Examining community media sustainability in the digital age : a study of community radio stations in the North-West province of South Africa

Abstract

Studies abound on different approaches by which media firms can achieve sustainability. However, there is intense paucity of literature on ways in which local media firms (community radio in South Africa) can achieve sustainability amidst the prevailing digital challenges. Hence, the knowledge gap this study intends to fill. Current studies indicate a good amount of scholarly work on media sustainability focusing on large media organizations, however, there are insufficient literature that discusses methods/approaches by which local media station/ managers can achieve sustainability in Africa, particularly in South Africa. Hence, the knowledge gap. Thus, in a bid to fill this gap and contribute to the broader media management scholarship in South Africa, the effort is to contribute and expand the literature on the sustainability of community radio in the digital age by assessing the ways community station managers in the North-West Province have used to keep their small media firms up and running in this digital times. It seeks to propose appropriate methods by presenting certain best practices/methods that media managers can adopt in handling/managing their media firms effectively in this digital times. Using a qualitative method and drawing samples from community station managers, media experts and the academics; the study examined and interrogated the various attempts in which community radio stations achieve sustainability in the digital age. This was done using semi-structured interviews and the Dynamic Capability Concept was used as the theoretical basis. In this digital age, it is pertinent to state that media sustainability goes beyond financial sustainability. Its social and institutional sustainability should be incorporated. Thus, for media organization-particularly community radio to achieve sustainability in this digital age, it must leverage and harness on its ‘localness’. Theoretically, and in line with the interpretivist/constructivist paradigm, this study has been able to contribute to knowledge and has proposed a new approach to achieving media/community media sustainability in the digital age - which is by leveraging on the medium’s dynamic capability (localness). Contextually, the study has attempted to close the knowledge gap by presenting ways community media stations in the North-West Province can achieve sustainability in the digital age. Furthermore, and as a way to contribute to community media/media management scholarship in the South African context, this study

debuts as a novel contribution to achieve community media sustainability amidst the prevailing digital challenges - an area that is under-researched.