"The spread of mobile telephones in Africa has enabled a broad range of citizens to join live conversations on call-in radio shows. Both African governments and foreign aid agencies claim that broadcasting such debates can raise awareness, amplify the voices of the poor, and facilitate development a ... nd better governance; they now fund a large share of interactive shows in some countries. Critics of such participatory initiatives typically accept that they have powerful effects but worry that debates among citizens are deployed as a technology of “governmentality”, producing forms of popular subjectivity compatible with elitist economic systems and technocratic political regimes. This article argues that instrumentalising political debate is harder than either side assumes, and that the consequences of these shows are mainly unintended. It develops an in-depth case of a Zambian callin radio programme, “Let’s Be Responsible Citizens”, emphasising the ability of the show’s audience, and its host, to subvert the programme’s surveillance and governmentality agenda, and to insist that the key responsibilities of citizens are to criticise, rather than adapt to, policies and systems of governance that do not meet their needs." (Abstract) more

"This working paper considers in detail how the hosts of and listeners to one call-in radio programme in Zambia were influenced by, resisted and co-opted the agendas of the sponsor that paid for its production. It develops a detailed case-study covering fifteen episodes of, ‘Let’s Be Responsible ... Citizens’, broadcast on Phoenix FM in Lusaka in late 2011 and right through 2012. It shows how the original aspirations of the show’s sponsor, Lusaka City Council, can be understood in terms of nurturing popular subjectivities that might enable the state to impose market solutions to the provision of social goods. The Council hoped that this might in turn have enabled them to survey and bring a particular kind of order to the unruly spaces of the capital city. The Council also aimed to evangelise a model of city governance that shifts power away from the dense networks of representative political structures that exist in the city towards consensus-oriented, technocratic modes of assessing social needs and distributing resources. However, the programme struggled to attract audience participation in episodes framed in these ways and, in accepting that they needed to bring the show closer to the concerns of the listeners, the Council enabled the host and callers to ‘Let’s Be Responsible Citizens’ to subvert the show’s original intentions. Negotiations over the show’s agenda provide a window on how debates about political accountability, legitimate authority and who has the responsibility to meet social needs play out in increasingly media-saturated societies." (Abstract) more

"This working paper provides a context for the assessment of hopes that there might be a transformation in political accountability in Africa as a result of previously powerless and voiceless populations having their agendas strengthened via interactive media. It describes the ways in which many rad ... io programmes, on which the voices of audience members are heard live on air, are brought into being through the ‘sponsorship’ of groups that already have significant power and voice. These include political parties, foreign aid donors, and local and international Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs), all of which have incentives to use interactive media as a tool of evangelism – to secure public engagement with, and endorsements for, their preferred visions. Using the case of Zambia, it emphasises the negotiating strategies that journalists and station owners deploy to secure resources while maintaining space to allow hosts and audience members, rather than solely sponsors, to shape the agenda of on-air discussions." (Abstract) more

"This background paper provides an overview of the history and context of interactive media and public opinion in Zambia. It is prepared as part of Politics and Interactive Media in Africa (PiMA) - a collaborative study involving the University of Cambridge, University of Nairobi and University of Z ... ambia. The main objectives of the PiMA project are: (a) to explore the extent to which media interactivity is widening (and deepening) political participation in Africa; (b) to investigate how public opinion is collected and represented by African media and for what (and whose) purposes; and (c) to establish the extent to which public opinion expressed via interactive media affects accountability mechanisms and policy-makers’ behaviour. The primary purpose of this background paper is to provide a political and policy context to the Zambian case study, and introduce the history and context of interactive media in Zambia. The paper is organised into four sections. The first section provides a brief history to the evolution of broadcast media in Zambia. The second section outlines the legal and policy context of broadcasting in Zambia. The third section discusses the state of interactive media in Zambia and its attendant challenges. The fourth section examines the state of public opinion formation through media platforms." (Introduction, page 4) more

"To better understand who participates in media-driven public discussion and opinion-making, this working paper presents the results of a randomised household survey implemented in four constituencies in Kenya and Zambia, one urban and one rural constituency in each country. The survey was conducted ... as part of Politics and Interactive Media in Africa (PiMA), a collaborative research project analysing the nature and political implications of expressions of public opinion in broadcast media in Kenya and Zambia, via new information and communication technologies (ICT) such as mobile phones. This paper presents descriptive survey results that are the basis of a deeper comparative analysis of drivers of listenership and participation in interactive broadcast media shows, also published in the PiMA Working Paper series. Nevertheless, a few results are highlighted here. The survey reveals that level of radio listenership of interactive shows in the two Kenyan constituencies is high, particularly in Kenya, ranging between 80-90%, whereas in Zambia listenership levels range between 40-60%, contrasting with listenership to radio shows generally (70-85%). Radio listeners tend to listen to all types of shows, from politics and development shows to social/cultural and music/entertainment shows. Yet country differences in interactive show listenership are not reflected in the levels of participation in interactive radio shows. Both in Kenya and in Zambia, roughly 20% of the total population have participated at one time or another in interactive shows. However, contrasting with listenership, participation tends to be more segmented across types of shows. Rural and urban constituencies show an inverse pattern of participation in Kenya and Zambia, with higher levels of participation in the urban sample from Zambia (21% versus 12% in the rural), and the rural sample from Kenya (21% versus 19% in the urban). Across the four sites, male and more educated listeners are more likely to engage interactive shows. Three to four times more men engage in interactive shows than women. Of the women who participate in interactive shows, they tend to be younger, single, more educated and wealthier compared with those who do not participate. Calling in to the studio is the most frequent form of engagement in radio shows, especially in rural areas. SMS is more popular in urban constituencies, particularly in Kenya. Only 10% of those who have participated in interactive media shows have ever used social media to communicate with stations. Across all sites, the main barriers to participation identified are cost and expectations of not getting through." (Abstract and introduction, page 4) more