Quem faz uma rádio comunitária? Estudo de caso em uma favela da Zona Oeste do Rio de Janeiro

O presente estudo pretende oferecer janelas à compreensão do funcionamento das emissoras de rádio existentes na favela Rio das Pedras, localizada no bairro de Jacarepaguá, na cidade do Rio de Janeiro, e o conhecimento acerca da articulação do conceito de rádio comunitária reproduzido pelos atores envolvidos nas transmissões radiofônicas. O desenvolvimento da pesquisa sobre as rádios dessa favela foi favorecido pela observação participante no campo, que propiciou um ambiente amistoso para realização das entrevistas de história de vida dos proprietários das emissoras, permitindo a compreensão de suas relações com a comunicação radiofônica, objetivos, expectativas futuras da radiodifusão na localidade, e ainda o estabelecimento de uma síntese analítica das relações entre os discursos produzidos pelos proprietários dessas emissoras.

The role of media networks in compensating political biases: evidence from radio networks in Brazil

A central question in political economy is how to incentivize elected socials to allocate resources to those that need them the most. Research has shown that, while electoral incentives lead central governments to transfer fewer funds to non-aligned constituencies, media presence is instrumental in promoting a better allocation of resources. This study evaluates how these two phenomena interact by analyzing the role of media in compensating political biases. In particular, we analyze how media presence, connectivity and ownership affect the distribution of federal drought relief transfers to Brazilian municipalities. We find that municipalities that are not aligned with the federal government have a lower probability of receiving funds conditional on experiencing low precipitation. However, we show that the presence of radio stations compensates for this bias. This effect is driven by municipalities that have radio stations connected to a regional network rather than by the presence of local radio stations. In addition, the effect of network-connected radio stations increases with their network coverage. These findings suggests that the connection of a radio station to a network is important because it increases the salience of disasters, making it harder for the federal government to ignore non-allies. We show that our findings are not explained by the ownership and manipulation of media by politicians.