Continuity in change: A history of radio for national development
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Date
2019
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media
Abstract
In this article, we assert and demonstrate a particular and enduring adaptability
of radio in tandem with observable temporal shifts in development communication
theory and practice in Africa. Specifically, we use the historical research method
to explore and explain the ideological discourses, polity contours and social forces
that have overlain the role of radio as both an index and an instrument of develop ment in Ghana. The evidence reveals that radio has transitioned through three key
milestones in how the technology has been appropriated and applied to national
development efforts: from transplantation, through transmission, to transaction.
Each of these phases coincides, incidentally, with paradigm shifts in development
communication theorizing: from modernization through diffusion to participation.
They also coincide, broadly, with three distinctive epochs of ideological shifts in
the historical accounting on radio for development in Ghana: from British impe rial hegemony, through post-independence command-and-control, to contemporary
liberal pluralism.
Description
Research Article
Keywords
radio broadcasting, development, communication, national, development, radio history