People’s Radio: Communicating Change across Africa

This book offers insights into using radio as a tool for community engagement in development. The author, Linje Manyozo, demonstrates "how elusive participation can become if implemented without adequate consideration of power relationships within indigenous and local knowledge systems." He proposes that more effective radio for development initiatives should be built on participatory action research, local communication needs, and indigenous knowledge systems.

Manyozo discusses the challenges of using radio as a tool for community engagement and examines specific case studies from the African continent. The book also considers the different ways governments, organisations, broadcasters and communities can use radio networks as instruments of participatory knowledge production, exchange, and utilisation so as to bring about change and development.

Contents of the book:

     Foreword by Gerry Power
     1. Radio for Development as Community Engagement
     2. Radio and Development in Africa
     3. The Linear-External Approach: Farm and Rural Radio Reporting
     4. The Shared-Bottom-Up Approach: Rural Radio Forums
     5. The Self-Bottom-Up Approach: Local Rural and Community Radio
     6. Measuring Effectiveness of Radio for Development
     7. Engaging Communities with Radio: Rethinking Communication for
     Development Policy
     Manifesto for a Development Radio Broadcaster:
     Postscript by Felix Librero