Title: | Ethical issues in using interactive radio in South Africa. |
Authors: | |
Source: | Open Learning; Jun2007, Vol. 22 Issue 2, p159-165, 7p |
Document Type: | Article |
Title: | Evaluating large-scale interactive radio programmes. |
Authors: | |
Source: | Distance Education; May2009, Vol. 30 Issue 1, p117-141, 25p, 3 Charts |
Document Type: | Article |
Title: | Using radio as a tool for rural development in Limpopo province |
Authors: | Osunkunle |
Source: | |
|
http://www.talkingdrumstudio.org/
http://www.bushradio.co.za/
hhtp://www.bbc.co.uk (REACH stands for Radio Education for Afghan Children)
hhtp://www.worldradioforum.org
hhtp://www.childrensradiofoundation.org
hhtp://www.busvannah.co.za
hhtp://www.comminit.com
hhtp://www.pangaea.org/street_children/latin/haiti-htm
Why Radio?
By
Sarah McNeill, UNLIMITED Productions (UK)
Far from being subsumed, as had often been predicted, into the new technology of digital broadband multimedia of the 1990s, children's & youth radio has emerged as an identifiable strand in the media of the developing world. There seems to be a rising awareness of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and of radio's potential to deliver information on child rights related issues such as health (HIV & AIDS), safety (land mines) and education, as well as its power to action children's participatory rights.
International radio networks also provide programming that features voices of the young and responds to the needs of new audiences such as children affected by war and other disadvantaged groups. There are many examples of children's and youth participation in small, grassroots radio projects, all of which depend on the support of local and national radio broadcasters. Many represent fragile beginnings, but the long-term effects of allowing these voices to be heard should not be underestimated.
I truly believe that in a globalised media environment, radio is the technology to span the digital divide.
Black Radio and Identity in South Africa
A case of METRO FM
“Radio is not something placed into the public… but something that actively forms the very notion of the public…” (Jewesbury, 2004: 34).
Abstract
This article presents research concerning the relationship between black radio in South Africa and the identity of the ‘imagined community’ of listeners through an investigation of a national commercial radio station, METRO FM. The research is based on qualitative content and discourse analysis of the stations live broadcasts both in formal and informal listening sessions, during which a variety of elements were focused on including: the form of address, language usage and code switching, music selections, topics of discussion, DJ identity and power play in caller participation moment, as well as analysis of the overall format, competitions and advertisements to evaluate how METRO FM as a station constitutes its listenership, how it imagines its ‘intended reader’ and to ascertain what culture, hegemony, ideologies and identity is promoted to the ‘real audience’. Other archival data incorporated into this research includes the stations official website content and format. The study argues that through the choices METRO FM makes, it imagines its audience to be black, urban, wealthy, and ambitious, on the rise, educated and eager to spend and grow in status in South Africa, a person who is part of the middle class and enjoys the higher things in life however is still attached to their roots hence comfortable in both the black and white South African experiences. Secondly this research argues that METRO promotes an identity which is not only South African, but proudly African and Black*.
*In this article I use the terms “Black”, “African” and “black” interchangeably to reflect the three terms used by different people in the black communities of South Africa.
Table of Contents
Abstract ...................................................................................................................1
Table of Contents ....................................................................................................2
1. Introduction....................................................................................................... 3
2. Context............................................................................................................. .4
3. Research Questions..............................................................................................6
3. Literature Review.................................................................................................6
4. Methodologies......................................................................................................9
5. Discussion...........................................................................................................11
5.1 Language and codeswitching................................................................12
5.2 Format...................................................................................................18
5.3 Sport Show............................................................................................20
5.4 Talk Shows............................................................................................22
5.5 Mucis………………………………………………..………………30
5.6 DJ Identities...........................................................................................32
5.7 Attitude formation..................................................................................32
6. Conclusion.............................................................................................................33
7. Weakness and further research.............................................................................36
8. References..................................................................................................................37
9. Declaration..............................................................................................................
Introduction
Many researchers have focused on various aspects of radio in South Africa, although, most of the research focuses on community radio stations and talk radio as well as white-controlled stations. Regarding race, the common focus has been on white-controlled media and its affects, usually negative, on the attitudes towards black people (Squires, 2000). The relationship between the black-controlled or black media and its power to shape public life of black communities has not been investigated in any thorough manner (Squires, 2000). However as Dawson points out:
How and to what extent the circulation of and participation in debates within social movements, indigenous organisations, and black media and artistic outlets influence political attitudes of individuals is an empirical question. (1994: 217)
The question is especially significant in the South African context as here, the identity of the black community is a problematic arena. The diversity of South Africa’s black community is a large factor as it is divided and diverse on economical, cultural, geographical and, educational lines, resulting in a plethora of sub-communities. With eleven official languages the communities are divided once more through the culture of language.
Since the 1994 democratic elections the cultural and social sphere has shifted dramatically as well as the media industry. Not only has there been a transformation in laws and the rights of freedom but these changes have had a substantial affect on the transformation of identity for all races. Black national media and black radio specifically is a relatively new phenomenon in South Africa emerging publically only after the freedom of the media was established in the late 90s (Nauright, 1977). Now in the era of the ‘rainbow nation’ black media and specifically black radio has had the opportunity to form and grow. With 15 years after the democratic formation of the ‘rainbow nation’, it is significant to investigate how ‘new’ black controlled radio stations are addressing and promoting the ‘new’ black identity. It is imperative to explore the way black radio functions as a media product, what role it plays in promoting black culture and lastly how a black radio station ‘imagines’ - to use Benedict Andersons term (1983) - the black community to whom it disseminates.
This study aims to investigate the above areas through the case study of South Africa’s largest English speaking black radio station, METRO FM. The hypothesis of the research was, that due to the divisions along class and culture, METRO FM, although successfully forms an alternative ‘space’ for a community of black listeners to identify with, the access to this, and the target of the station is limited to a certain group of black South Africans, or a certain sub-culture. This hypothesis is aligned with Dawson’s (1994) argument as he questioned whether there can ever be one single Black public sphere due to the divisions with in society on other lines besides race.
This research deals with the long contested areas of identities, communities and cultures and investigates the relationship of radio within these problematic fields of society. Definitions for what constitutes ‘radio’ will understandably vary from author to author but the common theme by which they define the medium is by way of its function. Jewesbury provides a comprehensive definition which this research finds sufficient as he looks at radio and its function in the public:
Radio…an essentially public medium. It is a dynamic form which allows us not only to initiate conversations about the nature of the public sphere, but also to construct it anew. Crucially, it allows us to formulate a place for ourselves in ‘the public’. Radio is not something placed into the public, in the manner of much public art, but something that actively forms the very notion of the public – that communal thing which we all take part in producing or creating or debating or challenging (2004: 34).
In his view, radio is not seen as a smaller part of public life but it is seen as playing a large, active role in the creation of public life itself. It is with this concept in mind that this research goes forward to investigate the case of METRO FM as a medium which also “actively forms the very notion of public life”. These areas, of identity, culture and community are of specific importance in a developing country such as South Africa where the aim of ‘nation building’ and ‘national integration’ includes creating a ‘shared national cultural identity’. The media’s role and performance in gaining a shared construct is therefore crucial, and analysing the way one station constitutes its audience and what cultural identity it engenders is a small step in understanding the media’s role in unifying the national identity.
Context
There are numerous black stations in South Africa, all of which would be intriguing and important to explore in terms of the culture and the identity they promote or form, however this study focuses on METRO FM, the largest national public commercial radio station. METRO FM is established boldly as a black radio station and is owned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). The SABC is responsible for public-service broadcasting in South Africa and is the only broadcaster which broadcasts nationally in South Africa. METRO Fm was the first SABC radio station that targeted a black audience and run by a black manager, Koos Radebe (Mkize, 1992). The SABC describes METRO FM as "trendy, innovative, progressive and aspirational" and as “an iconic brand and the largest commercial radio station in South Africa, attracting established, empowered, influential and upwardly-mobile urban thought leaders.” (www.sabc.co.za/metrofm/brand). The SABCs public broadcasting arm includes cultural services in all 11 official languages, as well as stations for ethnic groups: South Africa's Indian (Lotus FM) and San (XK FM) communities (www.mediaclubsouthafrica.com). Although the largest radio station according to RAMS is Ukhozi FM, the isiZulu cultural service, with 6.38-million listeners a week, METRO FM is the second largest in terms of listenership, and the largest English and commercial radio station with 5.38-million listeners a week (RAMS 2009/04).
METRO FM is of particular interest for research due to its wide scope of listenership as the station penetrated 45% of the total market which makes it the largest National Urban Commercial station in South Africa and has the highest mentions as “‘favourite station' of all music stations” (RAMS 2009/04). A station with such a large dissemination and popularity is therefore of high significance to explore in terms of the identity and culture it promotes as it is evident that the station reaches a large proportion of the nation particularly the black community.
There are a few factors which make METRO FM a significant case study. Firstly as METRO FM is a commercial radio station opposed to that of ‘community radio’ or ‘talk-radio’ - two very widely and well researched forms of radio - this research will keep the economic imperatives in mind during analysis and discussions. The brand of METRO FM itself will be analysed as the badge brand plays a vital part in the audience’s lifestyle and image. Secondly, METRO FM admits its own black identity and the blackness of its target market. According to a brand presentation created by METRO FM, the station’s mission is: To be the Premier Urban Black Radio and the stations vision is: To satisfy the increasing needs of urban blacks through highly creative, informative and entertaining programs, thereby providing an effective and lucrative platform for advertisers and marketers (Metro FM Brand presentation, 2008). METRO FM outlines its target market as: Black, between the ages of 25-34, and of a LSM 5+. This paper aims to observe how the station ‘imagines’ this ‘urban black’, what cultural codes does it assign to this group and how does it promote this identity in terms of culture, consumption, habits, activities, attitudes, and ideologies. Thirdly, METRO FM is an important case study as it has the highest share of the youth market (range 16-34) with a total of 23% of all commercial radio stations in the country, and of all the university graduates, 21% of them listen to METRO FM, the highest of all stations (RAMS 2009/04). With such a hold on the youth market it is important to see what values, ideologies, lifestyle and identity the station promotes and pushes on its large base of young listeners, those in the process of forming their adult identities. Does the station live up to its promise to “inspire, ignite and enthuse, to be a mentor, entertainer and leader for young adult urban South Africans seeking success and meaning in their rapidly evolving world” (Metro brand presentation, 2008)?
We can not argue against the importance of radio in society. It is a medium that provides a set of information and news allowing people of the public to participate in debates which affect their lives, although inherently a selective set. Radio has the power to educate the public on current issues but also, has an explicit effect on culture through the nature of its dissemination (Squires, 2000). As like other forms of mass media the radio is a medium of ideology which “mobilizes individuals without reference to other worldly values or beings” (Marais, 1991: 17). Marais outlines the significance of radio in South Africa:
Now, particularly in a society with a shamefully high rate of illiteracy, radio has an important role in the cultivation of cultural values. Usually this role is defined rather narrowly in that we expect radio to present a variety of views and a wide range of information which would enable the citizen to participate in the democratic process as an informed and, hence, confident actor. (1991: 17)
The research that exists for METRO FM is mainly dominated by the marketing field and beyond this there is little research on the station’s community, real or imagined, and the way it is promoted, constructed or constituted by those with the cultural power.
Research questions
The foundation questions in which this research governs include:
· What role does METRO FM play in the development and maintenance of a ‘community’ under the definition of communities?
· What kind/s of identity does METROFM ‘imagine’ its audience to have?
· What aspects or codes of culture and lifestyle does it assign to its ‘imagined’ community?
· Does METRO FM ‘imagine’ and speak to a diverse audience, a diversity of cultures or does it position one above the rest?
· How does the radio station reflect the dominant identity of its constituted audience?
· Does the station’s commercial imperative affect its dissemination and its ideas about its ‘imagined audience’?
· Does the station impose a dominant culture, superior hegemony including attitudes, opinions and values on its listeners? And if so, how?
Literature Review and Conceptual landscape
Both ‘culture’ and ‘identity’ are two very widely researched disciplines which have been studied in relation to various fields. Different scholars conceptualise ‘culture’ differently. Mkize (1992) discusses the debate around culture in her work, and provides cultural theorist, Tylor’s definition for ‘culture’ as, “that whole complex which includes knowledge, morals, religion, customs and habits or any other capabilities acquired by man as a member of society” (1992: 6). Tylor’s definition sees ‘culture’ from the perspective of ‘individual in society’ (Mkize, 1992). Seeing ‘culture’ from the perspective of ‘culture in society’, Mattelart defines ‘culture’ as “the sum total of techniques, institutions, behaviours, lifestyles, habits, collective representations, beliefs and values which define a given society.” (1980: 232). Furthermore Mahtar defines ‘culture’ in a broader more inclusive sense, as “the end product of all that a society has created in the course of time and as the essential driving force for all the it continues to create, both materially and in the intellectual sphere” (1975: 13).
Another key term in the discussion on cultures and identities is that of ‘community’, particularly regarding radio station audiences. Most relevant for media studies and this paper is Benedict Anderson’s 1983 concept of ‘imagined communities’ which Moore (2008) states has been uncontested since. Benedict speaks of ‘communities’ as “frames of reference…distinguished, not by their falsity/genuineness, but by the style in which they are imagined” (1983: 6). Another terms defined by Benedict which is important here is ‘nationalism’ which he argues is merely an analytical expression such as age, which is to an extent unarguable to each individual as each individual has one ‘nationalism’. Benedict defines ‘nation’ as “an imagined political community – and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign. He argues it is ‘imagined’ as members of a particular nation, even the smallest example, will never know, or know of the other members of their own nation however “in the minds of each lives the image of their communion” (1983: 6). Bareiss (1998) argues through his analysis of Anderson’s work, that all communities have two fundamental characteristics, “they claim some sort of space within which community members regularly interact, and they consist of recognized insiders, who have commonly held interests, values, and allegiances.” Bareiss’s (1998) work, which is key here, follows on from Anderson’s useful definition of community, and investigates the discourse involving ‘space’ and ‘community’ which is managed by media institutions while constructing local audiences. The fundamental concept and definition of the ‘community’ as set out by Anderson (1980) which is built on by Bareiss (1998) is a main pivatol framework that is taken forward in the argument for the case of METRO FM.
Moore (2008) examines the concept of ‘community’ with in the context of the two radio station case studies where he argues that in both cases the stations (both community stations) fail their particular communities due to their close associations with the norms and practices which have shifted radio from the material sphere to the sphere of broadcast. This switch involves corporate pressures and agendas, business practices, political intervention (ideological and authoritarian), censorship and essentialist notions of identity and consensus (2008). This argument is crucial for the below research due to its links with communities, radios and the limitations of each in the corporate agenda.
A second valid point made by Moore (2008) is that “rather than being seen as a homogenous entity, there is now an acceptance that the facet which most dominates what we like to think of as communities is fragmentation” (2008: 48). The ‘fragmented community’ is another interesting concept to regard when observing the METRO FM case study. Moore (2008) indicates how physically local communities can be divided or fragmented or possibly united by factors which include employment, nationality, gender and class. Moore agrees with Andersen (1980) and his supporters (Bareiss 1998; Hansen 2006 & Harvey, 1990) that “the spaces we inhabit are as much mental constructions as they are physical constructions and this problematises the idea of community as a focus for a broadcasting strategy” (2008:48). This concept of fragmented communities is aligned with Mkize’s (1992) points on diverse cultures: that is, that the existence of one culture or one community without engaging and interacting with another is most unlikely due to the pluralistic existence of both, or ‘hybridity’. In the case of METRO FM it is possible that more than one identity, culture or overall community are engaged, or is it?
The work of Pierre Bourdieu is used in this research discussion as he discusses the way people accumulate various levels of status in society through acquiring symbolic capital (Bourdeiu, 1986). What Bourdieu calls the ‘habitus’ is a space in which individuals define themselves and he believes this ‘space’ cannot be described with a simplistic view of community (Bourdieu, 1986). Bordieu’s concept of ‘habitus’ expresses the way that individuals actually ‘become themselves’ in that they develop their own attitudes and temperament but also expresses the way that individuals ‘engage in practices’ (Webb, Schirato & Danaher, 2002). Other terms of Bourdieu’s work that are of value to this work include: ‘cultural capital’ which is “a form of value associated with the culturally authorised tastes, consumption patterns, attributes, skills and awards” (Webb, Schirato & Danaher, 2002: 5) (e.g. A degree is cultural capital in the educational field), and ‘cultural field’ which Bourdieu recognises as sites of cultural practise (e.g. a radio station) (Webb, Schirato & Danaher, 2002).
From a more political perspective in Lene Hansen’s 2006 address on Images, Identity and Security where she combines knowledge of media and politics, she notes that cultural discourses may come in various forms. She argues that some discourses prevent any inclusion or transformation into a group and others express the possibility for similarity and inclusion (Hansen, 2006). This argument will be tested in the current case study to evaluate whether, and if so how, METRO FM includes a certain type of community and excludes other. Hansen emphasises that it is important that we not only study the ‘constructed’ identities of Self and Other, but further more look at the way in which “media and genres establish epistemic and political authority” (2006: 54).
From the above discussion we can see how the different concepts of identity, culture and community are not mutually exclusive. Community is the phenomenon of members in a shared interactive space and culture, all the “products” of a particular community (or of society) (Moore, 2008). From the previous definitons we can understand ‘community’ as the broader context and social space, ‘culture’ as the specific by-products of a ‘community’ and ‘identity’ as the particular characteristics of that community and its members that identify if someone is inclusive or exclusive of the community.
One typology that proposes a relevant question is Rosengre’s typology (cited in Mkize, 1992) where he separates two categories: social structure influences culture or culture influences social structure? This notion builds on the idea that social structures and culture are not fixed but rather they can change and shift and highlights the issue shown in the original definition of radio which states that “radio is not something placed into the public… but something that actively forms the very notion of the public…” (Jewesbury, 2004: 34).
Following on from these concepts it is salient to explore and understand how the most popular commercial station in a developing country, a strong ‘cultural field’, ‘imagines’ its audience in terms of culture and identity - especially when it aims itself at a black community still developing its own identity. Black identity has already undergone a difficult cultural and identity history and so it is important to question what type of culture this station promotes to its urban, black ‘imagined’ audience. Does METRO FM allow for a multiplicity of cultures, or black identities or does it promote a dominant community while suppressing smaller cultures? If so, is this dominant culture promoted for commercial means? It is interesting to ask if and how traditional notions of ‘black cultures’ are discussed or suppressed by the dominant, more western culture of the urban black community.
Westerkamp (1994) poses an interesting question: “What would happen if we could turn that around and make radio listen before imposing its voice? [. . .] What if radio was non-intrusive, a source for listeners and listening? Can radio be such a place of acceptance, a listening presence, a place of listening? (1994: 94)”. Bertolt Brecht also believed in a more positive role for the media regarding identity as he was fascinated by the ways in which radio could be used to help express the voice of individual members of any community (Moore, 1998). With these more positive notions or ideals of radio as a creator of a positive space of communities, diverse and multiple to congregate in and debate, as in the ideal model of Habermas’s Public Sphere (Habermas, 1994). We can also test the possibility of such a space by exploring a station such as METRO FM in order to examine any positive consequences radio can have for cultures and communities through allowing the expression of various cultural identities and cultures in one space.
Methodology
The primary method of data collection for analysis in thus research was qualitative content and discourse analysis of METRO FM by analysing live broadcasts from March – May 2009. By tuning into the station I performed ‘naturalistic observation’ (Rosnow & Rosenthal, 2005) of the station. As I did not participate or add to the discussions on air my method is ‘naturalistic’ and not ‘participatory’ observation or ethnographic field work (Rosnow & Rosenthal, 2005).
The methods employed for this research fall under the major umbrella of qualitative research as this study is an example of social and behavioural research. Although behavioural research can also follow the more scientific approach of quantitative methods, qualitative method involves the collection of data other than the numerical form (Burton & Dimbleby, 1995). Social research such as culture, identities and the function of mass communication in relation to these, is most appropriate for qualitative research as it focuses beyond the statistics and tables and observes how and why things occur as they do. Qualitative methods such as interviews, recorded conversations, written communication are also extensively used to explore matters about behaviour and society, things which cannot be so easily quantified as in quantitative methods (Babbie and Mouton, 2007).
Firstly informal listening periods were employed to gather an understanding and feel of the station and to establishes which aspects were of most importance to observe and analyse. Notes made during informal sessions also formed part of the data. The elements selected from the informal sessions which were then focused on in more detail during the formal listening session included: the DJ’s and talk show hosts’ identities and discussions, the conversations and interactions with callers, language use, music played, and the overall format, topics, power relations and exercise, as well as the use and selection of cultural codes and markers. Analysis of the music genres played were analysed according to how the popular genres contribute to, or even develop, the formation of a ‘community’ of listeners by promoting a specific cultural identification. The analysis of language included the chosen broadcast of English as well as the process and significance of code switching – to use Bowers (2006) term. Language was analysed both as a racial and economic signifier and identifier, and also as a method employed to include or exclude a particular identity. Furthermore the topics and issues of conversations, debates and discussions was analysed to reveal what a) issues METRO believes is pertinent to its ‘imagined community’ b) what culture/s and identities the station appears to relate and talk to, or even promote (‘imagined’ audience), and c) what culture and identification is eluded to and established by the actual callers and participators (‘real’ audience). Beyond this the analysis included how the station (and its DJs, producers and creators etc.) constitutes one or many cultures or promotes a dominate culture or identity to its community of listeners. Through a detailed observation of METRO FM on these various levels the method used was aimed to establish what attitudes, values and lifestyles the station imagines its listenership to have and how it both imagines this ‘intended audience’ as well as how it promotes these values, life choices and styles onto its listeners.
Although the station was observed as a whole in the analysis, with all shows listened to in the informal session, particular focus was be paid to the two evening talk shows hosted during the week by METRO FM DJs, Sakina Kamwendo (Monday – Tuesday) and Criselda Kananda (Wednesday and Thursday night) from 19:30 until 21:00 and 19:00 until 21:00 respectively. For the formal period of analysis these shows were recorded over a period of two and a half months and the recordings then listened to, a basic outline of the content was transcribed for analysis and important quotes and discussions then transcribed directly. The same was done for a months worth (April-May) of Robert Marawa’s ‘Sports Centre’ aired from Monday to Friday at 18h00 to 19h00, as this slot proved to be an important part of the discussion due to the link between sports and identity as well as the unique nature of the shows reportage.
These three shows follow the ‘talk show’ format which, due to its nature, allows for maximised caller participation and call-ins which results in a substantial amount of interaction between the station and its ‘real’ audience which can be analysed. These two shows will form as sub-case studies of METRO FM and will provide content for analysis regarding the dominate culture of the station and its ‘real’ audience. During the analysis process attention was payed to the topics discussed, by both the listeners and the hosts, how the hosts interact with or ‘control’ the callers, how listeners were addressed (language, level, style, from what ideology), who was allowed more airtime, who was included in the in-group and similarly who was forced into the out-group, what cultural markers were used to identify with the ‘imagined community’ of listeners and what signifiers were considered part of the identification of Self, or Us verses Others or Them, as well as how language was used to separate and identify with each other.
Some secondary data was collected to add to the research, but not all is necessarily discussed in the this paper. This includes observation of the METRO Fm official website content including listeners’ comments, DJs blogs, as well as competitions and events advertised and the interaction by listeners, as well as a Brand presentation complied by METRO FM. This part of the research will entail a basic content and discourse analysis of the ‘archival material’ (Rosnow & Rosenthal, 2005).
The subjects of my study are inherently those listeners who call in during the slots when I am collecting data, but mainly the hosts of the talk shows Sakina Kamwendo, Criselda Kananda, and Robert Marawa, as well as all other METRO FM DJs (to a lesser extent) during their slots. Essentially the entire broadcast programming during listening and recording sessions, and all interviewees are my subjects and the ‘imagined audience’ falls into my participants list as well. During the recording phase, random one hour slots of the various shows were recorded to add to the transcription phase as to accumulate data on the other shows.
The methodologies used in this study are exemplary of Cultural studies which according to Burton and Dimbledby (1995: 243) is concerned with “signs and meanings, but with particular relation to social groupings within society.” They note that Cultural studies - opposed to ‘The Process Approach’ or the more systematic approach of ‘Semiotics’ - offers great perspectives on communication particularly with regards to media (Burton & Dimbleby, 1995).
Discussion
Following on from Harvey’s notion of “spaces of representation” (1990: 218-219) which is similar to Bourdieu’s ‘cultural fields’, METRO FM creates a ‘space of representation’ through the mental inventions of ‘spatial discourse’ and ‘codes’ which results in formation of new meanings and the possibility of spatial practises. McCron’s (1976) studies look at the dominant meaning systems that are moulded and relayed by the media to be adapted by audiences and integrated into class-based or ‘situated’ meaning systems. He argues, and this research agrees, that the mass media in general plays a role in consolidating and fortifying the values and attitudes of audience members and have a strategic role in reinforcing dominant social norms and values that legitimise the social system. Through the following discussion of the station of METRO FM this article shows how, through various elements, the station consolidates and fortifies the values and attitudes that the station and those who control it believe to be apart of the South African Black identity.
The contextual field of METRO FM means that the context of ‘black radio’ is salient, which brings in the issue of race and racial identities. The SABC decided to establish the station on a community which already existed, one that was establishing itself in the metropolitan areas of the country already (Mkize, 1992). The ‘urbanised’ black community, those from the metropolitan areas that METRO originally set out to target, has an identity which is relatively defenceless to mass media as, the community is relatively ‘new’ to the urban, originally white spaces of South Africa, and are no longer anchored in the stable network of social relations with the inherited values which characterise long settled, rural communities (Mkize, 1992). The identity of the newly urban black community is therefore still establishing itself and developing its own culture but is far from settled. Therefore the role of media aimed at this target market is of even more interest than other stations.
Believing that communication and culture are inherently linked Mkize (1992) discusses how in the cultural context, the social process of communication occurs by signs which are formed or produced, then transmitted, perceived and seen as messages from which meaning is inferred. With this in mind, the signs about culture and identity, which METRO produces and transmit through its broadcasting are perceived messages and the meanings of these are the pivotal focus of this discussion. Each community or social group can be defined according to structures of language or race or ethnic-category, as some examples, and each will most likely inhabit or have different cultures and codes (Mkize, 1992). The specific audience or intended community that METRO airs to as a target therefore also has codes and cultures unique to its identity. What is of interest here is what codes and culture METRO subscribes to its target market of the ‘black urban’ community. In the context of South Africa Mkize’s argument proposes that “the media audience can be profitably thought of as a complex structure of socially organised individuals in a number of ethnic-linguistic groups, each with its own history and cultural traditions” (1992: 23). After the listening sessions and deeper analysis there is a lot that can be said about what identity and culture METRO FM sells to this newly urban community in terms of identity and culture. The station does so through a variety of elements and techniques which will now be discussed.
Language and ‘codeswitching’
‘Language’, according to Finachiaro is “a system of arbitrary symbols which permit people in a given culture or other people who have learned the system of that culture, to communicate or interact” (in brown 1980:4). Indeed language is inherently an important ‘tool’ in the process of mass communication process of radio, but its role is not just that simple: it also plays an important role in social life and in that of identities. Bourdieu believes that ‘language’ is an “intrinsic element of the competitive struggles over the use of culture and of the processes of cultural production which make such as important contribution to the social reproduction of the established order” (Jenkins, 1992: 157). This cultural role is especially clear along class distinction lines as Bourdieu discusses in his various works (Bourdieu 1977, 1986). Therefore ‘language’ is an important element to observe in the present case where cultural production and identity formation is in question. In society Bourdieu sees ‘language’ as a code, as different ‘modes of speech’ perform as makers for different classes (Bourdieu, 1977). He describes ‘class codes’ along two extremes using the terms “bourgeois parlance” and “common parlance” [manner of speaking] (Bourdieu, 1977: 115) where the former is the language of the middle class and the latter being the language of the lower working classes of a society. Bourdieu (1977) talks of language’s link with class and status as ‘linguistic capital’. For example the ‘bourgeois parlance’ would hold more value in society and status than the ‘common parlance’ or, the acquisition of a national language, as chosen by the government, holds more value or capital than a secondary language (Calhoun, Lipuma & Postone 1993). Discussing Bourdieu’s work Calhoun, Lipuma and Postone say that “linguistic markers are defined as social domains within which language use is valued; they determine the specific value of that ‘capital’ at a given time and place” (1993: 118). It is important to differentiate between Bourdieu’s “linguistic capital’: class linked traits of speech which are varyingly valued in different contexts, and his ‘linguistic habitus’: which involves the class link ‘relation to language’ and which Bourdieu argues that no one can acquire a language without (Bourdieu, 1977). He argues that “it is in the relation to language that one finds the principle underlying the most visible differences between Bourgeois language an working class language” (Bourdieu, 1977: 116).
In the South African context the issues around ‘linguistic capital’ and social value or status are problematic due to the diversity and changing meanings of both language and economic class over history. South Africa has eleven official languages and according to the marketing industry (with LSM divisions) more than just three classes. However, this mentioned, it can be argued that English above the other ten is the dominant language in higher the level and middle class in education, business, and national communication and as a result holds a high value of ‘linguistic capital’ to use Bourdieu’s term. The acquisition of English is a marker or cultural capital, not only for the inclusion into a majority of the countries institutions and social groupings but also into being able to acquire the status of the higher classes of the country. Historically the middle and upper class has been dominated by English, as well as Afrikaans (although currently indicates a working class), with the nine African languages and, now Afrikaans thereafter been used predominantly by the lower working classes. English in South Africa in Bourdieu’s terms is the ‘bourgeois parlance’ and the others form the ‘common parlances’. With these points in mind this research looks to the case of METRO FM and the language used as a class marker but also, as a marker of race.
What was significant in the analysis of language was: the choice of English as the broadcast language, and the meaning of this for the ‘imagined community’ as well as the identity of the station. Also of interest was the observation of the natural ‘codeswitching’ phenomenon - to use Bowers (2006) term - and its significance to identity, as well as the inclusion and exclusion of the ‘imagined audience’.
When METRO FM was established the SABC chose to broadcast nationally in English. In her comparison of METRO FM and Radio Zulu (broadcast in Zulu), Mkize (1992) debates whether a black targeted station should be aired in English or an ethnic language. She critiqued the SABCs decision to establish radio stations along ethnic classifications in South Africa especially for the African audience or population - which is divided by both ethnicity and language – arguing that the SABC fails to provide sufficiently to such diversity (Mkize, 1992). She argues that the choice of language has a substantial affect on the ‘imagined’ and ‘real' community of radio listeners. In Following on from her points, this research agrees that the language choice of METRO FM affects its ‘imagined’ and ‘real’ community, however not always in a negative way.
METRO FM is broadcast, advertised and stated as an English station, of which it is the largest in South Africa (RAMS 2009/04). However, although the majority of the discourse by DJs and hosts is in English there are plenty examples of when the DJs, hosts, guests and callers also converse, or interact with each another, most often in an African language (‘mother tongues’) with the most common usage being Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho or Tswana. Firstly, the choice to use English as a main language when targeting a black audience reveals how METRO FM ‘imagines’ this community. Not only does the station ‘imagine’ a black audience, but a black community which has access to the ‘linguistic capital’ of the country’s ‘bourgeois parlance’ and therefore populates or governs the higher classes and is imagined to be educated. The ‘imagined listeners’ are seen to be educated in English, having acquired that ‘intellectual capital’ and furthermore, METRO FM ‘imagines’ the listenership community to be one which lives within the urban environment where the English language truly dominates. Seeing the audience as English speakers shows how METRO desires a listenership of a certain class as per the above Bourdieu literature. Furthermore the stations use of English (particularly through the DJ and hosts address) is a high level of proficiency, with eloquent pronunciation and sophisticated vocabulary. Bourdieu shows that ‘elevated style’ in the use of language shows the desire to enhance ones own capital in terms of reputation and distinction – showing a certain level of education and therefore more capital. METRO FM therefore ‘imagines’ its community of listeners to be well educated in English, being part of the middle class and as a result to reside, work or even leisure in the more urban areas of the country. Listeners are not expected to only speak or understand the language but METRO FM sees the ‘intended reader’ to be one which lives life in the English language: with the English music selections, the advertising and reviewing of English movies and books, METRO FM ‘imagines’ the audience to use English not only in their interaction with the station but in all other aspects of their lives.
As shown, English in South Africa represents a higher level of ‘linguistic capital’ and class in Bourdieu’s terms. The acquisition of English and access to the products and groups of this language gives people in society a higher identity in terms of status than those who cannot access these class groupings through language. On this level, in its ‘imagining’ of a community of listeners, METRO FM excludes the proportion of the nation who do not relate through English, those who remain in their home tongue African languages or in the colonial imposed Afrikaans - which is wildly spoken amongst the black, and similarly coloured communities, especially in the Eastern and Western Cape. By excluded these sub-cultures through language METRO FM inherently does not imagine these groups as part of their intended listenership.
On a positive note, as an aspirational station, which aims to inspire and promote self growth, broadcasting in English encourages those who want to be apart of the nations largest black station to want to speak and understand English - which having the ability to do so is highly beneficial for one in terms of education, social interaction, safety, economically (job wise) and so forth. The station promotes the dominant language as a second language to those who speak alternative languages. Mkize argues that this promotion is not a positive thing for the culture of the smaller languages and sub-cultures as it is the identity of a community which is threatened through the mass media power and domination. Mkize (1992) says that cultures are ‘submerged’ by the culture of the ‘superstructure’ or by the dominant culture (Mkize, 1992). So in this case using the English language and the culture thereof could be seen as a form of ‘cultural invasion’, ‘transculturalisation’ ‘cultural homogenisation’ or ‘cultural synchronisation’, with a negative impact on those smaller subcultures. Cultural dominance may be subtle or not, but either way it replaces the ideal notion of ‘reciprocal borrowing’ and ‘free cultural exchange’ argues Mkize (1992). Mkize’s argument raises the question of whether METRO FM imposes a cultural homogeneity or hegemony on its listenership by its means of communication and broadcasting. This research found evidence against this notion. With the points on the use of English made, one cannot ignore the numerous examples when METRO staff members use their mother tongue African languages. Through the examples of ‘codeswitching’ - which will be discussed in further detail below – METRO FM gives airtime not only to other languages but conducts ‘cultural exchange’ of smaller cultures often. However, this said, the majority use of English presupposes that its audience is urban, educated, and of a higher class with access to ‘economical’, ‘intellectual’ and ‘cultural capital’, through the acquisition of English. As English is a global language, dominating the Western world, an audience which has the ability and desire to connect internationally with the global community is also ‘imagined’ by METRO.
One of the most crucial aspects of METRO’s language use are the moments when DJs and hosts switch back to their ‘mother tongues’ or other African languages during broadcast. The DJ’s and hosts of METRO FM have a wide range of different socio-cultural backgrounds and have been exposed, as are many South Africans to both their African first language, which varies across their identities as well as English in both formal and informal aspects. Bower’s (2006) says these moments are mostly due to the fact that the speakers have been constantly exposed to both languages and also as a result of historical and political experiences in South Africa. In her report she looks at both the motivations for codeswitching as well as whether constraints proposed were evident in live radio broadcasts. Bower’s (2006) research looks at a different social context in South Africa (that of the Cape Flats in Cape Town and radio show Update Kaapse Vlakte of Heart 104.9) however hoer points are still valid. She argues that it is common for members of the speech community to utilise both their home languages and English, or another second language, within a single conversation and even within a single utterance and that ‘codeswitching’ is an integral part of a community’s speech behaviour.
These ‘codeswitching’ moments occur very often on METRO FM and very naturally and hence appear to be an accepted element of the stations broadcasting style. The most commonly used languages in these switches from English include Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, Sotho, and on occasion Afrikaans. For example, Penny and Lebo of ‘The Ultimate’ were discussing a news item about an organisation in KwaZulu Natal that was started for cows and, joking about the story, Penny switched from English, the chosen broadcast language to Zulu. Her comment is therefore foreign to anyone who is not able to access that language code. After translation of her comment, one can establish that she was joking that only in KwaZulu Natal would they care so much about the cows as to form an organisation. Switching back to English and laughing Penny asks Lebo, “No, no what do you call ‘organisations’ in Zulu?” (28th April 2009 14:53) and laughing Lebo answers “Izinhlangane, yes!” and then joins Penny in the switch by responding to her joke in Zulu as well - after which the two laugh. Only listeners who are able to understand Zulu or speak Zulu, are therefore included in this ‘inside’ joke. Any listener who does not have access to the ‘linguistic code’ that they use here is not able to switch with them iand hence are removed from the private joke and left as ‘outsiders’. At the end of their show after the final song played Lebo and Penny end off the show with a longer period of switching to Zulu (30 seconds). After after translation it is revealed as another example of an inside joke about culture. Lebo jokes about his roots mentioning that he grew up in Nkandla - a very rural place in KwaZulu Natal – and he mentions that it is the same place where Zuma is from. Penny, mocking him, asks why he never mentioned this before and that he must have been embarrassed. Lebo responds saying he is embarrassed by the cows (not Zuma, to be politically correct) and here Penny laughs even harder at his comments. This mocking moment of comedy is lost again to any ‘outsider’ who has no ability to ‘codeswitch’ with the DJs. The cross over to Zulu is made at the same time as the tone changes, from a formal goodbye to an inside joke. This occurs often as most switching results during jokes or when DJs discuss cultural or even rural issues about the rural experience. This tonal change is a typical motivation for ‘codeswitching’ which often indicates a change in either the tone or topic of a particular conversation (Bowers, 2006).
Not only do these moments of African language use produce private inside and exclusive jokes, but they say something about how the station constitutes its audience. These examples occur in large proportions of the research data and in almost every show, be it just a word, or a sentence or an entire interaction between two DJ’s or a DJ and a caller. Through this evidence METRO imagines it listeners to be able to codeswitch away from English, hence they imagine a largely black and African audience who are able to understand or speak one or even more African languages. Although there are a few examples when one of the DJs or hosts will rephrase in English, still this is very seldom. During the talk shows slots African language usage is most prolific when a caller who phones in, chooses to speak in their own language. However on the talk shows the hosts, Criselda or Sakina, are more inclined to rephrase the questions or comments back into English for either the guest’s sake or for that of the listener. During other shows however, when the DJ’s conduct code switching amongst themselves in conversation, there is seldom to never any translation. The lack of urgency to translate is further evidence of how METRO FM DJs and hosts and station as a whole, almost expects its ‘imagined community of listeners’ to be able to do this for themselves hence they are ‘imagined’ to possess the linguistic codes of understanding the African languages – or as many are fairly similar at least being able to translate partially. These moments exclude anyone who only speaks English such as the majority of white South Africans who can only speak English and Afrikaans, with only a few being able to speak an African language. Also this reveals METROS constitution that its audience is more ‘black’ than it is ‘coloured’, which communities use Afrikaans rather than African language.
These moments indicate that although METRO FM chooses to relate to its ‘imagined’ black audience in the urban, modern upper class and global language of English which represents education, wealth and an inclusion into the global environment, they still also expect their black listeners to have the ability to switch back to their first languages or African languages at times, in this way retaining a link with their traditional roots and African heritage. Bowers (2006) found that these moments are often motivated by the influence of both situational and contextual factors. Furthermore she concluded that “codeswitching is associated with in group membership and allows speakers access to simultaneous roles and identities.” (Bowers, 2006: 106). The same findings have been argued her for METRO FM as, firstly, codeswitching to African languages on METRO FM is clearly linked to inner group membership of the African identity (shown through the ‘insider’ jokes) and secondly, speakers and listeners are able to play two roles at the same time, the urban and the rural, the global modern as well as the traditional, the upper class representation as well as the lower class representation. This evidence shows how METRO FM promotes a certain urban lifestyle, class and education but still fostering an environment linked to the traditional cultures of the black community as the listeners are still expected to be firstly, Black, secondly, with the choice, ability and desire to still access their home tongue. As Hansen (2006) argues some discourses, like these examples of codeswitching, prevent any inclusion or transformation into a group and others express the possibility for similarity and inclusion (Hansen, 2006). These moments inherently are inclusive of those who can understand, and at the same result in the exclusion of those who cannot relate through the African languages.
In this sense the ‘codeswitching’ acts as a social barrier to include and exclude through the tool of language. Although Bowers argues that ‘putting up a social barrier’ can be a motivation for ‘codeswitching’, this research has found that the switching results in the creation of a social barrier but is not necessarily the aim. In some cases the switch is made to accommodate an addressee or a caller who has shows to prefer or better communicate through their chosen African language, as in the talk shows mentioned. Whether intentional or not the speakers of METRO FM have the power to swop or alternate between their fragmented identities and can as Bowers argues, assign identities to listeners and “are able to portray concepts of ‘self’ and ‘other’” (2006: 106). Further proof of this phenomenon on METRO can be shown through the music choices as although many songs in the programming are in English, there are a large proportion of songs played in African languages especially in Zulu, Sothu and Xhosa, three of the most widely spoken African languages. Through the argument presented above, language as well as the codeswitching between languages is not only an ethnic marker which indicates how METRO FM ‘imagines’ its audience, but it is also a tool to enable dual identities and form inner groups, and indicates a certain level of class.
Another interesting use of language as a cultural code is the way in which the DJ’s and hosts address their listenership and callers. For example many of the hosts especially Rob Marawa of the Sports Centre, and the talk show hosts Criselda and Sakina often greet, thank or say goodbye to a male caller, especially one who is older by calling them ‘baba’. Talking to a local soccer coach after getting the coach back on the line after loosing him says “not a problem baba good to have you back” (18th May, 18:49). This term is a Zulu term which refers to ‘father’ but is also used in the African culture as a respectful term for a man who is older than oneself. Examples of these cultural addresses are common on the station and they reflect that METRO FM imagines its callers and listeners to be able to read codes like these and understand their meaning, hence imagines them as part of an authentic African culture. For callers and listeners to understand these African terms they must, in logic, understand the codes of the African cultures of the country as they are expected to be able to conform to, and perform, the code switching as discussed before. These little cultural addresses show how METRO retains roots of the African identity and sub-cultures.
Diverse Format – a balanced audience
Looking firstly at the station on a surface level, discussion of the format and shows can reveals aspects about the audience profile which METRO FM ‘imagines’. While the station’s main focus is on contemporary international and local music - hip-hop, R&B and Kwaito to name a few genres – it also provides information and educational aspects. METRO FMs variety of shows that METRO FM believes it audience, besides enjoying music are also interested in sport, politics and topics of debate, as well as having time to focus on their spiritual or religious sides to their identity. The variety of shows besides music slots, show that METRO promotes a diverse lifestyle identity – a culture of a balanced and multi-faceted life. Talk show slots from Monday through to Thursday provide a platform for heated debates on various topics governing the political issues and personal growth aspects, as well as allowing audience participation (this will be discussed further). The other dedicated specialist slots include the Sports Centre which is an hour long show, covering different sporting codes, on weekdays from 18:00-19:00. The existence, address, and focus of the sports slot also reveals a certain promoted identity as sport has a long inherent relationship with identity, especially in South Africa. Sunday mornings include a three hour show dedicated to Gospel and Inspiration revealing METRO’s belief of its audience as religious and spiritual. Although all these shows on deeper analysis of their content, address and discourse meaning have different meanings for identity, and reveal different things about how METRO constitutes it audience, which will be discussed in more detail, they also, on a surface level collaborate to reveal what the stations identifies as its audience’s interests. By looking at the variety of information the station provides it appears that it sees its audience or intended reader as a diverse and well-rounded individual, one who has a wide range of interests and a balanced life style of hard work, leisure, a spiritual being who is connected both to the westernised, global ways of the urban but also, in some ways, still connected to their roots, past and collective memory of the South African history.
Topics discussed across the stations shows vary widely from the mundane discusses of peoples fashion sense at certain events such as the PSL awards in May to more serious topics such as abuse in the Criselda Kanada’s talk show. On analysis the variety of topics discussed reveal what interests METRO FM imagines its audience to hold. From the topics observed it can be noted that METRO believes its ‘imagined’ audience is interested in. a partying lifestyle, clubbing, cars, universities, leisure activities, socialising with friends, careers, the accumulation of wealth, safety, sports, current political issues and debates, edvise on self advancement and achievement and the list goes on.
One example of METRO imagining an educated urban listener is through the METRO FM Book Club event, originally called the METRO ‘blacks can read’ event. This event involves the celebration and mass review of local and international authors and brings together literary personalities and book lovers. This event along with the culture of reading it promotes is coupled with the Book Club slot in Azania’s weekday show Total Bliss. Every thursday on her show she takes an hour lo focus on books, authors, book news, listerners own book clubs and has interviews with prominent authors. Via this slot METRO FM is tapping into the intellectual culture of reading. The slot together with the annual event encourages reading in the stations listeners. This slot reflects METROS promotion of the importance of gaining intellectual capital in bourdieu terms but also a culture of leisure. METRO ‘imagines’ its audience not onl to hav the tim for leisure acitivities such as reading but also the educational level, and aspirational desire to want to read the books reviewed. The choices of the books also reveal the stations concept that its listeners are intrigued in global entertainment, an urban lifestyle of leisure and are interesting in joining the western urban culture of literature enjoyment and book clubs.
The general knowledge quiz held on The Avenue each day of the week reveals how METRO privileges intellectual ability as listeners are rewarded for being able to answer a variety of question which usually govern the context of African issues but also involve questions about international current issues. In this example METRO not only imagines a knowledgeable audience but ne which is interested in both the local and the international news and issues.
Further evidence that METRO believes that its audience is a community who are involved in or interested in global entertainment and a lifestyle, which involves leisure, is Azania’s slot, ‘At the Movies’ (11:00-12:00) during her Friday show of ‘Total Bliss’ where she talks about the movie opening that Friday and usually airs a radio version of the trailer for the film. She also discusses a DVD to get for the weekend and also features movie news. Not only does this slot show how METRO FM ‘imagines’ its listeners as those who have or, desire to have, a lifestyle with the time for leisure enjoyment, but also those who accept global entertainment and westernised products of consumption (Feature films). METRO is also assuming it’s audience has the economical capital, to use Bourdieu’s term for this kind of lifestyle.
As some shows promote a lifestyle of partying and clubbing, others promote leisure activities grounded in the urban experience such as going to the movies, reading books, visiting events, which are usually located in the urban areas. Some shows promote the enjoyment of sport where others promote hard work and personal growth and others stimulate debate about person growth issues and issues of the community.
Another example shows how METRO FM verifies its audience as part of the modern as apposed to the traditional is the early morning health slot, Health Factor, on Zandile “Zeal” Dlala’s weekend show, Another Level, (3:00-6:00am) which provides simple yet interesting facts about being Healthy. This show involves topics about healthy eating, good fitness, nutrition and a healthy level of alcohol intake but has a focus on addressing modern ‘urban’ issues of alternative healing approaches which the host debates and discusses. The exploration and focus on modern health and medicine is a departure from the very traditional beliefs of Sangomas, Witchdoctors and natural healing which are more associated with a traditional, rural and older versions of the black community - one identity which still belongs to a large group of the South African community – but not to the audience which METRO ‘imagines’. This urban acceptance of westernised pharmaceuticals and the health conglomerates which have such a large global enterprise represents a certain level of class related to the international urban community with which METRO FM imagines its audience to identify with. This example shows one way that this research has established METRO FM to ‘imagine’ a modern and urban black community as opposed to a rural and traditional group.
Sports and identity
From observation and analysis of METRO FM is it blatantly apparent how important Sports is to the station, and hence as METRO ‘imagines’ important to its ‘intended listener’. The best example for this argument is the fact that an entire hour and a half show is dedicated entirely to sport every day in the week at the prime time between 18:00 and 19:30. Robert Marawa hosts the Discovery Sports Centre and as a talk show format provides a platform for sports discussions that range from lifestyle to political issues in sport. It is an intense yet compact sports experience. From suspended players to newly-hired coaches, the show covers a variety of aspects of the sporting world and provides listeners with the latest news in sports. As mentioned previously this dedicated show reveals that METRO promotes not only a sports lovers identity but it ‘imagines’ its listeners to be interested and participators in the countries sporting events.
Sports in South Africa, as in any nation has a fundamental role in the formation of and maintenance of national identity (Keech, 2004) although in the context of South Africa certain individual sports together with a divided history hve assisted in the emergence of particular, often fragmented national identities, or ‘community identities’ as Nauright (1997) discusses them. What is interesting here is the focus of the METRO FM sports programming on the particular sport Soccer, with Wednesday night shows wholly devoted to South African Football and other nights still fostering a football focus. In these slots Marawa looks at more than just the news about the latest games but takes listeners deeper into the lives of the players and coaches, the politics as well as the debates around current issues. Most of Roberts Marawa’s guests are linked to soccer, being players in the local leagues, coaches, sport journalists and sporting figures. Marawa intentions are to focus more on the game on the field than on the politics as he made this comment on one show when talking to Chief Rumbelo Mkora (Head of the Football Transformation Forum) and Sibusiso Msekela (Sports Editor of the City Press) about the transformation of football in the coming months. Mararwa stated that” “One thing I said a year ago is that I wanted to stay away from football politics, and we did it successfully for an entire year and we focused on the game on the field of play, but you no what, it is always important to stay on track, keep tabs of what’s going on, otherwise things might over take us and when such forums are formed we need to find out what they are about…” (13th May 2009).
The intense and obvious focus on football on the sports shows and in sporting news reveals that METRO FM sees the code of football as a sport and the culture it engenders as a part of the stations ‘imagined community’. Soccer has come to be historically and soci-culturally in South Africa a sport with which the black community has strong cultural links to and has been apart of the black identity since the 1940’s (Nauright, 1997). Nauright (1997) who looks at Sport, culture and identities in South Africa and also follows the history of development of these three disciplines says surprisingly there is little written about soccer in South Africa and its relation to identity. Soccer is the most played and supported sport in South Africa and Nauright argues has a significance especially for the black South Africans, most notably in the urban black culture. He argues “soccer throughout its history in South Africa has been a signifier for ‘respectability’ African initiative, political struggle, individual freedom, escapism and capitalism through its pervasive role in urban black communities.” (1997: 123). Although cricket and rugby, historically seem as white sports are also promoted as unifying sports in the New South Africa, it is soccer which resonated most strongly with the greater majority of South Africans (Nauright, 1997). To state that soccer is a black sport and others such as rugby and cricket or tennis is a very deterministic statement however looking at Nauright’s coverage of the history of soccer in this country is clearly evident that the sport holds much significance for the black identity in this country. Over the history of the countries politics and social developments, soccer, as a sport, although played and supported by many white South Africans has come to be “identified with the resistance, and with black cultural and national identity” (Nauright, 1997: 78). So METROs focus on soccer which might very well be due to the markets needs as they conduct target requirements also reflects the promotion of an identity, cemented in a historical development of a certain black identity. Although any racial listener can enjoy and participate in the soccer talk show the link to the historical black identity cannot be removed. This is seen in the callers to the show who are all, with very few exceptions of black ethnicity. Nauright further argues, with Keech’s agreement that soccer in the new South Africa has come me be a tool of identification and unification amongst especially the urban black communities. “Sport, especially soccer, was used as a means of social exclusivity for the educated African urban elite” (1997: 56) and in this sense METRO has presented sport and soccer to its urban black listeners to continue this tradition and unify through the powerful cultural tool.
Although METROs sport focus indicates a black cultural identity and heritage THE METRO FM GOLF CLASSIC event indicates further argument in that METRO imagines an urban and wealthy audience with access to economic capital and status. METRO FM has recognised that golf has become one of the fastest growing sports within the black community, both in terms of professional and social development. The METRO FM Golf Classic is designed to bring together some of the most influential business people for this golf experience and exemplifies how METRO imagines its audience as one which governs the cultures of perceived black and white South Africa.
Talk shows
The two talk show despite the sport talk show are Sakina Kamweno’s Open Line (Monday-Tuesday 19h00-21h00) and Criselda Kananda’s, METRO FM talk with Criselda (Wed and Thurs 19h00-21h00). Although both shows are situated within the realm of the ‘talk show’ genre they are both fairly different especially in terms of the topics addressed. From the data observations, Sakina’s show governs more about political talk and provides its listeners with a clearly regulated platform for debate and discussion. For example Sakina’s topics have ranged from debating issues around the elections, to discussions about political behaviour, cabinet selections, and the fights between Helen Zille and ANC particularly with youth leader, Julius Malema as well as debated around the 2010 world cup such as the decriminalisation of prostitution in South Africa. On the other hand Criselda’s more holistic show is involved with issues that seem to relate more to the self than to society as Sakina’s does. Criselda’s topics relate to the mind, body and spirit as she touches on the sensitive yet important parts of self such as abusive relationships, alcoholism and drug abuse, improving job satisfaction, career development and issues of perception and compassion to name a few of the topics covered during this research. The topics selected for Sakina’s show seem to reflect what is relevant to society at the specific time, where Criselda’s topics are timeless. In this way Sakina’s show is a reflection of society and Criselda’s show is more a reflection of what the METRO station would like to promote to its audience.
Sakina’s show is also very much embedded in the African context as opposed to international debates. Her show features a 15-minute segment that looks outside South Africa and focuses on the broader African diaspora where political and socio-political issues that affect all of Africa are addressed. Monday’s shows involves a 45-minute segment devoted to interviews and looks at issues of the day. Then the ‘Open line’ slot on Tuesdays provides a platform to business politics, providing the listeners with a wide diversity of issues to ponder and debate. Criselda’s show topics and discussions promote living a healthy lifestyle for example the debates on alcoholism and drug abuse. The show through the discussions and debates encourages listeners to ask relevant questions about their lives and to stay aware different aspects of the self. She creates an arena for though provoking topics to be aired and attempts through her subtle ways to get listeners to lead a more ‘moral’ and ‘healthy’ life.
The topics of Criselda’a show are congruent with the notion that METRO aims to better its listeners in some way. A show in career development educated listeners on how to find a job that suits their desired lifestyle, and gave expert advice on how to leave a job when one is unhappy. A show on positive affirmation educated listeners on how to mentally strengthen ones own confidence. A show on compassion encouraged listeners to be more understanding with those around them and taught them how to show compassion. A show on perceptions explored issues around gender and educated listeners on the dangers of stereotyping. A show on HIV survivers encouraged HIV positive listeners to live in hop and not desperation. A show on cheating spouses pushed listeners to be strong and leave unhealthy relationships. And the list goes on. These lessons in self development appear to fulfill METROs desire to be a station which inspires its listeners to aspire to high levels of lifestyle (SABC, Metro Vision and Promise Presentation). METRO shows here that it promotes a culture of aspiration, by encouraging people to improve their lifestyles and to achieve the back success which METRO supports. The promise METRO outlines in its vision and mission is “METRO FM will take you to another level in Life and Style” and these topics of Criselda’s talk show, appear as evidence for the stations attempt at fulfilling this promise.
Guests to both shows are usually experts or representatives from various organizations or businesses and during the course of this research have been majority of the black race which furthers the point that METRO FM is definitely attempting to relate more readably with a black audience.
In Sakina’s show she uses the power she has as the host of the show to steer debates along the topic in hand revealing what she believes, together with her producers and the station to be the most relevant issue of the day. For example one show began with the discussion of how Helen Zille had failed to elect other women into her cabinet. She opened the lines to callers to add their opinions. However when one caller phoned in and wanted to discuss another issue about tribalism fears which had angered him in the news, she thanked him politely for his call, hung up and reverted back to the original topic. Hosts and DJs have an inherent power over callers in these debates and therefore can guide the topic to what they believe to be most important. The fact that Sakina as a representative of METRO and she believed a debate about female representation in government was more relevant to the day than an issue of tribalism reflects how the station can, not only set the agenda, but also can promote certain issues as important over others which reflect how it imagines its audiences preferences
In Sakina’s slot in her show called the Open Line, she apparently gives some power back to the audience or callers rather. When she opens the slot Sakina says “It’s time for the Open line, you set the agenda, and we talk about what you want to talk about.” However even in this slot she has a certain amount of power. . In another example her power is more direct. A week after the Zille vs Malema debates a caller phoned in on the Open Line and brings the topic up again. Sakina responds with “No I hear you [a common phrase of hers], and of course I would love to hear what others have to say about your comment. That particular spat [Zille and Malema but also referring to the very heated debate it created] got so ugly, thank god we’re over it, and let not go back there please…lets go to Pretoria with Mabula, good evening.” (27th April 2009, 19:38) And that is all she says about his comment. In a polite manner she invited comments to the gentleman caller’s opinion but also subtly closes the topic, establishing that “we” are over it, apparently assuming everyone should be. Sakina shows her individual opinions on the matter in a response to a later call when she states “it was just of the lowest order, some of the utterances that were made last week and I hope to God we don’t go back there.” (27th April 2009, 20:17).
Sakina regulates the debates which occur with an element of power as well. In heated debates she ensures that both parties are able to state their arguments and she questions both sides on the merits of their arguments, usually remaining very impartial, yet subtly Sakina still reflects her opinion in some form. For example in a debate about the decriminalisation of prostitution the show interviewed two guests, Vivian Lalu from the Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Task Force who advocates for the decriminalisation as well as Eril Naidoo the president of the Family Policy Institute who advocates against the decriminalisation. After she asks them both probing questions about their side of the debate she also questions there responses. She then allows callers to comment and asks the guests to respond. Although never stating her opinion outright at the end of the segment her closing lines reflects her view as she asks “well then, should prostitution be decriminalised? And I tell you, that is the hallmark of a democratic society whether we value the rights of the minority as emphatically as we do the majority” (18th May 2009). In this subtle line she reveals that in a society aimed at democracy even the rights of a prostitute should be protected.
During the Open line host Sakina’s responses to callers’ opinions are an example of how the show along with the station can subtly promote certain attitudes and values which are disseminated to the listeners. For example on one show of Open Line a caller, Peter from Pietermaritzburg called in with his woe’s about a mountain in Cape Town that was been auctioned. He mentions that “…and the money will obviously go to a white person, that’s mu issue, that’s why the DA says nothing…” (4th May 2009, 19:22). Noting the possibility for a racial debate and staying politically correct unlike the caller Sakina responds: “Is your objection to the fact that they are selling off prime natural property, or is your objection to the fact that the money is going to go to people whom you think should not be the beneficiary of that [white people]?” Trying to lighten the mood she continues with “We’ll follow up but its just a mountain, people own islands, what do you make of that, [laughs] what’s the island that Richard Branson owns?” Sakina is not only using her power to make less out of an issue she thinks is not worthy of serious discussion but she is also, through the subtly of radio promoting an attitude towards racial attacks as unacceptable. When the caller tries to return to the racial side of the matter, Sakina cuts him off and ends the topic there with “No we will definitely keep an eye on it. [Call ends] Thank you Peter.”
Callers who phone in to either of the two talk shows are also of great interest when analysing the METRO station, but the analysis thereof is for another paper altogether. Their caller generated content is a vital element to analyse if one wishes to fully understand the extent and affect of a radio station, especially regarding identity as well as talk shows’ success in creating a platform for debate, especially political, hence for the creation of a Habermasian public sphere. Moore’s (2008) comments on audience participation as of particular importance in the context of a ‘democratic’ country. As he points out with democratization in Africa, the challenges to radio is how can it participate in creating a democratic culture that allows the population to take responsibility for political, economic and national management (Moore, 2009)? Bosch’s (2008) discussion of Cape Talk radio in democracy resonates on these topics as well showing how a radio station can, specifically a talk format, can under some circumstances play a role in promoting democracy by forming a platform for political debate in the public sphere, however she admits the one created does not go without its flaws. These challenges are pivotal, however again, are the topic of further research.
------ Westerkamp (1994) poses an interesting question: “What would happen if we could turn that around and make radio listen before imposing its voice? [. . .] What if radio was non-intrusive, a source for listeners and listening? Can radio be such a place of acceptance, a listening presence, a place of listening? (1994: 94)”. Bertolt Brecht also believed in a more positive role for the media regarding identity as he was fascinated by the ways in which radio could be used to help express the voice of individual members of any community (Moore, 1998).
What can be briefly discussed regarding the callers of to METRO is that one gets, from the analysis, a sense that a true ‘community of listeners’ has been created. From earlier, Bareiss (1998) argued through his analysis of Anderson’s work, that all communities have two fundamental characteristics, “they claim some sort of space within which community members regularly interact, and they consist of recognized insiders, who have commonly held interests, values, and allegiances.” The first criterion of his definition is true in this case as METRO FMs talk shows do indeed create a figurative ‘space’ for interaction. The examples of when a caller calls in and is recognised by the host for example when Chabiso calls and says “Hi, after a long time” and Sakina responds, “Ya where have you been?’ indicates that there are individuals who return to the space to interact. Even when a caller phones in and admits they are first time callers, they often praise the show saying how they always listen in, such as one caller who opened with “I’m a first time caller, I love your show…”(11 May 2009), which reflects loyal listeners and gives a sense that a space has been created for regular interaction. In terms of “…recognized insiders, who have commonly held interests, values, and allegiances” this has been argued above as the hosts perform these roles. Therefore in terms of Bareiss’s understanding of Anderson’s ‘imagined communities, it appears to some extent the talk shows of METRO FM do fulfil the criteria.
It is in these shows where analyse reveals that the station feels it has more than a ‘imagined’ listenership but an actual ‘imagined community’ as the hosts, especially Criselda often speak to the refer to the listeners as family and admit that “we” being METRO FM are here for “you”, our community. For example in her show on the alcohol and drug abuse Criselda states “There is no reason for you [our battling members] to be lost [meaning battling with addiction] – assistance is here, we’re [METRO and our experts] going to help you out of this, as we try and help you as a family.” (6th May 2009). These types of communal and family-like statements are common to the shows and promote, at the very least, the sense of a true community. When a caller phoned in and spoke of her seven years of sobriety, Criselda remarked “My sister, we are proud of you” (6 May 2009). Here not only does she use a family code word, sister, to relate with the caller but she also establishes herself, he show and METRO FM as one body using “we”, presuming that this body is something you want to be worthy of having be proud of you. Criselda attempts to establish a closer relation with the audience by revealing the stations emotions to their ‘imagined community. She says “Because we love you we are bringing you a show that will help you get your family back no matter what substance is holding that back” Here she is not only speaking directly to a person she imagines to be having a problem but also expresses a family-like emotion to these listeners.
Using the alcohol show again, as an example of how these shows form attitudes and values which the station, through the discussions and debate inherently promote to any listener. Through the comments made by Criselda, by the end of the show it is established that drinking and drug use is both irresponsible, unhealthy and should be avoided. In summary of the show Criselda states “We are breaking families South Africa, we are breaking the moral fibre of our communities, we are breaking it by substances. Lets put a stop to it starting tonight. Call us, we are here to help you, because we love you that much.” Through this statement and many others made Criselda has formed a strong opinion against drinking. She says to her two guests Scott (and anonymous ex-alcoholic and councillor form Alcohol Anonymous) and Nosipho Mabusa (a councillor from SADEX: South African Depression and Anxiety group) “Thank you very much to both your organisations for really trying to help us restore that moral fibre. Without family we don’t have society, we don’t have communities, we don’t have a country”. Here again, is an example of how the host reveals a certain attitude about society and how it ‘ought’ to be.
What is interesting to note with the Alcohol show is the incongruence of the messages and attitudes expressed by the station as a whole. Day time hosts and shows seem to promote and accept a lifestyle which involves drinking to a certain extent while this show of Criselda’s out rightly looks down on the behaviour and blames it for breaking the “moral fibre” of families, community and society. In May METRO FM had a competition sponsored by Hunters Dry where listeners were required to call in with a song for the product. The prize entailed either a Hunters Hamper to the value of R3,500 (daily winners) and first prize (weekly winner) involved a party, sponsored by Hunters Dry and METRO FM worth R40 000 for the winner and 50 of their friends. This not only sends a message that METRO accepts a culture of drinking but through this competition the station actually sponsors and supports a drinking party. Where this competition endorses a drinking culture, especially amongst the youth, Criselda states the complete opposite saying “a lot of young people today believe that it [drinking] is hip and happening, they are at varsity, with a free at least type of freedom, and celebration and for them fun is boozing. And what are the consequences of starting early?” (6 May 2009). These two extreme attitudes towards the single issue reveal how different shows of the station appear to be speaking to a different ‘imagined audience’. This notion gives evidence to the theory of ‘fragmented communities’ where writers argue that the existence of one culture or one community is impossible without engaging and interacting with another due to the pluralistic existence of both, or ‘hybridity’ (Mkize, 1992; Moore, 2008; Anderson, 1983). So to answer the question about whether METRO FM promotes one identity, culture or overall community through the way it ‘imagines’ its listeners, it appears that their indeed seems to be more than one promoted identity as varying attitudes and values are emphasised on different shows, by different DJs or hosts who through their own identities and values, affect the message passed on.
One could argue in this case that the economic imperatives of the station were most likely the motivation for the joint sponsorship with the alcohol brand. In fact Criselda discusses the media’s role in the case of selling the drinking culture to the youth of the nation. When guest Nosipho Mabula states “The media portray it as cool and they [the youth] will follow that but they don’t realise how much it will influence on their lives…parents are trying to buy their children’s love by giving them nice cars but no matter how much you try and teach them, they think it’s [drinking] cool, the media says its cool..” but Criselda interrupts here saying “Well not this media because we are helping you to stop, we don’t want you to get to that stage”. Continuing from this she even further reflects on the media’s role in fostering a drinking culture when she says, “There is one ad that just really gets to me, they use the most beautiful looking young men, talking about the taste of the South’s something, and I’m not going to mention the brand, but they portray it so beautifully as you said earlier Nosipho, and when you watch them, we want to be part of them, and then we have another one that says as we build this nation, build stadiums, we need this drink, we need it, do you really need it? No.” This attitude she pushes is in direct opposition to the notion of the earlier discussed competition and shows how one part of the station can even at some stages, directly critise the attitudes or culture promoted by the other elements of the station.
The Criselda show also endorses how one ought to be as an African. An advert for the show, played at intervals during broadcasts advertises Criselda’s Wednesday slot called ‘African Pride’. The advert says “African pride, its about those individuals who make us proud to be African through living and letting others live every Wednesday on METRO FM talk with Criselda Kananda”. With the understanding of this slots aim in mind it is interesting to point out the kind of African the show hosts which endorse an attitude that METRO FM believes to be acceptable. On one slot of African Pride, Criselda hosted HIV positive South Africans and the organisation called Positive Heroes. The HIV positive guests were no ordinary citizens, as Criselda points out. Evalina Shabalala is a mountaineer who combated Mount Everest as the first person with HIV AIDS, and the second was Masebelali Tsabo who started running to work to save money and now, has won various long distance races and at the time of the how was about to run the Comrades marathon together with Shabalala. Criselda was making the point that these people are examples of how “ thousands of South Africans are living positively, while managing their HIV, now it is manageable, being diagnosed is not a reason to wither away or give up hope or stop living but an incentive to live more positively, in the real sense of the word.” The attitude this portrays is that those with HIV AIDS can still live a positive and remarkable life. She makes a value filled comment about poverty in South Africa stating her opinions on what those with economic issues should and should not be doing. She says “When I listen to individuals like these, then when I find you on the corner begging for money with all your limbs intact, there is Ubaba [African code] Tsabo, who uses the grounds where he lives in the deepest of deepest of rural areas, he was fired for disclosing his status but he never gave up, he has more than ten medals and you are standing in the corner begging for money, South Africa lets give them encouragement on the day of the race.” These kinds of attitudes are common to the show where Criselda as a representative of the station, shows METROs notions of how one ‘ought to be’. Attitudes of the staff of METRO come form more than just the talk shows. Kenny from the breakfast show comments about the current prostitution debates saying “if men didn’t have the appetite whether its pornography, strip joints, prostitutes, we wouldn’t have these industries thriving like they do.” (18th May 2009, 7:24). Here Kenny Mastery makes a social comment about male sexual appetites endorsing the notion that men need to control their sex drives in order to clean up the sex industries in the country.
The talk shows are broadcast in a much more serious tone to the rest of METRO FM. They also involve a varied amount of the codeswitching discussed previously indicating there acknowledgement of an ‘imagined community’ which is African, or populated mostly by black South Africans. The hosts also refer to different people in African codes such as ‘baba’ (father), ‘mama’ (mother), ‘unmgane’ (friend). They refer often to African cultures, African issues and discuss issues which relate to the newly urban, black identity. For example teaching one ways to govern and better your self in the corporate work place, this may be a new concept for the black community, relatively, after a history of great oppression. The attitudes expressed appear to promote a more modern and British value system, outlawing certain behaviours which are related to traditional black communities such as polygamy, male domination and female oppression, fostering rather an idea of social behaviour more acceptable for modern urban social life as seen by the station.
The talk shows of METRO FM transcend beyond the more casual tone of the rest of the programming and form spaces for real debate around various issues of self, identity, community, society, culture and the nation which are put in the public domain and debated and discussed. However the power relations inherent to the hosts still have an affect on the final message which is disseminated to listeners, although debating is moderately regulated. These shows reveal, at the very least, a strong sense of ‘imagined community’ and more, an ‘imagined family’. The above examples also reveal a sense of the fragmentation or variation amongst the different show’s ‘imagined audiences’, showing how METRO FM does not necessarily promote one, definite and well defined culture. The talk shows do however establish what issues are, or should be, most relevant to their listeners and do focus on topics which are aligned with the overall identity that this paper has seen other elements to promote: essentially a black audience, if not defiantly African (African topics), with a focus on issues of self promotion and bettering the self in some way, be it economically, health wise or morally until the ‘imagined listener’ fulfils the mould that METRO endorses and is therefore a true member of the METRO club of elite, successful and black urban community.
Westerkamp (1994) criticises the fact that “most radio engages in relentless broadcasting, a unidirectional flow of information and energy”. Through the analysis of the interactive and participative environment of the talk shows we can see that METRO FM as a case study is an example which goes against this notion. The nature of these shows appear to live up to some form of the notion about the public sphere where “he ideal of a unified public sphere and its corresponding vision of a territorially bounded republic of citizens striving to live up to their definition of the public good are obsolete” (Keane, 1995: 60).
Music
On the surface level this research acknowledges METRO FM as above all, else a music station. Looking at the variety of the dedicated music shows, METRO FM imagines its reader to be a music lover, one who enjoys not only the contemporary and modern genres of international hip-hop and R&B but also the more traditionally black and township genres of Kwaito and Jazz.
METRO FM has also established the METRO FM ‘Music Awards’ which is in its 10th year this year and with approximately 7000 attendees is one of the largest award ceremonies in the industry. It was established to recognise local music talent and the growing music industry, something the station does during broadcasting as well. Through this event, METRO FM has strengthened its position as a leader in the support of local music content and trends. Furthermore, these awards are the only awards in the country where listeners themselves actively participate in the process by nominating and voting for their favourite artists. This brand position by METRO is reinforced by the stations dedication to playing local music by various local musicians which is does constantly. Almost every show on the station that features music features local talent to some extent. For example the weekday morning show, Crack of Dawn, (3:00am -6:00am), by Bambo Johnson includes a slot called the ‘Proudly South African Double’ where every morning he features two local songs back to back. DJ TB-Touch and DJ Fistas have a Local Top 10 slot on their Friday show (18:00 – 22:00). On their show they also bring local artists into the studio for an album review with whom callers can engage with. Directly after this show is DJ Nutty’s Nightlife express (22:00-01:00) and in his show he brings mostly unknown, yet to be established local DJ’s to the “battleground” as he calls it, and lets the audience vote for their favourites. DJ Nutty’s show is specifically aimed to “boot, inspire and uplift local DJs” according to the shows outline. Each of two DJs gets a half an hour each on the airwaves to turntable, which is followed by the listeners vote and the last hour of the show features a renowned South African DJs who finishes off the show. Again on Sunday’s, The Urban Jazz Xperience is hosted by Nothemba Madumo and is a compiled fusion of local jazz artists in both the niche and mainstream genres. Besides these specifically allocated slots the station often plays local bands and musicians very often. Even during the METRO FM Top 40 show by Adil More on Saturdays (10:00-14:00) local music is included. The stations clear dedication to local talent together with the annual Music Awards promotes the ideology of “Proudly South African”. When Eddie Zondi plays a local track on his Obsession show (21:00-00:00), he usually announces after it with the line “that was another proudly South African trace by x”. Through the above evidence it is apparent that METRO ‘imagines’ its listeners to not only be ‘proudly South African’ in terms of music by promoting this culture through there selection of local music but also interested in the music which South Africa promotes. In DJ Nutty’s “battle of the DJs” listeners are even given some power into selecting the better performing DJ’s, allowing the listeners to involve themselves in the process of supporting local talent. The same can be said for the awards ceremony as listeners themselves are given the power to nominate and vote for their favourites.
As an ”Urban Contemporary music station” which is how METRO defines itself (www.metro.co.za) the playlist includes the following genres: R&B, Hip Hop, Kwaito, House, Soul, Neo-Soul (Nu-soul) Contemporary Jazz, and Gospel. These music genres also provide evidence for the way in which METRO ‘imagines’ its audience. Although these genres are diverse, together they seem t promote a unified black identity.
The stations genres of R&B and Hip Hop reveal the stations desire to promote a more urban and global identity, especially as they tap into the culture of American hip-hop, which has a strong black history, and identity. A lot of the music programming during the daytime shows reveal these genres with later programming including the less popular but still in demand genres of jazz, golden oldies, and classic romance hits.
Although the station plays a large amount of modern, urban and contemporary music genres which further the argument that METRO imagines an urban audience there is still however a substantial amount of Kwaito styled music. On one broadcast of The Avenue after a Kwaito song is played, Unathi Nkayi comments on the song, the Kwaito genre and South African heritage. She begins by saying “Oh Kwaito Kwaito, still loving those beats” (23 April 2009, 16:42) and then goes on to mention how so many people in South Africa who were born in the rural communities have moved to the “big cities” as she puts it and that it is always great to here a Kwaito song so as to remember “our roots and the townships we came from before our private schools and university years…there is a lot of feeling from songs like these [referring to Kwaito]” (23 April, 16:42). Her comment not only reveals that she imagines the listening community to be one which indeed has made a geographical move from the rural to the urban but also one in which should still remember the roots of their cultures, in this example, by still enjoying Kwaito music. She is also making the statement that Kwaito music, in her opinion at least, belongs generally in the townships communities and although has a linked to the cultures and experience of those communities is still a hence relevant to her listeners.
In Bosch’s (2008) exploration of how a ‘black identity’ can be produced by the cultural text of Kwaito she looks closely at how the music style of Kwaito illustrates how mass media assists in the creation of the ‘new’ South Africa and by various tenants helps engender a certain community. This appears to be the same for the METRO case study, which uses Kwaito amongst other genres to create this ‘new’ identity. In Bosch’s argument, the style creates and maintains a “divided community in search for a new black identity” (2008: 75). Bosch argues that this is achieved by “implanting a new common culture based on consumption, and it is through this new culture that identities are forged” (Boloka 2003, cited in Bosch, 2008).
METRO FM music although diverse, appears to bring the listening community together through the genres to create an identity, which is undoubtedly ‘new’ in comparison to those of the past. As the young urban black community attempts to establish its own forged identity METRO aligns them, their target audience, with these genres for a purpose. That purpose, is to fuse the old with the new, the traditional roots of Kwaito and jazz to the modern styles of R&B and Neo-soul, to fuse the international favourites together with the local talent to form a rich, diverse, yet uniting musical selection which METRO FM imagines its community of listeners to relate to – or at least which is wants its audience to relate to.
DJ identities - racial and cultural promotion
An argument that Mkize (1992) makes - which the intended research aims to explore regarding the case study of METRO Fm - is that cultural content is determined by those in control of operating the mass media on its various levels and through its multiple tenants. What aspect of culture they ‘select’ to disseminate is therefore what shapes the cultural tastes and, as a result, the way of life of the receivers and is also affected by their own perceptions and identity (Mkize, 1992). There is a salient point to be made about the DJ’s identities themselves based on their rudimental biological determinism factors, which gives evidence that METRO FM sees its audience as a Black audience. Every DJ on METRO FM is of Black ethnicity except for the traffic announcer Rob Burns, who in contrast reads the traffic updates in his British accent. The rest of the twenty-five DJ’s and hosts are ‘black’ and each has their own individual background and cultural heritage linked in some form or manner to a particular ethnic and cultural community. With all the DJ’s being of black race this ensures that at all times the person relating to issues, debating topics and discussing various events is always from a black perspective. By choosing to only use black DJs and host shows that METRO, at least in this way, ‘imagines’ its audience as black. Although the identities are diverse a strong ‘black’ identity is formed which signals a strong identification for a black listener, and could, but not necessarily does, disassociate non-black listeners.
The DJs themselves also reflect an urban identity. When talking about themselves the DJs refer to their own lives and experiences, which are embedded in, not only an urban setting, but in the modern day, global setting. For example on the show The Avenue with Unathi and Glen Lewis they were discussing the opening of the new shopping centre in Soweto. After the conversation turned to the DJs favourite centre, Unathi commented that she had never been to East Gate as she was a “Sandton girl” (22nd April 2009, 14:03). With Sandton City being in the centre of not only the urban Johannesburg but also a location that reflects wealth and a high level of class she was representing herself in these terms and promoting this identity over a more township identity of Soweto shopping.
Attitudes and value promotion
The METRO FM ‘I am woman experience’ claims to celebrate women and takes place around Women’s Day. An event is held including exhibitors and motivational speakers addressing women’s interests and this year included experiential entertainment such as belly dancing and palm reading. The main event ends off with a Ladies Night concert where an international act is featured to serenade the women. Previous acts for this show have included Joe, KC & Jojo, Keith Sweat and Brian McKnight. This event promotes another cultural ideology which is disseminated to its audience – that of women celebration and upliftment - one which goes against Fritz argument that modern mass media usually promotes male dominance. Friz (1994) is a ‘modern day feminist techno-pirate’ and her research how radio emphasises male dominance over women – so in the context of gender relations. Her work shows how networks of desire, identity and distance are made audible in and through place, and how they are lived alternately, constructed and imagined environments, each simultaneously wireless yet grounded. In doing so she reconfigures the radio as a site of resistance to dominant constructions of space, within contemporary globalised super-modernist cultures (Ouzounian, 2007). Although METRO FM could be argued to have slots which more readably read to men such as the sports shows, as well as various shows or events which promote and represent a female dominance such as the afore mentioned event, as a whole the Station airs its programming at both genders. It promotes less of a male dominated space than Fritz discusses. Hosts constantly look to instil an attitude of women strength and dominance. Many of the female DJs are strong-willed women who stand up to sexist issues that arise in discussion. How men’s behaviour towards women ought to be is established through the promotion of social norms which are often expressed by DJs. In one morning show of Total bliss hosted by Azania Ndoro she featured a letter by a male listener that was calling out to his wife, who had apparently been cheating on him. The male caller’s email was read out pleading with his wife to fight for their marriage and that he will forgive her if she agrees to fight for the family. Ndoro comments after his letter that he sounds like a wonderful loving man and hopes there are many out there that learnt from the caller’s behaviour. This anecdotal example reflects how METRO FM DJ’s can promote a certain attitude to their audience. Just in this one instance females were in no way represented as either dominated by men or as the victims of some sexist behaviour as Frits argues is generally the case. Through the way topics surrounding sexuality and gender are addresses a certain dominant attitude to gender relations is endorsed. When Jacob Zuma announced which three wives would be present on the day of his inauguration DJ’s across various shows made comments, which slanted toward the attitude that we should, all have one husband and one wife. In this way, METRO FM was disassociating itself with the traditional values of African cultures which engender multiple wives. For METRO male listeners are imagined or at least hoped to aspire to a modern age mature man, respectful of women, and to marry one wife. Male and women are not reflected as being victims of male domination.
Conclusions
This research has shown that the black radio station of METRO FM is a ‘cultural field’ as it is site of cultural practise where particular things about culture and identity are promoted by the station. Through the various elements discussed this research has established that METRO FM imagines it audience to contain, a certain, yet fairly broad set of cultural capital, in that they are, besides members of a black community also members to the urban community due to their clear access to economic capital, emphasised mainly by the stations commercial imperatives as well as how the station imagines a certain level of financial spending. Through the communication use of well spoken English, it is clear that the station imagines its audience to be of a higher class, educated (holding intellectual capital) urban and living with in the global environment of modern life. Yet the examples of codeswitching, also indicate how audience members are imagined to be part of the authentic black African culture with the ability, and desire to be able to switch codes. Through the embedding of smaller cultural language bits, codes and references METRO indicates that its imagined audience has a cultural background embedded in the true African experience. While broadcasting indicated that they are imagined to have now become members of the ever-developing black urban community - which is growing in both economic and cultural strength at it begins to establish a ‘new’ community within the ‘new’ context of the ‘new’ South Africa. Sports programming, with its soccer focus, reinforces the unification of a black experience yet with events such as the METRO Golf Challenge again METRO positions its audience in the higher classes, where status is both important and growing and shows how METRO’s ‘imagined audience’ are comfortable in both black and white South Africa. Talk shows reflect how METRO disseminated strong messages about values and attitudes with which it ascribes to its audience as well as how a station can position issues above others while imagining some topics more relevant to their intended reader than others. Talk shows also seem to truly create a feel of having a community or family of listeners to whom they speak by the way that the hosts address listeners and callers.
Overall analysis of the variety of the stations programming reveals that METRO sees its ‘imagined’ audience as a well rounded, balanced individual, one who indeed cares about music but also the achievement of economic security and status, has the time for leisure such as reading and going to the movies, partying and spending time with friends and family, enjoys sport and is concerned with issues that affect the community and ones own self growth. How METRO FM appears to ‘imagine’ its ‘community of listeners’ is similar to the definition Moore (2008) gives of communities in general: a “dynamic matrix of interlocking (and often competing) collections of individuals who define themselves in a range of cultural, economic and social ways, many of which may be completely imagined and unrelated to the ‘reality’ of their existences” (2008: 48). Through language usage and cultural references METRO becomes a discourse text which as Hansen (2006) argues involves processes of in inclusion or transformation into the group, of those who fit the mould of the ‘imagined community’ and also similarity for the exclusion of those who cannot access the codes of the dissemination.
The new modern and urban youth of South Africa which have in a sense disassociated themselves with the more traditional rural norms and behaviours are in need of a station such as METRO through which to express the more aspirational and urban values, needs and attitudes. Black youth identities have changed as they appropriated the new South Africa and they took on a new way of life – METRO FM as a stations ‘imagines’ its community of listeners to be this group of people. METRO overall sees its ‘imagined reader’ as an socially active person enjoying a variety of leisure activities (thanks to access of economic capital), as one who is constantly dealing with issues relating to people and social situations, especially in the urban settings of corporate work and multicultural experiences. The METRO listener, to METROs understanding is powerful, assertive, highly ambitious (wanting to grow in status and self), dogmatic as METRO encourages them to fight and standing up for beliefs, as socially interactive, where being out with friends and status are important and who wish to embed themselves within the urban and modern lifestyle of South Africa’s upper class. METRO imagines its audience as younger as it relates to issues about youth, university, first years in business, dating and as consumers of popular culture. From the topics discussed on METRO it is apparent that METRO sees its ‘imagined audience’s’ desires including : wanting to live a happier life, make more money, have a better work-life balance, own a car and achieve more in their career with achievement, advancement, economic security, personal development and physical health being issues that METRO endorses as healthy desires.
METRO communicates to its audience, besides the realm of broadcasting, with cellphones as well as through the internet using the website and Facebook as mediums of communication. This reinforces the notion that METRO imagines its community to be apart of the modern techno-age, where one needs a certain level of class and economic capital to be a member of and is generally set in the urban locals.
METRO FM is a lifestyle brand. The brand has epitomized black success and leadership while imagining its listeners to desire style, confidence, potential and the enviable ability to feel at home in modern South Africa. METRO FMs celebration of blackness promotes a strong sense of being proudly South African, and African. METRO FM is a music focused progressive lifestyle brand. METRO encourages its listening community to transgress to a higher level of lifestyle and its slogan, “It’s where your at” epitomizes this belief. The slogan, reinforces the stations focus on targeting an audience located in a ‘new’ place, one outside the traditional, historical and oppressed identity, one which is urban. Sometimes the station remixes the slogan to say “Its where I’ m going” to show that it imagines some of its listeners to be heading toward the place where it ‘imagines’ its audience to be.
METRO FM indeed appears to have created an alternative space for members to explore a new culture and the meaning of being black in South Africa today. As callers are able to participate almost all day long METRO allows for their access to this space and fosters an arena for the formation or the possibility thereof for a “community”: one where values and attitudes can be stated, debated, explored and established. Although the research in this study has found that METRO FM also has created a alternative media sphere for the South African black communities however due to the various element of the station limit the access to a certain community of black.
It appears that in this case radio is both a ‘dynamic form’, which allows the listeners to initiate conversations about the nature of the public sphere, and culture, which is then constructed anew. It allows its listeners to formulate a place for themselves in ‘the public’. This research has come to agree with Jewesbury in that “radio is not something placed into the public…but something that actively forms the very notion of the public – that communal thing which we all take part in producing or creating or debating or challenging” (2004: 34).
However the community discussed her is still only an ‘imagined’ community in that firstly those who control the station and is messages will never come to know, meet not even hear of all members of the real community of listeners and these discussed traits are what METRO FM believes its audience to encompass. As Bareiss argued in his research, this research has found that the station of METRO FM is a site where the ideas of ‘place’ and ‘identity’ are circulated as preferred representations of the listening audience (Bareiss, 1998).
Weakness of study
This research’s focus on the imagined identity of Metro FM listeners by the station as a whole. While analysing the intricate and problematic disciplines of identity, race and power interaction between mass media such as radio and the formation of listenership identities and community formation I must acknowledge the importance of my own formed individuality in terms of my inherent biological belonging and perspectives, inherent demographical information and so forth. Although I acknowledge my own perspectives and influence on results a main aspect of qualitative research is to seek the ‘insider perspective’ so I will be attempting as Babbie and Mouton describe “to view the world through the eyes of the actors themselves” (2007: 271). So as I naturalistically observe, conduct analysis is conversations, blog comments and interviews, I, as a qualitative researcher, should actively seek to put my self in my subjects’ ‘shoes’ (Babbie and Mouton, 2007). A second self critique is that better results and discussion could be made by analysing the station for a longer period of time.
Further research in this area could include a more detailed look into the ‘real’ audience of METRO FM looking at their perceptions of what culture the station promotes. Secondly a semiotic analysis of the stations adverts for its own brand would also reveal a great deal of how the station imagines is target market and listenership. Also interviews with various role players at the station would prove fairly useful.
Reference:
Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of
Nationalism, Verso: London.
Ansha, P.A.V. (1989). Language as a cultural tool. Media Development. Vol 2: 12-15.
Babbie, E. & Mouton, J. (2007). The practice of social research. Oxford: South Africa.
Bareiss, W. (1998). ‘Public Space, Private Face: Audience Construction at a non-commercial radio station.’ Critical studies in mass communication. 15: 405-422.
Bordieu, P. & Passeron, J.C. (1977). Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. Sage: London.
Bordieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J.E. Richardson (ed). Handbook of theory of research for the sociology of education. Greenwood press. Translated by Richard Nice.
Bosch, T. (2007) ‘In the Pink Gay radio in South Africa’. Feminist Media Studies, Vol. 7, No. 3, 2007.
Bosch, T. (2008). ‘Kwaito on Community Radio: The Case of Bush Radio in Cape Town, South Africa’ in the world of music 51(1): 75-89
Bosch, T. (2008). Talk radio, democracy and the public sphere: 567MW in Cape Town Draft 2: November 18, 2008.
Bowers, D. (2006). Grammatical constraints and motivations for English/Afrikaans codeswitching : Evidence from a local radio talk show. A Masters thesis for the Department of Linguistics, University of the Western Cape.
Burton, G. & Dimbleby, R. (1995). Between ourselves: An introduction to interpersonal communication. Arnold: London.
Calhoun, C., Lipuma, E. & Postone, M. (1993). Bourdiue: Critical Perspectives. Polity Press: Cambridge.
Dawson, M. (1994). A black counterpublic? Economic Earthquakes, Racial Agendas and Black Politics. Public Culture 7(1): 195-224.
Habermas, J. (1994). The emergence of the public sphere. In The polity reader in cultural theory. Cambridge: Polity Press
Hansen, L. (2006). Images, Identity and Security: Bringing Together International Politics and Media Research. Routledge
Hendy, D. (2000). Radio in the Global Age. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Jenkins, R. (1992). Pierre Bourdieu. Routledge: London
Jewesbury, D. (2004). ‘Site and Means of Resistance: Radio, Ideology and Form’, in Carter, P. (2004). Edge FM 87.9MHZ. Aberdeen: Robert Gordon University.
Keane, J. Structural transformation of the public sphere. (1995). The Communication Review 1(1):1-22. In Scammell, M. & Semetko, (2000). (eds.) The media, journalism and democracy. Adershot: Ashgate, Dartmouth.
Keech, M. (2004). ‘One nation, one soul, one dream, one goal?’ in Smith, A. & Porter, D. (Eds.). Sports and national identity in the post-war world. Routledge: London.
Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. (2004). ‘Representation and interaction: designing the position of the viewer’. In Reading images: The grammar of visual design. Place: Routledge
Marais, H. (1991). Radio in the South African culture. FAWO News.
Mattelart, A. & Sieglaub S. (1980). Communication and Class struggle. International Mass Media Research Centre: Paris.
Mkize, M.Z. (1992). A comparative study of Radio Metro and Radio Zulu, an ethnic cultural service. Unpublished Masters Dissertation. Graduate Programme in Cultural and Media Studies, University of Natal.
Moore, P. (2008). ‘From the Bogside to Namibia: The place of community broadcasting in post-conflict cultural reconstruction.’ The Radio Journal – International Studies in Broadcast and Audio Media. 6(1): 45-58.
Nauright, J. (1997). Sports, Cultures and Identities in South Africa. Leicester University Press: London
Ouzounian, G. (2007). ‘Contemporary radio art and spatial politics: The critical radio utopias of Anna Friz’. The Radio Journal – International Studies in Broadcast and Audio Media. 5(2&3):129-142
Rosnow, R.L. & Rosenthal, R. (2005). Beginning Behavioural Research: A conceptual Primer. Pearson: New Jersey
Shang, J., Reed, A., & Croson, R. (2008). Identity Congruency Effects on Donations. American Marketing Association Journal of Marketing Research. 45: 351-361
Stavitsky, A. G. (1994). The changing conception of localism in U.S public radio. Journal Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 38, 19-33.
Squires, C. R. (2000). Black Talk Radio: Defining Community Needs and Identity.Journal of African American communication and identities. 291-304.
Farm and Rural Radio: Some Beginnings and Models by Robert L. Hilliard - PhD, Columbia University, New York First International Workshop on Farm Radio Broadcasting
In recent years I have worked with groups in a sub-Saharan African country on their use of radio. These have been mainly NGOs who have heretofore not been able to organize their constituents or to provide them adequate information or education on any given topic because of the geographic distances or obstacles between people in a given area and the structures of transportation. Radio offers the opportunity for instant communication on a broad scale. It is not surprising that many of the NGOs are women's groups, suffering under similar kinds of discrimination and prejudices that farm and rural women did in the U.S. before their significant roles and equal rights were recognized. In the radio workshops that I conducted I heard over and over the need to inform women about their legal and economic rights, of which they were deprived by their husbands or by their local authorities. I heard of their need to know where to obtain information and assistance on health needs and on children. I heard of their desperation in trying to learn what to do about AIDS when their husbands refused to use condoms and didn't care about infecting their wives or future children. I heard of their desire to find out about household equipment that might make their lives at home a bit easier. I heard about their pleas to find out where and how to provide their children with education that would give them an opportunity for a better life than their parents. I heard about their need - and from men, as well - to find more efficient and easier and more profitable ways of raising and selling their crops and their cattle. I heard about their need to learn beforehand, if possible, about weather conditions -storms, mudslides, floods, and excessive heatwaves. In essence, these problems and needs are similar to the needs of farm and rural people, including women, in the U.S. when radio first came into use. And, as in the U.S., radio can be a key factor in beginning to solve some of these serious problems.
A number of countries today are relying principally on radio to serve the needs of their farm and rural populations, especially those countries which are principally rural in nature and in population dispersal. One of those countries is South Africa, which, since the end of apartheid, has been developing a series of local or community radio stations. One of the people who has played an important role in that development is an American, William Siemering. In one of my books with co-author Michael Keith, Global Broadcasting Systems, Siemering provides an overview of the principles for stations to serve farm and rural areas that can be adapted to other countries, as well. He states:
Since radio is the dominant medium for the majority of the people, it will play a critical role in meeting the vast educational, health and development needs. Nine out of ten Black South Africans have at least one radio and three-quarters of the population listen to the radio and see radio as the most informative, understandable and entertaining medium. Three-fifths of Black South Africans live in rural areas where over 80% have no electricity. Illiteracy rates have varied from two out of five to 63% in rural areas.
South Africa has the potential to develop one of the most diverse and effective radio systems in the world for the following reasons:
· Radio is the least expensive medium, and appropriate technology for this time.
· The high development need gives high motivation for effective use of the medium.
· The majority of the people have a rich oral tradition, which is ideally suited to radio.
This description of South Africa can be adapted to a great many other countries where radio can be used to serve the needs of the farm and rural population.
There are a number of organizations and associations that provide and support farm and rural radio programming. One of these - used here as a prime example - is the Developing Countries Farm Radio Network (which can be found on the Internet at www.farmradio.org). This Canadian based organization has been using radio since 1979 to help "farm families learn about simple, proven ways to increase food supplies and improve nutrition and health." Principally, it prepares radio scripts, which it distributes free to more than 1300 member radio stations of its network. These stations produce the scripts, with the information in them reaching millions of farmers throughout the world. Its most recent packet of scripts reflects one of the propositions in this presentation: the need to recognize the importance of and serve the needs of rural and farm women. The Developing Countries Farm Network's October, 2000 series of radio scripts come under the heading, "Women are Key to Rural Development." Some of the individual script titles are: "Women Produce Most of Our Food," "Women and Credit," "Nutrition Advice to the Expectant Mother," "A Community school for Boys-and Girls," "Land Ownership Rights: Access Denied-Why Women Need Equal Access," "My Body, Myself: Women Should Have Control Over Decisions Concerning Their Bodies," "Women Working Together Can Make a Difference in their Community," and "It's Important For Women to Vote in Elections."
While in many parts of the world today, the Internet and faxes have become the principal means of communication, in most of the world radio is still the medium of choice and offers the greatest potential for serving farm and rural populations
retrieved May 2011 from http://www.fao.org
