Naming the Future

How can a community re-create itself after a civil§war? In El Salvador, returning refugees from the§devastated northern regions established local§community radio stations to inform, entertain and§build a new cultural identity. Based on a year of§ethnographic research, Naming the Future argues that§these new community radios worked to activate a§vision of civil society, and fought to create local§public spaces which could also help them enter the§national public sphere. They melded popular culture§with mass media through their partipatory programs.§This popular culture helped their communities to work§through their shared histories and experiences of the§war, the horrors and repression which it brought, and§their dreams and efforts to attain them. It was also§a way that they combined local traditions with§globalized music and other cultural flows which§increasingly were part of their lives. §For communication scholars, development workers and§students alike, this in-depth study of radio§highlights the distinctive contribution of§participatory media forms to the development of civil§society and the re-creation of local culture despite§civil war and intensifying globalization.