Addressing environmental concerns in the Asia Pacific region through community media

抄録

Addressing environmental concerns requires transforming norms into desired behaviors. A dynamic and interactive medium such as community media was found to be a potent tool to realize such change. The Philippines, a vulnerable country to climate change, ventured into using community radio stations towards strengthening climate change among Filipinos. Using the case study research design, five community radio stations (CRS) managers in the Philippines, a municipal mayor, the head of the Philippine Federation of Rural Broadcasters, and the president of a community radio-contracting firm were interviewed to determine what makes a CRS sustainable. Sustainability indicators included organizational structure, influential factors, and operational mechanisms that led towards the development of a CRS model. Results showed that CRS played facilitative and catalytic roles in these social transformation processes. CRS sets social agenda, facilitates governance communication, enables changes in norms, and moves people to action. The synergistic action of Local Government Units, academe, civil society, and relevant national agencies through block time and community programs with guidance from the Community Radio Councils led to systematic programming, and strengthened people’s capacities in addressing global issues like climate change.