RTV Theory and Practice - Special Issue

encountered in East Harlem with an advisory group that had been formed to attempt to ascertain the needs of the community. Schulman, a white male, admits to his previous lacK of awareness of intra-racial tensions , especially between Black people of Caribbean and U.S. heritage . This schism resulted in creating an obstacle to intra-group cooperation in the attainment of their goals (pp . 435-436). 14 > Rađio Baha'i project in Ecuador was đesigned to have a central chain of authority , with a commission at the top, and a station director to chair the commission anđ to be in charge of daily operation. When this failed , a new commission was desigried with greater diversity between competing interests at the station. It has worked somewhat, but appears to function best in coping with emergencies . The situation was resolved only upon the appointment of a full-time executive director (Hein , 1985, pp . 135-154). 15 ) This might suggest that the solution is control of decision-making in an executive director, yet the experience at KROO-FM, in San Francisco , suggests that the control must be by members of the community the station is meant to serve . Although the station was established as a radio service for the poor people of San Francisco, the station itself was initially controlled and staffeđ by whites . Only after minority station volunteers and listeners protesteđ đid KPOO reconstitute itself , replacing most of the board of directors anđ staff personnel with minority groups members (Barlow , 1987) . V As Kletter , et al, argue ; "Station managers have had to be animators . Animation means exactly that; stirring people to action to solve their own problems . But clearly more than exhortation is required - working out strategies , organization and planning , and learning the reguisite skills , аге all parts of the process" (p. 74). The mediation between competing groups vying for the largest possible shares of broadcast time is , frequently, the largest part of the manager's task . 'Without mediation , there will be growing friction between these groups (and , often, within such groupš ) . Yet , the unanswered question remains who mediates , between which spokespersons are the issues contested, and in whose mterests is the međiation done .

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