Broadcasting Change: Radio Talk Shows, Education and Women’s Empowerment in Senegal

This study examined radio talk shows as a platform for Senegalese women to debate social issues and identifies new directions and alternative avenues for their lives. Radio talk show in Senegal is a dynamic, flexible, and interactive tool for communication while highlighting the way women relate to and use this medium to voice their opinions in a broader world of information and ultimately effect social change. Utilizing a hermeneutic phenomenological approach grounded in an African centered paradigm, this study uses from forty (34) in-depth interviews, three focus groups, document analysis and more than 120 hours of participant observation. Moreover, this study integrated a mix of, paradigms and approaches to provide insights into the dialogues and listening practices that women are engaged in while seeking to understand the avenues that radio talk shows provide for women's empowerment and education in Senegal. This study found that the talk shows were a remarkable empowering and educational forum for women to negotiate, articulate and re-invent themselves. Through their interaction on the talk shows, women realized that they were more than just receivers of knowledge. Their constant quest for answers produced knowledge that fostered their humanity and led them to new meanings, which in turn became the catalyst for personal transformation and conscious actions. The study further challenged the persistent and exclusive emphasis on formal education's ability in Senegal to educate women and transform them into critical thinkers. I argue that the failure of formal education to grant a holistic transformation for women requires a diversification of solutions and perspectives from various institutions and platforms. These platforms must be willing to incorporate critical significant socio-political issues such as social inequality, imbalanced power relations, and economic inequity and gender discrimination, which are often left out in the formal education system. This study highlighted the immense potential the media offers to educate and transform Senegalese women lives and contributes to our understanding of the under-studies alternatives model of education for African women by illuminating important aspects of Senegalese women's education and agency that have been barely studied. It calls for the expansion of models/platforms that provide holistic and relevant education to African women's lives.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Cultural Studies (Education)

Grantor dc:publisher

Ohio University

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Diamanka, Fanta

Contributors dc:contributor

• Godwyll, Francis

• Education
• African Studies
• Gender
• Mass Media
• Media
• Radio
• Empowerment
• Dialogue
• Senegal
• Africana Womanism

Statement dc:rights

• unrestricted
• This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1365168542

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:ohiou1365168542