Posted May 1999
by Fr. Francis B. Lucas
Chairman,
Philippine Partnership for the Development
of Human Resources in Rural Areas (PhilDHRRA)
and President, Bayanihan Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Adapted from "A radio broadcasting model for rural women and farm households" (FAO, 1999). For copies write to: Regional Rural Sociologist and Women in Development Officer, FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, 39 Phra Atit Road, Bangkok 10200, Thailand (email: revathi.balakrishnan@fao.org)
Sebrina V. Cleteis is a 25 year old upland farmer with three children. She lives with tribal Filipinos at the buffer zone of the Kanan River Watershed in the Sierra Madre mountain range. Her parents were upland migrants who worked for huge logging corporations many years ago. When the government withdrew the logging concessions and her parents passed away, Sebrina was left to till the land to feed her family. Sebrina's husband hunts wild animals and catches fish for food. He also cuts wood for fuel. While her husband takes care of the soil preparation and transplanting, Sebrina does the rest of the farm work. Additionally, in order to make ends meet, Sebrina does laundry work for some of the rich families in town. However, going to town involves one day of walking and a one-hour jeepney ride that costs the equivalent of a quarter of the daily salary earned washing clothes. When she heard about the DZJO's agriculture programme on the radio, Sebrina decided to enrol as an individual student listener. Sebrina is just one of hundreds of student listeners of the radio school's agriculture programme. The school on-the-air also has a health programme which she tunes in to every week.
"If it were not for DZJO, the school on-the-air, I would not have known that planting rice and vegetables does not require the use of expensive chemicals. Now I have more food at less expense. I am able to feed my family without having to buy from commercial producers. Oftentimes, I even sell my own produce to my neighbours in the village. And if my surplus is plentiful, I go and sell them in town. I realised that food is more important than money. `Secure food for your family before you sell your produce' was what I learned from the radio school."Though we are poor, we are rich in natural resources with which we are deeply connected. We have to take good care of nature so it will provide us with more food. Before the training, I used to spend a day just walking to town. There, I would wash clothes for one or two days. Out of my earnings, I could buy a kilo of rice. Then I walked back to my village - another day's travel. These trips to buy food are a thing of the past. Now, whenever I go to town, it is to sell my produce and to purchase tools, seeds, radio batteries and other household needs. When my baby was sick, it was the health tips discussed on DZJO that kept her alive. If not for the radio programme, my baby would have died of diarrhoea. The radio has become our window to the world. It is my constant companion. It makes me cry, laugh, pray and learn many useful things in life."
Aida Malandog is a lowland farmer, aged 41 years. Following an accident five years ago which permanently disabled her fisherman husband, she became the sole breadwinner of her family of eleven children. Aida is a tenant in the lowland village of Maypulot, Infanta, Quezon. She tills a one hectare rice field and manages a 400 square metre biointensive garden. Aida enrolled in the DZJO on-the-air school. She also graduated from a four-month long farmers' field school on ecological pest management. Now Aida and her eleven children are learning specialised agriculture technology. Together they comprise a household learners' group. Aida is very pleased that, in addition to herself, three of her younger children have written to the radio school to respond to some questions discussed on the programme. The radio school has truly given her renewed hope in farming and life. Aida is now an active woman leader in the community. In her own words, during an interview for the radio school's evaluation survey, Aida had the following to say:
"Despite the poverty and misfortunes that I went through, the radio school has shown me the importance and value of life, that of others and of my own. DZJO taught me to care for and to manage the natural resource base adequately, to form a humanistic system of values, and to give importance to caring and concern for the community. Before I enrolled with the radio school, I applied four litres of pesticides and five sacks of mineral fertilisers to what I planted. But after undergoing training, no drop of pesticides has ever touched my plants. I have reduced my use of inorganic fertilisers to only one and a half sacks of urea. Perhaps by next year, I will be able to use organic fertilisers alone."Through the radio programme, I have also learned the best biointensive gardening techniques. This garden ensures a continuous supply of food for my family. When it comes to decision making, I have learned to analyse the why's and how's in planting and tilling. The radio school has encouraged me to analyse different methods of agriculture, different problems and different solutions which we discovered as a learners' group with the guidance of the facilitator. I also had the chance to share my own indigenous knowledge and discoveries in natural farming. I am happy to have helped other people by sharing what I know."
The experiences of Sebrina and Aida illustrate some of the benefits which radio school has reaped for the rural poor across the Philippines. Sebrina and Aida are only two among thousands of rural Filipino women who have profited from distance education programmes using radio broadcast media. As Sebrina illustrated the radio has become the window to the world for many poor people. It has reached and helped people who are impoverished, ill and isolated, as well as minorities who have tended to be ignored and neglected.
Three-quarters of the world's poor (1.3 billion people) live in rural areas of the Asian and Pacific region (ESCAP, Poverty Alleviation Initiatives, April-June 1998). Moreover despite the decline in the incidence of absolute poverty in Asia and the Pacific in the 1980s, the absolute number of poor people in the region appears to be on the increase (ibid.). Poverty typically has a woman's face. Among the 1.3 billion poor people in the world, 70 percent are woman (ibid.). It is not surprising, therefore, that in Asia rural women make up the most deprived and neglected sector of the population. Rural women, like Sebrina and Aida, suffer from low literacy, lack of mobility, limited time for formal schooling and limited access to social services, in addition to drudgery and the overburdening of tasks. Their potential for development has not been duly recognised.
It is now accepted that educating girls and women is one of the proven pathways to social and economic development (UNFPA, State of the World Population Report 1996). Education has also been shown to cause a reduction in fertility rates from 5 to 10 percent (ibid.). At the same time, female education has been found to improve the status of women, as well as family nutrition and domestic food production. Through education and job or skills training, women's empowerment can thus be achieved. Armed with the appropriate knowledge and skills needed to enable them to contribute to community and national development, women can be freed from their marginalised state. Education is therefore a precondition to achieve the genuine development of women.
Box 1: Assessment of radio as a medium to facilitate mass educationRadio provides the needed reach, frequency, and access to rural and remote areas, making it a promising, appropriate and powerful tool for education. In addition, ownership and patronage among poor households are relatively high compared to other media forms, particularly in rural settings. A dominant medium: Radio reaches even far-flung and isolated areas. Radio ownership is higher than that of other media vehicles, therefore it is a mass-based media. Radio represents a "home" entertainment medium and penetrates areas with few televisions and low print readership. For instance, in the Philippines, radio is the most widespread form of media with 448 stations nation-wide. An effective medium: Radio is a high frequency vehicle which caters to both literate and illiterate populations. The impact of its auditory properties on the senses help to dramatise messages. Radio is flexible in shifting from one message/content to another. Both production and material costs are low. It can serve as a two-way form of communication in remote areas and provides a potential vehicle for grassroots action and mass education A cost-efficient medium: Radio is a cost-efficient media form. For instance, in the Philippines, the cost of radio per thousand is just US$1.60 to US$3.10. By comparison, the costs of other media are high: television ($32.80); local print ($86.70); cinema ($53.80); and fliers ($38.50 per thousand). |
In this context, Dr. Jose Rizal, the great Filipino hero praised the desire of women in Malolos, Bulacan to educate themselves. In his view "the cause of the backwardness of Asia lies in the fact that there the women are ignorant, are slaves; while Europe and America are powerful because there the women are free and well educated... hence our desire to bring you the light that illuminates your equals here in Europe ... may your desire to educate yourselves be crowned with success".
Yet, high illiteracy rates and low levels of schooling among the majority of rural women in Asia continue to limit their ability to lift themselves out of poverty. Despite demands for increased education, the existing educational system in Asia is entirely unable to respond to this need which exists on such a massive scale. In particular, the formal school system in many poverty stricken Asian countries is incapable of coping with the massive education needs of the rural poor, most especially women. Consequently, women continue to be consistently denied access to information, knowledge, skills and technology transfer.
In order to empower women as equal partners in development, the limitations of the formal educational are now being challenged. Urgent and new ways to achieve mass education, that can be both efficient and effective, are being sought. In this context, radio, an effective telecommunications medium, has been proposed as one massive solution. Radio can cut across geographic and cultural boundaries. Given its availability, accessibility, cost-effectiveness and power, radio represents a practical and creative medium for facilitating mass education in the Asian rural setting. Box 1 presents a more detailed assessment of the suitability of radio for mass education.
Despite several separate initiatives to promote distance education via radio throughout the Asia-Pacific region, radio remains a largely unexplored response to mass education. In this context, this case study aims to present a model for community-based radio broadcasting, based on the successful experience of the BBC-DZJO on-the-air school in the Philippines. It is hoped that this model will serve as a practical guide to direct and assist those charged with planning and implementing distance education programmes for rural women and poor households in other countries.
In particular, the case study sets out some basic principles of community-based radio and proposes a framework for a community-based radio distance learning system. This conceptual framework includes a discussion of the four key elements of a community-based radio distance learning system, that is context, content, format and process. It also provides a seven point check-list to strengthen curriculum design for community-based radio learning.
This report seeks to illustrate the potential of mass media, and in particular radio, to reach rural populations largely untouched by formal education programmes. It discusses the benefits of using radio as a medium to reach the poor, as compared to other types of media. It also compares the potential of radio school to other educational programmes such as classroom teaching or farmer field schools etc. Radio is not advocated as a substitute for more formal types of education. Rather, the report seeks to demonstrate how, in situations characterised by high illiteracy and limited resources, radio has the potential to reach the greatest number of rural households in the most cost-efficient and time-efficient manner, thereby achieving a critical mass in terms of impact.
Mass or massive media in its present form and structure has become the most effective tool in the pursuit of globalisation and hegemony. In this information age, electronic media has taken over the role of teacher, preacher and parent. Media is one of the most powerful and influential educational tools in modern life.
Yet, as it is often used today, massive media shows no regard for the person on the other side of the communication table. Its very nature and structure aim at magnitude in reach where people are treated as mere numbers -- nameless and faceless. The greater the reach, the greater the massiveness; the greater the massiveness, the greater the tendency towards one-way communication.
To capture the interest of the many, mass media programmes are well packaged in the form of entertainment, information and educational tools. However, often these programmes merely become means of mass promotion. Producers are kow-towed and controlled by management policies and objectives that seek huge monetary returns or political gains at the expense of the people, and in the sacrifice of their interests. Since sophisticated massive media technology is extremely expensive, only an elite minority can afford the installation of such equipment.
Economically, the Asia-Pacific Region is emerging as the megamarket of the world. More than half of the world's population live in Asia alone. In terms of sheer numbers, therefore, Asians account for the largest mass media consumers. Asia has become the centre stage of the media world. Cable networks and satellite broadcasting is developing at a staggering rate of more than 15 percent per annum. Likewise, cinema, video and audio cassette businesses are booming.
More than 40 satellites currently provide broadcasting and communication services in the Asia-Pacific. Approximately 50 of the 700 transponders aboard these satellites are used for television transmission, ranging from satellite news gathering to programme distribution for cable systems. Approximately 25 direct-to-home (DTH) channels serve the Asia-Pacific, at least ten of which reach a major part of the region. With the advent of compression technology and the launching of a number of new satellites, the number of channels is expected to more than double in just three to four years. The rapid pace and scale of these changes will no doubt have enormous implications on the nature of mass communication in the new millennium.
There are two major types of media operating in Asia today. Firstly, the popular, commercial media which is used primarily for monetary benefit and entertainment in every form. This type of media is laying the groundwork for a homogenous global lifestyle based on a materialist and consumerist socio-economic framework. It tends to, consciously or not, simplistically and summarily obscure the uniqueness of cultures and the specificity and diversity of life.
The second type of media is owned by governments, some non-profit religious groups and non-commercial networks. This type of mass media sometimes broadcasts educational materials and so-called development support communication packages, as well as religious teachings and values. However, these programmes tend to be based on a specific framework aimed at promoting either government or religion.
Despite the economic progress achieved in the Asia-Pacific region, the majority of Asians, particularly women in rural areas, continue to live in desolate and miserable conditions. Similarly, despite the proliferation of massive media in the region, the bulk of people in Asia remain deprived of the benefits of this powerful educational tool. Both types of media have significantly failed to reach the poor whose need for education is greatest. The apparent reason for this inability of present forms of mass media to reach the poor lies in their failure to encourage genuine participation by rural people and communities.
It is now accepted that the outcomes of development activities are more effective and sustainable when development processes fully involve people in the communities concerned. Current trends in development have consequently shifted towards a pursuit of democratic and community-based approaches. Multilateral and bilateral development agencies, including bodies of the United Nations such as UNDP and FAO, have started the practice of decentralisation and regionalisation. Attempts are also being made to integrate international development strategies, indigenous knowledge and values, and community-based strategies for development.
As a tool, mass media can only produce positive and lasting improvements in the lives of the rural poor, including women, when there is genuine participation of communities themselves. Based on a participatory community-based approach, radio can thus be used as a powerful vehicle to reach rural households in Asia in order to enhance their educational levels and overall well-being on a massive scale.
Among development specialists, extension workers, and community leaders, it has been argued for some time that the poor themselves have to be involved in conscious action to tackle the problems of underdevelopment. In this way, the very process of development becomes an enabling and empowering one. This concept has led to participatory development communication, a form of communication which gives the underprivileged access not only to information but also to the use of media.
Media represents an immense power with enormous potential reach. Opening up opportunities for the intended beneficiaries of development to participate in the utilisation of this powerful tool, will enable them to participate in evolving a development agenda which can appropriately and adequately respond to their needs and aspirations. Access to media is access only to information. But access to the power of media is access to life.
In order to be truly of service to the underprivileged and rural poor, mass media must therefore create conditions and mechanisms that can provide people with genuine access to media. Such mechanisms will offer ways in which people can express their sentiments, opinions, views, dreams and aspirations, their fears and insecurities, their strengths and capabilities, as well as their potential for development.
By, with, for and of the people is the credo of present-day development communication or, as it is currently called, community communication. In this context, community broadcasting represents the development of two-way communication within a mass process as a means to achieve change and holistic human development. The community-based radio approach, rather than isolating its audience, seeks to build relationships between the broadcaster and the people listening on the other side. The concept of community broadcasting thus embraces a mission, an orientation, a commitment and a stand for the people with development needs.
Experts in community broadcasting are merely facilitators of learning. Their role is to evoke and provoke the expression of what others know. Only towards the end of programmes do facilitators summarise, add, or modify the expression of the learners' experience. This way of looking at expertise can also be extended to include other development professionals: government extension workers; NGO animators; and those who work together with communities to improve the people's living conditions and uplift their status in society.
Within the framework of distance education, two of the most important elements of the community-based approach to radio broadcasting include:
For the people. It is essential that the audience of community-based radio (CBR) feel that:
When people are able to express themselves through media and when their concerns are heard, considered, and acted upon, their dignity and self-confidence increases. When this occurs, people develop an appreciation of the medium as an important resource for their own development. This realisation, in itself, involves an essential change towards development.
Of the people. This concept establishes that the clientele, through the process of participatory broadcasting, has identified itself with both the programme and the medium. Once this occurs, the medium has been demassified and demystified. People will have experienced that they are part and parcel of the medium. They will have gained ownership of it through identification.
Community-based radio broadcasting is achieved once a community identifies itself with a radio station and its programming. At first, it is generally very difficult for people in a community to identify themselves with a radio station given their lack of ownership of the medium. However, when people's needs are adequately addressed, they usually seek to get involved and begin to take part in programmes. When people see that a radio programme is meant for them and speaks about them, they come to identify themselves with the radio station. In this context, the radio has become community-based, although not necessarily community-owned.
In community-based radio broadcasting, listeners begin to identify with the medium or the source. In one sense, the radio programme can no longer be referred to as the source given that the people are actually both the resource and the receiver. This type of relationship between the audience and the medium goes beyond that of a two-way communication model. It is the start of a budding sense of community.
To Part 2: The BBC-DZJO experience
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