This case study used qualitative ethnographic research methods, notably focus group discussions, Most Significant Change (MSC) narratives, and key informant interviews, to investigate drivers and the impact of Radio Listening Clubs (RLCs) as a participatory communication platform for development in Malawi. It concludes that personal commitment and innovativeness of members are the key drivers of RLC success. Radio Listening Clubs whose members are active, innovative and committed are more impactful than those clubs whose members are passive and uncommitted to the objectives of the RLC. Since emerging evidence indicates that the RLC platform is an effective development and critical empowerment tool, the study recommends that radio-based communication for development interventions should be accompanied by some form of RLC or community conversation platform to ensure fruitful exchanges among duty bearers, community members, and the media. Radio Listening Club establishment should be preceded by a community readiness assessment to embrace the tool to avoid resource wastage.
Based principally on verbal data collected through interviews with journalists, journalism educationists, journalist trainers, and curriculum analysis, this study notes some progress made in the field of Malawian journalism since independence. However, it argues that despite the welcome increase in the number of journalism and communication qualifications offered by public and private journalism training colleges in Malawi, the quality of the output is still lackluster. This is overwhelmingly because practical skills courses are taught inadequately, haphazardly and theoretically due, partly, to inadequate human and material resources and lack of a national policy to guide the formation of journalists. It recommends that to improve the quality and relevance of journalistic output, Malawi should draft and publish a journalism education and training policy to guide all journalism training colleges. It also recommends that training colleges should partner with the industry, multilateral organizations with interest in communication and media development, government departments and NGOs not only for industrial attachment but also for these to sponsor communication and journalism training programmes. Partner institutions should consider procuring training materials and assets for the training institutions. The study further recommends that partner institutions need to consider sponsoring academic staff for higher education in journalism and media studies.
Using evidence from field key informant and written questionnaire interviews with agriculture extension officers, focus group discussions with some smallholder farmers, analysis of packaging labels, and a detailed literature review, this paper argues that Malawian smallholder farmers handle herbicides without adequate information about the advantages and negative impacts of such herbicides because, it appears, the agriculture extension workers themselves lack requisite knowledge on herbicide toxicity. Further, the study finds that herbicides are marketed in Malawi in breach of Malawian law and in contravention of the Rotterdam Convention as the information on the herbicide labels is sometimes inadequate, misleading, and unavailable in local languages. This exposes farmers to potentially carcinogenic chemicals without their knowledge. The paper recommends, inter alia, that an awareness campaign about the long term harmful effects of herbicides be mounted countrywide and internationally to protect illiterate smallholder farmers from herbicide toxicity.
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