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. 1 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. 2 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, 3 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