At Amplifying Voices, we use the term "speakerbox" to talk about a digital audio player with a built in speaker, suitable for group listening for around 10 people. Speakerboxes come in various shapes and sizes and most have a variety of options for playing stored digital audio content.

Amplifying Voices partners use speakerboxes with a microSD card slot (also called TF card, flash card, or μSD), and distribute new programmes on microSD cards to listener groups. We provide two microSD cards for each speakerbox so that one card stays with the group while the other goes to the partner to get the next programme downloaded.

Several hours of digital audio content can be stored on the tiny microSD cards. Digital audio can also be stored on USB sticks, on a phone or laptop.

Most speakerboxes also have USB ports to play audio files from a USB stick and can connect to a phone, laptop or MP3 player through an "Aux" input. An Aux cable has two 3.5mm jacks, which you connect between the Aux input and the headphone socket of your other device. Some speakers have Bluetooth for playing music or content from a phone.

We now encourage partners to source speakerboxes that have an FM radio receiver built in, especially where projects have developed agreements to play programmes on local FM stations.

Why do we use Speakerboxes?

We started using speakerboxes in communities where it was not possible to set up a community radio station. However, we have since found that speakerbox projects can also offer some advantages over a radio station project.

Speakerboxes provide a very flexible way for groups of people to listen together to focussed programmes at a time of their own convenience. Groups can discuss content together, explore ideas for responding to advice or stories they've heard, and in many cases the groups also make content for future programmes.

 

Listener group gathers for a speakerbox session in Northern Uganda

Speakerbox content can be tailored to very specific audiences, and listener groups can work with producers to develop topics that are most important to the group.  It can also cover topics a radio station might not see as profitable or even too risky or taboo to handle. As the speakerbox audience is usually smaller, and often know the production team personally, there is more scope for newly trained production workers to build their skills by making speakerbox programmes until their content is good enough for broadcasting on a partner FM station.

In Pakistan and South Sudan, content which is used on speakerboxes is also broadcast on local FM stations. This allows partners to increase reach and impact without having to set up their own radio station, while still benefiting from the flexibility and focus of speakerbox listening groups.

New Dawn health worker with speakerbox for women’s listener groups.

What is Digital Audio?

For the purposes of this post, digital audio means audio content including music, and talk show recordings, that can be stored as files on a computer, phone, or memory device.  Digital audio can also be "streamed" over the internet. You might be familiar with MP3 files. MP3 is a form of digital audio.

So is a speakerbox programme rather like a podcast?

We have used the term "podcast" when talking about speakerbox programmes, because podcasts are a very close equivalent for most of our readers. However, podcasts are delivered over the internet, and speakerboxes do not have access to the internet. In the communities where we work, the term podcast is less well known, and listeners prefer to just call the programmes "radio programmes". In fact, in Northern Uganda and South Sudan, community members call speakerboxes "radios".

Is a Speakerbox basically an MP3 player?

So you remember MP3 players! They've more or less been replaced by phones now. In a sense, yes a speakerbox is a kind of MP3 player, but the term "MP3 player" usually means a small device designed for listening to with headphones. Some had small speakers on them, but they would not be suitable for group listening. MP3 players also have a lot internal storage where people could keep their music collections, and a user interface for navigating the different files. Most of the speakerboxes we use have no internal memory, no internet access, and very limited buttons for moving from file to file. This keeps the cost per speakerbox down, so more listener groups can get one. With bluetooth enabled speakerboxes, and distribution of programmes via WhatsApp (or in India, via the Adivasi Voices App), listener groups can use phones to control the speakerbox, getting the flexibility of an MP3 player and the volume and simplicity of a speakerbox.

What about power?

Solar powered radio speaker, Zambia

The early batches of speakerboxes we supplied to projects had built-in rechargeable batteries, and charged with a USB cable. However, in remote locations or refugee camps, access to power for recharging was problematic. We now work with partners to buy speakerboxes with solar panels. One partner told us they found it advisable to buy models with a removable solar panel, so that the speakerbox can be kept safely indoors while it is charging.

Read More

Find out which Amplifying Voices projects use speakerboxes

Read news updates from communities using speakerboxes

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Sharing our  learning

Our article in Footsteps explores two of the less obvious advantages of community-centred media – advocacy (amplifying the voices of those who have been disadvantaged) – and encouraging better understanding of others by promoting community conversations. We also highlighted the relative simplicity of audio as a medium, allowing people with a variety of abilities to participate in creating content.

Advocacy is highlighted in the article by Hazeen’s story about people, who were tricked by thieves into paying for a free government service, having their money restored after the thieves heard their stories on the radio and realised they had been discovered.

Amani FM is rooted in community conversations. At its outset, the radio programmes shared personal stories from people who were in conflict with each other allowing the listeners to “walk a mile in their neighbours shoes”. This promoted dialogue and understanding – foundations for peace.

Each Footsteps issue includes a Resources article designed to inspire communities to try some ideas out for themselves. This month “How to make a community podcast” is based on our partners’ experiences in Uganda and India, using speakerboxes in areas where radio is not possible or appropriate.

Learning from others

It is really encouraging to be asked to share our own learning. It is also encouraging to see the  innovation of other organisations using various participatory approaches for effective communication. In this issue, my good friend Bobby Zachariah helps corporations become more effective in their social responsibility activities by getting better at listening, using an approach called SALT. You may have heard us talk about the SALT approach when we talk about the Amplify project in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

SALT volunteers listening to community stories. Freetown. BBN, 2019

In the spirit of listening well, Roland Lubett talks about the importance of understanding non-verbal communication – and we learn that non-verbal communication isn’t limited to body language.

The World Association of Christian Communication (WACC) talks about supporting women in Delhi to build skills in using mobile phones and other modern communication methods so that their voices are included in the decisions that affect them. From WACC we learn about taking a rights-based approach to communication.

Five Talents tell Ana’s story. Ana felt she didn’t have the right skills, but her personal qualities drew many unheard people into community conversations – and encouraged her own daughter to become a facilitator and communicator.

From Tearfund we learn about Community Theatre – reflecting the power of being immersed in a story. This article resonates with us because radio drama is a popular and effective tool in the places where we work. Our partners, BBN in Freetown, are currently using a radio drama series to address fears about getting the Covid vaccination.

Insightshare uses a similar approach to Amplifying Voices, but with video. Their article shares how participatory video enabled widows in communities in Ghana to move from whispering their issues among themselves to having the attention of chiefs and politicians.

An interview with a facilitator, who has learned sign language to be able to include deaf people in her workshops, reminds us to address hidden barriers to full participation in communication. As does a final article about the risks of the “smarts” behind social media which deliver a limited and tailored view of the world to our smartphones.

Such a breadth of participatory communication activities emphasises the value of collaboration – and helps us to avoid the pitfall of thinking our way is the only best way. But we are also very encouraged to be reminded that community-centred radio (and podcasts) play such an important role in completing this tapestry of participatory communication.

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I was reminded of this recently, when a community service asked me to attend a workshop and assist with producing community media product to support a mental health project. While it had been a particularly busy time with many deadlines, I committed as we always try to say yes, and the task should have only taken 20-30 minutes. On arrival all training participants were hesitant and did not want to be involved, so instead I became involved in the workshop and spent time building relationships with those there. As the afternoon progressed all the participants felt it was a worthy project and then participated in developing community media messages to help the community with mental health. Even though it then took 2.5 hours, it was definitely worth it.

Giving time is key to building relationships which is foundational to community development.

This article originally posted in on the HCR (Australia) website.

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“… you’re still on mute! …”

If I could have a pound for every time I hear that phrase, I could probably fund our projects many times over!

Love them or hate them, free Zoom webinars quickly established themselves in March this year as a means for organisations to contribute in the prevailing spirit of mutual cooperation we saw across the UK and in many other countries.

At HCR, we realised that we could help other community development organisations who were looking for new ways to use media to engage with their partner communities remotely. We offered free webinars to introduce community-centred media to organisations such as Tearfund, Mothers Union and World Challenge. People, who normally work in community-led development projects, told us how glad they were to hear about media strategies that would allow them to continue supporting grass-roots work without having to resort to top down, message-centred approaches.

We were by no means new to Zoom or to video-calls, but we soon learned a lot of new things about using Zoom. Conceptual Powerpoint slides that worked well in face-face workshops, seemed harder to explain when people could not clearly see your face.

It was also harder to gauge whether people were tracking with you when you could not see participants faces clearly. Group discussions struggled to flow thanks to the infamous mute-unmute delays. (And sometimes thanks to the lack of mute, with background roosters cock-a-doodle-do-ing our discussions into obscurity!).

In one case, the network connections were so poor for participants, calling in from remote locations in Liberia, Burundi, Uganda and Kenya, that we abandoned Zoom and used WhatsApp audio calling. We shared the key powerpoint slides as image files in WhatsApp.

Most of the people attending the webinars were in strategic leadership positions. Yet, we found it helpful to focus less on strategy diagrams. Instead we started to build our webinars around stories that demonstrated community-centred media in action. We took real situations and outcomes from projects in contexts similar to those where participants work and we wove them into illustrative narratives.

Despite the challenges of 2-dimensional Zoom calls, we could see a marked increase in webinar participants’ engagement, through their perseverance in maintaining discussion flow despite mute-unmute issues, and also in their feedback describing how they would community-centred media learning in their contexts.

But where does this lead? Should we continue doing webinars? After all, we can’t observe the impact this has on communities in the same way we can with face-face community consultation workshops. We exist to see communities living life in all its fullness, free from poverty, injustice, and violence. We work towards that by equipping local partners in communities facing disadvantage or crisis, to use community-centred media to bring people together, to mobilise local resources and tackle challenges identified by community members. Is any of this happening when we run webinars for people in head offices of large organisations?

Last week we heard from one organisation that their partners in Burundi had run a national radio campaign to address misinformation and education gaps around Covid-19. The leader of the campaign had attended one of our earlier webinars. He shared several observations from his teams working directly with communities to make the radio programmes. A global leader for the organisation said “this radio campaign would not have been as effective, was it not for the training you provided”.

In the partner’s evaluation, reporting on interviews in 580 communities in 11 provinces, we saw evidence of community-centred media practices and evidence that these resulted in community members and service providers working together to tackle Covid-19 misinformation and infection causes:

“Besides the messages [from experts], plays have proved to be a powerful tool in sharing hygiene messages … Burundi community has been mobilized and is also empowered to stand firm against COVID 19.”

“The community shares accurate information regarding Coronavirus, knows how to prevent and stop the spread of the Coronavirus and many have taken the right attitude against Coronavirus (wear masks, wash hands and respect social distance).”

“The program was useful to aware and mobilize the people in my county how to prevent COVID-19, and due to the program, all shops, markets, churches and mosques of the county have put buckets with taps and soaps where everyone must wash hands before to enter into them”

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Some of the ways in which we support the SDG’s include:

• Working with partners in Tana River, Kenya, to promote peace by providing verified and reliable information through community media, reducing the conflict that in the past has developed through fake news.
• Encouraging communities in the Mid West of Western Australia to develop localised media campaigns around health and wellbeing.
• Promoting women’s equality through community radio in Pakistan.
• Empowering health services to provide critical information on water sanitation in India.
• Promoting indigenous practices that support the environment and sustainability of the land and sea.

Most importantly, partnerships are vital (goal 17) to ensure we are able to support and empower communities around the world.

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But the Chinese character for ‘ting’ grabbed my attention when I learned the separate characters for eyes, ears, attention, king and open heart–when combined–form the verb to listen or obey.

In my workshops around the world I show the ting character and ask participants what they think it means. In only one workshop, in Moscow, did anyone get it right. Not only did this Russian man know the word ting but he also identified the different sub-characters that form the verb. “How on earth do you know that?” I was astonished. It turns out that the KGB (the Soviet Union’s former spy and state security apparatus) had identified his skills at learning languages, put him through an intensive and advanced Mandarin course, sent him off to Ulanbaatar in Mongolia and there he sat in a tiny room listening to the secret radio transmissions of the Chinese military.

The HCR family uses the “ting” to help explain what we call community-centred media (CCM), which begins with doing little more than listening, or should I say “listen-ting”. CCM resists the urge to deliver messages to the community and instead puts them at the centre of the communication process, listening to their needs and building on their strengths. It ensures they play their part in message-making, as well as community-level decision-making. This then enables two complementary approaches.

The first approach is a partnership between community, media and service providers that embraces four strategies: sharing resources, using local voices, community field work (we call it getting our shoes dirty) and handing over the mic. In other words giving away control of the communication agenda and process to the community.

The second approach is to deploy what we call the Five Tasks of Media. The CCM partnership together creates a transformative dynamic for social change of onair messages and offair activities that inform, educate, advocate, facilitate social learning and, yes!, even entertain.

Participants in our workshops quickly understand the difference between CCM and provider-directed communication; CCM is community-centred because we come to the project with questions, not answers. To do the ting thing is to come to the community first with a non-self perspective: to listen with compassion (heart), focus (undivided attention), respect (king), assessment (eyes and ears and mind).

All this came to mind when I saw a TED talk by economist Ernesto Sirolli, in which he offered this advice: “Want to help someone? Shut up and listen!“

Then, last week, HCR Australia’s CEO Dane Waters told us about a briefing for partners of state government services that he attended. Apparently, the buzz word is “innovation” in government-funded service delivery. One speaker maintained innovation included “talking to other people, people you don’t usually talk to”. As Dane said with tongue-in-cheek: What a good idea!

When faced with a problem, many well-intentioned community development or health promotion workers reach for their “best practice” or “evidence-based” project plans. In my experience, the first thing to do is the ting thing. A UN agency told HCR, “You’re the first consultants we’ve had who spent a lot of time asking questions to learn about our context and didn’t come to us with a prepared plan”.

Put simply, the ting thing is the key to understanding that HCR’s community-centred media strategies start with the community, not media; begin with listening, not talking. The ting thing process opens minds and options, which transforms relationships between service providers and vulnerable, marginalised communities. We believe this brings positive social change.

Whether that is innovative or otherwise is not for me to say. But I do know that, for a long time, the ting thing has been HCR’s way of putting communities at the centre.

Dr Ross James is the founder of HCR Australia of which Amplifying Voices UK is a member

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