New Technologies and the Facilitation of Participation in Community Radio.(Pre-Published Version)

Abstract

This paper investigates the extent to which Irish community radio stations use new technologies to facilitate the participation of members of their communities in programme production, station management and in the exercise of their rights of ownership of the station. It finds that the rate of adoption of new technologies in Irish community radio stations is low. Although some community stations have begun to use social networking sites, they do so in the same way that commercial and public service radio stations do: to advertise and promote their own shows and presenters, to attract and grow their audiences, and to engage in limited dialogue with them. These uses are examples of one and two way flows of communication and do not provide for meaningful and useful engagement, which in this article, is termed “genuine participation”. “Genuine participation” enables members of the community to participate in programme production, in management and in ownership of the station. This could be facilitated, in part, through the innovative use of new technologies. However, only younger people, in particular students, appear to be making even tentative attempts to provide for this. Managers need to understand the potential of new technologies to provide personal and useful multi-flows of communication. Similarly, technicians must appreciate the social benefits that accrue from the facilitation of public participation in the media. In a study of twenty community radio projects in Ireland in 2009, only three student and two rural community stations provide the few examples of the early adoption and adaptation of social networking sites to facilitate genuine participation that were observed. Facebook and Twitter prove to be the sites of student preference. Cork Campus Radio and Flirt in Galway provide some examples of experiments to facilitate “genuine participation”.