Listening to the listeners: intersections of participation, voice, and development in community radio

Abstract

Community radio has long been considered a “voice for voiceless”. But what good is a voice if no-one is listening? This thesis explores role of listening in community radio. Specifically, how community radio broadcasters in India listen to their audiences and how these interactions influence broadcast content and other station activities. In discussing this, this research also examines effect of a agenda upon community radio stations in India. Employing an interpretive framework of cognitive justice, this research employs a bricolage-inspired approach to ethnography. The Hindi term jugaad reflects community radio’s contingent, determined, occasionally haphazard spirit, and therefore forms basis of methodology. A jugaad approach, in this case, means a multi-sited qualitative study that takes an adaptive approach and utilises methods from ethnography and other approaches as appropriate. In alignment with this jugaad methodology, methods of data collection included participant observation, interviews, Kusenbach’s (2003) “go-alongs”, and listener storytelling. Three types of indepth, semi-structured interviews were conducted: listener focus groups, staff group interviews, and one-on-one interviews with key informants. The final method was listener storytelling which invited to share personal narratives regarding their relationship and interactions with radio stations. Data were then analysed using a combination of constructivist grounded theory and narrative analysis. Data collection took place at two rural community radio stations in South India. Though identities of stations themselves have been loosely disguised, general location of this research is within state of Tamil Nadu in south of India. The foremost findings of this research relate to influence of a agenda on community radio sector in India. Manyozo’s (2017) concept of the spectacle of development provides a useful frame for understanding insidious ways in which shapes lives of so-called 'beneficiaries' at all levels. The spectacle of was observed throughout research data through ways that audiences and station staff interpreted and performed development. Despite participatory, horizontal flows of communication espoused in community radio literature, there was clear evidence of a modernisation discourse operating through a top-down transmission of information. While spectacle of clearly influences work of community radio stations in India, there were examples of how spectacle and subsequent spectres can be subverted. One such example was when community radio stations act as amplification of local or indigenous knowledge communication systems. This was observed through amplification of local technical knowledge, as evidenced by knowledge sharing practices of farmers, as well as cultural knowledge, which could be seen in preservation of local traditions and sharing of various aspects of different cultures. Community radio is intended as a participatory medium, but spectacle of and other contextual factors serve to limit who can participate and how. What emerged from research was value or meaning that audience members derived from their participation, however limited or restricted it was. Audience members derived value in several areas - voice, ownership, identity, and agency - all of which are collectively termed meaningful participation”. The final area of findings relates to listening, which emerged as a way of subverting deeply entwined power structures to create new communicative spaces. Creating these spaces requires those in positions of power, such as community radio broadcasters, to relinquish this power and act as listeners themselves to work towards political equality. For community radio stations working within a agenda, audience members most appreciate programming and activities that are deeply embedded within contextual environment of community and are based on listening to their needs and interests. The broader implications of these findings offer insight into how stations might design programming and activities to deeply engage with their audiences and embed themselves as an essential part of local media landscape.