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SESSION C.1 : HANDOUT

SCAVENGER HUNT

This scavenger hunt is just a short introduction to some of the equipment used by community radio to record the life of the community, and it was also an attempt to introduce you to that community. As a resident, you already knew a lot of this information, but may not have thought about it too much. But as a community media activist, you will need to get to know and to understand your community much better, if you are to be able to use this media service to meet community needs.

The task we in community radio have set ourselves is to 'Understand our Community'.

The first steps in understanding is the compilation of information:

1) Statistical information on the general structure of the community.

2) Inventory information on the existing community resources.

3) Social information on the power networks and the social networks.

4) Values information establishing the shared assumptions and     prejudices of the community.

5) Perceptual information regarding the community's needs and     aspirations.

The first three categories deal in the main with quantitative data.
The demographic and socio-economic information, which provide us with a human profile of our community.
The characteristics of the population, the community and voluntary networks.
The statutory services and environmental trends.
The social and recreational facilities and the trades associations.
The educational networks, the active political parties, and the ethnic and other disadvantaged groups in the area.

The two other areas of research moves us out of the surer field of statistics and related information into an area of perceptual assumptions. Information gathered here will require a certain amount of empathy and intuition. Different methods will be required to obtain this data. Observation, discussion and field trips, much like the one you have participated on, will some of the means to be used.

An inventory of community values will show how much and how little common cause exists. It will show us shared assumptions, varied social aspirations and cultural prejudices. We will discover areas of solidarity and conflict, and collective hopes and fears.

We will probably find variations between different districts within our community, but we may also establish certain areas of thought on which there is broad community agreement, these will be core community values.

… As a community media service, we will also need to establish with our community, a range of 'needs'. Needs don't necessarily mean deficiencies in the existing services, they can be aspirations to a higher level of community life. Often in the media, a community can be portrayed as 'deficient', and this can lead to a spiral of despair where people may feel that they are part of a perceived problem.

… Here is a key role for a community media service in tune with its locality. We can allow our community to articulate these aspirational needs and meet on air to devise suitable actions.

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