Mobilising the airwaves: The role of Community Radio in the 2011
Chilean Student Movement
Pamela Ramírez Riquelme
A thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Communication at The University of Queensland in June 2012
School of Journalism and Communication
Declaration by author
This thesis is composed of my original work, and contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference has been made in the text.
I have clearly stated the contribution of others to my thesis as a whole, including statistical assistance, production assistance, survey design, data analysis, significant technical procedures, professional editorial advice, and any other original research work used or reported in my thesis.
The content of my thesis is the result of work I have carried out since the commencement of my Master’s degree and does not include a substantial part of work that has been submitted to qualify for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution.
“I like the students, garden of joys!,
They are birds that do not fear animals or police,
And they do not fear the bullets neither the howling of the pack of hounds…”
“Me gustan los Estudiantes” (I Like the Students), Violeta Parra, 1966
“I like the students” sang the Chilean folk singer and composer Violeta Parra, a song that 46 years after it was composed is still fresh as the energy of the student movement in present day Chile. For their inspiration to conduct this thesis, a first acknowledgement is to all the Chilean students that so far have made great efforts, sacrifices and bring so many lessons to older generations, in which I include myself, in their goal of achieving quality and free public education for all.
Additionally, I would like to thank all the community radio communicators that were willing to participate in this study, whose vibrant experiences and stories have given life to this research: Natalia Gómez (La Radioneta), Sebastian Feliú (Radio Encuentro), Rodrigo González (Radio Konciencia), René Squella (Radio Placeres); Samuel Muñoz (Radio Itihue), Rosario Puga (Radio Tierra) and Oscar Rosales (Radio Ritoque). I am very thankful for the insights provided by María Pía Matta, president of AMARC and member of Radio Tierra, and the support and guidance of Raúl Rodríguez, Director of Radio Juan Gómez Millas.
I deeply appreciate the enriching advice, interest and valuable insights of my supervisor Associate Professor Pradip Thomas during this whole research process. Thank you for guiding me in this challenging path. As well, from the School of Journalism and Communication, I appreciate the help of Jaime San Martín who kindly helped me to find a quiet space to conduct some of the interviews.
For their encouragement and support I am thankful to all my friends and family both in Chile and Australia, thanks for making this process so much lighter. A very special thank you goes to my dear friend Lorena Valderrama, for her constant critical advice and help organising my sometimes messy mind; to Alejandra Bustos, for her friendship and support during these intense months; and Jeanette Shepherd for being a great thesis companion, bringing big laughs to the moments of anxiety and whining typical of these academic endeavours. I am also very grateful to all my fellow classmates from the Master of Communication for Social Change, from which their experiences, discussions and great human quality I have learned enormously.
Finally, I am very grateful to my compañero Enrique Fernández for his constant encouragement, assistance, critical advice and company not only these last months, but during this whole academic experience. I have a whole life with you to thank you.
Abstract
From 2011, Chile has observed an awakening of social mobilisation, as secondary and university students from all over the country stood up demanding from the state the right to free and quality public education for all Chileans. The student movement has had great exposure in both national and international media; however, conflicts between the students and police, as well as the attention on their charismatic leaders, have been prioritised under the lens of mainstream media.
Under this vibrant social change context for Chile’s society and the existence of a concentrated media system, this research aims to examine the roles Chilean community radio stations have had in this process, and the strategies that these have used to spread the student movement ideas and objectives. In addition, this study looked at which processes have happened within community radio stations in their involvement with the movement. To reach these objectives, nine semi-structured interviews were conducted via Skype to Chilean community radio broadcasters from stations located in different cities of the country.
The social and political circumstances brought by the student movement provided a required momentum for community radio stations to challenge the complex conditions with which these exist, enacting their role as key agents in the context of social mobilisation. Results reveal that community radio stations accompanied the student movement as an active loudspeaker of their demands, bringing out alternative views and moving their studios to the streets. Also stations gave the student movement a space for discussion, organisation and production of their own contents and shows. Moreover, the active participation of community radio stations in the student movement fostered a process of re-articulation of the community radio movement, in terms of a joint production of contents to respond to the student movement activity.
Yet, some challenges continue for Chilean community radio to face. Particularly, community radio stations need to keep building a common agenda, while recovering a sense of militancy towards their own struggles as a movement. Likewise the relationship between community radio and the student movement cannot be taken for granted, as participants expressed that their own demands, such as the right to communicate, still are not part of the student movement cause, and the students do not seem to understand yet the role of community radio within the media system.
Accordingly, future studies on the use and perceptions of use of community radio stations by the students are suggested to explore how they relate with and in which ways they value these significant communication projects. Furthermore, long term research is required to capture how community radio evolves in this process of mobilisation that still continues in the country.
Keywords
community radio, student movements, Chile, social movements, community media, right to communicate.
Table of Contents
List of abbreviations and acronyms
Table of Figures
Introduction
Background and rationale
Aim of study and research questions
Literature Review
Making sense of community media
Community Radio in Latin America and Chile
The right to communicate
Social movements and media
Student movements in Latin America and Chile
Methodology
Rationale and method
Sample
Data Collection
Data Analysis
Ethical Issues
Limitations
Profiles of CR stations
Findings
Strategies of Community Radio
Coverage dedicated to the student movement
CR on the move
CR network
Roles of Community Radio
CR as a loudspeaker
CR balancing the information agenda
CR as a communicational space
CR linking communities
Processes within Community Radio
Empowerment within CR stations
Validation of CR within the student movement
Re-articulation within the CR movement
Discussion
Conclusion
References
End Notes
List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
ALER Latin American Association of Radio Education
AMARC World Association of Community Radio BroadcastersANARCICH National Association of Community and Citizens Radio Stations of Chile
ARCHI Radio Association of Chile
CR Community Radio
LOCE Organic Constitutional Law of Education
SM Student Movement
INTRODUCTION
• Background and rationale Community media play a significant role in empowering communities giving voice to social actors and civil society, including groups that are constantly marginalised from the media such as women, indigenous or ethnic groups, thus constituting spaces that aim for a more plural and democratic mediasphere (Rodríguez, 2001; Carpentier, Lie & Servaes,
2003; Gumucio Dagrón, 2004). Consequently, there is a strong connection between community media and the social struggles of those communities or actors with which it is involved, as it represents “the expression of an alternative vision to hegemonic policies, priorities, and perspectives” (Downing, 2001, p. v). Thus, community media is related and plays a role in the trajectory and life of social movements (Downing, 2001; Atton, 2002; Carpentier et al., 2003; Gumucio Dagrón, 2004).Whether defined as community media, alternative media (Atton, 2002), citizens’ media (Rodríguez, 2001), or radical media (Downing, 2001), all these have a say with regard to social movements, for example, expanding the space of information and debate that mainstream media provides (Downing, 2001) or connecting diverse groups towards a similar social struggle (Carpentier et al, 2003).
In the case of community radio (CR) in Chile, which has operated since the 1960s, this had a significant role being an alternative source of information and a key catalyst for mobilisation in the democratic movement against Augusto Pinochet’s regime during the
1980s. However, during the transition to democracy beginning in 1990, CR was affected by a significant decline of social activism and by the application of neoliberal policies by the iConcertación governments, which have limited their existence and favoured media concentration (Poblete, 2006; Bresnahan, 2007, 2009). Under these conditions, CR in Chile has had to face many challenges to survive and keep enacting its right to communicate (Aguilera & Yáñez, 2001; Bresnahan, 2007, Acevedo et al., 2009).
Specially in the present, when the CR movement is fractured by a new legislation that has been promoted by the commercial radios grouped in ARCHI and supported by ANARCICH, but that has had a strong rejection by the 31 radios aligned in the Chilean chapter of AMARC, which argue that the law keeps restricting the airwaves and the conditions for community stations to exist (M.P. Matta, personal communication, March 28, 2012).
Nevertheless, Chile has observed since May of 2011 an awakening of social mobilisation. With massive protests throughout the country, secondary and university students have demanded the Chilean state to assure the right to free and quality public education for all Chileans (Fleet, 2011). Beyond the urgent debate for a change of the education system in Chile, the student movement (SM) has installed a direct critique of the neoliberal system inherited from Pinochet’s dictatorship, and which 20 years on democratic governments have continued, catalysing a process of discussion for a new project of society (Fleet, 2011; Koschützke, 2012).
The SM has had great exposure in the media both nationally and internationally, especially their massive and creative demonstrations, some of which had an attendance of over 100.000 people. As media coverage of social movements tend to focus on the “visible and dramatic” (Della Porta & Diani, 2006, p. 220) events of violence after protests between groups of iiencapuchados and the Chilean police have been constantly covered by mainstream media, leaving little space for the contextualisation of the movement’s demands and the inclusion of a diversity of actors. As a result alternative experiences of communication in the formats of video, street-performances, and digital media among others, have been involved with the activities and debates of the SM, including CR stations (Rodríguez, 2011).Considering the vibrant social scenario that the students have brought about to the deactivated Chilean public sphere and the coverage provided by the concentrated Chilean mainstream media, it is relevant to examine what has been the role of community media, such as CR, in this context of social change. Media studies about these small-scale and diverse kinds of media have flourished in the last decade (Atton, 2002; Carpentier, Lie & Servaes, 2003; Downing, 2001; Rodríguez, 2001). Although, its recent emergence shows “how weakly social movement phenomena have registered in the main discursive arenas of media analysis” (Downing, 2008, p. 40).
Hence, the analysis of community media potential with regard to social movements is still a topic for further examination. Particularly SMs have not been treated in the existing literature, which focuses more on community media and new social movements, such as environmental or anti-globalisation movements, and the study of Internet-based media (Atton, 2002; Atton, 2003; Atkinson, 2006). In addition, there is no recent extensive literature that links CR and social movements in the Chilean context, with exceptions of studies such as Bresnahan (2007, 2009).
Hence, the analysis of community media potential with regard to social movements is still a topic for further examination. Particularly SMs have not been treated in the existing literature, which focuses more on community media and new social movements, such as environmental or anti-globalisation movements, and the study of Internet-based media (Atton, 2002; Atton, 2003; Atkinson, 2006). In addition, there is no recent extensive literature that links CR and social movements in the Chilean context, with exceptions of studies such as Bresnahan (2007, 2009).
• Aim of study and research questions With the aforementioned in mind, the overarching aim of this study is to explore what role or roles has Chilean CR had in spreading the ideas and objectives of the 2011 SM in Chile. Therefore, the study will identify in which ways CR has played a role in their relationship with the 2011 SM and which strategies it has undertaken to contribute to social debate. Additionally, this research will examine what empowering and transformational processes for CR have been brought on by their involvement with the 2011 Chilean SM, considering that such processes, which occur within these media while they are acting, are just as important as their creative ways of producing and distributing alternative contents (Rodríguez, 2001).
To reach these objectives, a qualitative interpretative methodology was chosen, acknowledging that subjects’ experiences, practices and interpretations are significant to understanding social realities (Lindlof & Taylor, 2011). Thus, data collection was conducted by way of semi-structured qualitative interviews to Chilean CR communicators and activists, from CR stations that were actively involved during the 2011 SM. Ethical implications were considered and covered for the conduction of interviews.
Taking into account the aim and objectives of this study, the following research questions were put forth:
Q1: Which strategies has CR undertaken for spreading and sustaining the ideas and objectives of the SM in Chile?
Q2: What do CR members perceive has been the role or roles of CR within the context of the 2011 Chilean SM?
Q3: What processes have been generated within CR in their involvement in the 2011 Chilean SM?
This thesis comprises six chapters. Chapter 1 presents a review of the existing literature along with the theoretical framework which sheds light on the key concepts explored in this study. Chapter 2 explains the methodology and method chosen, presenting the limitations and ethical considerations involved. Chapter 3 presents a brief profile of the CR stations participating in this study. In Chapter 4, findings are presented and these are discussed in Chapter 5. Finally, Chapter 6 provides the conclusions of the study and some recommendations for future research on this topic.
I. LITERATURE REVIEW
• Making sense of community media
In their efforts of conceptualising community media, media scholars have used a family of concepts such as alternative media, citizens’ media, radical media, autonomous media, participatory media, among others (Rodríguez, 2009). These theoretical frameworks bring out the diversity and particularities necessary to understand community media, more than providing fixed definitions that could not capture its complex nature (Carpentier et al., 2003). Therefore, different points of analysis of community media will be discussed, trying to capture elements that are meaningful for this research.
As a starting point, community media can be defined in terms of a community that it serves, regardless if this is determined by a local geography or people who share a particular culture or common interests. Moreover, community media provides a voice to these communities, with contents that are relevant for them and embraces their active participation (Alfaro, 2000; Rodríguez, 2001; Carpentier et al., 2003; Gumucio Dagrón, 2004). Additionally, community media can be understood as alternative media, characterised by creativity, horizontality and informality that constitute a space for content that rarely one can find in commercial media (Rodríguez, 2001; Atton 2002, Carpentier et al., 2003; Gumucio Dagrón, 2004). The use of this concept has been widely used by media theorists, however, scholars such as Downing (2001) criticise its “oxymoronic nature” (p. IX), arguing that everything is alternative to something else at some stage.
Furthermore, Rodríguez (2001) provides her own concept of “citizens’ media” trying to leave the binary definition of alternative media that does not capture the transformational processes that community media brings about. Citizens’ media entail that while a collective is intervening and altering the mediascape with its media projects, simultaneously they are enacting its citizenship, contesting dominant social codes, power structures and social relations, and accordingly, empowering the community involved.
Moreover, in their intervention of the mediasphere, community media takes part in civil society, constituting a third sector independent of the state and market, looking for a more pluralistic media democracy. With that in mind it can be understood as a rhizome, which sets its role acting “at the crossroads of social organisations and movements” (Carpentier et al., 2003, p.65), catalysing that people from diverse movements and struggles get together and collaborate. The permanent dialogue between community media and social movements is a significant characteristic of this kind of media, as there is “a dialectical relation between social struggles and the need of a voice to express them” (Gumucio Dagrón, 2004, Retrieved Online).
Downing (2001) has captured his own definition of “radical media”, relating a variety of formats of small-scale subversive media with the life of both global and local social movements. In connection with social movements, radical media predominantly express opposition at a vertical level and support the construction of networks at a horizontal level, acting for social movements as “developmental power agents” that catalyse “positive possibilities for human achievement inherent in cooperative social life” (p. 43). What Downing (2001) does not mention and that this research will intend to capture is the “positive possibilities” that might occur within community media itself in their connection to social movements, understanding communication as a space for transformational processes and empowerment of the communities and citizens that are using these media (Rodríguez, 2001).
Following this idea, another conceptualisation that is important to consider is provided by Martín-Barbero (2008) and his notion of community media under a paradigm of networks and interfaces, which gives light to the existence of community media not as isolated small projects, but as networks “that are not only capable of discussing the social demands, political conflicts and the cultural creativity of their location, they are also able to look at and talk to the entire country” (p.33). In other words, in line with the rhizomatic approach of Carpentier et al. (2003), for Martín-Barbero while community media projects are expressing and transforming as locals, at the same time they are also capable of projecting and connecting themselves to the world.
• Community Radio in Latin America and Chile
To understand CR in the Chilean context, CR needs to be framed under a tradition of communication research and practice in Latin America that emerged during the 1970s, in which Latin American scholars looked for alternative theories to challenge traditional western conceptions of communication as sender-receiver transmission (Huesca & Dervin, 1994; Rodríguez, 2009). In response to these “alien conceptual models” (Beltran, 1976, p.110), local scholars developed new theoretical frames to explain communication, media and culture taking into account the region’s own particularities and conditions (Rodríguez,2009).
Thus, there was a call for giving back the voice to the people, which had to be part of the communicative practice, reflecting and producing their own contents and fostering collective action (Mattelart, 1971; Alfaro, 2000). Consequently, this alternative communication, also called educational, popular, horizontal and communitarian communication, could not be apart from the social bases, being deeply committed and worked for the continent’s social movements that generated social, cultural and economic change from the 1970s (Huesca & Dervin, 1994; Alfaro, 2000, Rodríguez, 2009).
Hence, since its origins CR in Latin America has been acting as a loudspeaker for the expression and social mobilisation of diverse groups (Beltran, 1995; Lopez Vigil, 2007). An array of studies on CR have captured their role in social movements and struggles of Latin America, such as miners’ movements in Bolivia (O’Connor, 1990; Lopez Vigil, 2007), indigenous movements (Rodríguez & El’Gazi, 2007), or national liberation movements, such as Radio Venceremos in El Salvador (Lopez Vigil, 2002). However, existing literature in CR and social movements in the Latin American context has not examined this relationship focusing on SMs.
In the case of Chile, since its beginnings in the 1960s CR has had a strong role with regards to social movements, being significantly active during the 1980s re-articulation of social organisation and part of the prodemocracy and human rights’ movements against the military dictatorship (Bresnahan, 2007), which from 1973 had blocked all the processes of social democratisation that had been generated by society from its bases (Garcés, 2004). Under this context, popular communicators started again to occupy the mediasphere with small scale media, which captured people’s everyday efforts in their struggle for recovering democracy (Yáñez & Aguilera, 2000).
However, with the recovery of democracy in 1990 the promise of CR having a plural space in the new democratic society was unfulfilled. The political faces from the pro- democracy movement that were supported by CR, once in power, promoted a competitive media system regulated by the rules of the market that favoured a prompt expansion of commercial radio and left CR under unequal and difficult circumstances to subsist (Poblete, 2006; Bresnahan, 2007, 2009). Thus, the Concertación neoliberal policies created a highly concentrated radio system that has four conglomerates owning 70% of the airwaves, including Ibero-Americana Radio Chile, which is part of the Spanish transnational Prisa, holding more than 220 frequencies that represent 30% of the market (Acevedo et al., 2009).
Legislation is another issue for the existence of CR in Chile. While in the early 1990s CR was not included in Chile’s legal framework, the strong pressure of right-wing politicians that accused CR of being illegal motivated the government to promulgate in 1994 the Law of Low Power Radio, which set a number of restrictions for CR, such as limiting their ratio of transmission and the impossibility of broadcasting publicity (Yáñez & Aguilera, 2000; Bresnahan, 2007; Acevedo et al., 2009). In 2010, a new iiiLaw of Services of Community and Citizens Broadcasting was promoted with support of the commercial radios under ARCHI which according to M.P. Matta, has not changed the restricting and precarious situation of Chilean CR, being “a law that again is totally out of date and that does not recognise what these radios mean” (Personal communication, March 28, 2012).
Under this context, today in Chile 557 CR stations exist according to the Secretariat of Telecommunications (SUBTEL, 2011). However, this figure does not include stations that today broadcast without a license, many being denounced by ARCHI and strongly persecuted by the police, including cases of prosecution and requisition of equipment (Acevedo et al., 2009). Organisations such as AMARC and the Network of People’s Media, a network which groups community media projects, have condemned and denounced these acts against the right to communicate and keep advocating for a more just existence of CR (Acevedo et al., 2009).
These are some of the challenges that CR stations currently face in Chile. Still, as past studies have analysed, CR continues to be active with diverse communicational projects that have significant social impact in their communities, giving voice to social actors and organisations that despite the decline of social mobilisation during the 1990s, have continued working at a community level (Yáñez & Aguilera, 2000; Poblete, 2006; Ansaldo & Lara, 2009; Cabalín, 2010). Yet, the involvement and the role of CR within the context of social movements has not been explored, with the exception of Bresnahan studies (2007, 2009) on the role of diverse community media during the dictatorship and transition to democracy. Therefore, there is a gap that this study will intend to fill under the vibrant context of social demand that the SM has provided to the Chilean public sphere.
• The right to communicate
Essentially, the right to communicate recognises that communication is a basic human need, “the life-blood of society” (Traber, 1999, Retrieved Online). Moreover, it is the entitlement of people and communities not only to receive information as passive recipients (Martín-Barbero, 2005), but to have the capacity to be producers of communication for their general interest and common good (CRIS Campaign, 2005).
Consequently, the right to communicate is connected with many aspects of people’s lives, thus it cannot be understood in isolation but as a right that enables the achievement of other significant human rights, such as education, cultural rights, access to information, public participation, and others (Traber, 1999; Hamelink, 2002; CRIS Campaign, 2005).
While freedom of expression, an important dimension of the right to communicate is already recognised as a human right, on its own it is not secured if people cannot access the relevant information for their livelihoods or if media is under the control of the powerful (CRIS Campaign, 2005). Thus, the frame for the right to communicate is an enabling environment where people enjoy communication as interaction, “in the sense of talking with others and listening to others” (Hamelink & Hoffmman, 2008, p. 9). A communicational space where other non-informational traditional knowledge, which comes from people’s experience, strategies of survival, memories, cultures, can also be acknowledged and protected (Martín-Barbero, 2005). Under this idea, media such as CR represent and enact in their ethos and practice such environments.
However the importance of the right to communicate, this still does not exist by disposition of international law (Hamelink & Hoffmman, 2008). Thus, communication activists continue to advocate for its recognition, understanding that a more democratic distribution of communication power “from the few to the many, from the elite to the grassroots” (Traber, 1999, Retrieved Online) is essential for human life and livelihoods. The demand for these rights are significantly relevant today, especially for CR, which is under constant threat under a scenario that favours commercial mass media, owned by a few transnational corporations, rather than a diverse, participatory media system (CRIS, 2005).
• Social Movements and Media
Social movements have been studied through the theoretical lenses of different schools of thought, from which the new social movement theory and the resource mobilisation theory have been the two most relevant and influential and with which we will engage to frame the relationship between media and social movements.
In essence, resource mobilisation theory scholars have defined social movements in terms of rational actors making purposeful, conscious and organised choices for action (Della Porta & Diani, 2006). Furthermore, resource mobilisation theory relies on political sociological and economic theories, putting an emphasis on both the societal support and constraint of social movements’ activity, studying elements such as the resources mobilised, their need for external support to succeed and their connection with other movements and groups (McCarthy & Zald, 1977). On the other hand, new social movements theorists critiqued the resource mobilisation approach as limited, defining social movements as “organised conflicts or as conflicts between organised actors over the social use of common cultural values” (Touraine, 2002, p. 90), looking at movements based on cultural claims, such as the women or environmental movements. Under this line, new social movements basically reclaim their right to define identities and personal autonomies, contesting the pervasive intrusion of the market and the state into people’s everyday lives (Della Porta & Diani, 2006).
Having this in mind, when it comes to the relationship between social movements and media, this has long been considered as a “complex and dynamic interaction” (Malinick, Tindall & Diani, 2011, p.1). Yet, social movements literature has barely expanded on this relationship and has opted for an instrumental view of it (Downing, 2008; Della Porta, 2011). Under the resource mobilisation theory, social movements use media as a strategic means for getting their message spread, though in this regard social movements will rely much more on media to access the public scene, than media on social movements for getting a story (Carroll & Hackett, 2006; Malinick et al, 2011).
In this way social movements can be considered as weak players in a competitive interaction with media, who will tend to privilege information that is more spectacular and contentious, or from official sources, such as authorities (Della Porta & Diani, 2006; Malinick et al, 2011). In the case of the 2011 Chilean SM, besides the focus on violent events, one of its leaders, Camila Vallejo, has been treated in a sensationalist way by the media as “the face” of the movement (Koschützke, 2012). Something similar happened with the 2006 secondary SM, in which Chilean media at first gave no voice to the young protesters, opting for “experts” or authorities, but later put a strong attention in its leaders and their private lives, causing some conflicts inside the movement (Aguilera, 2008).
In terms of the lens of new social movement theory, the contestation for cultural values that social movements stand for is placed in multimedia communicational networks, which frame the cultural codes and restrains the impact of autonomous manifestations outside this sphere (Castells, 2009). Yet, under this context the agency power of social movements in building democracy and communications should be recognised, rather than seeing media institutions only as structural constraints (Della Porta, 2006).
Under this frame, alternative media such as CR, appear as counter public spheres for social movements (Downing, 2001). However, as the rise of “mass self-communication” has been seen as an opportunity for social movements entering the public sphere (Castells, 2009, p. 302), recent media studies have been interested in capturing this interaction, focusing on Internet alternative media, such as Indymedia (Atton, 2003; Atkinson, 2006; Fraser 2009), rather than looking extensively at “older” community media, such as CR. Additionally, these studies tend to follow the focus of new social movements’ theory on social movements from the so-called “First World” (Downing, 2008), such as the anti-globalisation or environmental movements. Thus this study attempts to fill this gap, focusing on SMs which as will be analysed in the following section, have had a significant role in demanding social change, particularly in the context of Latin America and Chile.
Student Movements in Latin America and Chile
Student activism has a long presence in Latin America national and transnational politics and events, with precedents such as the participation of university students during the Latin America wars of independence against Spain between 1810 and 1825, the 1918 Córdoba reform movement that started in Argentina or the 1968 Mexican SM (Daza, 2007). Although since the 1970s SMs in Latin America have been less studied, their actions have continued through the region, especially responding to the political and economic changes that have affected Latin American societies (Torres & Schugurensky, 2002; Daza, 2007). This includes neoliberal policies in education that for public universities have meant the reduction of state subsidies, relying on private funding and competing among each other for students and grants (Torres & Schugurensky, 2002). Accordingly, SMs demands can be described as centred in claims for free public education, the quality of the educational systems, the condition of schools and universities and the chance for them to be part of society’s decision-making processes (Aranda, 2000).
In the case of Chile, this model of privatisation of education is probably the most advanced in Latin America, corresponding to a society model that the dictatorship pursued to install; “authoritarian in the political-cultural aspect and organised in terms of individualism and the market, in the social economic aspect” (Garretón et al., 2011, Retrieved Online). This was promoted in the 1981 higher education system reform that set a diversified market of universities, institutes and technical training centres, which deregulation allowed the rapid proliferation of private institutions. Moreover, the institutional power of traditional state universities was significantly reduced, being included in this competitive mixed system (Torres & Schugurensky, 2002). A similar reform was introduced for primary and secondary education days before the end of the dictatorship, with the enactment of the LOCE (Garretón et al, 2001).
Consequently, SMs in the country have stood up against this authoritarian heritage from the dictatorship, which was not removed by the Concertación governments and that has brought a series of inequalities and segmentation that affects Chilean society until today (Garretón et al, 2001; Koschützke, 2012). SMs during the last decades have been considered as inheritors of the 1980s pro-democracy movement, of which they were part, keeping a certain autonomy and distance from political parties (Fleet, 2011).
The more recent antecedent of the 2011 SM was the ivpingüinos (penguins) revolution in May-June of 2006, in which secondary students rose up for the abolition of the LOCE and the end of municipal education, asking for the return of the administration of public schools in the hands of the State (Henríquez, 2007; Garretón et al., 2011). The pingüinos had a strong impact on Chilean society and achieved the elimination of the LOCE. However, the new law enacted in 2009 did not resolve the problem of education in Chile, failing to transform the structure and management of the educational system (Garretón et al. 2011).
The 2011 Chilean SM again focused on the crisis of education in Chile, aiming this time for the end of the profitable character of the education system and the guarantee of free and quality education for all (Fleet, 2011; Koschützke, 2012). As Aranda (2002) argues, SMs express through their demands the discontent and aspirations of the societies in which these emerge, catalysing social mobilisation of other social movements and sectors of civil society. In this sense the 2011 SM has exposed a critique from the Chilean society on Chile’s neoliberal system that initially was diffuse, but now has taken on a concrete manifestation (Fleet, 2011). Evidence of this is the wide popular support that the students have, with more than 70% of the people approving their demands (Koschützke, 2012); and the emergence of social movements in other parts of the country.
II. METHODOLOGY
• Rationale and method
As CR fosters and facilitates spaces for interaction and two-way communication, the use of quantity indicators for the assessment of CR does not capture the whole spectrum relating to its social impact and processes (AMARC, 2007). Taking this into account, this research takes people’s voices and accounts as quality indicators to answer the research questions proposed.
Therefore, an interpretative qualitative approach was adopted to reach the objectives stated in this study. To gather data, nine qualitative interviews with CR communicators from CR stations from different parts of Chile were conducted via Skype (see Appendix 1 for information on these stations). This method was specifically chosen, as it facilitates the comprehension of “the social actor’s experience and perspective through stories, accounts, and explanations” (Lindlof & Taylor, 2011, p. 173).
• Sample
To select participants, purposeful sampling was used, as well as snow-ball sampling (Lindlof & Taylor, 2011), looking for radio stations that were involved during the context of the SM. This was made possible by my personal contacts within the CR sector in Chile and a preliminary revision of news and information. In addition, the selection took into consideration the inclusion of CR located outside the capital, Santiago, as the SM activities and impact took place throughout the country.
Of the nine participants who agreed to be interviewed, six were male and three were females. As mentioned above, participants were based in various parts of Chile. Specifically, four are based in Santiago, three in Valparaíso, Chile’s second largest city, and the rest are located at the cities of Rosario (Central Chile) and San Carlos, (Central- south Chile). Most of the participants are directors within the stations, with the exception of some that fulfil other roles such as reporters or hosts. However, the majority have several roles within these stations.
• Data Collection
Interviews were organised with time difference in mind between Brisbane and Chile, participant work schedules and access to the Internet. All interviews were semi-structured, starting by a basic set of questions, which led to further questions on the topic. During the conversations, I tended to leave a space for participants to speak and express freely their impressions and opinions, intervening only when the participants seemed to finish their answers, and when I had specific follow-up questions. Presently being in Australia to complete studies, the interviews were conducted via Skype, with the exception of two participants that could not meet me online and offered to send their answers via email. Under my context, using Skype enabled interactive communication given the location, time and cost factors. Interviews lasted between 45 minutes and 1 hour (approximately).
• Data Analysis
Interview transcripts were the main material for analysis, which was done manually. Interviews were transcribed right after these took place, or at least during the next day, aiming to be faithful to the conversations as much as possible.
After the transcripts were read thoroughly, qualitative coding was applied (Richards, 2009; Lindlof & Taylor, 2011). First, descriptive coding was done, assigning to each script a sheet of information to start managing the data. Then for every transcript, topic coding was conducted to reduce data into macro-categories, made in light of the research questions (strategies, roles, processes). Hence, reading transcripts line-by-line, I explored concepts discussed in each text and sorted this into the main categories. To sort each unit I asked what it was about, and if the unit did not correspond to an existing category, I located this under a new one. Later, having in mind my research questions again, I analysed and compared the coded transcripts to define both commonalities and discrepancies, looking for recurring conceptual patterns between them, as well as differing individual viewpoints. With this process, I started to build the final themes with their corresponding sub-themes that were identified inductively from the analysed data and by calling on the literature.
• Ethical Issues
As interviews involve interaction with human subjects there are some ethical issues to acknowledge concerning this research. First, it is important to mention that ethical clearance was obtained from the School of Journalism and Communication Research Committee, before data collection commenced.
Informed consent was asked to participants previous to data collection. For this, I sent emails to CR communicators with a detailed research information document and an informed consent sheet, by which I explained the aims and objectives of the study, mentioning also that their involvement in it was completely voluntary. After accepting to participate, participants sent back the signed informed consent sheet.
Only the audio aspect of the Skype interviews was recorded obtaining authorisation of participants. All data collected was stored securely and used only by the researcher for the purpose of this study. In terms of issues of confidentiality and privacy of participants, none of them expressed any issues of being identified in the study. Yet, I am aware that if I publish any data from this study, pseudonyms will be used for all participants.
• Limitations
As a result of time and budget constraints, data had to be collected from Australia using Skype and email in some cases. While this tool is easy to use and allows an interaction that facilitates the chance to make follow up questions, still there were limitations surrounding the research.
First, collecting data through long distance is restrictive for logistical reasons, as the 13 hours’ time difference between countries affected in some cases the possibility to fit schedules with participants, having to do some interviews through email, which did not bring the same richness of contact as the Skype interview. Additionally, this context did not allow further interaction, such as participant observation that could have brought more insights to complement the interviews’ data. Another limitation relates with the sometimes unmanageable aspect of technology, which in one case prevented me from conducting a Skype interview, because the respondent’s Internet connection was very weak. Time constraints also conditioned me to choose a small sample of participants.
Therefore, I acknowledge that this research did not intend on being representative of the whole CR sector in Chile. Rather, it aimed to make sense of the perceptions, experience and ideas of a group of CR communicators and, who were involved in the context of the SM.
III. PROFILES OF COMMUNITY RADIO STATIONS
Radio Encuentro
Broadcasting from 1998, Radio Encuentro is based in the comuna (commune) of Peñalolén in Santiago, belonging to the community development corporation under the same name. This project of CR, along with its transmissions, has pursued to generate social change in the community through the use of communication and information technologies, including training in CR (Bresnahan, 2007).
Radio Itihue
Based in the city of San Carlos, central-south of Chile, this CR started broadcasting in February of 2011, after its members had the chance to rent the radio’s license, which was not being used by its owner. Under ongoing financial constraints, Radio Itihue has progressively managed to have its own productions and content, with a declared social and political position and an interest in giving space to social movements and local organisations (S. Muñoz, personal communication, April 21, 2012).
Radio Juan Gómez Millas (JGM)
Radio JGM was born in 2004 by a group of journalism students from School of Journalism of the University of Chile. While having a license at first, currently they are only broadcasting online, having a diversity of productions connected not only with the university community, but with all social agenda. One of its shows, Noticiero Ciudadano (Citizens’ news), is broadcasted in many other CR stations across the country (R. Rodríguez, personal communication, April 4, 2012)
Radio Konciencia
This station was created in 2007 in the rural locality of Rosario, VI Region, under the administration of the Kutral Cultural Centre, in which neighbours, youth groups, and people from rural areas, recognised the need for a CR station. In 2009, Radio Konciencia started to broadcast, giving space for a variety of shows, with an emphasis in rural contents and with a strong support for initiatives from the youth and social movements (R. González, personal communication, April 12, 2012).
La Radioneta
Located in Chile’s main port, Valparaíso, La Radioneta was born in 2001 along with the Cultural and Free Communication Centre Cerro Concepción, capturing the life and interests of the community placed in the cerro (hill). Financed by its volunteer members, La Radioneta aims for “participation, recreation, education, culture and identity, emphasising free access to information and recognising communication as a fundamental right for people” (www.laradioneta.cl).
Radio Placeres
Also from Valparaíso, Radio Placeres is one of the oldest CR in Chile, broadcasting since 1989. Under the political motto “On the left of the dial”, it gives voice to a diversity of social actors of the Valparaíso community. After several failed attempts to obtain a license, the radio has continued its transmissions in an undercover status, having different studio- houses so the police do not find them (R. Squella, personal communication, April 10, 2012).
Radio Ritoque
This CR was born in 2005 in Valparaíso, and it is characterised for its own productions in which the national and local musical culture has a clear space. While the rock scene has a strong presence, the station also includes other genres such as folklore and jazz, with an emphasis on music made by Chilean artists (www.ritoquefm.cl).
Radio Tierra
Radio Tierra was born in the early 1990s with the creation of La Morada Corporation, a woman’s organisation. Under the motto “Voices of the Citizenship”, the emphasis of this CR station has been giving voice to civil society matters, emphasising the importance of the right to communicate and freedom of expression, along with integrating an active role of the women in the field of communications (www.radiotierra.cl).
María Pía Matta
Chilean CR activist and member of Radio Tierra since its origins, María Pía Matta is currently the president of AMARC.
*All CR that were part of this study, currently are members of AMARC Chile, except for Radio Itihue, which is looking to become part of it in the future.
IV. FINDINGS
• CR Strategies
Since its emergence, CR stations started to accompany and give space to the SM in their agendas. As the activity of the movement grew rapidly and throughout the country, the stations took over a challenging task of responding to what was happening. “At first we covered their main events, but then, they started to have demonstrations every week and we end up having four hours of live transmissions about the movement” (R. Rodríguez, personal communication, April 04, 2012).
Thus, three main strategies were taken by CR stations to spread and sustain the SM objectives and discussions in the public arena: coverage dedicated to the SM; CR stations moving their regular studios; and collective work between CR stations.
o Coverage dedicated to the SM
Participants highlight that their everyday broadcasting was strongly dedicated to what was happening with the SM. Regular shows within the station included information and discussions about the educational issue and the students’ activities, and student representatives were interviewed regularly. Also, special programmes and coverage of the SM started to be regular in their broadcasting on a weekly, and even daily, basis.
Additionally, it was relevant for stations to include a diversity of voices to speak about the movement, not only involving the leaders of the SM in the discussion, but also regular students, teachers, parents and experts on the topic of education.
Considering the same aim, CR stations integrated the community into the education debate. For example, Radio Ritoque left its phone line open to capture people’s thoughts about the SM, then these were recorded and included in their regular transmission. In the case of La Radioneta, they interviewed people who were observing the student marches, residents from their neighbourhood, “the owner of the local grocery store” (N. Barahona, personal communication, April 06, 2012) and with that they developed audio materials to include in their different programmes.
Many CR stations had a good relationship with student organisations and younger audiences before the SM emerged, and therefore, students already had their own shows within some of the stations. Consequently, since the SM started these programmes had an active transmission of its events and issues that were relevant for them. Moreover, as the stations engaged with what was occurring with the SM, new programmes made by students were integrated. In the case of Radio Tierra, they built capacities within collectives of secondary students “for them to develop their own communicational strategies” (R. Puga, personal communication, April 21, 2012).
o CR on the move
During 2011, the students constantly organised public demonstrations and performances, general strikes with other social actors, as well as they occupied universities and schools all over the country. Under this context, participants state that taking CR into the streets and occupations was another way to respond to the SM.
Under this strategy, CR stations transmitted live from the student marches by setting studios in different points of their trajectory or through reporters that used mobile phones to follow the protest and broadcast what was happening. In the case of Radio Placeres, they dedicated a segment of their broadcasting to cover the protests in Valparaiso called “Placeres Callejero” (Street Pleasures), from the festive stages, until the end when the police appeared to disperse the protesters.
In the case of Radio Tierra and Radio JGM, they organised open radio transmissions (Radio Abierta), in which they placed their studios in key points of Santiago, such as outside the main occupation at the Main House of the University of Chile or in Plaza Italia, one of the capital’s most central places. In these public spaces, the CR stations had the chance to interact directly with the students and passers-by.
The use of technological tools, such as mobile phones and the Internet were useful for CR broadcasting on the move. For example, besides the transmission through the airwaves, La Radioneta also did a web-stream of the demonstrations. Radio Konciencia, covered local marches and events, and then shared this information with other CR media outlets and stations via the Internet.
Finally, broadcasting from school and university occupations, or vtomas, was another strategy in which CR stations moved from their regular studios. For example, La Radioneta had a show called “La Radioneta en Toma” (La Radioneta occupied) that broadcasted every week from different university faculties, in which the students participated actively, deciding what contents would be discussed and hosting the transmissions. Other local CR stations spent a great amount of time sharing with the students in the occupations, establishing a relationship of trust as they were covering their activities on a daily basis. “We shared with them, even ate together and spent some nights inside the tomas, chatting and recording some material” (S. Muñoz, personal communication, April 21, 2012).
o CR Network
One of the actions that the majority of participants mentioned as a strategy to respond to the SM was the collaborative work between CR stations, as well as other community media outlets. All the CR stations included in this study were already linked with some national networks, such as AMARC Chile and the Network of People’s Media, as well as international networks like the Latin American and Caribbean chapter of AMARC and ALER before the SM emerged.
Hence, the work of sharing contents and discourses took great strength when it came to cover the process and had its biggest expression with the organisation of a national networked transmission of CR stations, a vicadena radial, called vii“1800 minutes for the Education”. This was organised twice in August and November 2011 by Radio JGM in collaboration with other CR stations, media organisations and networks.
More than 25 CR stations joined in this uninterrupted transmission of 30 hours. Among these, some stations broadcasted special programmes about the issue of education. In Santiago, Radio JGM dedicated its show “Citizen News” to the SM, while Radio Placeres transmitted live from Valparaiso demonstrations and La Radioneta connected with its live show from an occupation. In other regions, Radio Itihue and Radio Konciencia participated with programmes made by students, discussing local issues. Also, student leaders and representatives of other social organisations were part of the debates within the transmission.
• Roles of CR
The strategies that CR stations undertook within the whole process of mobilisation of the SM during 2011 can be framed within the different roles that these stations had in the whole process: CR as a loudspeaker of the SM; CR balancing the information agenda; as a communicational space; and CR linking communities.
o CR as a loudspeaker of the SM
A first role of CR identified by participants relates with being a channel of information that comprehensively was dedicated to the SM and its ideas, demands, discourses and activities. In that sense, many defined the role of CR as a “loudspeaker” by which the students’ voice was amplified, along with all the aspects of the movement’s debate. “We transmitted a pro-students discourse in the sense of reporting the insights of their demands, explain the context and reasons of their struggle and amplify that discourse, generating a bridge between the students and the citizens” (O. Rosales, personal communication, April 20, 2012).
Accordingly, CR stations placed their microphones and equipment at the students’ disposal, “the idea was that the students could use the radio, to put the airwaves at the service of them, to tell what they wanted to tell” (N. Gómez, personal communication, April 06, 2012). Following this idea, another important role of CR arises from being a channel of information for the students: to balance out the information agenda produced by the mainstream media.
o CR balancing the information agenda
All CR communicators defined as a key role the production and transmission of contents that provided a different point of view from what mass media would inform about the SM. For CR stations both within and outside the capital, it was important to give space to the analysis of the mobilisation, integrating a diversity of sources. “The local media in San Carlos always took the authorities as a voice, but Radio Itihue gave voice to the students” (S. Muñoz, personal communication, April 21, 2012).
Additionally, they remark that they tried to produce contents that challenged the sensationalist or negative view of the SM within traditional media. Thus, they not only focused on the conflicts and violence, but were interested in capturing positive aspects of the SM, such as their creative demonstrations, the everyday life inside the school occupations and the clear ideas that the students had. Moreover, in local CR stations, their aim was to capture the aspects of the SM within their communities that the national media would not include in their agenda.
“Media tended to show the confrontations amongst the police forces and the kids that were marching, not their demands, the voice of the key players (…) We tried to do it, so the people could have another perspective not only in terms of the national level, but locally, stating that here there are kids that have an elaborated argument, that do not go to the streets without a reason” (S. Feliú, personal communication, April 05, 2012).
This balance perceived by the participants takes relevance for them in terms of recognising their place as a counterweight that is significant for social movements to have a voice, in a concentrated media system that is directly embedded in the political economy that fosters the educational problem. “CR has an important role in a context where mass media sustain the unequal economic model that the students critique” (O. Rosales, personal communication, April 20, 2012).
o CR as a communicational space
Beyond their role as an information channel, CR stations had the role of providing an important communicational space for several processes to happen for the SM in the everyday practice of doing and engaging with CR.
In this matter, CR was a space for students to build and foster their debates of the educational crisis and share proposals and ways of resolving the issue: “We thought that the radio could be a centre where students could agglutinate their work and discussions” (N. Gómez, personal communication, April 06, 2012). For example, transmissions from the occupations were an opportunity to encounter in which the students not only established discussions, but also shared moments of entertainment and daily life aspects within the toma. The same can be said of programmes made by students, in which they included their own topics of interest.
Additionally, CR was a space in which the community could interact and place their views, supportive or not, about the SM. In this sense, CR stations facilitated the ways in which people could get involved, from using their phone lines to setting their studios within reach to both students and the common people.
Furthermore, CR also provided a space for organisation and mobilisation. Some participants recall that the SM brought a vibrant momentum of social participation, under which they motivated their audiences to get involved (S. Feliú; N. Gómez; R. Squella). In the case of La Radioneta, many times their show within the occupations was done after a protest, so the broadcasting was seen for the students as a space for evaluating this event or starting to plan their future actions.
o CR linking communities
Finally, CR stations played the role of using their networks to link the SM to communities at a local, national and international level. In this sense, they understood as necessary to incorporate the dynamics of networks and interfaces into their work within the SM, through which they could place their CR projects into a common and national CR communicational agenda (Martín-Barbero, 2008).
Using these links, reporters from different parts of the country gave their views of what was happening in terms of the SM in their communities, and these were included in the broadcasting of CR stations along the territory, as well as other community media such as Internet newspapers. Taking this into account, Internet was a very useful tool to make these possible.
Moreover, as it was discussed before, the cadena was a positive initiative where all these collective efforts were canalised together in a strong transmission.
“The cadena was an opportunity of showing the local realities with regards to the education crisis and share this nationally (…) we made visible these problems and showed that these were shared in many other regions of the country” (R. González, personal communication, April 13, 2012).
Under this idea, the local view was included in the national agenda and with those shared experiences a sense of identification in terms of the educational problem was built at a broad scale.
• Processes within CR stations
In her conceptualisation of citizens’ media, Rodríguez (2001) argues that when citizens are getting involved in everyday political practices, they are forging their identities and empowering themselves, enacting their citizenship on a day to day basis. Taking this into account, three dimensions have been identified in terms of the processes that have generated for CR stations in the context of the SM: empowerment within CR stations; validation of CR within the SM; and re-articulations within the CR movement.
o Empowerment within CR stations
The majority of CR communicators interviewed expressed a large sense of commitment to their stations everyday actions with regards to the activities of social movements. This committed response to the SM, is seen as an important part of what it means to be a CR station and the communicational projects that they produce; an enactment of a political duty that it is part of their identity.
“Our commitments are with social movements, with the transformation of society and social change. We have to be there, accompanying and being key players of those changes through the communication that we do” (R. Rodríguez, personal communication, April 04, 2012).
In this sense, the task of responding to the SM agenda was a challenge that CR communicators think they successfully accomplished. For some participants, this demanding process brought the chance of proving themselves that CR stations are capable to do new things despite their technical and economic constraints, using their creativity, the value of their human resources and collaboration between stations. Particularly, the effort of putting together a national networked transmission as the cadena, is seen as a great achievement for the CR stations and their collective work, a sign that “it is possible that good productions can emerge from CR” (S. Feliú, personal communication, April 05, 2012).
Furthermore, this process has been seen as a motivation for some stations to keep improving their technical and human capacities, the quality of their content as well as keeping up response to the actions of social movements:
“The radio has forced all of us to improve our capacities (…) It is complex to some of the people, which have not finished school, but they know that if they are going to be on air they have to make themselves understood. So kids have worried of learning more and that is important, it has had a positive impact in our work” (R. González, personal communication, April 13, 2012).
As well, for many of the participants this process of enacting their role as CR stations, relates with taking charge of the need for people to have a voice and circulating the number of social issues that currently do not have a good representation, if any at all, in the mainstream media. A mission that validates CR stations within the media system, regardless of the size of their impact.
“When you are giving voice to people that do not have it in the media, you are circulating a meaning, generating a discourse that puts tension on the hegemonic social narratives. The incidence, the impact, that’s another story” (R. Rodríguez, personal communication, April 04, 2012).
o Validation of CR within the SM
CR communicators expressed that they had a good relationship with the students, as has been discussed earlier, mainly because CR stations provided a space in which the students could discuss the ideas and debates that they were interested in. This involvement with the SM brought the chance for CR “for an interaction with the new generations that have to lead the political changes, which has allowed positioning ourselves in other niches” (R. Puga, personal communication, April 21, 2012).
Especially in CR stations placed outside Santiago, students constantly called the radio or went directly to its studios to provide information of their events, to ask for coverage or to be interviewed. “Many times we did not even have to look for them, they would come by themselves” (S. Feliú, personal communication, April 05, 2012). Some communicators felt that their stations were more recognised and trusted by the students than the local media, being sometimes the only authorised media inside the school occupations or private meetings with authorities (R. González; S. Muñoz).
In line with this, participants state that the students in their involvement within the stations, such as their participation in shows, valued the practice of doing CR. Consequently, students continued to be involved in CR stations even when the effervescence of the mobilisations declined, as well as others started their own media projects after the experience of participating in CR.
“As a station it was good for us to create a space in which people (the students) understood that you can do radio in a collective way, without commercial interests that can respond to the interests of the communities, and that this depends on themselves” (R. Squella, personal communication, April 10, 2012).
Despite this close relation locally, some CR communicators from Santiago recognise that it was easier for them to connect with the students through the use of social media or in instances such as public transmissions (R. Puga; R. Rodríguez). Also, according to some participants in reference to the leaders of the SM, they still seem to prioritize the mainstream media before community media, thus further promotion of CR is necessary within the movement to constitute a strong communicational link.
“I think that still there is no common agenda (with the SM) that one could understand specifically about communication; to confront hegemonic discourses or to define how they commit or get involved in a more systematic, profound manner and with a joint political alliance with community media” (R. Rodríguez, personal communication, April 04, 2012).
In this line, participants acknowledge that while the students used and seemed to value the space within CR, as a movement they still do not understand their importance on the media system, as well as they do not know about their constrained situation. Hence, participants expressed that CR’s own struggles, such as the right to communicate, are not a demand that the SM has considered within its discourse.
Additionally, M. P. Matta (Personal communication, March 28, 2012) states that the students having access to the Internet want to produce web-stream shows, yet sometimes with very poor audio quality and not thinking about the importance of communicating with good technical conditions to get their messages out. For her, this aspect is central to the practice of CR:
“You cannot do CR without understanding the relevance of the audio dimension, and social movements many times want to do radio through the Internet, but they do not know the function of each of the elements of what it means to do radio, what it means to work with the audio spectrum”.
o Re-articulations within the CR movement
For many CR communicators their committed participation in the context of the SM has been an enactment of their own battles for a democratic media system that recognises
these communicational experiences. “Today our exercise on the right to communicate and freedom of expression is called Radio Konciencia, 107.7 in the local radio-spectrum of Rosario” (R. González, personal communication, April 13, 2012).
While a connection between CR stations and national and international networks already existed, participants recognise that the SM has provided the context to stronger canalise these collective efforts and set a preliminary stage of the re-articulation of the CR movement, in terms of sharing contents and nurture their practice in a collaborative way (M.P. Matta; S. Feliú; R. Rodríguez).
In this sense, the cadena has been seen as an enriching exercise for CR stations to start building shared meanings, stating that this experience was positive in providing information on what was happening in other stations. Furthermore, the cadena has been taken as a model for a group of CR stations in the Valparaíso area, including Radio Placeres and La Radioneta, to start reinforcing the stations within the region. They recently replicated this networked transmission with regards to education, and other social events such as the World Water Day and the International Women’s Day. Additionally, they have started to support each other in technical and content production matters through capacity building sessions (N. Gómez; R, Squella).
While CR communicators value this organisation of CR in terms of joint contents, they state the need to move these efforts towards a political agenda for the CR movement to include their own demands within social movements, something that did not happen within the SM. In this matter, rapprochements started at the end of 2011 between CR activists and social actors from the SM and other civil society organisations, to start building a platform for the right to communicate: “We need that people understand how social change and the right to communicate are so interconnected. It is necessary to have new actors that could embrace this idea and support this process that Chile requires so urgently” (M.P. Matta, personal communication, March 28, 2012).
Besides the political negotiation that is still pending, participants think that it is necessary to also keep conducting a work of education and conscientization within communities, audiences and even within CR stations, as well as socialising the conflicts and constraints of CR in Chile’s media system. Under this idea, CR communicators feel that people need to be aware that “the issue of communication crosses society, just as the educational problem” (S. Feliú, personal communication, April 05, 2012).
According to participants, both levels of mobilisation need to co-exist. However, the reinforcement of a sense of militancy is also necessary within CR stations and communicators towards the democratisation of the media system, which started to happen in some CR stations in the context of the SM (R. Rodríguez), but others still have weak discourses and practices (R. Puga).
V. DISCUSSION
As results indicate, CR stations responded with diverse and creative strategies to the demanding process of mobilisation that the students had during 2011, setting their technical equipment and capacities at the service of the students, committing to the movement’s cause.
Firstly, they were an important channel of information, constituting a counter-sphere that included a diversity of voices and contents, expanding the “range of information, reflection and exchange”, from what mainstream media would have covered (Downing, 2001, p.44). Accordingly, when it comes to a media scheme that is so related with the neoliberal system that sustains the educational crisis, CR stations represent a vibrant alternative for the SM to expand their demands and objectives with an independent view (Rodríguez, 2009). However, it is important to recognise that it is not possible to capture in this study through which contents CR stations provided a balance in the information agenda, or how mainstream media exactly covered and portrayed the SM.
Moreover, it seems that this enriching experience within the SM has meant for CR stations a statement of the role that they have and can play in civil society and the media system. It has been an enactment of their communicational projects, which they not only have reinforced within their stations, but also within the student community with which they got involved. In their connection with the SM, CR stations were not only an instrument to diffuse messages, but also a communicational space to catalyse other important processes for the students (Carpentier et al. 2003), such as to debate their issues and ideas, organise and evaluate their steps, as well as to develop their own shows and value the practice of CR.
Nevertheless, a contradiction lies between CR and the SM relationship. While the students recognised, especially at the local level, CR as a medium and space in which to produce and spread their ideas, as a movement they still do not capture in their cause CR stations’ own struggles. Furthermore, the leaders of the SM, according to some CR communicators, still seem to give preference to mainstream media in order to have public impact.
Another element that relates with this contradictory relationship is that the students’ use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and social media seems to influence their connection with CR stations. Particularly, the relationship with students through social media was facilitated for CR stations located in the capital. Social movements have seen ICTs as a useful tool for mobilisation and means of communication (Della Porta & Diani, 2006). A clear example of this is the 2006 Chilean SM, the predecessor of the current SM, which widely used mobile phones, the Internet and personal blogs, to inform and organise, as well as build identity as a movement (Valderrama, 2010). Accordingly, this raises the question of how having access to these tools shapes the students’ perceptions and use of CR; an issue that it is not possible to unfold in the present study.
Consequently, while both CR stations and the students worked together and got involved towards the promotion of social change, in light of these results the relationship between CR and the SM cannot be taken for granted as an uncontested relation. In this sense, CR stations are still looking for shaping and validating their collective identity within the SM, which seems to be valuing these stations, as like with any other media, with a strategic view to spread their own political end (Carroll & Hackett, 2006). One may wonder if the use of ICTs and social media that have facilitated personalised channels of communication for social movements, at the same time has conditioned that these movements do not see the transformation of media into a more democratic system as a priority for their demands. Furthermore, it is important to question how social movements today having access to these technological tools are understanding communication and its practice, and in this sense what place has CR within that comprehension. Thus it seems necessary for CR stations to conduct efforts to foster within social movements a view beyond CR as a means, towards a common agenda that considers communication also as an end; and hence as an essential human right that enables others, including the right to education. In this line, participants express that social movements need urgently to understand how significant the democratisation of communications for them and society is and the role that community media such as CR play in this. In this matter, results show that the CR movement is in an initial stage of re- articulation, as well as of negotiations with actors from the SM and other sectors. In parallel, it is possible to observe in this process that CR stations have validated its work within themselves and also their communities. Yet, under this preliminary scenario, outcomes from these efforts are yet to be observed and analysed.
Finally, it is interesting how the social context of mobilisation brought by the 2011 SM has enabled that at least symbolically CR stations have challenged the complex scenario in which the state has diminished this sector with unfavourable legislation. It is not yet possible to state in this study if this enactment of their role within the Chilean media system will be translated into real changes for the CR situation, but their actions within the students’ mobilisation, testing themselves, building collective efforts and reinforcing their communicational projects, have proved to them at this stage that they play a part in the mediasphere in this context of social change.
Taking this into account, the Cadena represented an act of resistance for CR, not only in legal terms, as CR stations are not allowed to make networked national transmissions (only commercial radios can), but to state their capacity as a movement to circulate counter-discourses and meanings at a local, national and even international level; in other words, to express “dissent in the realm of the symbolic” (Rodríguez, 2001, p. 150).
VI. CONCLUSION
Under the political and economic conditions of the Chilean neoliberal system, for community media such as CR stations, to reclaim the public sphere has been a long and unfinished challenge (Bresnahan, 2009). Moreover, the current legislation, while now recognises the existence of these stations with the label of “community” in them, still does not create an enabling legal frame for their full development within the media system. Additionally, the ongoing financial constraints add even more difficulties to CR stations (M.P. Matta, personal communication, March 28, 2012).
However, as this study has revealed, the social and political circumstances brought by the 2011 SM has provided a required momentum for Chilean CR to challenge this complex scenario and enact their role as key agents in the context of social mobilisation. Not only CR stations accompanied the SM as an active loudspeaker of their demands, providing alternative views and taking their studios to the streets and occupations, but also provided the students a space for discussion, organisation and production of their own contents and shows. Moreover, the collective work between stations allowed the link between local realities and national ones regarding the educational conflict, and even enabled a connection with international networks.
The active involvement of CR stations in the SM, also fostered enriching processes within these, as well as between stations. In this sense, a process of re-articulation of the CR movement started in terms of a joint production of contents to respond to the SM activity, and with this, new challenges for them to face. Particularly, it is still necessary for CR to keep establishing common agendas and recovering a sense of militancy towards their own struggles as a movement. At the same time, CR communicators expressed the need that their demands, such as the right the communicate, should be recognised as part of the SM cause, a political activism that has already started with some negotiations of CR activists with leaders from the SM and other civil society actors.
As social change processes develop in time, this study has only captured an initial stage of CR, which is nonetheless significant. CR stations have responded to their historical role at the crossroads of social movements, but are looking for new paths for their situation as a movement in the renewed political climate of the country, and trying to set a niche for themselves within the challenging and active nature of the mobilised students. As one participant, R. Squella portrayed it: “this has been like a workout for us”
(Personal communication, April 10, 2012).
In this sense, there is much to be seen with regards to CR in Chile, as the processes within the stations, between them, and in relation with social movements, such as the SM will continue to develop. Especially, as in the time of writing, the students have not stopped their mobilisations, reactivating their street demonstrations in March and announcing that during 2012 their focus will be on quality, funding, access and democratisation of the educational system (UPI, 2012). Also, other social movements have emerged in other parts of the country. Accordingly, further research in the matter is suggested, to capture in which way CR would evolve in their relationship with these social contexts, and considering the hindering CR legislation that would come into effect by 2014.
Under this idea, future research should involve a bigger sample, which should consider participants from CR stations both at the local level and in the capital, as the present study showed that there are particularities within these. Besides, fieldwork that involves participant observation within CR stations, focus groups and analysis of CR content is suggested. Likewise, it would be interesting to fully capture how CR content provides a balance in the information agenda, to conduct a content analysis of Chilean mainstream media coverage of the SM, how they portray the movement, and establish comparisons with results of CR content analysis.
To conclude, it is significant to study in the future not only the producers of CR, but the audiences with whom they are engaging. In the case of CR stations, they involved actively with the students and perceived that they provided a plural communication space for them, while at the same time the students still rely strongly on the use of social media and ICTs. Moreover, students still seem to not fully understand the role that CR stations play in the media system. Consequently, research is required on the use and perceptions of use of CR stations by the students, to find out how they relate with and in which ways they value these particular and significant communication projects.
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End Notes
i. The Concert of Parties for Democracy is a coalition of centre-left political parties that won the first democratic elections after Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in 1989 and ruled Chile during its transition to democracy until 2010.
ii. Term used in Chile to identify radical protesters which are hooded, also covering their faces with bandanas.
iii. The Law will not go into effect until 2014, as it demands that all current stations with a “limited range” licence have to subscribe under the category of “community stations”. To do this they have to prove being a not for profit organisation. The deadline to complete the procedure was February 2012, but as a great amount of stations have not subscribed yet, it was extended until November. Then, the Secretariat of Communications will decide which stations will get a license, a process that could take another six or ten months (Jarroud, 2012).
iv. The term “pingüinos”, in English “penguins”, is an analogy to the uniform worn by students in public primary and secondary education, the colours of which are similar to the penguins “attire”.
v. Spanish word for “occupation”.
vi. In English “cadena” means “chain”. The term is used in broadcasting referring to a national networked simultaneous transmission of radio or television stations in terms of a specific issue or event. In Chile, by law only the commercial radios can transmit in “cadena”.
vii. The name of the networked transmission was taken from the 1800 million USD required to finance the education of 300.000 university students paying an annual fee of three million Chilean pesos (6000 USD approx.).
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