Advocacy
Being Change Agents in a Broken World
The mass media make things happen when they act as an advocate, heightening the awareness of critical issues in society, bringing about change and being used to resolve conflict.
There is a great need for alternative media to give minorities a voice, addressing issues of relevance to them that may not be covered in mainstream or official media. Another function is to produce programs that bring such concerns to the attention of authorities and decision-makers. In different parts of the world, this has successfully been achieved through participatory production strategies (see below).
Rosario-Braid (1995), has argued that broadcasters such as FEBC have a great potential for providing strategic information. Why? Because we are an alternative to state-owned or commercial media, we are impartial and are concerned for the whole person. Secular media are unlikely to be interested in much of what interests us. Programs relating to new ideas, social movements and issues, politics, development or emerging trends, will facilitate the listeners' access to information, broaden their horizons and empower them to act.
This has taken on new dimensions in FEBC as we have found ourselves working more and more in situations where there has been great social need. A number of natural disasters have come to our area and we have done our best to provide radio components to address these needs and serve the hurting community. In the process we have learned much about the role we can play as advocates.
In Mongolia it has meant working with the poor people who live in gers close to our station. It has helped put them and their needs on the map. In Bali it has meant involving ourselves in rural communities and engaging the tough issues of daily life which they face and the social environment in which they live.
But we also find that we have a good track record in countries like the Philippines for many years.... FEBC Manila has used radio in this advocacy role. In the early 1980s a Manila faith healer gained great prominence through radio. Using the stage name of Johnny Midnight he claimed to mediate healing to his listeners by a process known as toning. He adopted the name because his late night radio show started at midnight. Johnny Midnight invited the listener to place a glass of water on top of the radio. After conducting a series of incantations he told the listener to drink the water and receive healing. The program provoked a great stir in Manila, raising the fascination in occult practice and causing confusion in the churches. FEBC medium wave station DZAS intervened. The station took off its regular programs, replacing them with a day-long marathon which investigated the occult practice from a biblical perspective and invited listeners to phone in with their questions. As a direct result many were greatly helped. Some lit bonfires to burn occult books and other paraphernalia. It was not long before the toner was off the air!
This was the first of a series of marathon broadcasts conducted by DZAS in response to specific social issues. Another celebrated victory was in 1985 when the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field was poised to take over Manila's financially bankrupt University of the East (one of the largest in Manila). Many in the capital had been successfully wooed by a multi-media campaign that also had brought the Marcoses (the presidential family) and a number of government officials onto their side. A visiting cults expert provided the backbone for much of FEBC's day-long broadcast. The Maharishi people were angered by the transmission, demanding equal time, which they were denied. With their movement exposed to be nothing more than thinly disguised Hinduism, all of its imported supporters (more than a thousand) were on planes out of the Philippines within a week.