Access, participation, and social capital as intangible outcomes of community radio practice in Ghana
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Abstract
The battle for access to free speech and information flow in Ghana occurs within a context of popular resistance, struggles for national liberation and the control of power, knowledge and free expression. This still resonates within Ghana’s radio broadcasting sector. Unlike dominant approaches to communicating development, where change outcomes are exclusively based on quantifiable indicators such as message recall and engagement, communication for social change (CFSC) inspired intangible outcomes are more nuanced. The literature further reveals a paucity of CFSC approaches that focus on ‘intangible outcomes’ for sustainable development among resource-limited communities in Ghana. The literature on the legacy of CFSC in Ghana is limited, and even more scarce is the application of CFSC via community radio (CR) in Ghana. Our study explores the progressive development of CFSC via CR in Ghana, focusing on intangible outcomes. Our paper reflected on the legacy of CFSC via CR in Ghana from historical and contemporary perspectives. We set out to answer the following questions: do listeners genuinely own the content circulating on the CR medium, amidst the threat of over-standardization and quantification of communication outcomes in Ghana? How has the practice of CR offered an alternative approach to evaluating communication and development outcomes, rather than mainstream media quantitative measures of change in Ghana? This paper makes a case that CFSC’s legacy in Ghana via CR is categorized into three intangible outcomes: access to the medium, participation in its activities, and social capital. While this analysis can be criticized for its subjectivity, it should also be recognized for its often-intangible outcomes, which usually have a more meaningful impact on the communities, not those who drive the communication agenda. These intangible outcomes build social capital, making communication real, sometimes messy, but mostly inclusive.
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