Following the data collection methods described above, for the quantitative section of the research, I ended up with 329 questionnaires for analysis, distributed as follows: 114 questionnaires from Kangema FM, 108 questionnaires from Mugambo FM, and 107 questionnaires from Koch FM. The quantitative data was analysed on MS Excel.
My qualitative methods generated nine group interviews, that is, three per station, and 32 individual interviews.37 All the interviews, both group and individual (except two where the interviewees declined to be recorded), were audio recorded and then transcribed in full or in summary. For the two interviews that were not audio recorded, detailed notes were taken by hand during the interview and then transferred into MS Word. Interviews conducted in languages other than English were translated into English during transcription. All the interviews were then coded for themes both manually and on MaxQDA, a qualitative data analysis programme.
3.7 Conclusion
I opted to integrate both quantitative and qualitative methods as detailed above because they produce a wealth of detailed data, and offer the possibility of triangulation, which “combines several analytical perspectives on the same empirical context” (Jensen, 2002/2009, p. 55).38 I made use of a case study approach because of the possibility that it provides to go in-depth into phenomena using a variety of methods. This was especially in view of the research objectives, which aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of Kenyan community radio and the audiences and other actors around it. For these, a purely quantitative or purely qualitative method would not have sufficed. For the qualitative section I did three surveys, one in the area surrounding each station, and for the qualitative aspect, engaged in in-depth individual interviews with station personnel and focus group interviews with community members at each station. As Patton elaborates, there is no rule of thumb telling a researcher precisely how to focus a study.
“The decision depends on purpose, available resources, available time, and interests of those involved….it is not a choice between good and bad, but one among alternatives, all of which have merit (Patton 1990, 166)”. Thus, in view of available resources, my research questions, and the constraints encountered in the course of fieldwork, I proceeded to gather data as has been explained in this chapter.
37 See Field Data List in Appendix
38 2009 reprint of Mass Communication Research Methods anthology
With the described research design in mind, the next chapter delves into the results of first objective: the ideological aims under which Kenyan community media function. It draws on results of the documentary review and the in-depth interviews with legislators, station management and funding organisations to discuss the legislation under which community media operates and identify actors in the sector. This lays the framework for grasping the organisational structures and priorities at each of the three stations.
4 DISCOURSES AND ACTORS IN THE KENYAN COMMUNITY RADIO SECTOR
4.1 Introduction
In a continually globalising world, global discourses and technologies circulate, creating dynamic and hybrid mediascapes. However, it is not only global discourses that have an impact on mediascapes; rather, the global is appropriated at the local level, creating its own unique, context-specific impact. Specifically in the field of community media, there are discourses at the international level linked to ideas such as democracy, freedom to communicate, technology for development, and good governance. At the local level, the Kenyan media has since the post-independence era been conceptualised as a development partner of the state. While this idea has been somewhat phased out with the liberalized media landscape since the 2000s, traces of it still remain. These local and global ideas find tangible form in arenas such as policy making at the national level, and the management and operations of community stations at the local level. For instance, participation is a key concept when it comes to community media globally39, and Kenyan community media operate under the requirement of participation as one of their defining features. However, exactly what participation entails for each station varies, depending on contextual factors at each station.
The aim of this chapter is to explore these local-global entanglements by seeking to answer the questions: what ideas about community radio functions are circulating in the Kenyan community radio sector? How are these reflected in broadcast legislation? How are these ideas appropriated and implemented in station management structures? How are communities participating in station management? To address these issues, the chapter is divided into three thematic sections. First, I focus on the broadcast legislation around community radio in Kenya.
In outlining the evolution of the legislation over the years, I link it to shifts in thinking about the broadcast sector’s role and the regulators’ role. The implications of the legislation are then discussed in terms of their impact on the community media field, namely, what the legislation portends for potential participants in the community broadcast arena. In the next section of the chapter, I describe other players in the community media sector, specifically funding organisations, training organisations and advocacy organisations. My focus is on the organisations specifically involved with the three stations studied. I outline their contributions to ideas of what roles community broadcasters should perform, and how they seek to implement
39 See 2.4.1 for discussion on participation in community media
these ideas at the radio stations. In the final section of the chapter, I outline how the funding options laid out in the legislation impact on community station organisational structures. I describe the organisational structures of three community stations in detail and analyse the various forms of community participation in their management. Through this description and analysis, I seek to show how the stations’ organisational structures exhibit traces of the various local and global discourses on the roles of community radio.