International Religious Radio Broadcasting: The Reactions of Local Listeners to a Global Message

Abstract

This paper examines the dialogue of Tanzanian radio listeners in correspondence with Adventist Word Radio (AWR). The study sought to identify the reasons expressed by listeners for corresponding with an international radio network. The study also sought to determine whether listeners expressed preferences for specific radio programs. A historical systematic methodology was used to analyze a variety of sources available from the AWR headquarters, and the Seventh-day Adventist Office of Archives and Statistics located in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. The study utilized the Diffusion of Innovations theory (Rogers 2003) to examine how receptive the social system of Tanzania was to the religious messages presented by AWR via the medium of radio, over a 25-year period from the inception of AWR-Africa in 1983 to 2008. The findings reveal the regions from which listener correspondences originated, the radio programs popular among AWR listeners, and the reasons given for corresponding with the network. This qualitative study offers insight in the area of media effects research, and can serve as a guide for other assessments of international religious broadcasters and their impact on local listeners.