Removing Barriers, Increasing Effectiveness - amarc

communication strategies within the CR themselves. In order to maximize theimpact of community radio, we must ensure that it meets the needs of itslisteners and there is local ownership through participation in the CR;Externally there is need to create conditions to have an impact in the academicagenda, in the definition of legal frameworks, in setting the public citizen agenda,the media agenda, the cooperation agencies agenda. For this, coalition buildingis essential. It allows abandoning a corporatist discourse, it permits theexpression of social minorities rights, to decentralize AMARC network, to linkcommunity radio objectives to the larger process of democratization of societies.In order to increase the impact of community radio there is a need to placecommunity radios as an expression of right and not to separate communicationrights from other rights or challenges. This will allow having an impact in therelation with governments without loosing autonomy and maintaining thelegitimacy in the communities. There is need to have an impact in the globalagendas, with multilateral organizations and with cooperation agencies to give aglobal scope to community radio movement.We are measuring social change resulting from communication processes. Thereis need for measurement tools in order to measure how things are changing, noton how large our audiences are but what the audiences contain, or ethnographicdetails that show the role community radio is playing.The Assessment of CR Social Impact.The participants considered that the evaluation process consisting inparticipatory monitoring & evaluation by CR practitioners, and stakeholders wasthe appropriate one. The evaluation must be seen as part of a continuousprocess leading to an increasingly participatory process.In terms of how to evaluate, the time of measurement is vital; the realmeasurements of community radio impact assessment should be longer thanmonths or years. In that regard testimonials powerfully document the impact ofcommunity radio as long as they come from a variety of experiences andbackgrounds. In that perspective, mere Statistics are not good for measuring CRimpact, specially if CR has 2,5 Km reach and serves a small community. Anexample by a participant illustrated this: In Thailand they measure CR impact bythe sales of FM radios, but the real impact of CR is not the sale of radioapparatus but the feeling of dignity that comes from it. There is also a matter ofcontext; the impact of CR is more easily measured in emergency situations aswhen there is an earthquake.Community Radio practitioners and stakeholders agree that measurement ofCommunity radio social impact should be people –centred and based on multidimensional understanding of poverty. In this perspective the key indicators ofAMARC Community Radio Social Impact Assessment 2007 Page 37 of 128