Addressing Stigma and Structural Barriers to Communicating COVID-19 Using Community Radio
Emmanuel Abeku Essel, Eliza Govender · Communicatio · 2025
Some studies report that top-down COVID-19 communication interventions failed to address local structural challenges, such as stigma and lack of access to media forms, which led to communicative marginalisation among resource-limited communities. This article explores how the community radio medium could facilitate host community members’ participation in COVID-19 communication interventions amid these local structural factors. Participants were selected using purposive sampling. The researchers collected qualitative data using focus group discussions and in-depth interviews. A reflexive thematic analysis revealed that Radio Peace, the selected community radio station for this research, employed participatory COVID-19 communication strategies to address barriers to listeners’ involvement in its COVID-19 interventions, such as stigma and lack of media access. This study found that community radio allows host community members to articulate their health communication needs and engage with structural barriers influencing their involvement in the station’s COVID-19 communication interventions. However, the study identified barriers to community members’ access to and participation in community radio’s COVID-19 communication interventions, including indecorous language during on-air discourses. We suggest integrating trusted voices, such as local religious leaders and COVID-19 survivors, into community radio’s COVID-19 communication interventions to address stigma.