At first glance SMS text messages would seem like a natural for inclusion in a community radio station’s essential toolkit. SMS messages are inexpensive and easy-to-use and in recent years the mobile phones that are needed for sending and receiving them have become ubiquitous. However, a survey of recent projects indicates that use of SMS messages among community media in the developing world is still at an early stage. In most stations SMS use is informal. The few cases identified of community stations making more complex use of SMS messages have accompanied political crises or natural disasters and have inevitably been donor financed. There are few, if any, experiences of complex uses of SMS by community media without external funding and technical support, even though the financial and technical resources required are minimal.
Monthly Archive for July, 2008
An article on the Science and Development Network (Pod-ready: Podcasting for the developing world) takes another look at podcasting and development, with a focus on the SIRU project by Practical Action (formerly ITDG) in Peru and the e-TukTuk that is part of Sri Lanka’s Kothmale Community radio project. Both of the projects are presented elsewhere on this blog.
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