Assessing Indigenous Community Radio as Two-Way Communications Infrastructure: Communal Engagement and Political Mobilization in Ecuador
Abstract
:1. Introduction
1.1. A Brief Political Overview of Indigenous Peoples in Ecuador
1.2. Indigenous Radio as Two-Way Communications Infrastructure
1.3. Analytical Framework for Assessing Indigenous Community Radio Impact
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Study Site and Context
2.2. Subjects and Sampling
2.3. Instruments and Procedures
2.4. Data Analysis
3. Results
3.1. Radio as a Tool for Information and Mobilization
“This Yukutais river has a culture that every five years makes landslides … it’s [a] natural [occurrence] that we can [attribute to the] Pachamama … in that sense, the radio extension is very important to be able to inform the authorities.” (a 26-year-old woman from Yukutais).
“There was a big landslide here. Sure, they recorded [it], but it was published and nothing happened … there was a lot of destruction … for this reason, the means of communication [the radio] is very important.” (a 23-year-old man from Yukutais).
“During this strike, especially the government press, they never told the truth … what was happening in the pueblo was never heard.” (a 23-year-old man from Yukutais).
“Community communication is the only communication that was telling the reality of the pueblo.“ (a 32-year-old man from Unión Base).
“From there it has also been very important, because with it we have recently undergone the national strike. Of course, then with this [radio] we were able to know the reality that was happening, something that was not listened to with the national media—they lied about false things.” (a 32-year-old woman from Unión Base).
“That’s why the Indigenous peoples have already stood up. Everyone communicated and everything so that the marches come out … Why? To be well prepared, to be well put together.” (a 65-year-old woman from Unión Base).
“Poor people inside [the forest] don’t have a phone. By means of radio you can listen to those who have a radio. They then tune in and come to know that there is a meeting, there is a problem … [or if] there is education.” (a 60-year-old man from Unión Base).
“Be uniting. Helping all communities so they can communicate. Sometimes some [other communities] don’t have a way to communicate and sometimes they don’t, they can’t go out to a march or sometimes to an assembly meeting.” (a 24-year-old man from Unión Base).
“Now that you are tuning the radio so that the bases [can] listen too. This is about training, training each nationality.” (a 60-year-old man from Unión Base).
“Our leaders take steps to train young people, and by not having information or access to information, we are blind to everything … so here the people can say … motivate the young.” (a man from Yukutais, age unspecified).
“[Un pueblo] refers to everyone fighting for a good, because at that moment when they have to fight for a brother, we are not a nationality, we are not a community, but we are a pueblo. Because I think that the community is based on this, on the camaraderie and the help that is given to the brother.” (a 21-year-old Unión Base woman)
“We are all united, of the indigenous nationality. This strike was … well, everything is how we are united and we should all die [united] like this. And as the common national and indigenous [people] that we are, to be together and nothing [can cause us] to separate. [We are] all the same.” (a 58-year-old man from Yukutais)
“[Interview: Does this always happen?] When it bothers us, when they rob us, when they get in our way, when they come, there we are gathered, we are there. … It’s like, I mean, there’s a wasp … but you hit [it], you’re like this. *swatting motion* You go a centimeter, you don’t hit it, it doesn’t do anything to you, it doesn’t do anything. But touch it, cover it up a little bit. It bothers you, it itches, they pile up, they are from one and there are about 100, 200. They come and run. It’s tiny, but they make you run.” (a 60-year-old man from Unión Base).
“It is what we most want to communicate between nationalities of others, from other places, from other provinces.” (a 55-year-old man from Yukutais).
“To spread the word about what we are doing within the territory about territorial defense … it would be good to share with other nationalities in another part of our country, since we also [have] had some meetings [with them].” (a 37-year-old man from Unión Base).
“As we are Indigenous, we can communicate with mestizo people, as it could be said that they [would] know more about our culture or we [could] also know about them. And it would be like adapting, or going to know beyond what you can see, right?” (a 21-year-old woman from Unión Base).
“We, with our knowledge and with the territory and with many other things, with wisdom, can contribute to the world, because the world needs that.” (a 32-year-old man from Unión Base).
3.2. Radio as Community Infrastructure—Family, Health, and Culture
“It would be good to be able to communicate with family members who are far away. We have some relatives who are far away, [so] to be able to be more in contact with them, to know what is happening, how they are, and [to] spend more [time] peacefully communicating with them [would be good.].” (a 60-year-old man from Unión Base).
“My community, the Shuar Yukutais Center is located in a very distant place. I would very much like to be able to communicate with my family, with my families who are in other places … to share my daily events.” (an 18-year-old woman from Yukutais).
“Some are sick inside the forest, that’s why they communicate [using the HF radio at La Voz]. … They ask for help so that they can leave and get to the city to go to the hospital.” (a 65-year-old woman from Unión Base).
“I would like to communicate to be able to help … direct [treatment] or give [them] an idea so that they can support themselves with natural medicines, because there are no clinics there. It is very, very far away in the Kichwa territories.” (a 54-year-old woman from Unión Base).
“The youth is already losing a part [of our culture] and it would be important to strengthen it in some way with some [radio] program.” (a man from Yukutais, age unspecified).
“It helps to communicate between the Indigenous brothers … they help to strengthen our culture and worldview. Because many of the young people who live in the city are no longer interested in culture.” (a 26-year-old man from Unión Base)
“[I would like to communicate] as a plurinational. Sharing without selfishness and much more [allows you to reach] the children, transmit to [that] generation so that they grow up informed.” (a 26-year-old woman from Yukutais).
“We can understand a little bit about the reality of each community, of each nationality … to be able to integrate people, women, children, young people, even the elderly … they are not going to come to you … we must go and look for them and work with them. If we have to sit down to talk at three [in the morning], we have to do it.” (a 32-year-old man, working as radio staff in Unión Base).
“Young people who have been in the process walking jointly with CONFENIAE … they find themselves forming part of the radio. But nevertheless, that is a fight that is for all parties. The process is open to all nationalities. For all young professionals or young people who want to be part of it … Through this … of these media. Now it is already being generated, that sense of belonging in our roots.” (a 36-year-old woman from Unión Base).
“I think it is very feasible that the work they are doing [at the radio]. I mean, we identify ourselves with this.” (a 33-year-old woman from Unión Base).
4. Discussion and Conclusions
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
1. | This is not always the case. See Muratorio, 1981; Uzendoski, 2018; O’Connor, 2006. |
2. | Principles among these are the International Labor Organization’s Convention #169 and the 2007 U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. |
3. | We draw on Smith-Morris’ 2020 perspective on Indigenous communalism as requiring 4 key elements. First is belonging, the sense of being part of a unique, internally sovereign community with a shared history of colonization, traditional lands, and internationally recognized rights of autonomy, continuity, and cultural life. Second is the idea of generation—to create, raise, and enculturate members of their community. Third is representation, including both authoritative and non-authoritative, alienable and inalienable representations of the group, its members (and their bodies), and community knowledge. And fourth is hybridity, the universal human capacity to blend contradictory virtues into a meaningful but complex self-identity. |
4. | A codebook was established collaboratively by all authors. Two coders worked independently over three complete narratives and discussed to consensus until an inter-rater reliability score of 0.74 was achieved. Final coding of the entire dataset was performed by Simpson with spot checks and discussion thereafter by Smith-Morris at approximately every seventh interview. |
5. | The mission of La Voz de la CONFENIAE reads as follows: “Ser un medio de comunicación comunitario que ofrece espacios para difundir, socializar y promocionar la realidad de las comunidades, organizaciones y territorios indígenas de la región amazónica del Ecuador para dar a conocer con veracidad la actualidad noticiosa de las mismas y canalizar sus necesidades y demandas hacia instituciones, autoridades y diversas entidades a través de programas diversos, incluyentes e interculturales para que desde sus propias voces expresen sus demandas”. |
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Research Instruments |
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Survey Questions |
1. Regularly listening to CONFENIAE INFORMS on the radio gives me important news on the world around me. |
2. The content of the programs CONFENIAE INFORMS and ALLÍ PUNCHA AMAZONIA are easy to utilize in my daily affairs. |
3. The content in the programs CONFENIAE INFORMS and ALLÍ PUNCHA AMAZONIA is difficult to understand. |
4. I have not learned any new safety measures or community-building ideas from either CONFENIAE INFORMS or ALLÍ PUNCHA AMAZONIA. |
5. The program ALLÍ PUNCHA AMAZONIA can be easily used by nonliterate listeners. |
6. Radio broadcasts in the form of CONFENIAE INFORMS are useful only for elite or wealthy community members. |
7. A listener’s religion may influence listening to CONFENIAE INFORMS or ALLÍ PUNCHA AMAZONIA. |
8. A listener’s social and economic status in the community determines whether they listen to CONFENIAE INFORMS or ALLÍ PUNCHA AMAZONIA. |
9. Information in CONFENIAE INFORMS and ALLÍ PUNCHA AMAZONIA motivates my listening to the program. |
10. Musical sections of CONFENIAE INFORMS and ALLÍ PUNCHA AMAZONIA make the program less useful. |
11. A community member is easily convinced to help their community by listening to CONFENIAE INFORMS and ALLÍ PUNCHA AMAZONIA. |
12. To obtain relevant information from CONFENIAE INFORMS and ALLÍ PUNCHA AMAZONIA is easier and more affordable than other sources. |
13. The programs CONFENIAE INFORMA and ALLÍ PUNCHA AMAZONIA have social and cultural relevance to me. |
14. The programs CONFENIAE INFORMA and ALLÍ PUNCHA AMAZONIA were important sources of information during the health crisis of COVID-19. |
Interview Prompts |
Are there any other people or groups (outside of this area/immediate neighborhood) you would like to connect with? If so, why would you like to connect to them? How could the radio help you connect? |
What would it mean to connect with people beyond your family or the people in your home? What does this sense of connection mean to you? |
Did you hear the news about the recent strike? Many indigenous leaders were active during and after the strike. Do you feel well represented by or connected to your leaders? |
What topics or programs would you like to hear on the radio? Are there other things the radio can do to support this community? |
Survey Sample (n = 92) | Interview Sample (n = 30) | ||
---|---|---|---|
Age | 18–25 | 22% | 8 |
26–30 | 18% | 3 | |
31–35 | 12% | 4 | |
36–40 | 14% | 3 | |
41–45 | 12% | 0 | |
46–50 | 11% | 1 | |
51–55 | 5% | 5 | |
56–60 | 2% | 2 | |
61+ | 3% | 3 | |
Unknown | 0 | 1 | |
Gender | Female | 50% | 15 |
Male | 50% | 15 | |
Other | 0% | 1 | |
Cell Phone | Yes | 33% | 23 |
Smart phone | 93% | 15 | |
Home internet yes | 89% | 21 | |
Nationality | Achuar | 4% | not collected |
Kichwa Amazonica | 73% | not collected | |
Secoya | 4% | not collected | |
Shiwiar | 4% | not collected | |
Shuar | 13% | not collected | |
Waorani | 3% | not collected | |
Kichwa de Sierra | 1% | not collected | |
Live with | Alone | 11% | not collected |
Non-family roommate | 3% | not collected | |
Spouse + children | 60% | not collected | |
Parents and/or extended family | 26% | not collected |
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© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Share and Cite
Tapia, A.; Simpson, N.; Smith-Morris, C. Assessing Indigenous Community Radio as Two-Way Communications Infrastructure: Communal Engagement and Political Mobilization in Ecuador. Societies 2024, 14, 156. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc14080156
Tapia A, Simpson N, Smith-Morris C. Assessing Indigenous Community Radio as Two-Way Communications Infrastructure: Communal Engagement and Political Mobilization in Ecuador. Societies. 2024; 14(8):156. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc14080156
Chicago/Turabian StyleTapia, Andrés, Nicholas Simpson, and Carolyn Smith-Morris. 2024. "Assessing Indigenous Community Radio as Two-Way Communications Infrastructure: Communal Engagement and Political Mobilization in Ecuador" Societies 14, no. 8: 156. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc14080156