Factores que afectan a la reacción

Like ordinary magazines, a radio magazine programme is broadcast at a particular time, on a particular day every week or every month. The radio magazine is inclusive of other radio formats such as talk shows, interviews, discussions, music and documentaries (Chignell, 2009). While magazine programmes at National FM were sometimes broadcast live, most were pre-recorded. The producers attributed this to lack of resources where they lamented the fact that they did not have resources to invite the sources into the studios for discussions or interviews. The station did not also have resources to go and broadcast from the remote areas where smallest linguistic communities reside. The weekly magazine programmes were broadcast in all the indigenous languages but Shona and Ndebele programmes were longer and more than those of all other languages.

The chief producer insisted that the small indigenous linguistic communities had news from their local communities in their languages through magazine programmes. However, an analysis of the programmes revealed that the magazine programmes had little information on what constitutes news. The programmes were more educational than anything else. They only disseminated information to audiences who did not give feedback due to lack of transmission. The only language which had active participants was Chewa and this is attributed to the fact that the majority of its speakers live in mining and farming communities and towns. In the longer programmes, the audiences did not participate as well due to lack of transmission and the programmes were not interactive due to this.

The magazine programmes in local small languages were broadcast weekly. The programmes were on farming, culture, health, youth and civic education. These programmes deliberated on developmental and health issues as UNESCO (2015) posits that there is under development in areas where small linguistic communities live. UNESCO (2015) reiterates that vernacular radio broadcasting should perform all normative roles. Of importance to this thesis are the two normative theories added by McQuail (2010) namely the development media theory and the democratic participant theory. The magazine programmes in minority languages are meant to enhance development among the people.

They educate listeners on the best farming methods in the farmers’ update programmes. The health sessions counselled the listeners on how to lead healthy lives. As said earlier, the small linguistic communities are mainly found in underdeveloped areas and they lack knowledge in terms of basic human rights. Civic education programmes come handy as they educate them on how to get basic documents and other rights in general. Many scholars argue that nations should invest in youth development in order for them to continue existing. National FM has a programme which educates the youth on how to develop themselves. Haralambos (2008) defines culture as a people’s total way of life and knowing one culture builds confidence. Programmes on culture are pivotal at National FM as they help the respective people in comprehending how they live. A detailed analysis of the magazine programmes would be done in the following chapter.

The democratic participant media theory entails a media system that encourages the participation of audiences in the production of content. It discourages a system whereby the media just disseminate information to the audiences. Locksley (2009:2) notes; “The creation and dissemination of knowledge are key factors in the development process where the media have been instrumental as a means of creating and sharing knowledge”. Information gathered in this study indicates that the listeners do not participate in the production of the content that they listen to. The producers lamented the fact that they did not get the chance to involve the listeners due to lack of resources. They did not get funding to go and record programmes in the areas where the ethnic minorities lived and live programming from there was impossible. All the programmes were not live and getting immediate feedback from the listeners was not possible. Lack of transmission also hindered audience participation and this resulted in the programmes being pre-recorded. One producer complained that he broadcast dull programmes because the people he broadcast for did not receive radio signals due to lack of transmission. This is unlike what happens in some African countries where there are listeners’ clubs and audiences participate in live broadcasts (FRI, 2011; Manda, 2015). The producers also complained that the length allocated for programmes was also a setback as some of the programmes were only five minutes long.

Lack of participation hindered the small linguistic communities from participating in national issues and this might lead them not to have a sense of belonging to the nation. If not all Zimbabweans are not involved in issues that affect their country through participation in radio programming, then National FM does not follow its theme – “The whole nation on one station”. The other people who

are part of the nation and are geographically within the national boundaries are not involved in the discussion of issues that affect them. National FM as a PSB radio station is supposed to broadcast national issues in national languages to different ethnic groups. This thesis established that due to its shortcomings discussed above, the station does not fully have “The whole nation on one station”. However, there are some ethnic groups which actively participate in radio at National FM as Chewa listeners actively participate in radio programming. This is because the majority of them do not live in the border areas. Observation showed that the Chewa people participated in phone-in programmes and also sent messages to their producers. The chief producer restated, “Vanhu vemalanguages vanohwa

news dzakawanda zvikuru nokuda kokutivashamarari vavo vanotaura nyaya dzinoitika munzvimbo dzavanobva nemunyika muno nepasi rose kana vari paduty”. (The people who speak indigenous local

languages listen to a lot of news items as their respective presenters broadcast news about what happens in their respective areas, the country and the world at large).