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News from the Future of Public Media
DRP beta tests environmental public media for developing countries
email discuss Posted by Jasmine Touton on Aug 12, 2008 at 10:05 AM
Newsflash: Swedish-based CleanCook designs a stove that burns on ethanol from molasses instead of gas. Scientists create an enzyme spray to harden a dirt road, eliminating the need for asphalt. Kids can now swing and spin on merry-go-rounds, generating enough power for an entire village.
Sound like good news? All of these environmental successes are happening right now. A new project by Developing Radio Partners (DRP) hopes to bring citizens of developing countries this “news-you-can-use” via FM radio in order to improve quality of living and efficiency of resources.
DRP is a nonprofit that seeks to better communities by helping to develop financially and editorially independent media services. The organization, which currently has projects underway in Mongolia, Sierra Leone, and southern Africa, focuses in particular on building and sustaining community radio programs.
DRP President Bill Siemering knows a bit about public radio; he was NPR’s first director of programming and has spent his career creating and advising both national and international radio projects. Siemering decribes this latest project, dubbed the Ideas Network, in a concept paper, writing “Our work addresses directly the inequalities between rich and poor by improving the quality and quantity of information to those who need it most.”
The project would offer tailored local information and opportunities for peer learning. Ideas Network experts would study a community and then email station DJs snippets of information to add to their daily lineups. DRP would also develop an online community to allow stations to share knowledge and experience.
Breeze-FM, an African-based radio program that has convinced local farmers to swap old methods with more environmentally-friendly ones, has already signed on as a pilot project—with 12 members, ranging from station producers to environmental experts—to assess community environmental needs. Siemering also proposed working with the Society of Environmental Journalists, using their reporting and writing skills to feed information to stations. Siemering says this initial Ideas Network project would involve about nine stations, but after that he hopes to scale the number up.
Why radio? Siemering says radio is the medium relied on most in developing regions. “Accurate, reliable information is as essential to life as clean water,” he writes. “Despite the demonstrated impact of stations however, community radio is all too often dismissed as a loudspeaker for public service announcements, and not a skilled partner in fostering societal change—an approach akin to only using a clinic and its trained medical staff to dispense aspirin.”
He notes that in the past, radio has empowered women, made children healthier, and allowed farmers to increase their income. He hopes to do all three with his latest project, in addition to propelling communities into environmentally sustainable action.
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