“While technology shapes the future, it is people who shape technology and decide what it can be used for.” The late UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Dialogue, tolerance and peace as espoused by the people will shape the transformational nature of radio.
Manzvire Community hall in Chipinge District will host Vemuganga Community Radio as it celebrate World Radio Day under the theme; DIALOGUE, TOLERANCE AND PEACE. Radio provides an opportunity for communities to engage in dialogue on various developmental issues that affect their lives, thereby shaping the developmental discourse towards their needs. It is a conduit through which community members engage in debate on certain cultural practices and identify ways of improving areas they feel could be retrogressive or a violation of the rights of some sections of the community.
However, intolerance and suppression of community voice has become a problem of great community concern because of its socio - economic and political consequences. Intolerance in local communities is being played out as part of a deliberate strategy to demoralize communities and destroy their social structures and identity, whilst radio enhances their social identity.
Radio is a key factor for opening up dialogue and promotes tolerance and peace in communities like Manzvire. Dialogue that is premised on promoting tolerance and peace will enhance Chipinge district’s desire to have its concerns and context being captured through a mechanized institution. Genuine dialogue through radio not only applies to a community’s right to express an opinion but it also gives the individual a right to access to information. Thus, radio should not be seen violating the public’s right to receive and impart information and the constitutional right of freedom of expression. Local communities need a space for dialoguing and in turn promote tolerance and peace.
Radio is a very important social institution that operates within and is informed by the broader social agenda. It becomes critical that people are given an opportunity through dialogue to allow communities to contribute on “how the production of knowledge constructs social identities.” Radio is medium that involve the people in decision-making and participation processes, stimulate public debate, promote civic rights and help held authorities accountable towards the citizens. It then becomes imperative that the use of radio to amplify community voices result in dialogue and tolerance being linked with respect, equality and liberty.
With this year’s theme it is clear that radio is a prerequisite for social change as it allows communities to engage with and own the processes that will make their voices heard and establish horizontal dialogues with decision makers and community leaders
Vemuganga Community Radio is a local initiative that seeks to promote socio - economic development and to help the priorities and information needs of Chipinge district. It endeavor to give the community opportunities that are unavailable in other media to be directly involved in decision making and address their contribution to issues of accountability, equity and civil rights; ensure the full and effective participation of women. Vemuganga Community Radio is a natural fit in participatory models of development that stress the importance of including all stakeholders in determining both “the question” and “the answer.”
Vemuganga Community Radio is celebrating this year’s World Radio Day with a view to achieve social change in our communities.
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