Radio Browsing: A Different Kind of Convergence

The Internet has become life-wallpaper. New methods of staying connected are being developed to a point where the world wide web is not so much at our fingertips but seemingly behind our very eyelids. In developing countries, however, connectivity has remained an exclusive privilege. For those in rural areas whose governments do not have a pro-poor ICT policy, there is no access to the expensive technology required to connect to the Internet. This, combined with language barriers, lack of technological understanding, and the fact that most of the information on the ‘net would seem completely out of context, ensures that these people remain steadfastly on the outskirts of the global community.

The radio remains one of the very few forms of mass communication that is universally understood. A radio is cheap, and moreover it is familiar. The majority of people in rural communities own a radio. From this understanding a convergence concept known as “radio browsing” was born.

The way it works is this. A few members of a rural community are trained up in the use of computers, and taught how to successfully browse the Internet. A local radio station then allocates to them a certain amount of air time per day, during which they can field questions from local citizens and broadcast the answers. The volunteers themselves are local people, and can therefore translate and contextualise the information they find, transmitting it to the listeners in such a way to make it relevant to their lives. Radio browsing is a catalyst: information online becomes useable and potentially life-changing knowledge for a community.

In 2001 the Kothmale region in Sri Lanka became the first rural region to benefit from radio browsing. In a UNESCO-sponsored pilot scheme, a radio station dedicated one hour (between seven and eight in the evening) to answering the questions of listeners from the towns and villages across the 200,000-strong region. With the help of the Sri Lankan Broadcasting Association, UNESCO provided ICT training to a number of volunteers, six computer terminals, two printers, a router and a digital camera. Sri Lanka’s Telecommunication Regulatory Authority donated a free leased line for the first two years of the scheme. As the programme went live on air, people began to tune in to hear people from their own community easily accessing information that could improve the existence of everybody around them.

The programme soon began to attract listeners from all across Kothmale. Questions were hand-delivered, posted, some called theirs in by telephone. People wanted information about agricultural techniques, health matters and legal disputes. The weather forecast was a very popular request. Local doctors and lawyers were invited onto the show as guests to expand upon and contextualize the information. A database began to be compiled by the University of Colombo, documenting some of the information needed by those living in poor rural areas, for use across Sri Lanka and potentially across the rest of the world.

During the day, however, the computers did not sit dormant. The equipment was available for free use by the public. Through radio browsing, people had begun to realize the huge potential of the ocean of information available on the Internet and, more importantly, that it was accessible to them. The volunteers could pass their training on, and over time more and more people from the Kothmale region became capable of browsing for themselves. Those who expressed such an interest used the web for all sorts of different things. Local business owners searched for ways to improve their businesses, for export opportunities and growth potential. Teachers found alternative methods for the classroom: techniques, games, lesson ideas. People could communicate with family members across the world. One group of young people set up an NGO to reduce deforestation in the region: people were suddenly aware of government policy and, what’s more, of their capacity to influence it.

The connection with the world outside meant that people could, at grass roots level, take control of their community. In just two years, the Kothmale region had become informed. People queued up each day to use the terminals at the station, the radio broadcast had more listeners than ever and an “Internet Listeners’ Club” was set up to raise enough money to buy the radio station and turn it into a fully interactive Community Media Centre.

Five years on, and UNESCO have developed over twenty such centres across Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. Kothmale acts as a model, but each Community Media Centre (CMC) is adapted for the needs of each particular region. Radio browsing is an example of how new technology has merged successfully with existing one, but it did not stop there. In these Community Media Centres radio communicates the power that the Internet has to enable people to see beyond the boundaries they are used to. CMCs enable people in developing countries to understand the part they and their communities can play in this global one, of which most people in developed countries already feel a part.

“The CMC opens a gateway to active membership of the global knowledge society by making information and communication the basic tools of the poor in improving their own lives.”