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<H1><FONT color=#0000ff>Radio and Development in Africa: A Concept
Paper</FONT></H1>
<H3 class=field-label>Summary</H3>
<DIV class=field-item>
<P>This 58-page paper was prepared for the International Development Research
Centre (IDRC) to guide the "Radio, Convergence, and Development in Africa"
research programme, designed to explore traditional radio and gain an
understanding of how information and communication technologies (ICTS) can
enhance the sector, as well as the current impact and potential of radio as a
development tool in Africa. According to the paper, radio is still the dominant
mass medium in Africa with the widest geographical reach and the highest
audiences compared with television (TV), newspapers, and other ICTs. The author
states that radio seems to have proven itself as a developmental tool,
particularly with the rise of community and local radios, which have facilitated
a far more participatory and horizontal type of communication. According to the
paper, there has been a re-discovery of radio in the context of new ICTs, with
technology making radio into a more two-way medium. Radio can also help bridge
the digital divide by providing a powerful tool for information dissemination
and access, especially for hard-to-reach rural audiences.</P>
<P>The paper explains that one of the main challenges for developmental content
on African radio is the need to produce programmes on a tight budget. The
prevailing culture of African radio is that of the live broadcast, rather than
pre-prepared programmes (i.e. dramas, magazines, talk-shows involving experts),
although there are many excellent examples in the latter categories. Advantages
offered by the internet are still hampered mainly by cost and infrastructure
problems, but there is a definite trend towards African broadcasters gradually
getting online and using the web to network with each other, enhance their
output, get themselves known in the wider world (websites and blogging), and to
build their own capacities. There is also still little known about the ways in
which the internet is impacting on African radio, although mobile phones have
revolutionised radio reporting and audience participation.</P>
<P>This report identifies and discusses some of the challenges facing radio,
including issues of gender and minority access and inclusion in radio
broadcasting; the issue of inciting violence and radio's "double-edged" nature
in vulnerable societies; questions of sustainability and whether or not
developmental - and/or 'public-service' - radio is a viable concern from an
economic standpoint. Underlying all these questions is the challenge of how to
measure the impact of radio; finding appropriate methodological tools and forums
to do so; and the problem of defining and researching behaviour change. </P>
<P>According to the author, looking at future trends, technology is changing
fast but seems to be enhancing rather than replacing radio. Future developments
involving the convergence of radio and mobile telephony are particularly
exciting but internet-based radio, pod-casting, and “any time any place”
radio-listening via mobile devices such as MP3 players are some way off. Radio
is likely to be challenged increasingly by TV, although this is actually a
slower process than may first appear. At the level of international donor
support, radio has been brought back into the ICT family, and there is renewed
interest at the policy level.</P>
<P>The paper suggests that systematic and reliable data on the radio sector is
underdeveloped or non-existent and this is hampering commercial and aid
investment. Thus, there is a need for “Radio, Convergence, and Development in
Africa” to conduct research to better understand the sector and the potential
impacts that can be had from enhancing the medium with the use of ICTs. The
report suggests that research be undertaken in the following areas: </P>
<P><I>Baseline data:</I><BR></P>
<UL type=square>
<LI>statistical information and mapping of radio stations and audiences -
particularly quantitative audience information about rural areas and complete
and up to date directories of media in Africa;
<LI>existing patterns and trends in technology-access by radio, and more data
on how broadcasters are using new ICTs; and
<LI>qualitative baseline data about African radio audiences and about content
providers, particularly governments. </LI></UL>
<P></P>
<P><I>Impact evidence and analysis:</I><BR></P>
<UL type=square>
<LI>indicators, field methods, and analytical tools developed for rigorous
evaluations;
<LI>socio-political analyses of how radio improves debate and what difference
debate makes to development;
<LI>research on the impact of new ICTs and technology convergence on the radio
sector;
<LI>evidence of ways radio broadcasting can/could reduce corruption, influence
public policy agendas, influence pro-poor policy-making and service provision,
and reach the chronically poor;
<LI>cost-benefit analyses of radio use in development projects;
<LI>analyses of the relative capacities of public, private, and community
radio to reach the poor;
<LI>analyses of the real individual behaviour and social changes brought about
by radio, especially over the long-term; and
<LI>documentation of the impacts of training, capacity-building, and
organisational development in the radio sector. </LI></UL>
<P><I>Analysis of future trends:</I><BR></P>
<UL type=square>
<LI>how Africans are likely to use and experience radio in the future -
particularly the future of wifi radio and convergence with mobile telephony;
<LI>where public-service broadcasting is going, in the context of economic
liberalisation; and
<LI>future revenue streams and how pro-poor radio can develop existing sources
of income, generate new ones, and develop corresponding new business-models to
help sustain itself into the future. </LI></UL></DIV>
<H3 class=field-label>Contact</H3><!-- Contact --><!--
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<h2 class="title"><a href="/en/node/268324">International Development Research Centre (IDRC)</a></h2> <span class="submitted"></span>
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<DIV class=field-items>
<DIV class=field-item>International Development Research Centre (IDRC)</DIV>
<DIV class=field-item>
<P>P.O. Box 8500</P></DIV>
<DIV class=field-item>Ottawa ON </DIV>
<DIV class=field-item>K1G 3H9</DIV>
<DIV class=field-item>Canada</DIV>
<DIV class=field-item>Tel: 613 236 6163 <BR></DIV>
<DIV class=field-item>Fax: 613 238 7230 <BR></DIV>
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href="http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?r=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.idrc.ca%2Findex_en.html"
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href="mailto:info@idrc.ca">info@idrc.ca</A></DIV></DIV></DIV><BR></DIV><!--
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<h2 class="title"><a href="/en/node/299202">Mary Myers</a></h2> <span class="submitted"></span>
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<DIV class=field-item>Mary Myers</DIV></DIV></DIV>
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<DIV class=field-item><A
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