Role of radio in communication
The saying ‘information is power’ has indeed become a cliché and like all clichés it holds a truth and therefore the need to focus on the kinds of information available and the means by which information is produced, disseminated and received is of critical importance. The media, be it be the television, radio or internet, provides us not simply with information about the world but with ways of understanding and making sense of it. When considering the impact of media on communication, one cannot overlook the inevitably selective nature of media representations, ideological power of the very naturalness of media constructions, the ‘taken for granted’ assumptions of media convention and norms, the agenda setting functions and the media’s amplification of dominant discourses or ways of making sense of the world. It is however worthwhile to note the irony that media indeed are not the definers of ‘reality’ but are merely the relayers of definitions, agendas whose origins lays elsewhere, ie in the judicial, political, economic, military and civil institutions of the society.
Radio, which is indeed a part of the general term media, has played its part in the relay, reception of information and their varied effects on the society as a whole. Radio has had its impact because the audience it caters to cannot be regarded as passive receivers of content but are rather active and ceaseless producers of meaning. Radio offers diversified contents and a range of perspectives from which to make sense of it. These perspectives are then worked upon by audiences. They are often disputed, argued with, misunderstood, modified and generally subject to complex processes of negotiation, acceptance and rejection.