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'The whole nation on one station'? National FM as a case study of radio for indigenous small linguistic communities in Zimbabwe

This thesis is an institutional ethnography of National FM as the only PSB radio that broadcasts in all local languages. It examines the feasibility of having one radio station broadcasting in all the indigenous languages of Zimbabwe. Language rights are pivotal in human development and many countri...

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Main Author: Ndawana, Tariro
Other Authors: Chuma, Wallace
Format: Thesis
Language:Eng
Published: Centre for Film and Media Studies 2019
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access_status_str Open Access
author Ndawana, Tariro
author2 Chuma, Wallace
author_browse Chuma, Wallace
Ndawana, Tariro
author_facet Chuma, Wallace
Ndawana, Tariro
author_sort Ndawana, Tariro
collection Thesis
description This thesis is an institutional ethnography of National FM as the only PSB radio that broadcasts in all local languages. It examines the feasibility of having one radio station broadcasting in all the indigenous languages of Zimbabwe. Language rights are pivotal in human development and many countries have developed many ways that can be used to promote them. The media have also been used in preservation of language rights (AMARC, 2014). However, many minorities are deprived of their language rights. Previous research in Zimbabwe on small indigenous communities, have looked at general rights and the right to education. Available literature on radio has also studied content and concentrated on Radio Zimbabwe. This thesis explores both the promotion of language rights and the involvement of radio in the preservation of minority languages. It delves into the forces behind the production of local minority languages at National FM. The institutional ethnography encompassed the use of observation, in-depth interviews with sixteen participants and document analysis. It also used content analysis of all programmes that are Barwe, Chikunda, Doma and Hwesa which have the smallest number of speakers in the country (Hachipola, 1998; Magwa, 2008; Ndlovu, 2009). This study proves that National FM is not fully representing all the minority languages. The political economy of the station and sociology of journalism directly affect the production. National FM, like all PSB radio stations in the country has gone commercial. Management is now focusing on generating revenue than promoting language rights. National FM broadcasts in Shona and Ndebele instead of the minority languages. ZBC management consists of Shona and Ndebele speakers and decision making is done by people who are not minority language speakers. Content analysis of the four selected languages indicates that the languages which have been dominated are still marginalized as National FM broadcasts current affairs programmes only for the selected languages. These languages are given very little broadcast time and the programmes are not interactive.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language Eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:34:03.682Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2019
publishDateRange 2019
publishDateSort 2019
publisher Centre for Film and Media Studies
publisherStr Centre for Film and Media Studies
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/30346 'The whole nation on one station'? National FM as a case study of radio for indigenous small linguistic communities in Zimbabwe Ndawana, Tariro Chuma, Wallace Bosch, Tanja E. This thesis is an institutional ethnography of National FM as the only PSB radio that broadcasts in all local languages. It examines the feasibility of having one radio station broadcasting in all the indigenous languages of Zimbabwe. Language rights are pivotal in human development and many countries have developed many ways that can be used to promote them. The media have also been used in preservation of language rights (AMARC, 2014). However, many minorities are deprived of their language rights. Previous research in Zimbabwe on small indigenous communities, have looked at general rights and the right to education. Available literature on radio has also studied content and concentrated on Radio Zimbabwe. This thesis explores both the promotion of language rights and the involvement of radio in the preservation of minority languages. It delves into the forces behind the production of local minority languages at National FM. The institutional ethnography encompassed the use of observation, in-depth interviews with sixteen participants and document analysis. It also used content analysis of all programmes that are Barwe, Chikunda, Doma and Hwesa which have the smallest number of speakers in the country (Hachipola, 1998; Magwa, 2008; Ndlovu, 2009). This study proves that National FM is not fully representing all the minority languages. The political economy of the station and sociology of journalism directly affect the production. National FM, like all PSB radio stations in the country has gone commercial. Management is now focusing on generating revenue than promoting language rights. National FM broadcasts in Shona and Ndebele instead of the minority languages. ZBC management consists of Shona and Ndebele speakers and decision making is done by people who are not minority language speakers. Content analysis of the four selected languages indicates that the languages which have been dominated are still marginalized as National FM broadcasts current affairs programmes only for the selected languages. These languages are given very little broadcast time and the programmes are not interactive. 2019-07-29T10:57:49Z 2019-07-29T10:57:49Z 2019 2019-07-25T12:36:04Z Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/30346 Eng application/pdf Centre for Film and Media Studies Faculty of Humanities
spellingShingle Ndawana, Tariro
'The whole nation on one station'? National FM as a case study of radio for indigenous small linguistic communities in Zimbabwe
thesis_degree_str Doctoral
title 'The whole nation on one station'? National FM as a case study of radio for indigenous small linguistic communities in Zimbabwe
title_full 'The whole nation on one station'? National FM as a case study of radio for indigenous small linguistic communities in Zimbabwe
title_fullStr 'The whole nation on one station'? National FM as a case study of radio for indigenous small linguistic communities in Zimbabwe
title_full_unstemmed 'The whole nation on one station'? National FM as a case study of radio for indigenous small linguistic communities in Zimbabwe
title_short 'The whole nation on one station'? National FM as a case study of radio for indigenous small linguistic communities in Zimbabwe
title_sort the whole nation on one station national fm as a case study of radio for indigenous small linguistic communities in zimbabwe
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/30346
work_keys_str_mv AT ndawanatariro thewholenationononestationnationalfmasacasestudyofradioforindigenoussmalllinguisticcommunitiesinzimbabwe