The poetics of indigenous radio in Colombia

1. Clemencia Rodríguez
   1. Department of Communication, University of Oklahoma, clemencia@ou.edu

1. Jeanine El Gazi
   1. Ministry of culture, Colombia

Source

doi: 10.1177/0163443707076185 Media Culture Society May 2007 vol. 29 no. 3 449-468

Abstract

In 2002, 14 indigenous radio stations began operating in Colombia reaching 78.6 percent of the national indigenous population. Colombian indigenous radio stations are shaped by intense deliberations among each indigenous people about the poetics of information and communication technologies, understood as the exploration of the specific sets of social, cultural and political relations in which each radio station would exist if brought into each indigenous territory. Colombian indigenous peoples' appropriation of information and communication technologies is framed by new legislative frameworks made possible by the Colombian constitutional reform of 1991, by indigenous peoples' critique of Colombian mainstream media and, more significantly, by discussions among indigenous peoples about the adoption of radio — what we call a poetics of radio. 

Keywords

• alternative media
• citizens' media
• Colombia
• community radio ethnic minority media
• First Nations