Using Radio for Advocacy and Communication of Issues Affecting Farm Communities in Zimbabwe

Abstract: The field of communication for development has been marked by shifts in paradigms from the top-down/mechanistic approaches that emerged in the 1950s to the participatory/bottom-up approaches of the later periods. Despite the paradigm shifts, the faith in the power of the media to influence development has not died down. The research Using Radio for Advocacy and Communication of Issues Affecting Farm Communities in Zimbabwe adds to the body of literature on alternate episodes of faith and doubt in the power of the media in development that characterize intellectual discourse on communication for development. Through a triangulation of both qualitative and quantitative research methods, this study looks at the extent to which radio remains useful in communication and advocacy for the development of marginalized communities, the farm communities in Zimbabwe. The research is based on a case study of the radio programme sponsored by an NGO, which is broadcast on national radio.The research findings indicate that radio remains a popular medium with communities and development actors that still see it to be useful in dissemination of development messages. The challenge that lies ahead of using radio for development in the era of democracy is how to integrate and adapt it to participatory and empowerment models of communication, which build the capacities of the marginalized people. The radio programme studied in this research has been found to be relying more on top-down approaches than participatory methods.Overall, there remains the need to make radio more interactive for it to fit into the participatory methods, which are the more appropriate route to take in the present era.