Benefits of Community radio as a tool for social learning on climate change
Benefits of Community radio as a tool for social learning on climate change
Community radio offers some key benefits over other media for engaging with local communities on climate change, particularly in rural areas in many parts of Africa and Asia.
First, it is communicated orally, using local language, and at relatively low cost – meaning that it is accessible to people who cannot access other media. Secondly, community radio is frequently paired with other communication tools such as mobile phones for call-in shows, or face to face listening groups which enhance uptake of the information being shared, and creates a platform for two-way exchanges and learning between a wide range of actors. Finally, the use of radio for dialogue need not be restricted to the community level. This platform can be used to get messages from one community to others, link with national broadcasters to engage country-wide, and link with global networks like the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) to take messages to the global level.
Image credits: Nyani Quarmyne/ Interview being conducted by community radio broadcaster in Ghana
Latest Documents
- Radio as a development tool in Africa
- M. Myers / International Development Research Centre, 2008
- 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 information and communication technologies (ICTs). The role of radio as...
- ICTs applications in responding to disasters
- N.,T. Yap / Nexus for ICTs, Climate Change and Development, 2011
- Effective disaster response demands rapid access to reliable and accurate data and the capacity to assess, analyse and integrate information from varied sources. ICTs can obviously help, and this paper focuses on the role of ICTs in r...
- Knowledge and development in ICTs in the climate change arena
- P., P. Kalas (ed); A. Finlay (ed) / Association for progressive communication, 2012
- The publication explores the practical linkages between climate change, access to and sharing of information and knowledge, communication for development and ICTs in general. It editors specifically: provides an o...
- The role of community radio in a changing climate
- B. Harvey / International Journal of Communication, 2011
- Community radio is well recognised as a powerful vehicle for advocacy and social change in Africa, but its use in the field of climate change has remained very limited, and then largely for top-down transmission of information to comm...
