"A collection of debate and report articles on community media and community communication, this book presents experiences, thoughts and forethoughts from Cyprus, Ghana, Kenya, Malaysia and Nigeria. In the first section of the book are found studies of the practice and impact of community media, esp
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ecially community radio, in Ghanaian and Kenyan communities. The second section presents thoughts on how community media might better serve communities, democracy and development. The third section of the book, that is the forethoughts, focuses on the foreseen or preferred structure, role, funding and management of community radio in Nigeria – a country that is yet to have community radio. In that rather oracular section, contributors look into the future quite counterfactually, imagining and painting the envisioned character of community radio when the Nigerian government finally permits its establishment. The studies and discussions in this book potentially advance the conversations on the role of community media in promoting democracy and development as they affirm, modify or confute some of the known assumptions on the subject." (https://imesoimeso.org)
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"Given the prevailing environment, radio cannot better engage development, and this is in spite of the qualities of radio that endear it to development agencies and governments elsewhere. As Ojebode (forthcoming b) suggests, for radio to realise its potentials as a development medium in Nigeria, som
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e far-reaching and major restructuring need to be effected, and the current media landscape must be altered.
First, and the one that requires the strongest political will, is that government should take its hands off radio. A truly public service system should be put in place [...]
The second suggestion towards making radio engage development more fruitfully is that government should stop vacillating over the establishment of community radio. Our study shows that radio stations are alienated from the community and from listeners [...]
Third, development planning and practice in Nigeria should be integrated. In Nigeria, different government and development agencies work independently and often at cross purposes [...]
The fourth suggestion, which is related to the third, is the need to ensure that the tasks radio encourages people to perform in its jingles and programmes are feasibly supported by existing infrastructure [...]
The fifth step we must take is that government must support private stations in order for them to more fruitfully participate in development communication. Our study shows that these stations devote more time to development issues than do government stations [...]
Finally, we suggest that Nigerian communication schools and colleges review their curricula to include topics on public journalism. Also known as civic or citizen journalism, public journalism seeks to put the citizens at the centre of news and reports." (Recommendations, page 58-59)
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