of Distance Education (DODE) in the Ministry of Education. Mr. Hakoola observed that the EBS used to broadcast these radio lessons through the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) radio frequencies which were not accessible in most remote areas of Chikuni due to poor signal and that’s how a decision was made to broadcast the radio lessons also known as Taonga learning programmes on Radio Chikuni which was accessible by the locals in Chikuni and the surrounding areas. The Ministry took interest in training mentors for this programme, about 50 mentors per quarter in a year. The mentors were equipped with skills to help children with the interpretation of the radio lesson among other tasks. They are also equipped with teaching guide materials for use after radio programmes. Mr. Hakoola also revealed that the Ministry lobbied and collaborated with other Organisations interested in the welfare of children like the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) to train mentors and address the acute problem of mentor turnover as mentors work on purely voluntary basis. The high rate of mentor turnover means that there is need to constantly 159

train more mentors to manage the programme and the collaboration with other Organisations has strengthened the Ministry’s capacity to continue with the IRIs which is now a growing phenomenon especially in Chikuni where enrollment figures into IRIs continue growing to 1,305 pupils in 2011 from 1,129 in 2010. He also explained that the Ministry has in place a monitoring programme to follow through the performance of IRIS pupils whom they also help find places in tertiary educational institutions while those that are still waiting for their Grade Twelve results are encouraged and trained to be mentors in centres they came from. At the time of the interview, there were 10 IRIs under Monze district, 14 under Chikuni Parish and another 4 under Choma district, all serviced by Radio Chikuni. Mr. Hakoola noted that the benefits of using radio Chikuni through the IRI centres to the Ministry of Education was in increased access to educational services by the rural population, bringing on board the rural poor and disadvantaged children who otherwise could not afford formal education either due to long distances or poor family background .The radio station, in this case, Radio Chikuni, has provided a platform to reach these rural children which would otherwise be impossible.

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Figure 27: An IRI class in progress

Source of Figure 27: Taonga School 2011 Annual Report

6.2.5. MONZE DISTRICT LAND ALLIANCE (Mary Kazembe Mhlanga) Interviewed on September 6, 2012.

Monze District Land Alliance is a branch of the Zambia Land Alliance. According to Finance Manager Marry Kazembe Mhlanga, the alliance is an organisation based comprising various interest groupings among them Monze District Women Association (DWA), Youths in Agriculture Association (YAA), Zambia Youth for Development (ZAYODE), Anti Voter Apathy Project (AVAP), People Advocates Forum (PAF), National Agriculture Organisations in Development and Law and Development Association (LADA). According to Mrs. Mhlanga, the objective of the Monze Land Alliance is to promote equitable and secure ownership of land for the rural and urban poor by providing them with information, counselling, technical support, advise and alternative approaches to the use and administration of land. It’s a donor funded networking system dealing in lobbying and advocacy related activities in land issues in Monze District of Southern Province. It covers six Chiefdoms namely Ufwenuka, Moonze, Choona, Choongo, Mwanza and Hamusonde with advocacy members in each of these chiefdoms that help the alliance reach the communities. Mrs. Mhlanga explained during the research that the alliance handles various cases related to land and these involve vulnerable women, men and children who, for various reasons and circumstances, especially after the death of a spouse or parent, are denied access to land and hence deprived of their right to land. The alliance is also interested in the current imbalances in land distribution and endeavour to promote equality in access to land in particular and property generally. This is done through various avenues like roundtable meetings, through adhoc committees comprising government officials, community representatives and the Church, training pro para-legal services by training officers and members of the alliances. This is done through working partnerships with other government agencies like the Zambia Police Service, the Local Authority in Monze district, Ministry of Agriculture among others. Mrs. Mhlanga revealed that in doing all

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these activities, the alliance uses the services of Radio Chikuni in order to reach out to the Tonga speaking in rural parts of the district through advertsing, radio programmes on land issues, through radio listening clubs where members record and share experiences and land topics that are of interest to others in addition to media workshops which is another platform for dissemination of land related stories. She noted that through the radio platform, the alliance was able to reach a vast majority of rural people as evidenced from the increased number of land related cases being reported after the interventions. Community members have also been able now, to take necessary steps in addressing land issues that they are faced with. In 2011, the alliance was able to reach out to about 2000 people in the district through community awareness meeting while a further 8000 was reached through radio programmes. The challenge with regards to Radio Chikuni platform is its limited coverage to some parts of Monze district as some places especially those in hilly areas do not have access due to poor radio reception as it is a Frequency Modulation (FM) signal which, according to Fraser and Estrada (2001, p.35) reach much shorter distances than Amplitude Modulation (AM) signals and require no obstructions in the path such as hills and high buildings which interrupt signals in the same way as they interrupt sight. In other words, the antenna and the radio receiver must be able to ‘see’ each other. In the mountainous and valley areas of the Chikuni and surrounding areas, the challenge of limited coverage as observed by the Land Alliance programme is a reality.

6.2.6. MUKANZUBO KALINDA INSTITUTE (Ms. Yvonne Ndaba, Assistant Director and Father Frank Wafer, Director at the Institute: Interviewed on September 7, 2012)

Mukanzubo Kalinda Institute is located within Chikuni Parish and is run by the Jesuit missionaries. Its objective is to give adequate attention to the local culture in Chikuni and the surrounding areas with the framework of modern culture. According to Director of the institute Father Frank Wafer and his Assistant Director Ms. Yvonne Ndaba, the institute has identified radio as a powerful weapon in preserving culture and people’s

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cultural heritage. Thus, working with Radio Chikuni, the institute identifies problems of the local people and develop programmes that are aired on the station and the programmes are primarily initiatives of the local people who decide what cultural topic they would want discussed on radio. The dual said the cultural programmes have become popular among the local people who have asked the Radio station management to consider changing the time the programmes are aired from 19:30 hours to 20:30 hours when they are all in their homes. Listeners have also asked for wider radio coverage in the hope that their relatives in other parts of the country will also have a chance to listen to the rich cultural programmes from Mukanzubo Kalinda Institute.

6.2.7 LWANGULUKO LADA RADIO LISTENING CLUB (Mrs. Winfridah Mwiinga, Radio Listening Club Committee Member at Parish Level. Interviewed on September 7, 2012.)

Lwanguluko LADA radio listening club is one of the 55 radio listening clubs under Radio Chikuni in which members record programmes of interest in their localities and these are aired on the radio station. According to Mrs. Mwiinga, the members have been trained to record their own programmes which they then take to the radio station for airing and during the time the programme is aired, others call in to ask questions and seek clarifications. Where such questions require expert opinion, the issues are brought to the attention of the relevant authorities to provide responses. Mrs. Mwiinga said in this way, the rural communities have an opportunity to share a lot of information through these radio programmes which otherwise would not be possible. The listening clubs have developed programmes with the help of many partners including the Zambia Social Investment Fund (ZAMSIF), Churches Health Association in Zambia (CHAZ) and Panos Institute Southern Africa (PSAF) which at the time of the research was running a 52 programme series with the Lwanguluko listening club on HIV prevention programmes, behavioral change, prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) and sustainable agriculture. Mrs. Mwiinga believes that the rural people of Chikuni now have access to information than was the case before.

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Figure 28: Women recording a programme which is later aired on the community radio station

Source: Taonga School 2011 Annual Report.

6.2.8 HOME BASED CARE AND TAONGA SCHOOL DIRECTOR, FATHER KELLY MICHELO (Interviewed on September 8, 2012)

The Home Based Care (HBC) project is a Church response to the devastating effect of HIV and AIDS in the communities around Chikuni. Father Kelly Michelo, the Director at the centre explained during the interview that three programmes are run under the HBC which include palliative care and health education, income generating activities and self-help programmes. Under palliative care and health education programmes, Fr. Kelly explained that with the introduction of Antiretroviral (ARV) treatment which can prolong people’s lives even when infected with HIV, there was need to incorporate mechanisms which could help in issues like adherence to treatment and continuous medical check-ups to give meaning to the whole treatment process. Radio programmes 164

on Pastoral talks, sensitization to the community have been developed and in most cases by the affected people themselves on how they cope with the disease burden and these are shared on radio. Peer educators have also been trained under this programme and these develop radio programmes that are primarily meant to educate others on HIV and AIDS matters. Under the income generating programme, the Director explained that for the HBC to be sustainable there is need to generate income for the centre and also empower local people to be able to generate income for themselves. Radio programmes are developed on income generation activities for the centre and also for the people in their homes. Under the self-help programme, the aim is to create capacity in the people through economic empowerment programmes. The rationale for this programme is that while ARVs give hope for a more positive future for the people, it cannot be easy in the presence of poverty which was prevalent in many rural homes. The programmes target households and build their capacities in entrepreneurial skills. The programmes target groups of 60 rural households with small loans which are meant to wean off the community from over 100 years of direct support from Jesuit Missionaries in Chikuni. Again radio programmes have been developed which educate people to build on from what they already have like village chickens and goats. The radio programmes are also meant to encourage people to take the concept of communal garden projects at individual level for their household income generation. Fr. Kelly observed that with the radius of 50Km, it would be impossible for the Parish through which the HBC programmes are implemented to cover and reach all the people currently under the programme without the radio platform which is used for information dissemination, carry out development programmes and the HIV educational programmes which he said had helped bring down the infection rates in the area. On the education front, Fr Kelly explained that the Taonga School Interactive Radio Instruction initiative (IRI) was a response to deep needs of children that were excluded from formal schools on account of poverty and distance as some areas like Kalisowe Village are too remote and have no access to formal education facilities. The high literacy levels made the need for such intervention serious and working with the Ministry of education Directorate of Distance Education (DODE), the IRI programmes were started with their double approach. The

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first programme is the academic one which is learning through radio and runs programmes from grade one up to grade seven and then support pupils to secondary and tertiary education. At the time of the interview two former pupils of Cheelo IRI Centre, the first centre to be started under this intervention had been selected to study at the University of Zambia. At the time of the interview, the two were mentors at the same Cheelo IRI centre where they had been pupils before. The second programme is agro- forestry which is aimed at helping children learn how to grow certain crops and help their parents in farming. The children are also taught how to mitigate the problem of climate change. Out of the 20 schools around Chikuni at the time of the interview, 15 had gardens where children were taught among other things, how to grow Moringa plant as one the sustainable agricultural techniques. According to Fr Kelly, the radio has given children an opportunity to complete their education which otherwise would not have been possible. This has even caught the attention of other community radio stations like Namwianga Community Radio Station which, together with the District Education Board Secretary (DEBS) had visited Chikuni on a learning tour with the view of replicating the IRIs in Kalomo District. Fr Kelly noted that mass communication is a powerful tool for development and poverty reduction as has been demonstrated in Chikuni through the various radio based programmes and hoped other community radio stations countrywide would embrace the IRIs concept because vulnerable children excluded from formal schools for various reasons are found everywhere across the country.

6.2.9. CHIKUNI MISSION HOSPITAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR DR. CLAUDIA TARACHORO (Interviewed on September 10, 2012)

The Executive director for Chikuni Mission Hospital Claudia Tarachoro said in an interview that the hospital extensively used the Chikuni Radio station for various outreach programmes run by the hospital. Dr. Claudia noted that it was also cheaper to use the community radio station than the mainstream media outlets and this has provided a readily available platform for an institution that is not profit-making but need to use

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the media for its operations. Among the noted advantages, the hospital has with the presence of the radio station is the ease with which the institution is now able to call its clients to access various services offered such health campaign for vaccinations against diseases such as polio and measles among others and also for health education programmes like sexual violence which, in the hospital strategy, is an HIV and AIDS prevention mechanism. Through the radio station, Dr. Claudia said the hospital had been able to run HIV and AIDS programmes both for adults and children and there is a notable improvement to adherence to treatment by clients as they are now consistent with their drug collection and are able to properly follow treatment schedules. Dr. Claudia also noted that because of the HIV and AIDS radio programme for children and presented by children who are themselves on antiretroviral treatment (ART), the number of children on ART has increased from 5 percent to 12 percent at the time of the interview. Another notable increase was in the number of males accessing male circumcision services which had moved up from the previous zero per month to between 20 and 30 clients per month. Radio Chikuni provides the platform on which all these programmes were rolled on to the community around the radio station.

6.2.10. LAW AND DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION (LADA) BOARD TREASURER MRS PRECIOUS MIYOBA (Interviewed on September 11, 2012).

The Law and Development Association (LADA) in Monze has been running radio programmes on Radio Chikuni on issues of law, gender issues and human rights. Mrs. Precious Miyoba, who is Board Treasurer at LADA in Monze, said in an interview that the aim of such an intervention was for people to know their human rights and appreciate gender issues. Mrs. Miyoba noted that Radio Chikuni has provided an opportunity for LADA to reach out to rural communities through both its presence in these rural areas and also the use of the local language which people understand. The association has noted a positive response to its programmes as evidenced from a number of questions that they receive from the radio programmes that suggest that people were learning something from the programmes. A lot of gender and human rights abuse

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related cases have been brought to the attention of the association through the radio programmes with the biggest number coming from women and children. Through working with other state agents like the Zambia Police Service Victim Support Unit (VSU) in Monze, Mrs. Miyoba explained that some of cases received through the radio programmes intervention have been taken before the courts of law and convictions secured against perpetrators of the vices.

6.2.11. MONZE DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL COORDINATOR (DACO) MR JUSTINE NGOSA (Interviewed on September12, 2012).

According to Mr. Justine Ngosa who is Monze District Agricultural Coordinator (DACO), the agricultural office do run radio programmes on Chikuni community radio station to promote various activities being undertaken by the office and also to sensitize local people on various issues. “Radio has proved to be an effective tool in reaching our target audiences in the rural areas especially that it uses the local language (Tonga) which the local people understand well,” Mr. Ngosa said this in an interview with this researcher. Mr. Ngosa noted that the radio station has proved the easier way of reaching out to the rural communities and also for them to get information on agro related programmes and activities. Some of these programmes include principles and ideals of cooperatives, agricultural marketing information and conservation agricultural techniques. The community radio station, according to Mr. Ngosa is also affordable compared to the cost incurred on information dissemination using the mainstream media. The local radio station had popularized some programmes like the cooperative principles and ideals which were now being run with the support from farmer’s contributions.

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6.2.12. PANOS INSTITUTE SOUTHERN AFRICA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MS LILLIAN CHIGONA (Interviewed on December 27, 2012.)

Panos Institute Southern Africa looks at community media in Zambia and Chikuni in particular in relation to the needs of the rural people to have a platform through which they can communicate and receive information they need for their daily survival. According to the Executive Director Lillian Chigona, PSAf has been collaborating with a number of community radio stations in Zambia over the last decade and radio Chikuni is just one of them .The use of community radio stations was an opportunity to introduce interactive methodologies for rural communities who normally had no platform where to communicate and indeed receive information. While Ms. Chigona could not say what the impact of such interventions has been with regard to reducing the information divide between the rural people, she noted that the interactive methodologies, through radio programming was one sure way of meeting people’s relevant communication needs. This is because the issues discussed are need based and aimed at finding solutions for the problems the people in a given locality have and the people themselves became part of the solution through availing them a platform through which they can engage either amongst themselves or with relevant authorities and policy makers. “At Panos Institute Southern Africa (PSAf) we believe that the poor and marginalized have all the required knowledge and experience to solve their problems. All they require is a platform where their ideas and input can be accommodated and recognized.

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Figure 29: Community radio provides a platform for the poor and marginalised people to solve their problems.

Source : Taonga School 2011 Annual Report

One such readily available platform is the space and time provided by the country’s media, both mainstream and community media.” (Ellias Banda, Regional Manager for Media Development and ICTs at PSAf, Zambia Daily Mail, December 27, 2012.) At the time of the interview PSAf was running a number of programmes on radio Chikuni in areas of HIV prevention, sustainable agriculture and environment, community based natural resources management and the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT).

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6.2.13. MR AMOS MALUPENGA, FORMER PERMANENT SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING SERVICES (Interviewed on April 14, 2013).

Information and Broadcasting Services Permanent Secretary at the time of the research, Amos Malupenga noted that the intention of Government to allow for the establishment of community radio station across the country was meant to ensure that rural people that had, hitherto, no access to information through the media, were afforded an opportunity to access information they needed for their everyday lives. The lack of access to information by rural communities was due to a number of barriers among them low literacy levels, limited coverage by the national broadcasting radio stations and the language(s) and that tended to prevent them from effectively participating in national affairs as citizens.

“The main reason for establishing community radio stations was to try and bridge the information gap and ensure that rural communities interact and communicate amongst themselves on issues that affected them locally and nationally,” Mr. Malupenga observed.

The Permanent Secretary noted that while the first community radio station was established in an urban area, the concept soon spread to the rural areas where the community radio stations were needed because of the limited access to information in such areas. He said the community radio stations have proved very useful in rural areas especially because of their use of local language(s) which, unlike the mainstream media houses, makes it possible for the rural people to be able to follow, participate and communicate effectively and be part of the rest of the country by discussing and engaging each other in language(s) that the understand better. To this end, the permanent Secretary noted that by and large, community radio stations are serving their purpose in 171

reducing the information gap in rural communities through the promotion of effective communication among the local people.

He, however, cautioned that it is easier for an interest group, be it political or civil society organisation to hijack the role of the community radio station and use it to push for a private agenda and such a radio station would have lost an opportunity to play a role of bridging the information gap and instead project the interest of such a political regime or civil organisation at the expense of serving the rural community for which it was created.

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CHAPTER SEVEN

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

7.0. Introduction

This chapter concludes the discussions on the findings of this study and also makes recommendations and suggests further arrears of research.

7.1. Conclusion

From the findings of this study, it is clear that the people of Chikuni rural community generally have more access to news and information now than before as depicted from the findings in the tables in the previous chapter. There is a strong indication from the findings that there is now available information in diverse areas such as health, education agriculture, culture and tradition to the rural community in Chikuni than before. The end users’ responses in this study brings to the fore strong evidence of the social benefits of community media in Zambia generally and Chikuni in particular despite the difficulties associated with quantifying these benefits. It can be said, on the basis of the findings, that there is now an avenue available by the local community to share information in health going by the high number of respondents who said they now get more information on health than before. The same can be said about information in education, agriculture, culture, gender and child developed and also in politics. Information on commerce and trade, appears to be sparingly available to the community and this underscores the assumption that areas that do not have access to institutions that promote commerce and trade generally tend to suffer from exclusion in those specific areas, in this case commerce and trade. Radio Chikuni as a community radio had now become a conduit for dissemination of health messages especially on the HIV and AIDS pandemic, malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases which the respondents were able to 173

identify, educational instruction as in the IRI centres, social issues like human rights through the Law and Development Association, Monze Land Alliance amongst others that have empowered the marginalised rural people with vital information to integrate themselves into the larger national development agenda. The station has provided a platform for participatory communication involving ordinary citizens who, hitherto, were mere recipients of mass media products that did not take into account their specific needs as a community. The use of radio listening clubs has for instance become an effective communication tool to magnify voices of the marginalised especially that the listeners do not just do passive listening but participate actively in the whole process, raise issues, discuss on them, explore options and seek external support. The research findings have shown that there is community participation in the programming at radio Chikuni as the community members are able to raise development issues affecting them, debate on the issues, explore options for solutions and ask questions that can influence policy or development planning or indeed just enhance their understanding of certain issues, hence bridging the information gap.

Community media generally and Radio Chikuni in particular appears to be an avenue for cultural revival and promotion of indigenous practices that were previously ignored or were difficult to accommodate in the national media. Radio Chikuni for instance, plays host to an annual musical festival commonly known as “Concert” which the respondents in the study strongly felt was a better attempt at reviving rural culture and tradition. The station has also become an instrument of advocacy for change agents who use it to introduce new techniques in agriculture like sustainable agriculture through conservation farming, new learning methods for the vulnerable children who are circumstantially excluded from formal schools, knowledge based empowered in gender violence, land issues through the Land Alliance programmes and an appreciation of human rights through the LADA programmes working with local law enforcement agencies. There is also strong evidence of the awakening of the rural community to the wider national issues and the need to integrate to the wider national community through their insistence on the need for a national coverage of the radio station. From the responses, the 174

community is largely not satisfied with the coverage of the radio station which suggests there increased awareness in the context of national issues which they want to access and possibly influence.

The assessment of Chikuni Community radio station with regard to its effectiveness in bridging the information gap in rural community can be summarized further in the context of the findings of The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) Community Radio Social Impact Assessment Global Evaluation (AMARC 2007, pp. 8-9) which states that the main social impact of community radio is The Voice for the poor and marginalized. The existence of community radio has had a positive impact in the communities as it allows local communities to experience alternative experiences through their access to a proximity media and as an essential medium to allow the voices of the poor and marginalized be heard. The report also indicates that community radio is effective in poverty reduction as access to voice, information, and knowledge are vital factors in facilitating the achievement of poverty reduction and sustainable human development. Voicelessness is viewed in this case as a key dimension of poverty and exclusion. Community radio is effective in ensuring proper governance, it can contribute to rendering governments accountable by enabling ordinary people to question their leaders on matters such as the use of public resources. It is effective in achieving development goals by facilitating communication for key development sectors such as health, education and livelihoods, in empowering women to actively participate in their communities and to become citizens whose voices are heard. It is effective in ensuring inclusion of the marginalized and encouraging public participation, facilitating community level debate, facilitating inclusion and cultural diversity, in salvaging of local languages and knowledge, in conflict resolution as the case was in Sierra Leone’s radio Gbafth started by a rebel soldier of the RUF Ahmed Muckson Sessay earlier alluded to in the previous chapters. Through the Radio listening Clubs and other interactive mechanism the radio station has put in place, there is an attempt by Radio Chikuni to erase the boundary between those who receive and those who impart information. The erasing of these social boundaries have shown that community media 175

can in fact be used to mitigate the knowledge gap theory effects predicted by Tichenor, Donohue and Olien in their Knowledge Gap Hypothesis which posits that when a stimuli is introduced to a community, the educated with access to technology, knowledge and information become richer and better off while the poor lose out.

The findings in this study tend to support the assertions made by Colin Fraser and Sonia Restrepo Estrada in the Community Radio Hand Book “that community radio is a medium that gives voice to the voiceless that serve as the mouthpiece of the marginalised as is at the heart of communication and democratic processes within society. With community radio, citizens have the means to make their views known on decisions that concern them. The notions of transparence and good governance take on new dimensions and democracy is reinforced. Community radio catalyses the development efforts of the rural folks and the underprivileged segments of urban societies, given its exceptional ability to share timely and relevant information on development issues, opportunities, experiences, life skills and public interests. Given the audiences low literacy rate and radio’s ability to involve women and to treat them not only as objects or merely as target audience, but as participating agents and as valuable source, community radio becomes one of the most promising tool for community development,” (Fraser and Restrepo Estrada 2001, p. iii). In the study of radio Chikuni, the women and other underprivileged rural folks have, against a backdrop of low literacy levels that have hitherto been a barrier to their participation in national issues, found an avenue to access information and also to be heard on matter that concerns their lives.

There is evidence from the findings that community radio in the context of this study, has provided a credible means to close the information gap in rural areas as people have access to information they never had in health as it relates to the prevention and management of various diseases, education through non-formal educational schemes, gender, human rights, child health and development, social, cultural and economic development. They also have an opportunity to learn new techniques in agriculture such 176

as conservation farming and crop marketing strategies for their produce amongst others. As AMARC observed, community radio in particular puts the tools of communications into the hands of communities for cultural expression, news and information, dialogue and development (AMARC 2007, pp. 81-82) and this can be said of Radio Chikuni, which with the various initiatives put in place, has placed in the hands of the local community, tools of communication for their cultural expression, news and information, dialogue and development for the betterment of the rural people through the reduction of the information gap and fostering social inclusiveness.

The measures and techniques put in place by the community radio station tend to give a “voice to the voiceless” by encouraging community participation through listening clubs, it promotes communication technology transfer to the rural communities through basic training given in production and use of communication equipment like recorders, empowering rural communities to define and determine some of the programmes and their content aired on the radio station through programmes like Kaulu Kalaamutwe from Mukanzubo Kalinda Institute. The rural community has been given an opportunity by the radio station to acquire knowledge and skills in handling media equipment through their local programmes production and in the process, being integrated into the community participatory communication approach that station is promoting. Radio Chikuni has also provided an avenue for the spread of health messages and sharing of health information among groups and peers. The information relates to malaria, cholera and the HIV and AIDS pandemic which are sponsored by the Monze health office as indicated in radio station’s programming schedule (Table 2) and others that are sponsored by Bunyina Centre which is a programme presented by HIV positive children, programmes on ART treatment and male circumcision with remarkable improvement in client response as observed by Chikuni Hospital Executive Director Dr. Claudia Tarachoro. The information sharing platform is not only in health related information but other areas such human rights spearheaded by the LADA, land management, acquisition and distribution led by the Monze Land Alliance and other member NGOs and education through the learning centres for both children and adults in the IRI 177

scheme. Radio Chikuni has also provided for a platform for cultural promotion and revival where practices, language and other aspects of culture such as dress and traditional music that the national media like ZNBC TV and ZNBC Radio could not seriously accommodate. Two prominent features of this aspect on Radio Chikuni are the annual musical concert organized by the Chikuni Radio station and Mukanzubo Kalinda Institute interventions as explained by director Father Wafer.

In the final analysis of the findings of this study, it is safe to conclude the radio Chikuni in the rural community of Chikuni in Monze district of Southern Province has been an effective tool used to significantly reduce the information gap that existed among the rural population from the time the radio station started its operation compared to the time when the local people relied only on the national media and other forms of media as a source of their news and information on various issues that affected their lives as citizens of the country.

7.1.1. Recommendations

The researcher found that there is need for Radio Chikuni to address some of the issues that have been raised by the community or observed by the researcher during the course of carrying out the study, among them are the following:

 There is need to give volunteers a token of appreciation to encourage them to continue with their work. Radio Listening Clubs which form a strong link between the community and the radio station thrives on the spirit of volunteerism. Members of the Radio listening clubs produce programmes that are aired by Radio Chikuni on a voluntary basis, notwithstanding the fact that the Radio station provides required equipment. Members of the clubs observed that some of the programmes they produce are sponsored, for instance the

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programmes of governance sponsored by Panos Southern Africa Institute and some health programmes sponsored by the Churches Health Association of Zambia (CHAZ). The volunteers feel that they should also be given some token from the sponsorship of the programmes they run. This over time, according to Mrs. Mwiinga, has discouraged some club members who feel they are not being motivated. The Radio station should work out minimal incentives to the clubs especially from sponsored programmes.

 The coverage area of the radio station is another issue that the station could consider. Much as it depends on the licence conditions, there are intimations from government that community radio station would be allowed to increase their coverage once logistics are in place. Radio Chikuni should brace itself for this challenge both in term of equipment and human capital to ensure that they are able to increase their coverage. Listeners deeply need the radio station to increase its coverage as evidenced from the expression in the findings earlier on cited on whether or not listeners are satisfied with the coverage of the radio station.

 Radio Chikuni needs to invest in reliable transport for field workers in order to enable them move around uninhibited for collection of news and information. At the time of the research, the station only had one vehicle used for field work and this was not enough considering that it was the same vehicle which was being used for other station operations.

 Radio Chikuni should also consider investing more in staff development. Though the station indicated they had enough manpower to run for now, the challenges ahead especially if the move to increase coverage materializes, they will be overstretched with the current establishment both in terms of numbers and capacity.

 As the world moves toward Digitising the broadcasting industry, community radio stations will have to move at the same pace and ensure that they brace

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themselves for these technological changes which so far, appear not to be optional in the broadcasting industry. It was, however, discovered during the research that Chikuni community radio had already ordered equipment that would enable the radio station to switch to digital broadcasting when the change over time comes. It is, however, important that the acquisition of such equipment is matched with the recruitment and retention of qualified technical staff which is still a challenge in most community radio stations due to their unattractive conditions of service.

 In light of the Government programme to set up Provincial Television stations, community radio stations will face stiffer competition from these provincial television stations because their advantage which comes with the combination of audio and visual. Improved programme that remain relevant to the needs and aspirations of the local communities will be the most effective tool community radio stations would have to consider to remain effective and relevant to the needs of the local communities they save.

 Management at Chikuni radio station needs to seriously take note of some of the concerns raised by the respondents like issues of the station closing early which reflects the thirsty the community has for more information but may not have been met fully, issues of expanding coverage area to reach more rural communities need attention especially in view of the proposals that Government may allow community radio stations wider broadcasting areas than they currently have and also the issues of the need for presenters to improve on the command of the English language as observed by some respondents is critical for management to take care of.

 Community radio stations have no solid financial base to support their operations and yet they do need such finances. It is against this background that there is need for community radio stations to put in place strong policies that would insulate them from being used by institutions or indeed people that wield strong

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financial power to push for their personal agenda at the expense of community interests using their financial muscle.

7.1.2. Further Research

This research was done in one area only that is serviced by Radio Chikuni. As indicated earlier, there are many community radio stations spread across the country operating under different social, political and economical environments. So, the findings from this one research may not be conclusive enough to represent the situation in the whole country. There is need for a much wider and more encompassing research of the community radio station in Zambia if a clearer picture of their impact with regard to bridging the information gap in rural communities is to be established.

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Community Media in Zambia. (http://.www.researchsea.com/html/article.phd. Accessed on 15.10.11.

Dalene. B.M., 2007, Community Radio and Participation: The Case of Siyaya FM (http://www.coms.ukzn.ac.za/images/MA-dissertations/Dalene/community radio and participation.pdf) Accessed on 29.10.12.

Lewis Peter. M 2008, “Promoting Social Cohesion: The Role of Community Media,” Report Prepared for the Council Group of Specialist in Media Diversity. http://.www.amarc.org/conference-europe/document/promoting-social-cohesion-the- Role-of-Community-Media.pdf. Accessed on 24.11.12.

Mhlanga, B., 2006. Community Radio as Dialogic and Participatory: A critical Analysis of Governance, Control and Community Participatory, A Case Study of XK FM Radio (http://www.coms.ukzn.ac.za/images/MA-dissertations/Mhlanga/radio as dialogic.pdf) Accessed on 29.10.12

Muzyamba, F., 2009, Country Report on Community Media/Local Media in Zambia – Paper Presented at a Workshop in Lusaka on June 09, 2009 (http://www.sockom.helsinki.fi/commedia/muzyamba. Accessed on 15.10.11

Muzyamba, F., and Nyondo, R., Community Media in Zambia – Background Research. (http://.www.bing.com. Accessed on 15.10.11.

Phiri, B., 2002, The Role and Governance of Community Radios in Zambia: The case Study of Radio Icengelo, University of Natal, South Africa (http://.www.ccms.ukzn.ac.za/images/MA-dissertations/Phiri.pdf. Accessed on 29.10.12

Radio Communication Act No. 25 of 1994.

Interviews

Hamoonga J. 2012, Interview with Radio Chikuni Station Manager Jyde Hamoonga on August 28, 2012. 186

APPENDICES

i) Introduction letter ii) Questionnaire iii) Interview guide for in-depth interviews.

187

INTRODUCTORY LETTER

THE UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA

SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF MASS COMMUNICATION

Dear Respondent,

I’m a student from the University of Zambia in Lusaka studying for the Master of Mass Communication (MMC) degree. I'm carrying out a research on the role of the community media in bridging the information gap in rural communities. This questionnaire is designed to collect information on the above subject with a specific study of Radio Chikuni in Monze district of Southern Province. You have been randomly selected as one of the respondents in this study to give your opinion and assessment of what the community media in this regards has been. Please note that your responses are purely for purposes of this academic research and will not be attributed to you in anyway, either by myself or any organisation that am affiliated to academically or professionally. In order to maintain the anonymity of your responses, you are, therefore, not obliged to give your name or any identification marks on this questionnaire.

Thanking you in anticipation.

Yours Faithfully

Liversage Mulinda

STUDENT: UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA

DEPARTMENT OF MASS COMMUNICATION

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QUESTIONNAIRE

GENERAL INFORMATION (Circle the appropriate number)

Sex: (1) Male (2) Female

Age: (1) 15 – 20 Years

(2) 21 – 25 Years

(3) 26 – 30 Years

(4) 31 – 35 Years

(5) 36 – 40 Years

(6) 41 – 45 Years

(7) Above 45 Years

Marital Status: (1) Single (2) Married (3) Divorced (4) Separated (5) Widowed

Highest level of education attained: (1)Lower primary (2)Upper primary (3)Junior Secondary (4)Senior Secondary (5)College (6)University (7) None of the above

Occupation: (1)Self-employed (2)Farmer (3)Teacher (4)Health Worker (5)Agriculturalist (6) Housewife (7)Others (Specify) .…………………………………

What is your religious affiliation: (1)Adventist (2)Pentecostal (3)UCZ (4)New Apostolic (5)Pilgrim Wesleyan (6)Brethren In Christ (7)Church of Christ (8)Catholic (9)Others (Specify) ………………………………………………………

How much money do you earn in a month?......

What properties do you own?

S/N Property Quantity

189

1

2

3

4

5

Do you own a radio at your home and tune in to listen? (1)Yes (2) No

Do you listen to Radio Chikuni? (1)Yes (2) No

What time do you listen to radio? (1) Morning -06-12Hrs (2) Afternoon-12-18Hrs (3) Evening- After 18Hrs

How often do you listen to radio? (1) Very frequently (2) Frequently (3) Sometimes (4) Rarely (5) Very rarely

What language(s) of communication is the most used in your area? (1) Tonga (2) English (3) Lozi (4) Any Other (Specify)…………………………………………………………………………………

What language(s) of communication is the most on radio Chikuni? ? (1) Tonga (2) English (3) Lozi (4) Any Other (Specify)…………………………………………………………………………………

OTHER INFORMATION (Please circle the appropriate number)

Prior to radio Chikuni, did you have access to adequate news and information in your community? Yes (1) No (2) Partially (3)

What was source of this information or news? (1) ZNBC TV (2) ZNBC Radio (3) Sky FM (4) Times of Zambia (5) Zambia Daily Mail (6) The Post (7) Public Meetings (8) 190

PA Vehicles (9)Pamphlets/Brochures/Posters (10) Billboards (11) Others (Specify)………………………………………………………………………….

What is your current preferred source of information? (1) ZNBC TV (2) ZNBC Radio (3) Sky FM (4) Times of Zambia (5) Zambia Daily Mail (6) The Post (7) Public Meetings (8) PA Vehicles (9)Pamphlets/Brochures/Posters (10) Billboards (11) Radio Chikuni (12) Others (Specify)………………………………………………………..

GIVE YOUR OPINION ON THE LIST BELOW (Tick in the appropriate box)

I now get enough information on health from radio Chikuni than before.

Strongly Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree

1 2 3 4 5

Give an example of health information you get. ………………………………………………………………………………………

I now get enough information on education from radio Chikuni than before.

Strongly Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree

1 2 3 4 5

Give an example of education information you get. ………………………………………………………………………………………

I now get enough information on agriculture from radio Chikuni than before.

Strongly Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly

191

Agree Disagree

1 2 3 4 5

Give an example of agricultural information you get. ………………………………………………………………………………………

I now get enough information on Commerce from radio Chikuni than before.

Strongly Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree

1 2 3 4 5

Give an example of Commerce information you get. ………………………………………………………………………………………

I now get enough information on Gender and Justice from radio Chikuni than before.

Strongly Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree

1 2 3 4 5

Give an example of Gender and Justice Information you get. ………………………………………………………………………………………

192

I now get enough information on Child health and development from radio Chikuni than before.

Strongly Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree

1 2 3 4 5

Give an example of Child health and Development information you get. ………………………………………………………………………………………

The information has improved my social well being

Strongly Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree

1 2 3 4 5

The information has improved my political awareness

Strongly Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree

1 2 3 4 5

The information has improved my economic well being

Strongly Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree

1 2 3 4 5

The information has improved my awareness to gender, justice, child health and development in my community.

193

Strongly Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree

1 2 3 4 5

Education providers use the radio to reach the community than before

Strongly Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree

1 2 3 4 5

Health providers use the radio to reach the community than before

Strongly Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree

1 2 3 4 5

Agricultural extension services providers use the radio to reach the community than before

Strongly Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree

1 2 3 4 5

The station has professional capacity to function well

Strongly Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree

1 2 3 4 5

The station has the technical capacity to deliver to the community

Strongly Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly

194

Agree Disagree

1 2 3 4 5

The radio station plays and important role in developing and preserving the cultural heritage of the community

Strongly Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree

1 2 3 4 5

There is community involvement in the programmes of the radio station

Strongly Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree

1 2 3 4 5

I’am satisfied with the coverage area of the radio station.

Strongly Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree

1 2 3 4 5

I understand the languages used by the radio station.

Strongly Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree

1 2 3 4 5

I now have access to the news and information than before the station started operating

Strongly Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree

195

1 2 3 4 5

I have changed the way I do certain things because of listening to radio Chikuni

Strongly Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree

1 2 3 4 5

I listen to radio Chikuni in order to get the information I’m interested in

Strongly Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree

1 2 3 4 5

The radio station has an effective feedback system

Strongly Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree

1 2 3 4 5

What is your favourite radio station in Zambia......

What is your favourite programme on radio Chikuni?......

Who is your favourite presenter on radio Chikuni?......

What don’t you like about the radio Station?......

What don’t you like about the programmes on radio Chikuni?......

What don’t you like about the presenters on radio Chikuni?......

Rank the following sources of information in order of your priority on a scale of 1-6, with 1 being the most preferred source and 6 being the least preferred source.

196

S/N Source of Information Ranked

1 Headman

2 Clergy

3 Experts

4 Community Leaders

5 Opinion Leaders

6 Any Other

Who is the source of information on radio Chikuni on the programmes listed below?

S/N Programme Source Position Held

1 Health

2 Education

3 Commerce

4 Agriculture

5 Gender, Justice, Child Health and Dev.

6 Culture

Other general comments you wish to make. ……………………………………………………………………………………………

Thank you very much for your co-operation.

197

INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Cultural values, beliefs and attitudes of the people

Community’s ability to access information from the Radio station

Other sources of information in relation to the radio station

General reaction and responses to media by the community

Assessment of the information gap

AUDIENCE NEEDS, INTERESTS AND CONCERNS

What kind of information community expects to get from the station.

What kind of information they actually get

Sufficiency of radio broadcast time and timings

Is the information useful in any way in their lives

Radio station’s policies, practices, programming

How accessible is the station for feedback and community participation

AUDIENCES CONSTRAINTS

Major problems faced by the community in accessing information

Problems faced in sharing the information

Suggestions on how such problem can be addressed

WHO IS THE SOURCE OF YOUR INFORMATION IN THE PROGRAMMES LISTED BELOW?

198

S/N PROGRAMME SOURCE POSITION

1 Health

2 Education

3 Commerce

4 Agriculture

5 Gender

6 Culture

199

LIST OF PEOPLE INTERVIEWED IN IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS FOR QUALITATIVE DATA

S/N NAME ORGANISATION POSITION DATE INTERVIEWED

1 Mr. Sylvester Bukoko Hambaale Village Headman August 28, 2012

2 Mr. Costantino Hakalembe Makondo Village Headman August 28, 2012

3 Mrs. Winfridah Mwiinga Lwanguluko Radio Committee September 7, 2012 Listening Club Member

4 Dr. Claudia Tarachoro Chikuni Mission Executive September 10, Hospital Director 2012

5 Fr Frank Wafer Mukanzubo Kalinda Director September 7, 2012 Institute

6 Ms. Yvonne Ndaba Mukanzubo Kalinda Assistant September 7, 2012 Institute Director

7 Mrs. Marry Kazembe Monze Land Finance September 7, 2012 Mhlanga Alliance Manager

8 Mrs. Precious Miyoba Law and Board September 11, Development Treasurer 2012 Association (LADA)

9 Mr. Winfred Hakoola Ministry of Education September 7, Education, Monze Standards 20012

200

DEBS Office Officer

10 Fr Kelly Michelo Taonga Director September 8, 2012 School/Home Based Care

11 Mr. Justine Ngosa Ministry of District September12, 2012 Agriculture-Monze Agricultural District Coordinator

12 Ms. Lillian Chigona Panos Southern Executive December 27, Africa Institute Director 2012

13 Mr. Matthews Matongo Chipembele Village Headman August 28, 2012

14 Mr. Jyde Hamoonga Station Manager Chikuni August 28, 2012 Community January 28, 2013 Radio

15 Mr. Amos Malupenga Permanent Secretary Ministry of April 14, 2013 Information and Broadcasting Services

201