CONSTRUCTING IDENTITY THROUGH COMMUNITY RADIO: Community Building in Newfoundland and Northern Ireland by © Erin McKee A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Women’s Studies Department of Women’s Studies Memorial University of Newfoundland April 2012 St. John’s Newfoundland Table of Contents ABSTRACT III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS IV CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION TO STUDY 1 1.2 BACKGROUND TO STUDY 2 1.3 PURPOSE OF STUDY 5 1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 5 1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY 6 1.6 LIMITATIONS OF STUDY 7 1.7 DEFINITIONS OF COMMUNITY RADIO 7 1.8 CHAPTER OUTLINES 10 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW FROM THE SITES 12 2.1 INTRODUCTION 12 2.2 COMMUNITY RADIO IN NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR & CANADA: PRESENTING AND CELEBRATING OUR HERITAGE 13 2.3 COMMUNITY RADIO IN NORTHERN IRELAND: TRADITIONS OF GRASSROOTS ORGANISING AND RESISTANCE 17 2.4 CONCLUSION 24 CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW (THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK) 25 3.1 INTRODUCTION 25 3.2 (FEMINIST) CULTURAL STUDIES 25 3.3 VOICE, AGENCY, AND REPRESENTATION 31 3.4 COMMUNITY RADIO, COMMUNITY BUILDING, AND PARTICIPATION 34 3.5 CONCLUSION 42 CHAPTER 4: METHODOLOGY 44 4.1 INTRODUCTION 44 4.2 LOCATING THE RESEARCH WITHIN FEMINIST PRINCIPLES 44 4.3 RESEARCH DESIGN AND RATIONALE 48 4.4 ETHICAL CONCERNS IN THIS RESEARCH 48 4.5 PARTICIPANTS AND SAMPLE RECRUITMENT 52 i 4.6 DATA COLLECTION AND SECUREMENT 55 4.7 DATA ANALYSIS 56 4.8 CONCLUSION 59 CHAPTER 5: PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA 61 5.1 INTRODUCTION 61 5.2 RESEARCH SITES: 64 5.2.1 Community Radio in Norris Point, Newfoundland 65 5.2.2 Community Radio in Belfast, Northern Ireland 67 5.2.3 Radio further afield in rural Newfoundland 72 5.3 COMMONALITIES & THEMES 75 5.3.1 Festival radio: a celebration of culture and stories 76 5.3.2 Participation and volunteerism: how to make community radio work 87 5.3.3 Voice, marginalisation, and access: is community radio really a ‘voice for the voiceless’? 100 5.3.4 Building strong communities: grassroots organising and community development 112 5.3.5 Technology and accessibility 122 5.4 CHALLENGES OF COMMUNITY RADIO 129 5.5 CONCLUSION 137 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION 142 6.1 INTRODUCTION 142 6.2 KEY FINDINGS IN THIS RESEARCH 145 6.3 POSSIBILITIES FOR FUTURE RESEARCH ON COMMUNITY RADIO 147 BIBLIOGRAPHY 152 APPENDICES 159 APPENDIX A: SAMPLE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 159 APPENDIX B: SAMPLE CONSENT FORM 161 APPENDIX C: SAMPLE EMAILS SENT TO POTENTIAL PARTICIPANTS 162 ii Abstract This research examines the social and cultural impacts of community radio projects in rural Newfoundland (Norris Point and Tilting) and in West Belfast, Northern Ireland. The study considers the following questions: How do people construct community identity through community radio? To what extent does it provide ‘a voice for the voiceless’? The research found that, particularly in conjunction with community festivals, community radio stations can provide a hopeful, fun, and unique space for community engagement. Community radios can also be used to revitalise areas economically. Through their potential for teamwork across different constituencies, they can provide new possibilities for literacy and media education, technical skills development, tourism initiatives, and the promotion of local knowledge, language, and culture. The research also highlights barriers to participation and challenges faced by these non-profit, small- scale community radio stations. In order to function effectively, that is, to fulfil its community building initiatives, community radio requires active participation, lest it be simply more noise on the dial. iii Acknowledgements Frequently I considered not finishing this thesis project – life gets in the way and ‘impostor syndrome’ makes it difficult for a first-time researcher – but I felt that the stories and perspectives of my interview participants needed to be documented and shared. This thesis was a long time in the making, and a great many people contributed to its completion. In particular, I’d like to acknowledge the graduate students in the Women’s Studies program who brainstormed and held court at Bitters Pub from 2004- 2006; my interview participants and everyone who connected me with various people and sites; my co-supervisors, Drs. Ursula Kelly and Elizabeth Yeoman, for their patience and direction; and my friends and family. Karen Rowe, Onar Usar, and Martha Wells all provided keen insight in their edits of my writing in its many stages (along with hugs, walks, and coffee breaks). My parents, Riva and Ed, helped me get this project started. My partner Greg Marche put up with me during the final writing stages of this project and his support and encouragement greatly facilitated its eventual completion. Thank you everyone for your kindnesses. iv Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Introduction to study [T]hat’s probably what community radio is about, giving people access, no matter what gender you are, what age you are, what religious background you have, what political background you have, what nationality you are… it’s about giving people a voice. And giving people a voice who live at the local level, who your radio station’s going to serve (Emma, personal communication) When I first began to explore the idea of a research project on community radio in Newfoundland, one of the frequent questions I would get from people was: why radio? Do people even listen to radio anymore? Here’s how I came to study this topic, and how community media, and radio in particular, is still a relevant means for local activism and social change. I began volunteering at CHMR-FM, Memorial University’s campus and community radio station, when I was a teenager in 1994, and I stayed for over ten years. Looking back, it was one of the first moments in which I felt to be a member of a community. Coming into contact with others to discuss music and politics, learn technical skills, organise for and promote causes we believed in, all while accessing a university community for the first time was an amazing learning experience. Meeting and interacting with the many volunteers, staff, and visitors to the station over the years has been immeasurably enriching – full of conflicts and friendships and working relationships and dreams of social change – and radio has been an interest ever since. As I continue to meet and speak with others who have been involved in community media projects over the years, my curiosity has grown. How do other stations operate? What kinds of shows are broadcast? Who listens to their radio station? What communities do they serve? A lot of buzz about community radio pays lip service to the importance of “giving a voice to the voiceless”; what does this really mean? Can community radio really accomplish this? What sorts of spaces exist for women and feminism in community radio, and are community identities reflected and represented in on-air programming and station participation? As audio equipment and computer 1 technology become more affordable, have the possibilities for creating media that represents our communities changed? Is community radio still relevant in this age of the Internet? For this project I conducted 14 qualitative interviews with volunteers and staff of community radio stations and individuals involved in community development organisations in rural Newfoundland and West Belfast, Northern Ireland. This thesis details the results of those interviews – the radio stations identified here aim to provide spaces in which we can share our stories, music, language, and cultural heritage, and I examine the roles that local radio can play in shaping communities, and the possibilities for community building via radio. The remainder of this chapter will introduce you to my research locations, attempt to answer the question ‘what is community radio?’ and describe how it is important to many people worldwide, comment on feminist voice in community radio, and provide a description of the chapters to follow. 1.2 Background to study I travelled to Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 2007 to visit my father’s family and spend time with my grandmother, whom I don’t see often enough. My father grew up in Andersonstown, West Belfast, and though he has been away many years, he has always encouraged my brother and me to maintain connections with the area and our family abroad. My interviews in Belfast were a somewhat serendipitous occurrence – I’d hoped to learn more about the local community radio stations in the West Belfast area I’d researched prior to arriving, and managed to secure introductions to both Féile FM and Raidió Fáilte. My interviews there primarily focused on those two stations and related organisations: Féile FM, a community radio station located in the Conway Mill Community Centre; its parent organisation, Féile an Phobail; Raidió Fáilte, an Irish- language community radio station situated in the Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich Arts 2 Centre; and Fáilte Feirste Thiar, an organisation promoting West Belfast Tourism, located next door to the Cultúrlann on the Falls Road. Equipped with new examples of how community radio can operate and inspired by my discussions with community radio activists in Belfast, I was curious as to how radio had been used similarly in this province to encourage civic participation. Encouraged by these experiences, I set out to explore community radio in rural Newfoundland. Participatory community media has been facilitated in Newfoundland and Labrador at least since the 1960s, and much has been written on the interactive television broadcasts of the MUN Extension Service on Fogo Island, globally known as the Fogo Process. Did this kind of community building through media still exist on the island? In 2008, I moved to the Bonne Bay area, which also comprises Gros Morne National Park [GMNP].