RESEARCHING EDUCATIONAL RADIO IN SOUTH AFRICA : "FINANCIAL FREEDOM" RADIO DRAMA AND THE MEASUREMENT OF IMPACT ON FINANCIAL LITERACY SKILLS KNOWLEDGE AND BEHAVIOUR IN ADULT AUDIENCES

This paper focuses on the research undertaken in the field of educational mass media in South Africa.

Financial education, and short-term insurance financial education, is seen as crucial for all South African audiences, and especially for the poor. The thesis of the research project was to test if financial literacy education, using radio as the mass media to reach the communities of South Africa, could lead to confident and increased financially capable consumers. Specifically, can an increased understanding of financial literacy concepts in general and the use for and value of short-term insurance in particular lead to more consumers using short-term insurance products as tools to mitigate risks?

This project is aimed at reaching mainly low income individuals, i.e. Living Standards Measures 1- 7 in South Africa. These individuals are not users of short-term insurance products. The objective is to investigate whether radio as a delivery mechanism for financial education would be effective to reach many people in a cost effective and interesting way resulting in increased financial literacy and capability.

Radio was chosen as the delivery mechanism for this project as radio in South Africa reaches listeners in their own languages and in their communities. The latest radio measurement figures (RAMS) indicate a listenership of 94.4% of the South African population, the widest reach of any media in South Africa. Radio as a medium in South Africa is highly suitable. The different radio stations have very specific target audiences due to the languages used by the stations. This enables us to broadcast the message to the audiences of 5 radio stations, while using as a control group the audience of a radio station similar to at least one of those selected for broadcasting who will not receive the broadcasts, in order to ascertain whether the message did have an impact.

The concept of "edutainment" was used to convey the message. A radio drama/soap opera with a storyline relevant for the target audience/audiences was developed with the assistance of listener groups in the specific target audiences, and is broadcast on the selected four radio stations over 52 episodes, twice per week. Content was changed according to ongoing input from the listener groups.

Vigorous monitoring and evaluation is included in this project as the aim is to get evidence that radio can be used as an effective delivery mechanism for financial education.

Low or even absent consumer education has long been recognized as a major problem in poor households and communities. This is not only a result of the deficiency in formal education, but also due to a lack of access to information. This is particularly true in South Africa where historically the formal education system has fallen short of achieving acceptable literacy levels amongst communities who were marginalized by the previous political dispensation. (ECIAfrica Consulting (PTY)Ltd, 2004).

The LSMs 1 – 5 have further characteristics that are relevant, including an income below R3000 per household per month, limited formal education, low levels of financial literacy, limited access to financial services, often unbanked and especially uninsured.

This paper will report the findings of the baseline and first two waves of research.