SA Community Radio present paper at UNESCO Media Education Conference

Bush Radio was recently asked to present a paper at an international meeting organised by the French Commission for UNESCO in partnership with UNESCO, and with the support of the French Ministry of Education and the Council of Europe. The meeting was held from the 21 - 22 June 2007 at the Centre de Conférences Internationales, Paris, France. The title of the meeting was MEDIA EDUCATION: Advances, Obstacles, and new trends since Grunwald: Towards a scale of change? Below is a copy of the paper and a link (youtube) to the short video that was presented at the meeting. Link for video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om-iRFMxrwQ (trainee production)

 

Text of paper:

Bush Radio’s CREW project: growing with media education

Prepared and presented by Adrian Louw for UNESCO Meeting on Media Education Advances, obstacles, and new trends since Grünwald:

Towards a scale change?

Paris, France June 2007

 

The best we can hope is to share with you some of our experiences as little

a radio station at the foot of Africa, which aims to serve the townships of

the Cape Flats.

Bush Radio

projects that it runs. It is affectionately known as "the Mother of

Community Radio in Africa". Radio, however, is perhaps only 20 percent of

our activities…in a country that is still busy healing itself from a rich

yet difficult past, it cannot afford the luxury of simply running a radio

station. We aim to contribute to this healing through our mission statement

which boldly proclaims; "to ensure that communities, who have been denied

access to resources, take part in producing ethical, creative and

responsible radio that encourages them to communicate with each other, to

take part in decisions that affect their lives, and to celebrate their own

cultures.

Through such radio, communities will affirm their own dignity and identity,

and promote social responsibility and critical thinking."

In order to better understand the role of Bush Radio in media education we

have chosen to select one project that Bush Radio runs and which combines

all the philosophies that the station has with regards to education in

particular and development in general.

This project is called the Children’s Radio Education Workshop (CREW). The

project started in 1996 with the express aim of giving young people a voice

in media. But broader than just that, it is to enable them to be active

participants in the media and, in doing so; they will hopefully get involved

in shaping their own stories. The project aims to give young people the

tools to holistically understand media.

When Bush Radio started with its CREW project, many radio stations did not

want children in their studios - their argument was that they’re going to

break the equipment and would be difficult to manage.

We’ve had fewer breakages with the children than with the adults in terms of

headphones for example.

We don’t want to turn them into disc jockeys or even radio broadcasters. We

simply want them to understand what media is and can be used for. And

whether it is through radio or eventually through TV or the Internet , we

will try and give them the understanding of media and how the media

operates. That’s the aim of CREW essentially.

 

A parent may think that "it’s cute to have my child on air". Yes it’s cute,

but that’s not why they’re here. And when they become teachers, engineers,

nurses or whatever else they choose to become, they will understand how to

use media and how important media is in communication. They will not simply

be consumers of media, but initiators.

CREW was also born out of a need and a desire to involve young people in

programming at Bush Radio.

In 1996, six grade-ten high school students were recruited from a Cape Town

high school and trained to conduct interviews, use field-recorders, edit on

reel-to-reel machines, and operate the on-air studio.

The outcome of the intensive training programme was a half-hour programme

called Ragged Edge that aired on Thursday evenings at 6.30pm.

This programme later became Street Seeds, a one-hour programme that aired on

Saturdays.

Street Seeds called on a more diverse group of youth and included township

schools.

By 2000, children’s involvement was encouraged in a more formal way through

CREW, the Children’s Radio Education Workshop, which by 2007 comprises about

fifty children between six and eighteen years of age and has a structured

training and evaluation programme.

The training programme includes radio, video and print, it also has a

section devoted to the use of new media.

The various components of the CREW project play a crucial role in expressing

the voices of young people in South Africa.

Providing an outlet for their creative, political and social expression,

Bush Radio helps youth in South Africa to form a kind of generational

realisation, providing a physical and ideological space in which they can

forge a common identity, develop a sense of community, and gain membership

to a new social generation.

Furthermore, the presentation of these ideas on the airwaves allows

intergenerational awareness, allowing parents and other adults to listen to

the programme and to increase their awareness of the discourse of the youth.

(Bosch, 2003)

There is a lot of confusion around what our children will need to face a

future. A future that will have us wishing we had planned better.

We, as guides and facilitators, can give our children and youth tools that

they can use to find much needed answers to some of the complex questions

they're facing daily.

Media is one such tool.

It helps that broadcast media like radio gets the child to enjoy a healthy

serving of science, technology and the performing arts. Using your voice to

project an image requires us to tap into our artistic side.....a side too

often neglected when we think of preparing our children for the future.

Do we want them to be broadcasters? No … what could be scarier than a world

overpopulated by egotists who end up doing late night shows when they are

not rushing around trying to make ends meet.

The idea that they as young people can share their views with many people

over the airwaves is compelling to a young mind. In order for them to

articulate their views effectively to the listening audience it has to be

ordered in a logical and clear sequence. They develop an even greater

realisation of the power of media when they experience how what they have

articulated on-air affects change within listeners.

They also develop skills which enable them to justify their arguments,

thoughts and beliefs when they are challenged by their audience.

We as educators, mentors and shapers of minds need to allow the free flow of

ideas and constantly challenge them. This we need to do without being

prejudiced by our own bias.

Needless to say…we look at media and specifically grassroots media as an

amazing tool to build bridges. Of course, one could use a soulless,

commercial transnational entity to build bridges for the people you want to

serve. But this means that certain values are imposed on your audience.

Through an organic organ of social change like Bush Radio, the people with

the challenge, develop solutions that best suit their needs. All too often

we want to parachute solutions into situations where they are not wanted,

practical or, more importantly, not needed.

They can use the medium of radio to draw pictures in the minds of their

listeners through story telling and drama. The youth can talk about their

ambitions, their hopes, their fears …and how to face them. They can convey

messages like the importance of safe sex in this perilous time of HIV and

AIDS.

Bush Radio media education does not stop with CREW

philosophy of having young journalists train at Bush Radio through our

relationship with the journalism department of the Cape Peninsula University

of Technology’s experiential programme, and the practical training offered

by the station to the International Colleges Group (ICG) correspondence

course students.

The idea of lifelong learning continues with the Bush Radio’s internal

policy that during their trainee period at Bush Radio they must be enrolled

at an institution for further development. The station attempts to fundraise

for this training, and to this end many who have been part of the station

have gone on to complete degrees and excel in other fields.

Bush Radio literally offers media education from birth. The children from

the daycare facility offered to factory workers at the station, which

accommodates children from the age of three to eighteen months, interact

with the regular staff, in the work environment at least twice a week. We

believe that a three-month-old eyes and ears take very sharp pictures, and

if one of the pictures etched in his or her mind is a young blind women

sitting in front of a microphone, we have already shaped his idea of what is

possible with media.

---end---

 

A detailed programme of the meeting is available at

 

r-unesco_3962/les-activites-commission_11372/communication_11377/information

-pour-tous_21802.html

– Africa’s oldest community radio station project - has many– it speaks to our http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/actions-france_830/commission-francaise-pou