Project:

The Use of Radio by

Ethnic Minorities in Mexico

This project examines the social value of participatory radio and the possibilities and constraints that participatory stations hold for improving the living conditions and the sense of self-esteem of the poor in Mexico. The book provides an ethnographic account of the social uses of radio created by several Mexican ethnic minorities by examining the matrix of interactions between a government-sponsored participatory radio network and its indigenous audiences.

Vargas specifically emphasizes how and why the politics of race, ethnicity, class, and gender shape the extent and quality of people's participation in development efforts. Through an investigation of two Tojolabal Maya communities in Chiapas, Vargas reveals the conflicts and challenging contradictions typical of many participatory media projects. She argues that despite the rampant racism against indigenous peoples prevalent in the radio stations, groups like the Tojolabal Maya have found creative ways to make the best of the communication resources that this participatory project has made available to them.

Publications:

Social Uses and Radio Practices: The Use of Radio by Ethnic Minorities in Mexico (Westview Press, 1995).

Table of Contents from Barnes & Noble at barnesandnoble.com

A summary of this book from www.comminit.com

Reviews

By L. Barr (1996). Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 72(4), 978-979;

by M. Bullen (1998) Bulletin of Latin American Research 16(2), 230;

by R. Cathcart (1996), Choice 33(5), 782

and by R. Lawless (2000), Journal of Third World Studies 17(1), 274-6.

Essays:

El racismo y los usos sociales en la "comunicación para el desarrollo."

Informal Telecommunications in Latin America: The Radio Broadcasting of Messages from and to the Audience

In a broader sense, informal telecommunications would encompass all kinds of informational tele-exchanges not reflected in the official statistics. In Latin America--as in much of the Third World--these communicative transactions have been primarily effected via the radio broadcasting of avisos and its complex interconnection with other media. In this chapter I have attempted to cast light on the larger social implications of this use of radio for the communicative environment of Third World settings, and, especially, for those people who tend to be even more isolated, like women and ethnic minorities. I have argued that the radio broadcasting of messages from and to the audience can be paralleled to some of the micro practices of developing countries' informal economy and that, just like the informal sector of the economy, informal telecommunications are not a marginal phenomena: They constitute a major component of Third World communications. If my argument holds, conventional ways of estimating Third World communications should be reevaluated and should account for the informal telecommunication practices taking place in these regions. Because the economically disadvantaged participate little in other media, the airing of avisos entails far-reaching consequences for development efforts. Like the INI network, numerous radio-based development projects in Latin America--even many of those which still insist in the use of radio for top-down transmission of information--have facilitated horizontal communication among their intended beneficiaries. And this has been, perhaps, one of radio's major contributions to development in Latin America: to be a facilitator in the emergence of informal telecommunications.

Further information

If you are looking for further information on INI's radio, you may see:

The most comprehensive book on INI's radio is Apuntes para una Radio Indigenista en Mexico, by Ines Cornejo.
See a review of this book at www.felafacs.org

Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies 5(2)

Radio Apasionados, Capitulo 23

www.cem.itesm.mx

If you are looking for further information on radio in Chiapas, you may see:

Clandestine Radio Watch 041:

Internews Network

© 2003, Lucila Vargas. All rights reserved.

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This page was last modified on October 7, 2003.