Removing Barriers, Increasing Effectiveness - amarc

Assessments create knowledge that can be used to make the community radioprocess – and its individual station offerings – better. No institution, whether fromthe community or not, can afford to stagnant and take its mission or itsstakeholders for granted.We also need to undertake more systematic assessment of community radiobecause liberalization of media may ultimately result in more favorable legislativeand policy climates for community radio, in many parts of the world. Solidassessment reports can help show regulators and legislators that communityradio is indeed contributing to social progress of a nation.Community radio is a system that influences public and private values, helpsshape public opinion and public will, “rescues” lost cultures and languages, andinforms citizens who may be harder to reach about issues of importance to them.As such, this system is essential to governments and civil society. In order toattract and sustain community radio networks within and across nationalboundaries we need concrete, defendable information on what the communityradio movement has done.As an organization, AMARC can only benefit from cementing its base anddemonstrating to all its constituents that the community radio process not onlyworks but is essential to the movement of development goals. Community radiocontributes in numerous ways to shaping public attitudes and beliefs, informingcitizens, catalyzing dialogue, increasing community participation in decisions thataffect them, promoting local ownership of communication processes, andmobilizing members of the affected community. Systematic and regularassessments of both the process of community radio and the impact ofcommunity radio on moving societies should be required oversight.And finally, regular assessments of the community radio process will lead tobetter radio programming.Recommended MethodsOur review of available literature on community media, community radio, andparticipatory evaluation revealed no single vehicle or tool that can beautomatically adapted to the type of systemic assessment of the community radioprocess that we’re recommending. However, there is a myriad of availablesources of assessment tools for development or for media, parts of which can beadapted to the challenge of community radio.As suggested above, we suggest a two-tiered approach to any assessment:A. looking at the effectiveness of the total process of deliveringcommunity radio for a defined geographic or franchise area (systemeffectiveness)AMARC Community Radio Social Impact Assessment 2007 Page 52 of 128