Making Waves: PULSAR

Making Waves

Stories of Participatory Communication

for Social Change

PULSAR

1996 Regional, Latin America

BASIC FACTS

TITLE: Agencia Informativa Púlsar

COUNTRY: Regional, Latin America

MAIN FOCUS: Information dissemination

PLACE: Quito (Ecuador)

BENEFICIARIES: Community radio stations in Latin America

PARTNERS: Centro de Educación Popular, Ecuador (CEDEP), AMARC, RedADA, Red Científica Peruana (RCP)

FUNDING: CAF, UNESCO, SIDA, Friedrich Ebert Sttiftung

MEDIA: Radio, e-mail, Internet

SNAPSHOT

We are still a long way from a world where all peoples are offered equitable access to information and to technological resources. New technologies can play an ambiguous role in the pursuit of this goal: they can make a notable contribution to the democratisation of information and communication or, if not mastered, can generate a widening abyss between the information rich and the information poor.

It is not enough to focus exclusively on the quantitative development of Latin America's communication infrastructure (more computers, more satellites, more bandwidth, more speed). We must also develop a strategy that will enable the consolidation of the social communication networks already present in the region.

By facilitating access to the Internet, Púlsar will provide a modernising impulse for the news programming of the information poor radio broadcasters of the continent. In this way AMARC and CEDEP are contributing a grain of sand or more to the point, a grain of silicon to the democratisation of communication in Latin America.

Comments of Bruce Girard, former PÚLSAR director.

The Púlsar project encompasses the following tasks:

1. Identifying appropriate sources of accurate and high quality news and information on the Internet.
2. On a daily basis, searching out international news and editing it in radio style for distribution to radio stations via the Internet. The service prioritises news from Latin America and the Caribbean. One third of Púlsar's news comes from other regions.
3. Providing training and support to community radio broadcasters wishing to receive the service.
4. Establishing a regional network of correspondents who feed news into a news pool available to all community radio broadcasters.
5. Supporting radio broadcasters who wish to make full use of the Internet. To this end the project will inform them of the availability and utility of data on themes such as human rights, agriculture, economy,etc.

DESCRIPTION

AMARC, the organisation that groups hundreds of community radio stations worldwide, suggested as early as in 1986, during its second general assembly, that an independent radio news agency should be created to provide independent news for the increasing number of small stations in Latin America, Africa and Asia. The cost of such operation was considered very high at that time. The Internet was not yet well developed, software and computers were still expensive and not very powerful, and fax the only possible way of conveying information immediately was still very costly. Nonetheless, the idea of a news agency came back again at each AMARC conference, until, in 1995, at its general assembly in Senegal, AMARC realised that technology had sufficiently developed to allow the idea to become a reality.

Púlsar started in March 1996 with the purpose of providing community radio stations in Latin America with information useful to their listeners. Púlsars number of subscribers grew from 48 in March 1996 to 1,860 in 1999. Mostly radio stations (441), but also NGOs (344), individuals (335) and universities (296) use the information for news, teaching and political analysis. About 40 percent of subscribers are outside Latin America.

At the start, Púlsar produced a daily bulletin with 12 to 15 news items. By the end of 1996, a monthly Comunicado to subscribers was added, and new specialised services were created during 1997 and 1998:

• En Línea and Compendio news stories edited and distributed every day, including audio clips;
• Ciberbrujas produced in collaboration with the Bolivian NGO Red ADA, a weekly service featuring news and information about Latin American women;
• Ñuqanchik daily news services in Quechua, main native language in the region, spoken by some eight million people.

The cost of operating Púlsar during one year rose from US$30,000 in 1996 to US$100,000 by 1997. Main funding came from Communication Assistance Foundation (CAF) a Dutch NGO, UNESCO and SIDA. In March 1998, AMARC took over Púlsar. From its inception Púlsar had the following objectives:

• To improve the programming, establish the credibility and increase the impact of independent and community radio stations in Latin America.
• To contribute towards modernising the technology of independent and community radio stations.
• To ensure better information and knowledge of regional and global issues, and promote topics related to democratic development, regional integration, peace and human rights, and the right to communicate.
• To promote pluralism and participation at the local, national and regional levels, giving priority to those sectors that are often excluded.

"Púlsar recognised from the beginning that to be a totally alternative service is not an option if you want to be used by the stations. Thus we tried to maintain a mix of those mainstream stories and alternative stories. The theory is that it makes a more 'complete' service and that many stations would not use an alternative-only service. Púlsar is accepted and is able to ensure a civil society impact on the agenda. Purely alternative agencies are discredited in the minds of many news directors", says Girard.

BACKGROUND & CONTEXT

Since the 1950s, community radio has grown very fast in Latin America. Early experiences were politically oriented as a reaction to state-owned or commercial radio networks that totally excluded the voices of the vast majority of people from their programming. More than any other medium radio speaks the language but also has the accent of the community in which it is located. The programming of community radio stations is relevant to local interests and usually makes important contributions to strengthening and protecting cultural identity and social values.

However, radio has not been spared from the globalisation trend. As much as television or newspapers, radio is largely influenced by international news agencies, most of them from the United States and Europe. National media conglomerates have been formed, gathering often a mixture of media companies radio, newspapers and television which largely dominate the flow of information.

Smaller radio stations have fought to survive, expand influence on the community and defend national and local interests. These radio stations are community projects, often supported by the Catholic Church, local NGOs, or even unions. "The same technology that makes possible globalisation also allows these citizen radio stations to work with civil society in an attempt to influence the global village", says former Púlsar director, Bruce Girard.

In 1995, the threat over community radio in Latin America was critical in the decision to search for alternatives:

• New liberal legislation resulted in hundreds of new commercial radio stations, which immediately began competing to capture a segment of the market;
• Several countries recognised the legal status of community radio and there were indications that more frequencies would be allocated;
• International cooperation, showed increasing interest in Africa. Latin America had to look for new sources of funding;
• The larger media companies established national networks that increased their control over the smaller stations.

ASPECTS OF SOCIAL CHANGE

Besides generating a volume of information previously out of reach for community radio stations, Púlsar facilitated their networking. Being able to have daily contact with hundreds of stations be it through e-mail via radio wave frequencies or via the Internet, whether to distribute news bulletins or to receive news from correspondents, helped build a powerful sense of identity among community radio stations.

Another important aspect is the encouragement that community radio stations received from Púlsar to modernise their equipment and take advantage of new technologies. For those stations that didn't have the means to purchase computers and services, Púlsar facilitated networking with NGOs such as Red Científica Peruana (RCP) that had sponsored public Internet booths.

Quechua is primarily an oral language, spoken by eight million in the Andean region, but written only by a few intellectuals. The distribution through the Internet of programming in Quechua was another important breakthrough in a region where newscasts are mostly in Spanish and the Internet is dominated by English. Ñuqanchik is an alternative for promoting grassroots linguistic and cultural diversity.

MEDIA & METHODS

When Púlsar started only a few radio stations were using electronic mail or the Internet, so the promotion of new technologies became one of the methods Púlsar used to ensure the expansion of the network. A disk entitled Viaje Virtual (Virtual Voyage) was specially designed and sent to 350 radio stations to explain the advantages of new technologies.

Training has also been a major concern of Púlsar At the annual meeting of correspondents, training is always one of the main items on the agenda. There is also an electronic discussion list for discussion among the correspondents and the Quito office. Púlsar has developed a very comprehensive Cartilla para Corresponsales very thorough guidelines for correspondents, covering the selection of news, editing, equipment needed, and a section about audio attachments.

The main goals of training were to: a) demystify new communication technologies and the Internet in terms of access (skills and cost); b) provide basic training with focus on e-mail; and c) take advantage of training to evaluate Púlsar services. The agency produced materials and manuals for the training sessions, including Web directories for reaching information.

CONSTRAINTS

Though Púlsar grew to 2,000 subscriptions (half from Latin America), few actually paid their dues. The original idea was to fund Púlsar through subscriptions: 500 subscribers at $25/month would give$150,000 per year. At some point Púlsar decided the service would be distributed without cost. "It is still difficult to bill internationally in Latin America. Between bank commissions and taxes you can lose all of a $25 payment from Argentina. The cost of billing, including the costs of the infrastructure, would force Púlsar to raise the subscription fee dramatically, putting it out of the reach of many stations. If we sell Púlsar to one station, dozens more will get it 'bounced' for free. The problem is that once the decision was made not to finance the agency with subscriptions, there was no serious pursuit of an alternative method. Púlsar went the convenient way of marketing itself to international aid organisations, rather than trying to invent something new", adds Girard.

REFERENCES

This chapter is mainly based on documents from Púlsar and exchanges with founder and former director, Bruce Girard.

The Web site was created in 1996 to promote the concept behind Púlsar

Girard, Bruce, Community Radio, Gateway to the Information Revolution. Voices Vol.3, No.3, December 1999, Bangalore, India.

Girard, Bruce, Púlsar Dos años de radio en Internet, in Chasqui la revista latino-americana de comunicación, #61, Quito March 1998.

Girard, Bruce, Pluralismo, radio e Internet in Chasqui, la revista latinoamericana de comunicación, #59, Quito September 1997.

Pinto, Lorencita, Combinando la radio y el Internet, paper at ITU/FES regional symposium. Santiago de Chile, 25 28 August 1999.

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