False and Real Differences

In this article, the authors try to relate how a women's organisation seized the potential of modern ICTs (information and communication technologies), introduced webcasts of its community radio programmes and captured a market of women and men looking for information other than that provided by mainstream media.

Excerpt from "False and Real Differences"

In light of the way that mainstream media coverage serves primarily to support neo-liberal globalisation, alternative and community media play an increasingly important role in giving a voice to ordinary people who are struggling to keep alive the “species in extinction” such as those in Costa Rica so that people can know about such struggles in the midst of a homogenising neo-liberal policy worldwide.

One such venue among many in Costa Rica is FIRE - Feminist International Radio Endeavour/Radio Feminista. As an alternative media outlet, FIRE has made use of interactive ICTs (information and communication technologies) to reach a global audience, involving live broadcasts through the internet and multimedia productions. Audience members may communicate with producers during broadcasts in a chat room on the FIRE website, as well as via e-mail, and the conventional telephone and fax.

FIRE does live webcasts on special occasions, including international events such as the World Summit on the Information Society and every UN conference since 1991, as well as the World Social Forums in Puerto Alegre, Brazil in 2001, 2002 and 2003, and annual broadcasts on November 25th for the International Day Against Violence Towards Women. Likewise FIRE broadcasts from numerous regional and local events, including the IX Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Encuentro and the Indigenous Women’s Continental Summit in Mexico in 2002. And, because all the broadcasts and information are archived, the website may be visited anytime for special information on certain topics.

To assess the impact of FIRE’s diverse and interactive approach using ICTs for its media activities the organisation is collaborating on a three-year multi-method research project which is also designed to better understand the FIRE audience. Methods include a quantitative analysis of webpage statistics of hits and visits since the group’s first Internet broadcast in 1998; and an Internet survey in English and Spanish sent via e-mail to individuals around the world who had written FIRE, which was also posted on the website. A qualitative analysis of letters received from all over the world—whether these were in Spanish or English—was also performed, as well as case studies of selected live web transmissions by FIRE.

The survey was filled out by audience members of FIRE from 34 different countries, most of whom are women, although there have been many male listeners of FIRE since it first began broadcasting in 1991 on shortwave, and later on Internet in 1998.

The website statistics indicated an enormous increase in the number of visits and hits between 1998 and 2002, confirming the power of the Internet. On average, people visit the website on average about 1-2 times every two months, with one-fourth visiting at least once a month.

The typical listener is 40 to 49 years old—slightly older than the average Internet audience. FIRE has a generally educated audience, with one-third having some college education, and one-half, graduate school. Most of the respondents were journalists, communication practitioners, professors or lawyers.

Beyond the audience profile, however, the significance of the study was that it identified different potential roles for alternative media groups like FIRE as a result of their interactive communication with listeners: (1) as a bridge, (2) as a connector, and (3) as a multiplier and amplifier.

Firstly, FIRE is a bridge between the women’s movement and the audience. One of the group’s goals is to connect voices, technologies and actions, which requires active involvement in the women’s movement at the local, regional and international levels. For the survey question “Why visit the FIRE webpage?” the most popular responses were: (1) to hear the voices of women, (2) to hear perspectives different from those found in mainstream media, and (3) because it’s feminist and/or progressive. People look to FIRE for information on feminism, women’s movements and progressive activities or actions.

Secondly, FIRE serves as a connector between and among social and political movements, including the women’s movements. Another one of the most popular reasons for visiting the FIRE webpage is that it offers alternative proposals and strategies to these different movements. This response indicates that FIRE provides its audience not only a discussion of the problems and challenges facing women but also insights into the women’s specific suggestions on what needs to be done.

Thirdly, FIRE’s role as a multiplier and amplifier is evident in the remarkable increase in the visits and hits on its website when it began broadcasting via the Internet. But FIRE recognises that most of the world is not yet online, so the group taps into the immediacy of community radio all over the world through different organisations such as AMARC (World Association of Community Broadcasters). Community radio is connected to the webpage during broadcasts, and can also download programmes from the archives and rebroadcast these.

It should be noted though that despite FIRE’s use of modern ICTs, its broadcasts and distribution of its information remain highly interpersonal, with about 37 percent of the study’s respondents learning about these from someone else."

Maria Suárez Toro, a Puerto Rican and Costa Rican feminist journalist and professor of communications, is with Feminist International Radio Endeavour, better known as FIRE, which has been using web-streaming of radio for years.

Margaret Thompson an associate professor in the Department of Mass Communications and Journalism Studies at the University of Denver, and teaches international communication. She has coordinated a special study to determine FIRE’s role in the context of the challenges that alternative media in Latin America face amid the pressure of privatisation, militarisation and globalisation in the region.

Click here to visit the FIRE website.