Radio Redux: Audience Participation and the Reincarnation of Radio for Development in Africa

Gilbert Tietaah, Margaret Amoakohene and Damasus Tuurusong
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Gilbert Tietaah: Department of Communication Studies, University of Ghana
Margaret Amoakohene: Department of Communication Studies, University of Ghana
Damasus Tuurusong: University for Development Studies, Wa Campus, Wa, Upper West Region

Journal of Developing Societies, 2019, vol. 35, issue 2, 282-302

Abstract: Along with the valorization of “beneficiary†participation in development praxis, contemporary communication scholarship has tended toward internet-enabled technologies and applications. This study breaks ranks with the implicit loss of faith in the capacity of the so-called legacy media, and radio in particular. It argues that precisely those advances in new technologies, together with the peculiar media ecology of Ghana and Africa generally, are the bases for prenotions about the enduring relevance of radio. To verify this claim, focus group discussions were conducted among radio audiences in Ghana. The findings suggest three factors for a renaissance of radio as a development communication medium: its contribution to democratic pluralism; the use of local languages that enables social inclusion; its appropriation of new technologies for audience participatory engagement. Radio has thus evolved from the powerful effects notions of a one-way transmitter of information to an increasingly more interactive, audience-centric medium.

Keywords: Radio; new technologies; audience participation; development; Ghana; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:jodeso:v:35:y:2019:i:2:p:282-302

DOI: 10.1177/0169796X19844916

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