Technology and community communication: the use of the radio broadcasting as a strategy for urban sustainability

Série Cultura e Território ; This work addresses a study developed in the city of São Paulo (Brazil) with the Rádio Comunitária Heliópolis (Heliópolis Community Radio Station), which from Monday to Friday, from 12h00 to 14h00, broadcasts the programme Bairro Educador (Educating Neighbourhood). The research was conducted between November 12 and 16, 2018, aiming to understand how a community radio station can contribute to sustainable urban development. By means of participant observation, the programme schedule and episodes (via radio and the internet) and the broadcasted interviews were analysed. Despite the anthropological approach, the research was based on the theory of communication, using the concepts of social marketing and communication for development, aimed to capture changes in awareness, behaviour and human action due to the challenges imposed by contemporary society. The concepts used challenges habits and cultural and social attitudes standardized and trivialized for decades by the social structure in force. The broadcasting schedule, directed at urban sustainability, indicated strong appeal for the listeners, especially when an average of 100% increase in audience was observed the moment it was disseminated. This appeal was reaffirmed in the qualitative analysis on the listeners’ participation in the social networks. These allow us to conclude that despite the difficulties in altering the population’s deep-rooted behaviour standards, it is possible to envisage possibilities for social transformation using diversified communication technologies. The literature, as well as the phenomenon observed, indicates that different factors may influence actors’ involvement in the search for collective solutions for common problems. It was possible to verify that a broadcast programming strategy aimed at raising awareness, mobilizing and sensitizing, placing the common citizen in the centre of the proposals, can have a significant impact in solving or reducing the problems related to urban sustainability.