Double codes: Community radio in Bolivia

Abstract

In this article, we report results of interviews conducted with 20 informants at 8 community radio stations across the major regions of Bolivia. We explore the activism and community practices that have energized Bolivian community radio stations over a sustained period. We are in particular interested in the bottom-up networking by these community stations to interlink with each other. These networks actualize the goals of horizontal and participatory communication called for by Latin American theorists. We seek to learn from these endeavors and also contribute to their continued flourishing by analyzing potential threats to them.

Keywords:

• Appropriation
• Bolivia
• community radio
• development communication
• ICTD
• indigenous communities

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Waterhouse Family Institute at Villanova University (USA) for its support of this original research.

Notes

1 The penetration of media and telecommunications is relatively low in Bolivia. Only 75.5 percent of Bolivian households have radio, 66.49 percent have television, 60 percent have telephone (mostly cellular). Internet access is one of the lowest in the region – 9.57 percent of households (INE 2015). The penetration levels are even lower in rural areas. Within such a context, rural radio, which is low cost to acquire and maintain, has a special place (Beltrán and Reyes 1993; Quiroga and Albó 1976; O’Connor 1989).

2 Reflecting upon the Bolivian experience and more generally radio as a tool of activism and community solidarity in Latin America, Alan O’Connor has argued that in Bolivia “[R]adio stations are used to direct political organization [to call meetings and organize campaigns] but using the radio also gave people an important experience in democratic activities and decision-making. . . [and] are committed to the revaluing of indigenous languages and cultures” (O’Connor 1989, 507).

3 Before Spanish conquest, Guaraní was only an oral language. The first written texts in Guaraní were produced by Jesuit missionaries using Latin alphabet. The modern script, which uses a modified version of the Latin alphabet, was standardized in 1950 (Thompson 2015).