The Grandfather’s Voices
The Grandfather’s Voices
A detailed case study introduces many of the key issues to be elaborated in the rest of the chapters. Responding to a listener's grievance about overcharging at mills, Gogo Breeze embarked on investigative journalism before stating his own views on air. The case indicates how the radio station depended on several media technologies apart from broadcasting - such as letters, SMS messages, phone calls, and pictures. It also begins to show the gendered dynamics of Gogo Breeze's work, including the influence of female colleagues on his judgments and the relative dominance of male voices among those who called the station. Particular attention is given in the chapter to the relationship between voice and mobile phones. Qualifying the idea that the widespread access to mobile phones empowers Africans to make their voices count on interactive radio shows, the case study indicates the importance of having a trusted authority figure mediating those voices. The chapter argues that media technologies that enable the broadcast of multiple voices are not intrinsically more multivocal than a radio elder speaking alone in the studio. Much hinges on whether the technologies are harnessed to render voices as dialogical rather than monological.
Keywords: investigative journalism, mobile phones, voice, multivocality, gender, interactive radio, dialogue
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