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Connecting citizens and leaders in Uganda through participatory radio

Mohazzab Abdullah

In: World Radio TV Handbook: The Directory of Global Broadcasting 2025

Freising (DE): Radio Data Center (2025), pp. 36-39

"A clear indicator of Uganda's digital divide is that, even in 2023, radio remained both the primary and most trusted source of information in the country. This is why we, at TRAC FM, leverage radio and toll-free SMS technology to serve the increasingly isolated public spheres across Uganda's distri ... more

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The Limits of Governmentality: Call-in Radio and the Subversion of Neoliberal Evangelism in Zambia

Alastair Fraser

Jounal of African Cultural Studies, volume 36, issue 1 (2024), pp. 41-57

"The spread of mobile telephones in Africa has enabled a broad range of citizens to join live conversations on call-in radio shows. Both African governments and foreign aid agencies claim that broadcasting such debates can raise awareness, amplify the voices of the poor, and facilitate development a ... more

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How to Foster Constructive Dialogue as Part of Media Development? Lessons from a Case Study on Interactive Radio Formats in Niger

Ines Drefs, Lamine Soleymane

Bonn: Deutsche Welle DW Akademie (2023), 22 pp.

"This case study shows that media development endeavors to foster constructive dialogue require concerted effort. They have to be in closely interwoven with local realities and needs — be it at the country, community or individual level. The example of interactive radio formats in Niger illustrate ... more

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Deploying the Common Social Accountability Platform to Support Rift Valley Institute (RVI)’s Somali Dialogue Platform in Promoting Public Dialogue on Elections and Amplifying Citizen’s Voices in Political Processes

Nairobi: Africa’s Voices Foundation (2022), vii, 45 pp.

"Africa's Voices Foundation in partnership with Rift Valley institute (RVI)'s Somali Dialogue Platform implemented a 3-month project between February 8th - May 7th 2022. The project promoted public dialogue around elections so as to understand citizens' perspectives on Somalia's national elections. ... more

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Deploying the Common Social Accountability Platform (CSAP) to Support the Strength Through Tolerance Project That Aims at Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE) in Somalia

Nairobi: Africa’s Voices Foundation (2022), vi, 20 pp.

"The following are the key insights identified across all three weeks of the radio dialogue: In week one of radio dialogue, 36.2% of the participants (n=125) and week 3 55.1% (n=266) of participants agreed that there should be unity and cooperation among all members of the community. They stated tha ... more

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On Air Dialogues: Listening to Rural Africans 2022

Farm Radio International (2022), 12 pp.

"In partnership with International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Farm Radio International led On Air Dialogues to gather thousands of small-scale farmers' and other rural peoples' perspectives on climate adaptation, mitigation and resilience. We worked with seven radio stations in Burkin ... more

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Guía para la producción de diálogos públicos
Key Guidance

Patricio Cerón Llive, Maria Teresa Cutimbo

Quito: Coordinadora de Medios Comunitarios Populares y Educativos del Ecuador (CORAPE);Deutsche Welle DW Akademie (2022), 30 pp.

"Los diálogos públicos ponen en práctica el periodismo de intermediación, generando espacios de encuentro, presenciales o virtuales, en medios radiofónicos y plataformas multimedia, para que los y las protagonistas o actores sociales de una determinada situación de conflicto, dialoguen y busqu ... more

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Mediated Sociability: Audience Participation and Convened Citizen Engagement in Interactive Broadcast Shows in Africa

Sharath Srinivasan, Claudia Abreu Lopes

International Journal of Communication, volume 14 (2020), pp. 2985-3006

"This article examines what drives audience participation in interactive broadcast shows, with implications for the democratic potential of these shows as spaces of citizen engagement and public discussion. It makes three contributions, the first two to audience and media studies and the last to pol ... more

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Who Debates, Who Wins? At-Scale Experimental Evidence on Debate Participation in a Liberian Election

Jeremy Bowles, Horacio Larreguy

[no publisher] (2018), 45, 24 pp.

"In this paper we assess the electoral consequences of candidate selection into the supply of widely-disseminated programmatic information in the setting of Liberia, where clientelism is pervasive and the media sector is weak. We partnered with USAID and the NGO Internews to study the impact of rand ... omized elements of a nationwide initiative to hold debates for all 73 House of Representatives seats ahead of the Liberian election of October 2017. Beyond lawmaking, House members in Liberia control access to development funds as well as play key roles in the allocation and implementation of public goods, and thus voters have incentives to care about the policy priorities of the candidates and vote accordingly. However, historically, votes have been bought as often as won (Bowles et al., 2017). In an effort to improve democratic accountability, Internews organized 129 standardized debates, with at least one in each electoral district, to solicit the policy promises of the participating candidates. In the debates, the 59% of candidates who participated were asked a series of questions by moderating journalists on particular issues of local policy relevance, most often relating to district schools, primary healthcare facilities, and infrastructural investments. Rather than large townhall-style debates, the emphasis was on soliciting concrete policy platforms and promises from the candidates that would then be rebroadcast by community radio stations. To shock the supply of policy promises, we randomly varied the intensity of invitation efforts to persuade candidates to participate in the debates. The decision to participate is risky, particularly in clientelistic settings where the returns to programmatic competition can be both limited and highly uncertain. Candidates who ‘win’ a debate may enjoy greater publicity and net electoral gains, but ex ante they risk performing poorly, revealing their policy priorities to be disconnected from their constituents and restricting their ability to target campaign promises to small groups of influential voters. These risks are especially pronounced for the leading candidates (incumbents and their challengers), who enjoy greater resources for campaigning, are adapted to the existing clientelistic equilibrium, and are more likely to be attacked by opponents to gain publicity." (Pages 2-3) more

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Doing Debate Differently: Media and Accountability

Will Taylor

London: BBC Media Action (2017), 34 pp.

"This paper discusses a number of ways in which media plays a part in increasing accountability. It draws on quantitative and qualitative data from BBC Media Action’s work in nine countries. It finds that: media can influence accountability by empowering people, creating opportunities for construc ... more

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Formation of Citizenship Through Radio Talk Participation in Kenya

Joyce Omwoha

Journal of African Media Studies, volume 9, issue 1 (2017), pp. 181-194

"This article aims at investigating the relationship between the concept of mediated citizenship and participation through radio talk deliberation. It intends to offer an analysis of the content mediated through public discourses by determining the way in which participants draw their identities thr ... more

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Talkback Programming: Cambodia Communication Assistance Project. Promise Tracking – Case Studies

ABC International Development (2017), 12 pp.

"The Cambodia Communication Assistance Project (CCAP) enables citizens to publicly express issues through media, and decision makers to respond to those issues raised, improving government accountability and transparency. CCAP provides two-way dialogue platforms for citizens to question sub-national ... more

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Using Machine Learning to Analyse Radio Talk in Uganda: Opportunities for Sustainable Development and Humanitarian Action

John Quinn, Paula Hidalgo-Sanchis

UN Global Pulse;Pulse Lab Kampala (2017), 23 pp.

"This report outlines the methodology and processes of the Radio Content Analysis Tool, a prototype developed by Pulse Lab Kampala to analyse public radio content in Uganda and explore its value for informing development of UN projects and programmes on the ground. It distills the technology behind ... more

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Strengthening Accountability Through Media in Kenya: Final Evaluation

Catharine Buckell, Sopie Baskett

London: BBC Media Action (2017), 59 pp.

"Funded by DFID, under the Global Grant project, BBC Media Action produced three seasons of the weekly TV and radio programme Sema Kenya (Kenya Speaks). Sema Kenya featured a moderated discussion between a live panel of officials and an audience of ‘ordinary’ Kenyans and was designed to enable i ... ndividuals, communities and governments to be better informed and more engaged in tackling governance challenges. Alongside this, BBC Media Action delivered a mentoring programme, initially with six local radio stations, and later with the national broadcaster Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), which has the largest footprint in the country. Through this work, BBC Media Action aimed to strengthen the capacity of Kenya’s media sector to produce governance programming that supported and mainstreamed the overall objectives of the project at both the local and national level. [...] Sema Kenya contributed to people being more informed about and engaged in politics. Audiences were more knowledgeable about politics, discussed it more with friends and family, felt more confident in their ability to influence political processes and participated more in governance related activities (particularly at the community level) – all factors that support bottom-up accountability. Audiences themselves linked Sema Kenya with these outcomes. This finding was validated by analysis confirming a significant positive relationship between watching or listening to Sema Kenya and consistently higher knowledge, discussion and confidence to engage in politics, even when taking into account other factors that might influence these outcomes (such as education, age and interest in politics). While Sema Kenya’s audience was more likely to participate in politics, qualitative research respondents rarely attributed their actions directly to what they had heard on Sema Kenya. This reflects findings from advanced quantitative analysis (structural equation modelling) that suggests the link between Sema Kenya and increased political participation is indirect and mediated by political knowledge, discussion and self-efficacy. Supported by an extensive network of broadcast partners that stretched across all 47 counties in Kenya, the discussion programme reached an estimated 12.7 million people over three seasons, with a peak audience of 5.7 million in 2013 – the year of the general election. The show also maintained a loyal audience throughout all three seasons, with around half of all those reached annually tuning in for at least every second episode." (Executive summary, pages 6-7) more

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Africa’s Voices Versus Big Data? The Value of Citizen Engagement Through Interactive Radio

Sharath Srinivasan, Claudia Abreu Lopes

In: Voice & Matter: Communication, Development and the Cultural Return

Oscar Hemer; Thomas Tufte (eds.)

Göteborg: Nordicom (2016), pp. 155-171

"We draw on insights from a two-year research project, Politics and Interactive Media in Africa (PiMA), and the related applied research pilot, Africa’s Voices, which worked with local radio stations in eight Sub-Saharan African countries. We examine the social and political significance of new op ... more

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Media and Political Participation: Fostering Inclusive Governance

Andrea Scavo, Chris Snow

London: BBC Media Action (2016), 55 pp.

"Increased political participation is seen as central to building accountability between citizens and leaders. Through debate and other factual programmes BBC Media Action uses media and communication to foster participation by providing information, stimulating discussion and enabling people to int ... more

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Periodismo mediador y diálogo público: Un modelo desde El Alto

La Paz: Fundación UNIR;Deutsche Welle DW Akademie (2016), 82 pp.

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Let’s be Responsible Citizens! Contesting the Agenda of a Sponsored Call-In Radio Programme

Alastair Fraser

Cambridge: Centre of Governance and Human Rights, University of Cambridge (2016), 25 pp.

"This working paper considers in detail how the hosts of and listeners to one call-in radio programme in Zambia were influenced by, resisted and co-opted the agendas of the sponsor that paid for its production. It develops a detailed case-study covering fifteen episodes of, ‘Let’s Be Responsible ... more

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The Political Economy of Sponsored Call-In Radio in Zambia

Alastair Fraser

Cambridge: Centre of Governance and Human Rights, University of Cambridge (2016), 19 pp.

"This working paper provides a context for the assessment of hopes that there might be a transformation in political accountability in Africa as a result of previously powerless and voiceless populations having their agendas strengthened via interactive media. It describes the ways in which many rad ... more

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Interactive Radio! Toolkit for Stations
Key Guidance

Ida Jooste

Internews;University of Cambridge, Centre of Governance and Human Rights (2015), 51 pp.

"This toolkit combines the knowledge and experience of Internews with insights from research conducted by the University of Cambridge’s Centre of Governance and Human Rights and partners in the Politics and Interactive Media (PiMA) research project. Politics and Interactive Media in Africa (PiMA), ... more

Guía para la producción de diálogos públicos Key Guidance

Interactive Radio! Toolkit for Stations Key Guidance

Guía para la producción de diálogos públicos
Key Guidance

Interactive Radio! Toolkit for Stations
Key Guidance