Barnard, S. (2000) Studying Radio. New York: Oxford University Press Inc.
Beaurain, J.(2005) Research Proposal for a Master’s Degree in Education. WCED (Thesis)
Bosch, T. (2003) Radio, Community and Identity in South Africa: A rhizomatic study of Bush Radio in Cape Town. University of Ohio: College of Communication (thesis)
Bosch, T. (2010) Using Radio to encourage Civic-minded Journalism. Rhodes Journalism Review volume 30, page 33.
Buckingham, D. (2007) Beyond Technology – children’s learning in the age of digital culture UK: Polity Press.
Buckingham, D. (2003) Media Education, UK Polity Press.
Buckingham, D. (2000)(b) After the Death of Childhood, UK Polity Press
Buckingham, D. (2000) The Making of Citizens, London: Routledge.
Burn, A., Parker, D. (2003) Analysing Media Texts London, New York: Continuum
Carlsson, U., Osei-Hwere, E., Pecora, N. (eds) (2008) African Media, African Children. Götenberg: The International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media.
Christiaans, D. J. Empowering teachers to implement the Life Orientation learning area in the Senior Phase of the General Education and Trianing Band (2006) University of Stellenbosch (thesis)
Ely, D and Gerlach V. (1980) Teaching and the Media – a systematic approach. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs.
Falk, B. Teaching the way Children learn (1994) Columbia University: NCREST
Hawkridge, D. and Robinson, J. (1982) Organizing Educational Broadcasting. Paris: The Unesco Press.
Hendy, D. (2000) Radio in the Global Age. UK: Polity Press
Lindgren, A. Radio in Education (From the Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and Society)
Louw, A. (2007) Bush Radio’s CREW project: growing with media education. UNESCO: Meeting on Media Education in Paris.
Mbonga, C. Influence of radio on the students of the North-West University Mafikeng Campus (2010) University of North-West. (dissertation)
McGregor, S., Schooling that hampers Development (2007) internet article from http://ipsnews.net/
McGregor, S., Schooling that hampers Development (2007) internet article from http://ipsnews.net/
Osunkunle, O. Using Radio as a tool for rural development in Limpopo Province of SA: An evaluation of Case Studies. University of Fort Hare. URL: ejournalist.com.au/v8n2/Osunkunle
Reagan, J. Applied Research Methods for Mass Communicators. (2006) Marquette Books.
Russel, D. Learning to Listen, Listening to Learn (1992) University of the Witwatersrand: Centre for Continuing Education.
Schroeder, Kim, Kirsten Drotner, Stephen Kline, Catherine Murray (2003) Researching Audiences London: Arnold.
Spain, P. A Report on the system of Radioprimaria in the state of San Luis Potosi in Mexico. (1973) Stanford University California: Institute of communication Research.
Thussu, D. (ed.) Internationalising Media Studies. (2009) Oxon: Routledge
Black Radio and Identity in SA – a case of FM radio (Thesis –from UCT’s Vula resources)
Reviews
1. Review of:Reviews
Dissertation: Radio community and identity in SA. Tanja Bosch
Me Bosch’s dissertation deals with community radio in SA before and after democratic elections in 1994.
It outlines the history of Bush Radio, the oldest community radio station in SA and uses it as ethnographic case study. Bush Radio is also considered to be one of the best developed community radio stations on the continent in terms of its organizational development and technical infra-structure. and She explores specific programmes on air and outreach programmes offered by the station. It looks at kwaito music and how it is used to create a new black identity. She also looks at the gay community through Bush radio’s programme, “In the Pink”. Me Bosch has found a gap in the literature of radio in SA – there is only one book of case studies of radio stations in South Africa. There is also no record of activities or successes of community radio stations that have been licensed after apartheid. There is also no record of how the changed relationships between government and media influenced community media.
She feels community participation is an important part of community media. Corporate and commercial interests usually take first place in general media. She feels community should be hands-on even in the production of material.
After Noam Chomsky’s visit to Bush Radio (half an hour that turned into 4 hours) he wrote them a letter which says: “I have traveled to many countries and have participated in radio programmes everywhere. Bush Radio is arguably the most important radio station I have ever visited.” (2003:28)
Me Bosch takes a qualitative reflexive ethnographic approach to her study with rhizome and cyborg as key theoretical constructs. She explains the concept of rhizomatics as follows:
“A rhizome has no beginning or end. It is always in the middle, between things. It is more organism than organization – interbeing, intermezzo. (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987).
She explains the cyborg as metaphor for community radio through Donna Haraway’s understanding of it: It is composed of many diggerent things e.g. there is no standard to community radio and it borrows from state broadcasting and commercial models, sometimes incorporating aspects of both. It is constantly evolving and changing.
I am going to focus on chapter 4 (What is community radio) and chapter 6 (Children on air at Bush Radio and the background of children’s broadcasting) as well as her data analysis theory and “the embodiment of the researcher” which I found particularly interesting and relevant to my own research.
Data analysis:
Marshall and Rossman (1995) suggested the following process:
Organising the data
Generating categories, themes and patterns
Data reduction
Data interpretation.
She first transcribed her notes and interviews. Then read and re-read the transcripts to become familiar with the data.
Laningan (1988) suggests it is important to find out what is assumed and what is par of your consciousness.
Bosch also recommends that summaries are done immediately, read between the lines, re-live the interview. Seeing is hearing. And (Van Maanene 1990) seeing meaning.
From( Dey 1993) Generate categories for analysis by grouping the data after developing a set of criteria in terms of which to distinguish observations as similar or related. Derive catergories and subcategories from the data.
Categories and themes (chapters) reflect her data. She uses the grounded theory approach (Glaser and Strauss 1967)
Data is uni-structured – not coded at the point of data collection in terms of a closed set of analystic categories.
She suggests like Van Maanen (1990 p 131) re-writing, re-thinking, re-flecting, re-cognizing.
She does not use linear, but exploratory writing and a more rhizomatic, circular, unpredictable approach than the prescribed formula of mass communication research.
The embodiment of the researcher:
Active participation – the physical participation, the sights, smells and sounds were often left out in final research reports and regarded as marginal, trivial and egocentric.
(Important to read: SA media historian Keyan Tomaselli (2001) Blue is hot, red is cold.
In a rhizomatic approach the process of doing research is as important as the data gathered.
Like the cyborg the final report has to be simultaneously research report and confession – history and prophecy, academic analysis and poetic fiction.
Radio Audience
There used to be alienation of black audiences from radio because of government propaganda coming at them in the Apartheid years of Government controlled media.
Radio Freedom was the underground radio station of the ANC, founded in 1967 broadcasting on short-wave from neighbouring African states. The Cassette Education Trust (CASET) produced and distributed cassette tapes with speeches from banned activists, local music and revolutionary poetry. CASET evolved into Bush Radio.
Community Radio:
The key concepts underlying community media are access, participation and self-management (Lewis, 1993)
Access includes feedback from audience. Participation is the involvement of ordinary people at the levels of production, decision-making and management and planning.
What is community?
The traditional meaning is: a group of people sharing a common interest in a particular locality.
There are also communities of interes: members share cultural, social or political interests independent of geographical proximity (Jankowski 2002)
In SA it used to mean, black community, white community, Indian and Coloured community because of the Group Areas Act of 1950.
Bush radio community were originally from the Cape Flats. The community is now redefined: It is people interested in alternative information, critical information about global political issues such as provided by the Michael Parenti or Alternative Radio cassette tapes from the USA. It is basically a working class audience. But there are constant changes within a community.
Martin Buber said: A real community needs not to consist of people who are perpetually together, but it must consist of people who precisely because they are comrades, have mutual access to one another and are ready for one another.
Chapter 6:
Youth in post-apartheid SA embrace the alternative education and the spaces on the airwaves that Bush Radio affects as a tool to carve out new spaces in which their ideas of self and other are imagined, produced and lived. (p149)
About 60 children show up at Bush Radio on Saturday mornings to learn about how to make radio. Ages are between 6 and 18. They learn to write scripts and edit recorded materials in the production studio.
CREW is the Children’s Radio Education Workshop. The children represent every racial group in SA.
Children were not interviewed for this thesis because of the ethical restrictions concerning children in research.
The ultimate aim of Bush radio is that the entire Saturday programming would consist of children’s programming, produced by children.
They also have an outreach component called Alkemy (Alternative Curriculum for mentoring youth)
Similar programmes exist in other countries, e.g. Radio Gune Yi in Senegal, Radyo Timoun,started by street children in Haiti and includes rap, news, interviews, commentary and liveinterviews. (http Pangaea.org/street_children/latin/Haiti-htm.
The Butterflies Radio Project in India have 7 – 18 year old street and working children who broadcast 9 30-minute programmes featuring news, popular music and interviews.
The Talking Drum Studio in Sierre Leone programs are designed to encourage peace and reconciliation by the Peru Youth child rights reporters. (www.comminit.com)
Normally radio studios do not want children in the studio because they are worried they would break things. The idea at Bush radio is to give the children an understanding of media.
In 1997 six grade 10 High School students were recruited from Cape Town High School and trained to conduct interviews, use field-recorders, edit on reel-to-reel machines and use the on-air studio in a series of weekend workshops.
This resulted in programmes like Ragged Edge and Street Seeds.
CREWS has 4 on-air components: The Bush tots (14 kids aged 8 – 12)which gives the kids confidence to speak on the radio and they choose their own topics. Bush Kids (16 children aged 10 – 14) the Bush Teens and the Street Philosophers (aged 16 – 20)
Members of CREW are required to prove that their involvement in the project does not negatively affect their academic work, in order to remain in the programme. Producers monitor this by asking them to bring in their school report once a year.
Alkemy
They wish to instill in youth a sense of pride, a sense of dignity, a sense of self worth and to see beyond the confines of their neighbourhoods of chaos and disorder that they find themselves inveloped in every day.
Through a series of seminar sessions, workshops and field trips they wish to prepare youth for a future in which their participation is key.
They also confront racial and cultural issues which are not dealt with in the classroom. They started recruiting youth via a hip-hop programme.
An informal library has been started for the youth with a lot of African Identity topics.
A children’s broadcasting conference is held at Bush Radio every year. The intention is to expose children to broadcasting and present media production as a viable career choice. They allow children to make all the choices around the conference programme and discuss issues of broadcasting among themselves.
The first conference was in 2001 with 50 – 60 participants aged 6 – 18.
The SA Government’s Department of Communications (DOC) published plans in September 2001 to support and strengthen children’s radio by inviting community radio stations to tender for funds to produce appropriate programming for children.
This conference produced a set of notes that formed the basis of the Children’s and Youth Radio Manifesto. This initiative has been taken up by the World Radio Forum. They want to involve youth radio groups worldwide to draft an international charter to set a standard for appropriate youth programming.
One of the quotes that Bosch uses in her thesis that I found very touching is the following:
The essential privilege of exile is not to have just one set of eyes but half a dozen… each of them corresponding to the places you have been…” Said 1994, 2: p48
End.
2. Review: Gerlach Vernon S. and Ely, Donald P. (1980) Teaching and the media – a systematic approach, Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
Evaluating Instruction: Chapter 4: There are two types of evaluation:evaluating students and evaluating systems. This represents the relationship between means and outcome.“The heart of the systematic approach is that systematic evaluation requires you to use students’ data to form judgements concerning materials and methods of teaching. It involves the concept of feedback.” (1980: 86)
Chapter 10: Determining instructional strategies and selecting instructional media:
“A fundamental component of the systematic approach to teaching and learning, is the selection of instructional media. The basic rule for media selection is: A medium of instruction must be selected on the basis of its potential for implementing a stated objective. Question that stems from this will be: What medium will be most likelyto help establish the conditions for the learner to identify somehone or something” (1980:240)
In his review of the studies of Sesame Street, he says that every medium is a means to an end -
“A medium is any material which enable the learner to acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes." (1980:241)
He also refers to the fact that the studies of Sesame Street were challenged by Cook and his associates (1975) who asserted that the series did not close the gap between the achievement of middle class and lower class children.
Audio Media:
He advises that if sounds are relevant attributes of the concept, have students listen to either a live or recorded presentation.
Case Studies: Central America: The Mexican Directorate of Audio- visual Education:
The DGEVA was the organization established for education through media(1965)
Organizational structure of DEVGA:
At the top was the Director-General: Programming and evaluation, legal affairs and pedagogical museum.
Then there was the audio-visual production director: Television, Radio and taping, materials, editorial, training.
Next in charge: administrative director: human resources, materials resources, state centres.
Media engineering director: Technical television, laboratories, workshops.
They used specially recruited teachers which placed a heavy burden on the DGEVA with their grievances, pay increase requests etc.. the DGEVA was later relieved of their responsibility to manage teachers as well.
Another review of Radioprimaria in Mexico City: (1980:255)
Radio lessons allow a single teacher to deal with the top three grades of the elementary school within a single classroom. It was aimed at rural schools. DGEVA had a team of eith radio teachers who prepare the tapes in studios in Mexico City. The tapes were taken to the University of San Luis Potosi for broadcast over a thirty-mile radius every school day from 9am to 12.45pm Each radio lesson which lasted fourteen minutes, was based on the elementary school curriculum, with emphasis on Spanish, arithmetice, history and geography. Classroom teachers received a programme schedule and suggested student activities.
The minister of Education had to make the decision to go ahead with proposed projects. Decisions about curricuclum content were controlled by a national council that ruled over all formal education .
There were a number of co-ordination decisions:
Equipment renewal and acquisition decisions, decisions to reorganize the internal division of labout rest with the Director-General and four kinds of operational decisions: Instruction design, taping of programmes, recruitement of teachers, decisions of whether students pass or fail.
Fascilities needed for radio part of DGRAV:
Radio and taping department that controls two radio studios reasonably equipped with microphones, CD players and computors, record library.
Printing department with good offset press and reproducing equipment.
Repairs workshops.
(Extras for TV would be:television technical dept, materials library with photographs, drawings, films and visual aids, lab dept for demonstrations in biology, chemistry, physics etc, drawing office and workshops that produce blackboards, maps, mechanical models etc.)
For radio transmission DGEAV used the university station at no cost to the project.
Radio receivers for the radioprimaria were maintained by local communities.
Evaluation: 4 criteria for TV evaluation: (1980:262)
1. Was a classroom co-ordinator necessary?
2. What visual aids were effective on television?
3. How can an adequate pace be set for the teleteachers?
4. What contribution to overall effectiveness dit the written materials make?
Achievement tests, physiological and psychological tests:
Class co-ordinators were found to be essential, design problems were identified, were learning as well as in traditional schools
3 Main conclusions:
1. Telescundario are 25 peresent less expensive than conventional schools at that level
2. No significant difference was found in the achievement of third-grade telesc students and traditional students in Spanish and Maths
3 Class co-ordinators as well as the conventional secondary teachers could improve their pedagogical approach by having students partidcipate more actively in the learning process.
Suggestions for improved resource utilization: (1980: 263)
1. Teleteachers could spend more time preparing their lessons and improving their quality if they recorde a greater percentage for use in more than one school year
2. Teleteachers could be used more intensively by teaching in the evenings as well but tv channels.
3. Equipment should be better maintained and regularly replaced.
Utilization: the Weak link: (1980:293)
Utilization was pointed out as a weak link in since 1967: (chapter 8)
The original case studies reviewed:
The weakness was a result of technological, organizational and personal factors. It was particularly severe with television. It was not only limited to developing countries: you could walk into United States school into classrooms in urban schools and find television sets have been out of order for weeks. The greater the responsibility broadcasting carries for direct instruction, the greater the need for utilization supervision as well as for dependable technology to guarantee consistent delivery of the intstruction. Yet, of the component units of instructional projects, utilization is all too frequently given the least consideration, the least allocation of resources. (1980:293)
Impact on Local Cultures
Co-production , in various forms, does not imply indiscriminate use of imported or foreign material. Education reforms may be aimed at producing changes in valuses and traditional behavior. But if the shift were not intended, perhaps not desired, the project could be considered to have been counter-productive or even destructive to the society.
Learning over cultures can enrich the live of both children and adults (1980:292)
Urban-rural differences:
Related decrease in learning were found in rural schools, whereas increased learning were found in urban schools. This illustrates a managerial problem in relaying investments to priorities. (Rural schools needed to be upgraded.)
Radio mathematics in Nicaragua Chapter (2008: 265)
An American team with financial support from USAID wanted to carry out an experimental project in which primary school children would be taught mathematics by radio. The case study was written by Barabara Searle (1979) project director in the American team, from Institute for Mathematical Studies in the Social Sciences at Stanford University California.
Some rural schools were inaccessible during particularly wet periods of the year. They were also staffed by teachers who were not as well trained as in town schools.
For the ministry it was an opportunity to test a method of providing improved mathematics teaching at low cost to classrooms whose teacher lacked sufficient training in or knowledge of mathematics. A change in government resulted in the termination of the development of new lessons in 1979
Structure of project:
1.Director
2. Curriculum Spesialist, assistat, teacher’s guide writer.
3. Formative evaluation Director, classroom observers, test designers and administratators
4. Radio producer and director, script writers, studio personnel (contract workers)
5. Research director, research assistant, keypunch operator
6. Utilization director, teacher trainer, print production staff, distribution staff
7. Support group Supervisor, accountant, secretaries and typists, maids and night guard, drivers.
The Ministry and UNISAID both contributed financially.
The Ministry was responsible for curriculum development products. But its investment was small, politically and financially. (1980:267)
One scriptwriter took responsibility for one topic spread across a group of lessons. Later it was assembled in a single programme by one person. This system provided good continuity and frequent practice for the students. It also led to some specialization among scriptwriters. The radio producer not only headed the production department but also took responsibility for all recording sessions.
The utilization department printed and distributed teacher’s guides and conducted teacher-training sessions each year before the schools opened.
Evaluation department staff observed in classrooms, designed and administered tests and prepared weekly data summaries. The research departments tested students at the beginning and end of the school year, administered questionnaires to teachers and carried out occasional special testing. (1980:268)
Objectives: 4 goals:
1. to increase achievement in public primary schools in the field of mathematics
2. to provide for easy and wide utilization
3. to minimize the cost per student
4. to provide and instructional system acceptable to children, teachers, parents and officials.
There was fast feedback from classrooms. Management meetings once a week were held to consider progress of lesson production and research and discuss feedback from classrooms to make major decisions regading design and presentation.
800 students were involved in 1975 but 8000 were being served by 1978. The original intention was to offer radio mathematics to all 6 grades which contain some 300 000 children in Nicaragua.
For every day a half-hour lesson had to be provided plus guide for the post-broadcast lesson. Each broadcast was made up of sections lasting 3 minutes. It was called either entertainment or instruction. Instruction constituted a single small mathematical concept or skill and were used to teach or practice it. Entertainment was in the form of songs and games to change the pace of the lesson.
They simulated a dialogue – scripts were written so that the radio characters spoke directly to the children and waited for them to respond. Responses were 4 or 5 times a minute. But it was not long enough to respond and format and the topic changed too frequently.
Radio Mathematics production cycle (1980: 279)
1. Week one: prepare lesson outlines.
2. Week 2: write teaching dialogue for radio lessons and write teachers’ guide
3. Week 3 Write scripts including entertainment segments
4. Record radio lessons
5. Broadcast lessons, observe and test students.
6. Analyze data change later lessons where necessary
Lessons were recorded by a professional technician, after hours, on standard equipment at a local commercial radio station. They used professional actors – two adults and 3 children – to read the script. Children responded at appropriate points in the lesson. It took one hour to record a thirty minute lesson. Three minutes of music at the end of each lesson allowed time for the receiver to be removed to another classroom if necessary.
The radio lessons were broadcast each morning at a fixed time by the national radio station. Following the radio lesson, the teacher was expected to take up one of other of the suggestions in the teachers’ guide for the rest of the time allocated to mathematics.
Teachers attended a three hour workshop at the beginning of the school year, and learnt how to change batteries, what to do if radio broke down etc. Seeds, pebbles, twigs and bottle caps were all used to assist mathematical learning.
Evaluation of effects:
Daily observation took place in a sample of classrooms, there was weekly achievement testing, testing at the start and end of school year, questionnaires to and interviews of teachers and students’ attendance and achievement records from teachers. Also, project staff collected data through conversations with teachers, children, supervisors and parents, picked up complaints or suggestions from teachers as filtered through the local school inspector, read letters from teachers, children and casual listeners and worked on ideas from radio station personnel.
Students learning mathematics by radio scored significantly higher on these tests at each grade level, compared to children who had not been taught by radio. Teachers thought learners learnt well from these lessons.
The Radio Mathematics project succeeded in minimizing the cost per student of increasing achievement in mathematics.
END
3. Review:
Beaurain, J.(2005) Research Proposal for a Master’s Degree in Education. WCED (Thesis)
Beaurain's thesis title is: An Exploration of the effect of a learning programme based on Ayurveda on learners' views of health and well-being. Not really the kind of thing that could be related to my research! But I find the processes described in his thesis very interesting - from the ethical considerations and the effort to find consent from all the right people, to the actual practical experience in the class rooms. Although I do not use questionnaires form my study, I find the types of questions he chose interesting - I felt some of the questions were far to complicated for the research base that he described and I was doubtful of whether proper data could be extracted from anwers to all those questions. There were also too many questions - I am sure the learners were so exhausted towards the end, that they were giving any answer just to finish it.
Chapter 12
The teacher uses audio
Teachers and students spend most of their classroom hours engaged in either talking or listening, but how much time dothey spend developing these skills?
I also find the topic very interesting and very progressive especially for South Africa. Ayurveda is a very valuable health system for countries where many people are hardly able to sustain themselves and definitely not able to afford expensive medicines.
This was one of the first master's theses I read and found it very valuable.
4. Review:
It is also argued that the poor state of schooling is not in the first place a money problem. South Africa spends about six percent of its GDP on education, which equals the situation in rich countries.
There are some people who say the heart of the problem is bad management and others blame teachers for not knowing the basic curriculum used in schools or for lacking the motivation to do their jobs.
Teachers feel that they have mountains of bureaucratic paperwork and are overworked. SADTU says it is unfair to find fault with the teachers, since they are given little support with a curriculum that keeps changing.
This was one of the first master's theses I read and found it very valuable.
4. Review:
After the Death of Childhood – David Buckingham (b) 2000 Polity press . ISBN 0 – 7456-1932-0
Buckingham argues for “children’s rights to participation in the media, moving from passive rights to active rights” – involvement in shaping and producing the media environment that surrounds them." (2000:203) To me this is one of the most important statements and threads through all Buckinghams books on children, media and education. He feels the children should become media literate and be involved in the production of their own radio (or television) programmes.
He feels it is extraordinary that the school curriculum should continue to neglegt (British) forms of culture and communications that that have thoroughly dominated the twentieth century and will continue to do so for the twenty-first. I found this statement encouraging for radio in education.
One of his most important reasons for arguing that children should be media literate, is contained in the following quote: "We cannot return children to the secret garden of childhood and keep them locked and safe within the walls. We can’t protect them from the world, we must have the courage to prepare them to deal with it, to understand it and become active participants in their own right.” (2000:207)
He promotes a new way of researching children and media, different from the old-fashioned “effects” research in US reflects underlying assumptions about childhood.
He said we have only recently (2000) moved away from a behaviourist to constructivist (cognitive) perspective – from the study of stimulus and response to the study of how children understand, interpret and evaluate what they watch and read.
The constructivist approach provides a valuable alternative to the behaviourism of “effects” research.
He also discusses Piaget’s approach of ages and stages on page 108.
In the context of group discussions, he talks about affective responses – fear and sorrow etc. serves particular social or interpersonal function in the context of dialogue with others.
He sees children seen as an active, competent audience.
5. Review: The Making of Citizens: David Buckingham 2000 (a) Routledge London
Buckingham says that qualitative research of the kind reported in his book does not always lead to neat conclusions. And it is not always the aim. "In attempting to present and analyze the complexity of audience engagement with the media, such research often seeks precisely to challenge the easy generalizations that are sometimes seen to constitute research findings.” (2000:201)
He believes that oung people’s apparent lack of interest in politics is a rational response to their own powerlessness. Here he brings in the same thread through all his books, that pleads for involvement of children in the media. He also emphasizes that children need to be educated about the media before they could be educated through the media.
He says children do not want to be patronized and should not be talked doen to.
On page 212 he talks about critical judgement and feels it should be regarded as a discursive strategy "a form of social action to accomplish particular social purposes."
He discusss the problem points and limitations of objectivism, but says it canoot be side-stepped by an appeal to relativism. In other words one should not be chosen to the complete exclusion of the other.
6. Review: Peter L. Spain: (1973) A Report on the system of Radioprimaria in the state of San Luis Potosi in the Mexico, Stanford University California, Institute of communication Research.
Mexico turned to educational technology, specifically radio, because of lack of teachers especially in rural areas and no money to sustain them. This report reflects 6 months’ observation (June to Dec 1972) of the use of radio for increasing primary school learning in rural areas in Mexico. Radioprimaria began at the fall of 1970. It brought radio classes to grades 4,5 and 6 due to lack of teachers. Talks were held with the rural parents. They all saw education as an escape from rural life – they wanted children to escape to cities because of severe job shortages in rural towns. (1973:5)
Less than half the schools had an audible working radio on days the schools were visited and he felt more continuous supervision was needed.
Goal of the project was that children of school age who lived in rural areas who attend schools of less that 6 grades, would be able to complete primary education in the ordinary time of 6 years. It started with a 6-grade school with 4 teachers. 3 teachers handled the first three grades without radio and one teacher teaches the other 3 grades with radio in one classroom. (1973:15)
46 schools were used in experimentation phase and 5 or 6 programmes were broadcast each day – 1 250 programmes for one school year. Each programme lasted 14 minutes.
The lessons were taped by a team of eight radio specialists at studios in Mexico City. Then it was shipped by bus to the University studio of San Luis Potosi and broadcast without further cost, Monday to Friday, 9 – 12.45.
Teachers received detailed schedules of radio broadcasts for 2 weeks plus activities to be used after broadcast. Sometimes also visual materials and maps.
It was showed that 82% of schools that used radioprimaria did not fit the criteria for which it was employed in the first place.
Teachers provided the radios, but often it was not working, the batteries were flat or the broadcasts bad.
The most critical problems were administrative... Inspectors who had to evaluate, had to use their own carsbut were not supplied with maintenance allowances (1973:22)
When previous teachers were transferred, the new teacher knew nothing about radioprimaria.
Reasons why teachers did not follow the programme:
1. Lack of information from the Department of radioprimaria
2. Some teachers thought the radio receivers would be distributed for free
3. There was neglect on the part of school teachers and directors who did not take the project seriously
4. Poor signal reception at times due to faulty transmitter
5. Some teachers saw Radioprimaria as additional task to their daily chores
6. Some teachers who commuted from Mexico City could not arrive at 8 when the broadcasts started and could therefore not listen to it. In some schools children come in as late as 10.30 where it is tolerated.
If transmission was not prompt, it kept the teacher in suspense and wasted time. (1973:35)
Only 18 out of 45 schools had working, audible radios.
Children who had to carry on with other things why one class listens to radio lesson, did not always do what they had to – there was low concentration because of the radio class.
Radioprimaria showed that this medium could work in schools and that it could improve the level of learning in rural schools to be on par with city schools. (1973:42)
The average number of hours directed at one student (three grades listen to combined programmes) was 233 hours.
Teacher questionnaires:
84% of teachers felt the tempo of the radio programmes were too fast and left too little time for children to reply or do the exercise. Programmes were too close together and there was too much content in one programme. Lack or student attention was a serious problem. 82% said the radio programmes helped them with organizing their own content and teaching.
Visits by supervising authorities seemed to help teachers find the programme important.
Teachers were very city-orientated - it was the only place where they wanted to be. (1973:59)
They felt primary education did not need to lead to secondary education to be valuable. It is valuable in itself.
Community questionnaire: Most people felt primary school education is only important if you need to find work in the cities. It has no value if you stayed in the rural area.
They wanted their children to have more than they had but do not think there is any value in trying to develop rural areas – better lives are in the cities. But 73% of the children out of school stayed in the community. They felt only in their contact with the city does learning help them.
The community was not necessarily aware of radioprimaria - it was not really introduced to the community.
“Communicaton impact has come to be seen as an intricate process of interaction among persons, some mediated, some face to face.” (1973:85)
He advises that studies should first be made of the specific rural needs that the curriculum could serve for example water and irrigation. There are two Mexicos: a city and a rural one. For these rural people there should be more organization and trust in themselves, in order to help themselves.
End.
7. Review: McGregor, S., Schooling that hampers Development (2007)
McGregor reports on the experiences and frustrations of a school teacher of Sebokeng, a black township south of Johannesburg. She complains that she is a guard and not a school teacher anymore - some mornings she sees no reason to get out of bed, because the children are out of control and their parents to not seem to care. The school has become a recruitment base for gangs and drug pushers.
The school looks like it did in the Apartheid era - smashed windows and broken desks with the only difference that it is now surrounded by an electric fence. 75% of the learners had to repeat the grade after failed matric exams.
World Bank figures indicated that primary school enrolment rates for South Africa decreased from 92 percent in 1998 to 89 percent in 2004. The government hurriedly introduced a system of 'no fees' schools to make education accessible for the bottom half of the population. This has led to some improvement in enrolment figures.
David Archer, head of education at the international nongovernmental
organisation ActionAid said, ''universal primary education by 2015 is genuinely
achievable but there needs to be a significant change in effectiveness, better
management and better use of funding.''
The school looks like it did in the Apartheid era - smashed windows and broken desks with the only difference that it is now surrounded by an electric fence. 75% of the learners had to repeat the grade after failed matric exams.
World Bank figures indicated that primary school enrolment rates for South Africa decreased from 92 percent in 1998 to 89 percent in 2004. The government hurriedly introduced a system of 'no fees' schools to make education accessible for the bottom half of the population. This has led to some improvement in enrolment figures.
David Archer, head of education at the international nongovernmental
organisation ActionAid said, ''universal primary education by 2015 is genuinely
achievable but there needs to be a significant change in effectiveness, better
management and better use of funding.''
In a recent study, South Africa's nongovernmental Institute of Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) found that 80 percent of schools offer education ''of such poor quality that they constitute a very significant obstacle to social and economic development''.
Poverty, violence and HIV/AIDS have been some of the factors that experts have blamed on the low standard of education. High levels of stress and low wages are driving teachers from the profession.
Poverty, violence and HIV/AIDS have been some of the factors that experts have blamed on the low standard of education. High levels of stress and low wages are driving teachers from the profession.
It is also argued that the poor state of schooling is not in the first place a money problem. South Africa spends about six percent of its GDP on education, which equals the situation in rich countries.
There are some people who say the heart of the problem is bad management and others blame teachers for not knowing the basic curriculum used in schools or for lacking the motivation to do their jobs.
Teachers feel that they have mountains of bureaucratic paperwork and are overworked. SADTU says it is unfair to find fault with the teachers, since they are given little support with a curriculum that keeps changing.
According to Jon Lewis, spokesperson for SADTU: ''We need better training and to get education authorities to start boosting morale.''
. According to one parent, he pulled his 14-year-old son from school to work on the family farm to shield him from the bad influence of peers and to cut off the temptation to use drugs and stir trouble.
. According to one parent, he pulled his 14-year-old son from school to work on the family farm to shield him from the bad influence of peers and to cut off the temptation to use drugs and stir trouble.
8. Review: Stephen Barnard: Studying Radio (2000)
Barnard looks at the Institutions and systems in radio (public, commercial and community radio) which is not as important for my study at this stage, but his chapter on audiences were most relevant. His book also looks at forms of radio (fiction forms, music radio, news radio and talk radio. He looks at various practices of language and voice, sequence and flow, branding and marketing and ideology and representations which are also not relevant for radio in education for my own purposes. He finally gives his perspectives on global radio and the future.
Chapter 2: Audiences: (2000:88)
Without an audience, broadcasting is meaningless.
His typology of listeners are divided into the following groups:
Upper-middle class, middle class, lower-middle class, skilled working class, working class and subsistence level.
Stations choose their audiences according to available data and they target the audience that is most interesting to the advertisers. For this very reason I believe community radio stations are best suited for provision of educational material.
The type of radio listening explored in Studying Radio is very different from the type of listening my pilot study audience will be engaged in. He ends this chapter with the words, "Through radio, a listener can connect without engagement or commitment." (2000:105)
End.
9. Review: Organizing Educational Broadcasting by David Hawkridge and John Robinson was published in 1982 by The Unesco Press.
I found this book very helpful for various reasons. It is a very practical book - 12 case studies were used to evaluate the effects of television and radio in educational broadcasting. Two of them concentrated exclusively on radio. I found the studies in Mexico and Nicaragua especially interesting, because the rural areas with its specific problems and mindsets made me think of the rural areas in SA.
No matter how wonderful the idea - if it is not practical, it will not work. The book discusses educational learning in a formal and informal setting (classrooms, at home or in community centres) but I mostly consentrated on examples from classrooms since that suits my own research programme.
Barnard looks at the Institutions and systems in radio (public, commercial and community radio) which is not as important for my study at this stage, but his chapter on audiences were most relevant. His book also looks at forms of radio (fiction forms, music radio, news radio and talk radio. He looks at various practices of language and voice, sequence and flow, branding and marketing and ideology and representations which are also not relevant for radio in education for my own purposes. He finally gives his perspectives on global radio and the future.
Chapter 2: Audiences: (2000:88)
Without an audience, broadcasting is meaningless.
His typology of listeners are divided into the following groups:
Upper-middle class, middle class, lower-middle class, skilled working class, working class and subsistence level.
Stations choose their audiences according to available data and they target the audience that is most interesting to the advertisers. For this very reason I believe community radio stations are best suited for provision of educational material.
The type of radio listening explored in Studying Radio is very different from the type of listening my pilot study audience will be engaged in. He ends this chapter with the words, "Through radio, a listener can connect without engagement or commitment." (2000:105)
End.
9. Review: Organizing Educational Broadcasting by David Hawkridge and John Robinson was published in 1982 by The Unesco Press.
I found this book very helpful for various reasons. It is a very practical book - 12 case studies were used to evaluate the effects of television and radio in educational broadcasting. Two of them concentrated exclusively on radio. I found the studies in Mexico and Nicaragua especially interesting, because the rural areas with its specific problems and mindsets made me think of the rural areas in SA.
No matter how wonderful the idea - if it is not practical, it will not work. The book discusses educational learning in a formal and informal setting (classrooms, at home or in community centres) but I mostly consentrated on examples from classrooms since that suits my own research programme.
According to Hawkridge and Robinson, educational broadcasting exhibits four dominant characteristics:
1. Its programmes are arranged in series to assist cumulative learning
2. They are explicitly planned in consultation with external educational advisers
3. They are commonly accompanied by other kinds of learning materials such as text books and study guides
(1982: 25)
They believe that educational radio is influenced by the following determining factors:
Educationa factors like admission policies, curriculum policies, staffing policies and union attitudes, technical factors like production and transmission facilities, access to wave bands and air time, receiving facilities, coverage, staffing, geographical factors like terrain, distance (mountainous – shadow of mountain range, cost of transmitting to far-flung rural areas) political factors : struggles for control between ministries of education, culture, telecommunication, finance, health, agriculture, industry and internal affairs, integration facors like collaboration with other media, isolationism in broadcasting (ignoring what happens on the other end has been caricatured as a process of one-way communication) cultural factors like ethnic minorities and influence of elites, economic factors like cost trends, cost effectiveness, cost burdens and hidden costs and contribution to national development. (1982:31)
Chapter 3: Methods of Reviewing objectives:
Review of General and Strategic Objectives and review of particular and operational objectives.
General and Strategic:
1. Total volume of ongoing commitment
2. Commitment to various areas of need – primary, secondary, out of school
3. Choice of major areas of need (literacy, maths etc)
4. Provision of associated learning materials (teachers’ guides books etc)
5. Degree of direct involvement of system with its users
6. Extent of planned collaboration with other agencies working in the educational field.
(1982: 61)
Particular and operational objectives
1. The definition of specific social and educational groups to be served
2. Main purpose to be served in the attempt to reach these social groups
3. Choice of subject specialisms
4. Choice of educational approaches
5. Choice of appropriate production styles
6. Choice of formative and summative evaluation methods in the development of the selected provision
7. Extent of direct communication with the users and the use made of that communication
8. The extent and choice of associated learning materials for particular projects and the responsibility for their production.
(1982:64,65)
Different systems are described in the different case studies and different practices in formulating these operational objectives. See case studies in this book.
Questions arising from evidence: (1982:66,67)
1. How well equipped are the system’s full time staff
2. What scope does the system allow for the participation of directly interested external bodies that represent the users?
3. What resources does the system allocate to the systematic collection of feedback evidence and
4. what attention does it give to that evidence in the review of its objectives?
How successful is the system in demonstrating that its objectives are regularly and systematically reviewed at all levels without allowing the reviews to become over-formalized and bureaucratic?
Evaluation of the project is of utmost important. From the broadcasting side, the broadcaster might have his own evaluation policies, but in the end it is student achievement that is the determining factor.
Evidence from his case studies show findings that are similar to those by Denzil D. Russell case studies (also reviewed in this blog). Some of these are the importance of:
Ongoing commitment, commitment to different areas of need (primary, secondary, adult education)
the taking into account of various areas of curriculum need (language and literacy development, numeracy and mathematics, arts and sciences, family and social development or personal enrichment or enlightenment.
provision of associated learning materials like teacher's guides, feedback channels and direct involvement of the system with its users and planned collaboration with other agencies working in the educational field.
From this book, the case study in Mexico City (Radioprimaria) was most valuable for my own research and I review that separately from a study by Peter Spain.
10. Review:
Ongoing commitment, commitment to different areas of need (primary, secondary, adult education)
the taking into account of various areas of curriculum need (language and literacy development, numeracy and mathematics, arts and sciences, family and social development or personal enrichment or enlightenment.
provision of associated learning materials like teacher's guides, feedback channels and direct involvement of the system with its users and planned collaboration with other agencies working in the educational field.
From this book, the case study in Mexico City (Radioprimaria) was most valuable for my own research and I review that separately from a study by Peter Spain.
10. Review:
Review of Learning to Listen Listening to Learn 1992 (experiences from a South African Radio Forum’s Research and Development Project) By Professor Denzil D Russel. Published by the Centre for Continuing Education, University of the Witwatersrand and the Department of National Health and Population Development, Pretoria.
Why I have decided to review this book
The description and analyses of the study undertaken in this project and the qualitative research, resembles my pilot project and participatory methodology. Prof Russell's research was done over a period of two years and mine will be on a smaller scale - two to three months. This project has its study groups among adult and youth while mine will involve grade 6 pupils. Where these adults gave feed-back about the programmes they were exposed to, it is fascinating to see how eager they are to listen to programmes on life skills development and how many different topics they suggested. My pilot project covers the life skills curriculum of the grade 6 learners. Learning to Listen, Listening to Learn also covers what prof Russel calls, quality of life education programmes broadcast by the SABC.
Review of Preface and Abstract and differences between my study and this one
“On their own the broadcast media are blunt instruments of informal education in the community development and change process.” (Russell, 1992: 1)
Professor Denzil D. Russell rightly argues that a casual informal educational event could be turned into a much more meaningful educational experience when target audience groups are able to discuss development education programmes. Not only will the participants benefit, but also the broadcast planners and wider audience.
The Wits research project used 125 listening groups with as many leaders in 60 magisterial districts over a period of 2 years. (It was going to be 5 years but financial restraints shortened the project). I will be one person analyzing two listening groups in two schools over a period of 2 months.
Nine different languages were used in this project. I will use two languages - English and Afrikaans.
Informal group discussions were held after hours in various community or school halls. My research analyses will take place in classrooms during school hours.
One of the similarities between our projects is that the idea behind it is improving the quality of life of the participants and eventually the wider audience.
Their project used mostly adult women and youth of 18 years and older(N=1700) as participants and I will focus on grade 6 children.
Feedback received by the SABC led to improved scheduling and programme presentation. I hope that my pilot study feed-back will also help the Children's Radio Foundation to improve their programmes.
Forums in Prof Russell's study made their own tape recordings of most forum discussions. I will be using a Dictaphone in one of the schools I visit.
The overall long-term aim of Prof Russell's project was to develop an interactive radio forum system for South Africa. His research report covers the period March 1990 to April 1992. A large amount of qualitative data had to be recorded, analysed and reported. He mentions in his preface how important it was that the people in the radio forum groups had to be helped to "learn to listen".
The abstract is written in 11 languages.
Section one:
The aim of the Radio Forum Research Project was to develop a model for interactive radio in SA . This was supposed to be done over a five year period. For financial reasons, the project was terminated after two years. It took the form of establishing and maintaining interactive listening groups or forums, observing, recording and analysing the discussions of the groups. It also monitored and adapted the administrative process.
Feedback received by the SABC led to improved scheduling and programme presentation. I hope that my pilot study feed-back will also help the Children's Radio Foundation to improve their programmes.
Forums in Prof Russell's study made their own tape recordings of most forum discussions. I will be using a Dictaphone in one of the schools I visit.
The overall long-term aim of Prof Russell's project was to develop an interactive radio forum system for South Africa. His research report covers the period March 1990 to April 1992. A large amount of qualitative data had to be recorded, analysed and reported. He mentions in his preface how important it was that the people in the radio forum groups had to be helped to "learn to listen".
The abstract is written in 11 languages.
Section one:
The aim of the Radio Forum Research Project was to develop a model for interactive radio in SA . This was supposed to be done over a five year period. For financial reasons, the project was terminated after two years. It took the form of establishing and maintaining interactive listening groups or forums, observing, recording and analysing the discussions of the groups. It also monitored and adapted the administrative process.
The SABC commissioned this project to receive feedback on their informal educational broadcasts.
The Chief Directorate: Population Development (from now on referred to as the CDPD) argued that most of the population growth took place in rural areas where standars of living is low in terms of health, infant mortality rates etc. Fertility rate decline is associated with high socio-economic standards. They decided to concentrate on education, primary health care, economy and teenage sexuality education. Their Information, Educations and Communication Directorate launched its Radio Programme Project in 1989. “Quality of life” programmes of 15 minutes long were designed for different target groups and broadcast each week in each of nine African languages. The average daily listenership for these programmes were about two million.
Prof Russell lists die aims of his radio forums research project as follows:
1. To increase audience participation and involvement in the radio experience by creating listening/discussion groups, namely radio forums.
2. To create a structure to establish, nurture and evaluate the forums.
3. To identify possible improvements that the SABC might make to its informal education programmes and provide feedback in this regard to the SABC
4. To provide the CDPD with feedback on listener reaction to their “qualify of life” programmes and to determine perceptions on population issues within the target communities.
5. To determine what effects the programmes-cum-forums had on forum members
6. To seek means to enhance appropriate forum member/other listener behavior resultant on the programmes
7. To identify and train the necessary staff and key people in the community to achieve the above objectives
8. To contribute through this training and through the process to human resource development
9. To develop a model for forming self-sustaining and self-forming radio forums
10. To determine what sort of training area organizers, forum leaders and forum secretaries need to run successful forums
11. To report in particular on listeners’ perceptions on fertility and appropriate family size.
The radio forum was the prime instrument of data collection and the project was conceived as a participatory research and development project. The final research contracts made provision for the establishment of 20 – 30 forums in the first and pilot year and 30 forums in the second year of the project.
Prof Russell divided the development into 8 Stages. Stage one was planning with the facilitating institution, stage two was planning with the local people (often the most influential and most difficult), stage 3 was to involve all the key people recommended by thos people in stage two, stage four was implementing the project with people from stages 1, 2, and 3. Stage 5 involved questions and clarifications, stage 6 was where people appointed their own forum leaders and secretaries, stage 7 involved people running their own forums and sending reports and feedback to the CCE (Centre for Continuing Education) and the last stage was for the CCE to send feedback to the SABC and DNH&PD (Department of National Health and Population Development )and to forums.
The forums consisted of a listener group of between 8 and 15 youths or adults, literate or illiterate. They listened to the programme in their mother tongue and then discussed it. The forum leader was chosen by them. A written report of the discussion was made by the forum secretary. Each group had their own radio provided by one of the members. In most cases the programme was tape-recorded in advance. Later on audio tape-recordings were also made of most meetings. Forum leaders and secretaries received some informal training.
Forums did not only take place in rural settings. Some were also established in Soweto and on the East Rand and in townships attached to small towns. Some areas were high-risk, often strife-torn and violent.
In the two years of the project over 125 forums were set up but not as many were maintained, due to civil strife, inadequate communication and budget restraints. Administrative problems were also experienced as some people could not cope with the requirements of the reporting procedures – with the tapes and paperwork.
Section Two
Participatory action research was used. It considered problems in a specific context and attempts to solve them in that context (situational). It was collaborative in that it involved the stakeholders, researchers and target population working together. The target population participated actively in the process and the implementation of findings. It was also self-evaluative.
The following sources of information were used:
Completed questionnaires, written reports of forum discussions, audio recordings of sampled forum discussions and written translations, written reports from fieldworkers and area organizers, tabulations of formally established forums, computerized database of forums and meetings, financial records, quarterly reports, minutes of advisory committee meetings, report on training workshop, annual report, scripts of broadcasts (English version) and notes from discussions with the Director of the CCE, coordinator, fieldworker administrative staff, translators, area organizers and representatives of the CDPD.
Data gathering procedures:
Talkback forms and introductory forms for the forums were adapted from a Ghanaian rural radio forum project. It seemed to intimidate some of the groups and was left out later on. Often the talkback forms were not used and group leaders gave their own commentaries. Nearly all the reports and tape-recordings required translating into English
Each forum’s factual data was recorded in a chart and regularly updated. The chart contained the names of forums, the district, the target group, number of meetings held, language, number of members, names of leader and secretary and address and telephone number of the area organizer.
Significant statements were isolated and grouped according to a theme in order to provide feedback. Themes included education, role and status of women, economy, housing, decision making and good parenting. Comparisons of rural and urban attitudes regarding the topics were made.
Some of these groups were reluctant to have themselves tape recorded. Significant statements were also not identified with a specific group as they would find it a breach of confidence.
Tape recordings of certain programme themes were chosen and only those statements relvant to the theme were extracted. These statements were then reported linked to a specific week number, programme title and forum name.
The written reports from forum secretaties were usually more focused than transcriptions of taped forum discussions
Qualitative data basically consisted of significant statements. Transcriptions of complete taped discussions were too laborious and expenscive. Their was no attempt to quantify the data. Certain trends were found however – differences between youth and adults and rural and urban participants.
Section Three
Prof Russell sums up the most important problems as being administrative because of civil and political strife, geographical spread, the fact that it was contract work, insufficient staff, communication difficulties and lack of experience and training. This sounds a lot like the problems encountered by the Radioprimaria programme in Mexico that was reported on by Peter Spain.
The success of the forums seems to have been closely related to the existing social frameworks. Groups operating within existing, established organizations, were mostly successful. Those operating outside, did not survive. Participants needed to feel that there were personal benefits for them – e.g. their needs were taken into account. There was also a small cash incentive. The climate of peace was vital.
Prof Russell also reported on problems of poor equipment and poor reception, problems with batteries etc. – all problems that were also encountered in Radioprimaria. Sometimes inaudible tapes were received and could not be used at all. There were 30 unidentifiable tapes that had no labeling or introduction to link them to a specific group. It is obvious that training of forum leaders should have been of greater importance.
Prof Russell also reported on problems of poor equipment and poor reception, problems with batteries etc. – all problems that were also encountered in Radioprimaria. Sometimes inaudible tapes were received and could not be used at all. There were 30 unidentifiable tapes that had no labeling or introduction to link them to a specific group. It is obvious that training of forum leaders should have been of greater importance.
A naturalistic approach to the discussion groups were encouraged. Transport problems and non-attendance were other issues.
Broadcasts versus tape recorders: Often groups found it difficult to get together at the exact time of the broadcast. Pre-recordings were often more practical although the concern was that it would distance the forum from natural radio listening practice.
The organizational hierarchy was as follows: Director of the CCE, Coordinator, Fieldworkers, Area Organisers and Forums.
A small monetary incentive was paid to the forum members. In many cases this was used for the extra transport costs, batteries or refreshments. Some forums saved the money to buy their own radio or tape recorder. Many members admitted they only attended to receive the money. Which does not have to be a problem.
Problems with programmes and broadcasts were as follows: programmes were not always broadcast at the scheduled time or it was transmitted at unsuitable times. Programmes were fragmented by advertisements and musical inserts and there was difficulty in determining when the programme began and ended. These problems were addressed by the SABC and subsequently improved. Signature tunes had also been introduced afterwards.
Many requests were made for material to be presented in the form of drama – which I find very interesting, since the same requests were made by some of my grade 6 pilot group learners when they were exposed to a documentary genre. In 1992 the SABC started the broadcast of a 52-episode drama series on population development themes.
Some forums suggested that pros and cons of a certain topic should be voiced so that the education offered should empower individuals to think for themselves.
Some older forum members complained that certain topics should not be talked about too explicitly – there should be more respect. At some of the urban forums, members complained about “deep” Zulu or Sotho and they even preferred English to the other languages in their “pure” forms.
Practical outcomes of these focus groups included the establishment of other forums by the members themselves on topics of their own choosing and some groups invited the Family Planning Clinic Sister to speak to them. One group arranged cookery lessons financed from the R50 received per meeting. A Radio Forum Awareness Day was arranged by one youth forum on the East Rand. Some approached the municipality about refuse collection, another motiveated them to unblock blocked drains and monitored people who chop down trees of leave taps open.
Section 4
This section deals with training.
Forum leaders were coached about the purpose of forums, the role of a forum leader and secretary and the skills required. They were encouraged to always start and end on time, to encourage the quiet and shy people to talk, not to interrupt people or force their ideas on them. They should only let one person talk at a time. They should set dates times and places of next meetings, together with the rest of the forum. They have to make sure that the people stick to the topic.
Training tools advocated were tapes, role-play, small training workshops, documentation and brochures and ongoing monitoring. Tapes should demonstrate a well-run meeting, a passive leader, an over-domineering leader and different models for facilitating meetings.
Duties of an area organizer were to make sure that the forums met at least once a week, they had to supply the leader with tapes and batteries, they had to collect reports and tapes from the forum secretaries, compile monthly reports on activities in the forums and be in touch with Wits University by phoning or writing.
Administrative and report-writing skills were important for area organizers
Section five
In this section, Prof. Russell looks at his objectives and discusses whether it has been achieved or not.
He feels that his broad aim of providing guidelines for a nationwide system of radio forums has been achieved. He proceeds to take every objective (from 1 to 11) and explain how each of them has been achieved. It is interesting that he came to the same conclusion as Peter Spain in Radioprimaria concerning the importance of technical support and administrative requirements. Communication between the field workers and administration proved to be vital. Training of forum leaders should not be neglected. Advanced schedules of programmes should also be available.
Forums should always be given feed-back concerning their suggestions, even if it is to say that these suggestions were unpractical and could not be implemented. Silence is not an option.
Some of the themes forum members suggested to the SABC included programmes that teach cooking skills and how to look after their families, programmes that would make them more vigilant about dangerous diseases, programmes on budgeting, on individual freedom in decision making, rape in townships, drugs in the city and Hillbrow, first aid, physical fitness, contraceptives, mens's attitudes to women etc.
Some suggestions for further research:
Prof. Russell suggests that listener response to the drama format as compared to other formats (documentary?) should be explored. This also cropped up in my research.
He also suggested that listening forums should be monitored over a long period of time to detect changes in attitudes.
Groups with trained leaders and untrained leaders could be compared.
There could be script analyses to see to what extent the translated script has changed from the English version.
He concludes with the following statement: "There is no doubt that radio in particular is vitally important for mass distance education. There is also no doubt that discussion groups can play an important role in reinforcing the message of radio programmes. If people are to learn to control and change the world in which they live, they need to learn through dialogue and participation."
I wanted to know if there was any follow-up to this research of almost 20 years ago and typed "University of Witwatersrand Centre for Continuing Education Radio Forum Research Project" into google. This is the only connection to a radio research project that came up from the following website: http://www.expressimpress.org/
A new regional research project in the Department of Media Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand investigates the way in which the Internet and mobile phones are changing the face of radio in Southern Africa.
Southern African countries are still caught up in a complex web of social, political, and economic challenges. While the independence of South Africa in 1994 symbolised the end of colonialism in the region, the twenty-first century has been largely characterised by the intertwined challenges of development and democratisation. Decolonisation was not an end in itself but a means to developing participatory democracy and development systems that are not only characterised by popular participation, but also stronger notions of citizenship and human rights.
As the most widespread medium in Southern Africa, radio has the potential of galvanising the development and democratisation processes by becoming a participatory platform for citizens, an engine for progressive social change, and a watchdog against the abuse of resources by those in power. Radio in Southern Africa is slowly being transformed in terms of its form, content, distribution, and consumption by new information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as the Internet and mobile phones which have rapidly gained ground in the region in the past decade. New digital opportunities are emerging in the way radio is produced and disseminated, and it is argued that ICTs have offered citizens more opportunities to participate in radio content production.
A new regional research project within the Department of Media Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand will investigate how public, private, and community radio stations in Southern Africa are using ICTs to promote bottom-up, interactive, and participatory communication. Specific areas of investigation include, among others, how radio stations and audiences use mobile phones in terms of texting, voice calls, mobile radio, online audio streaming, podcasts, blogs and chat forums.
The project researches these issues in four specific case studies in the region: Malawi (Dr Last Moyo), South Africa (Dr Dina Ligaga and Dr Sarah Chiumbu), Zambia (Dr Wendy Willems) and Zimbabwe (Dr Dumisani Moyo and Dr Last Moyo). It is led by Dr Last Moyo and is part of a larger project on radio, convergence and development in Africa coordinated by the Centre for Media and Transitional Societies (CMTS) at Carleton University in Canada and funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Canada.
Some of the research findings will be published in a special journal issue of Telematics and Informatics on ‘Radio and new participatory journalisms around the world: Understanding convergence in news cultures’. The guest editor, Dr Last Moyo, is currently inviting interested scholars to submit abstracts for additional contributions by 30 April 2011. A full call for papers is available for download here.
Forums should always be given feed-back concerning their suggestions, even if it is to say that these suggestions were unpractical and could not be implemented. Silence is not an option.
Some of the themes forum members suggested to the SABC included programmes that teach cooking skills and how to look after their families, programmes that would make them more vigilant about dangerous diseases, programmes on budgeting, on individual freedom in decision making, rape in townships, drugs in the city and Hillbrow, first aid, physical fitness, contraceptives, mens's attitudes to women etc.
Some suggestions for further research:
Prof. Russell suggests that listener response to the drama format as compared to other formats (documentary?) should be explored. This also cropped up in my research.
He also suggested that listening forums should be monitored over a long period of time to detect changes in attitudes.
Groups with trained leaders and untrained leaders could be compared.
There could be script analyses to see to what extent the translated script has changed from the English version.
He concludes with the following statement: "There is no doubt that radio in particular is vitally important for mass distance education. There is also no doubt that discussion groups can play an important role in reinforcing the message of radio programmes. If people are to learn to control and change the world in which they live, they need to learn through dialogue and participation."
I wanted to know if there was any follow-up to this research of almost 20 years ago and typed "University of Witwatersrand Centre for Continuing Education Radio Forum Research Project" into google. This is the only connection to a radio research project that came up from the following website: http://www.expressimpress.org/
Radio, convergence and development in Southern Africa
15/03/2011 # 9:22 am # In Press - research # One CommentA new regional research project in the Department of Media Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand investigates the way in which the Internet and mobile phones are changing the face of radio in Southern Africa.Southern African countries are still caught up in a complex web of social, political, and economic challenges. While the independence of South Africa in 1994 symbolised the end of colonialism in the region, the twenty-first century has been largely characterised by the intertwined challenges of development and democratisation. Decolonisation was not an end in itself but a means to developing participatory democracy and development systems that are not only characterised by popular participation, but also stronger notions of citizenship and human rights.
As the most widespread medium in Southern Africa, radio has the potential of galvanising the development and democratisation processes by becoming a participatory platform for citizens, an engine for progressive social change, and a watchdog against the abuse of resources by those in power. Radio in Southern Africa is slowly being transformed in terms of its form, content, distribution, and consumption by new information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as the Internet and mobile phones which have rapidly gained ground in the region in the past decade. New digital opportunities are emerging in the way radio is produced and disseminated, and it is argued that ICTs have offered citizens more opportunities to participate in radio content production.
A new regional research project within the Department of Media Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand will investigate how public, private, and community radio stations in Southern Africa are using ICTs to promote bottom-up, interactive, and participatory communication. Specific areas of investigation include, among others, how radio stations and audiences use mobile phones in terms of texting, voice calls, mobile radio, online audio streaming, podcasts, blogs and chat forums.
The project researches these issues in four specific case studies in the region: Malawi (Dr Last Moyo), South Africa (Dr Dina Ligaga and Dr Sarah Chiumbu), Zambia (Dr Wendy Willems) and Zimbabwe (Dr Dumisani Moyo and Dr Last Moyo). It is led by Dr Last Moyo and is part of a larger project on radio, convergence and development in Africa coordinated by the Centre for Media and Transitional Societies (CMTS) at Carleton University in Canada and funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Canada.
Some of the research findings will be published in a special journal issue of Telematics and Informatics on ‘Radio and new participatory journalisms around the world: Understanding convergence in news cultures’. The guest editor, Dr Last Moyo, is currently inviting interested scholars to submit abstracts for additional contributions by 30 April 2011. A full call for papers is available for download here.
