Public service broadcasting and participatory communication for poverty eradication : a case of Tanzania Broadcasting (TBC) as tool for poverty eradication in Tanzania

The project evaluated the role of Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) programmes in eradicating extreme poverty in Tanzania. The project intended to establish how TBC programmes on poverty eradication are produced and the constraints involved in producing them; how the audience receive them; and whether there is any evidence of interaction between programme producers and audiences in the production of the programmes. The concept of participatory communication was adopted as a major framework. This piece of research used in-depth interviews and focus groups as data gathering techniques. Three TBC programmes on business and economy, agriculture and women voice aired in 2009 were used as units of analysis. Findings indicate that participatory communication which involves feed-forward-feedback processes between broadcasters and citizens is essential in broadcasting for eradicating extreme poverty in Tanzania. However, TBC faced a number of constraints like lack of funds and government control which affected its performance as a tool for poverty eradication. Further, the findings show that mobile-phones and internet have rejuvenated and radically transformed participatory development communication on TBC. Finally, the study reveals that the impact of TBC programmes on poverty eradication in motivating people to participate in poverty eradication schemes is subject to government efficiency in implementing poverty eradication policies at the grassroots; in this research the government was inefficient. The research contributes to the study of communication for development in Tanzania by studying themes emerging from TBC programmes on poverty eradication. It also contributes to a further understanding of the obstacles to participatory communication in the Tanzanian context.