Radio and Public Deliberation

This Kettering Foundation occasional paper provides a comparative overview of radio in the United States and South Africa and suggests that there is much more going on in the world of radio than we might have imagined. Not only does radio inform and entertain us but, Brett Davidson contends, radio also deserves serious attention as a medium with a vital role to play in democracy, in civic participation, and in public deliberation.

The author, who spent six months at the Kettering Foundation as a Fanning Fellow for Journalism and Democracy, managed the Democracy Radio Project at Idasa, the Institute for Democracy in South Africa.