Radio: A Post Nine-Eleven Strategy for Reaching the World's Poor

by Stephen Sposato, Wm. A. Smith

Overview

Featured October 11, 2006 on NPR/WAMU's Kojo Nnamdi Show
In a post 9/11 world where a few ruthless men and women can use modern technology to create powerful webs of conspiracy, the public voice of radio is needed more than ever. Computers trap us in the blue glow of their virtual reality. Cell phones connect us, but what do we have to say to each other and especially to the poor that will impact their lives? Radio attempts to answer this question.

Radio listening groups helped Tanzania create a new democracy in the aftermath of colonialism. Radio taught young children in Kenya to speak English and made "learning their ABCs" a lively and exciting adventure. Radio "learning groups" taught Honduran and Ecuadorian mothers the benefits of breast-feeding.

Learn along with millions of British the fate of Grace who dies in an accidental barn fire as the BBC tries to teach post-war UK farmers to avoid the same fate. Live the trials of families in India faced with the pressure of traditional customs, trying to deal with the challenges of a modern world. These lessons of radio's potency are being submerged in the clutter of new techno gadgets, gimmicks, and gizmos. Co-authors Stephen Sposato and Wm. Smith bring these little known stories to life and revive our faith in radio as a truly modern tool of social change. They help us to understand the changes undergone in U.S. governmental broadcasting as attempts are made to make today's radio relevant in the Middle East and beyond.

Authors' royalties from this book will be donated to four prominent non-profit educational foundations, all radio practitioners: The Academy for Educational Development, Freeplay Foundation, Panos and Population Communications International(PCI).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761832546
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	06/30/2005
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 2.70(d)

About the Author

Stephen Sposato is an international economist with more than 25 years of professional experience around the world in international economics, agricultural economics and nutrition, communications outreach, business, and equity finance. He has been specializing in development communication issues for the last five years, with an emphasis on radio. Wm. A. Smith, Executive Vice President at the Academy for Educational Development, directs more than 100 major programs of international development using radio to target poverty, disease, and human development. He has a doctorate in Education and more than 35 years experience in the developing countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Foreword
Chapter 2 Preface
Chapter 3 Acknowledgements
Chapter 4 Introduction
Chapter 5 Voice Out-Village In
Chapter 6 Family Values
Chapter 7 "Grace Dies in Barn Fire"
Chapter 8 Tanzania's Fireside Chat
Chapter 9 Ama Mas
Chapter 10 The Voa
Chapter 11 Female Infanticide, Bride Burning, Sutee
Chapter 12 Afghanistan
Chapter 13 Women and War
Chapter 14 Medicine by Radio
Chapter 15 So The World Turns
Chapter 16 Radio Advertisements
Chapter 17 Soul Buddyz
Chapter 18 Miners' Radio
Chapter 19 Talking Back to the Radio
Chapter 20 Today's Radio
Chapter 21 Bibliography
Chapter 22 Index

Editorial Reviews

Stephen Sposato and Bill Smith make a compelling case...for the use of radio, a powerful and comparatively inexpensive tool, in programs aimed at the world's poor. Beyond that, in writing this book, the authors provide students and professionals alike with a valuable history and a practical guide to using this valuable technology in health and development programs.

From the introduction by Muhiuddin Haider

There is always a danger in a book with a message that enthusiasm may get the better of judgment. But this is not the case here...the cases provided [in Radio] are carefully documented…[and] extensive citing of scripts help[s] readers appreciate the kind of content that has driven successful radio applications.

Communication Research Trends - Emile McAnany

There is always a danger in a book with a message that enthusiasm may get the better of judgment. But this is not the case here...the cases provided [in Radio] are carefully documented…[and] extensive citing of scripts help[s] readers appreciate the kind of content that has driven successful radio applications.
— Emile McAnany, Santa Clara University

Communication Research Trends