In an article in the online publication Wajibu, Grace Githaiga, Executive Director of EcoNews Africa and Vice-President of AMARC, argues that “the Internet has a better chance to succeed as a tool for development and participation if it is linked to existing communication and information experiences.”
The comparative advantages of the Internet look good on paper. However, the challenges in making the Internet a useful tool in places where safe water, let alone electricity, are unavailable are many. Wireless technology and the convergence with community radio and video, are already signalling the way. But technology alone may not be the answer if culture and identity are not at the heart of the discussion. When a new technology is introduced to a different social setting, what is transferred is not only the technology itself, but also the social use of it: a set of assumptions and practices that have emerged from another context and other needs. Therefore, support for capacity building and training which goes beyond access and basic applications and addresses personal, institutional and systemic barriers, as well as content development, is important.
Read the article Community radio & ICTs: Can the poor benefit?
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Ideals indicate that the poor can benefit. But this benefit is only as far as analogue radio is concerned. In developing countries where modifications on traditional radio technology such as podcasting, Internet and two-way radio in the form of telephone calls in live programmes, the voiceless can hardly have their voices heard. The implication is that an elite group will naturally emerge within the so-called voiceless and overturn the intensions of community radio: management and programming by the people it serves; non-profit-making; accountability to the intended audience; and participation by the people it serves. The fact that most community radios have either government institutions, non-government Organisations or individuals supporting their stay on air means they can easily dominate the stations with their views at the expense of the voiceless. The rich, the educated and those with political or religious power end up dominating the media because they can have the access and the means to contribute.
Ivan Lukanda
Makerere University