Victoria Quevedo Méndez

Victoria Quevedo Méndez is developing an independent radio sector in Chile to create a media source that serves the public and promotes active citizenship.

A unique program, Foro Ciudadano (Citizen Forum)—broadcast across Chile’s community radio frequencies—hosts discussions on public policy, business trends, societal issues, and invites experts from each sector to partake. By giving marginalized citizens access to dialogue and information, Victoria empowers them to be proactive in making changes in their communities. The program builds an understanding of available state resources, teaches citizens how to access them, and demonstrates how the public and citizen sectors, as well as the dominant Chilean business sector, are fundamental to the country’s social and economic development. As community radio expands, Victoria offers an alternative voice to current media sources in Chile, currently monopolized by two corporations. Foro Ciudadano is broadcast from 100 community radio stations across the country and reaches approximately 650,000 people. Victoria is professionalizing the community radio stations by persuading Chile’s government that community radio is the most effective means of communicating with its citizens. Furthermore, in strengthening the profession of community radio, Victoria is building a media source that identifies with and fulfills its responsibility to provide for the public.

Under the 17-year military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet from 1973 to 1990, Chileans learned to fear the government and each another. In transitioning to democracy, groups of the population were left behind, sticking to themselves and maintaining a distrust of the state. As a result, they do not take advantage of government resources for health and education, both because they are not informed of them, and because they do not understand their rights as citizens. Rather than spread information about new reforms, government communications tend to use superficial marketing techniques with simple headlines and sound bites. In the end, even Chileans who know there is a reform may not know what it consists of or how to access its services.

Today, the business sector overwhelmingly dominates Chilean society. There are few intersections where public, private, and social sectors can dialogue or be seen as equals in democracy-building and development. This is true also of the Chilean media, dominated by two powerful consortiums that present one-sided views dictated by business interests and deny civil society access to effective and informative communications instead of encouraging dialogue. Ironically, with the arrival of democracy and the government’s focus on building business, an understanding of social and economic progress as a collective process has been lost.

Meanwhile, hundreds of communities across Chile have active local-coverage radio stations constructed with informal antennas. Community radios, reaching millions of the most marginalized Chilean citizens, offer an alternative to the corporate-dominated Chilean media. However, once built as a development strategy, community radios became illegal during the dictatorship, where they were an important form of resistance. Now, community radios are legal, but the media companies, fearing competition, successfully created laws prohibiting community radio stations from forming a network, advertising, or using more than one electrical watt to broadcast. Additionally, community radios are not taken seriously as an alternative media source because they lack professionalism.

Foro Ciudadano brings together one representative from each of the three key sectors—public, private, and citizen—to discuss issues pertinent to communities. The three are stakeholders not normally heard in the media. In one example, Foro Ciudadano covered a public health policy requiring hospitals to treat fifty-eight common diseases for free. Representatives from the Ministry of Health, the hospital, and a health-related citizen organization (CO) discussed the list and the necessity of being registered with the health system in order to take advantage of the program. In general, radio program content corresponds with Victoria’s belief that “revolution is in the daily things”—understanding how to make use of your country’s resources is part of being an active citizen. When people understand that there could and should be government shelters for battered women in every region, they will advocate for the missing shelters. Foro Ciudadano journalists’ interview and research extensively before each program. Victoria forms her questions beforehand, ensuring a consistent editorial line. Radio programs are created to be applicable in every region of the country, even broadcasting from locations outside of Santiago about local issues with national impact, such as a forum on salmon fishing held in the south bringing together representatives from business, a fisherman’s union, and a CO working on natural resource management.

The significance in Chile of bringing representatives from the different sectors to speak together is not to be underestimated. Local radio stations have rarely brought together unions and businesspeople—and Victoria’s hope is for communities to understand that it is vital for labor unions to talk with local businesses in their work. A local woman spoke for the first time to the businessman for whom she had gathered rosehips over many years. The businessman, who was completely unaware of situations like hers, agreed on the air to get rid of the intermediaries. In this scenario, the responsibility of the state to regulate these types of transactions became very clear.

Of approximately 120 radio stations, 86 are outside the Santiago metropolitan area and broadcast Foro Ciudadano. All are run by communities, universities, religious organizations, and schools, having first signed a contractual agreement to transmit the program. Community radio stations download content from the website, www.forociudadano.cl. It’s a free exchange; community radios do not pay to download the program, nor does Foro Ciudadano pay them to broadcast it. To facilitate internet access, Victoria created a program for radio stations to learn how to use the internet. The radio stations are also eligible to receive free computers through partnerships with The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and libraries in local schools.

Foro Ciudadano sets the standard in Victoria’s strategy to professionalize community radios. Its journalistic quality shows why and how to conduct the conversations in a concrete manner. In yearly training meetings for the community radio stations who broadcast her show, Victoria builds capacity and resolves problems like access to technology. In collaboration with a university, Victoria initiated a two-month training program for forty women from community radio stations (where men have historically maintained access to the microphone), and is developing a one-year university program whereby people from community radio can enter without obtaining a previous degree. The training at Foro Ciudadano attracts attention from professional journalists, particularly in the online network of virtual daily newspapers. Victoria has approached universities with journalism programs to strengthen this network and they have requested she accept student interns.

Victoria founded Foro Ciudadano in 2001 and has six staff members, including, journalists—who produce media content for the radio program, a companion online magazine with the same title, and other written press—and two anthropologists, who are dedicated to contacting new community radios and building relationships with them as well as maintaining permanent contact with radios they are working with. Foro Ciudadano has been financed by the Ford Foundation, Oxfam, and Avina, but Victoria knew grant money was unreliable. Victoria’s fundraising strategy goes hand-in-hand with her attempt to make community radio a legitimate alternative media source. Of the twelve Foro Ciudadano programs a month, Victoria “sells” nine, mostly to government ministries. Though it might be easier to start at the top, Victoria goes through ministry communications teams, convincing them over several months that community radios—which are often unknown to them—are the best means of disseminating information about new reforms or policies to citizens. The strategy has been successful and the ministries now call Victoria with new campaigns. Foro Ciudadano now sustains 75 percent of its operations by “selling” forums to interested parties, usually the Chilean government. Occasionally, COs buy Foro Ciudadano topics.

Victoria has had a harder time selling forums to the business sector, but she continues to work on strategies to engage them as partners and advertisers. With an operating budget of approximately US$7,500 a month, she is reaching communities all over Chile. Though by law each individual station can only broadcast to a small local area, anyone can access and use Victoria’s show. In the Santiago metropolitan region, Foro Ciudadano was picked up by the University in Santiago which reaches a very large audience over the entire region (in addition to thirty community radios in the metropolitan area). Archived shows have become a repository of some of the best analyses of civic issues in Chile today because of the format and quality that Victoria has pioneered.

Rather than spread Foro Ciudadano as an end it itself, Victoria’s goal is to build a strong social movement of community radios. Policy change must come from this movement rather than from Foro Ciudadano, otherwise the two major media consortiums could use technical excuses to shut down the community radio stations one by one. Victoria focuses intently on building the market at the local and regional levels so as to further legitimize community radio stations independent of Foro Ciudadano. Victoria and her team go to regional media meetings to spread news of the central government’s use of community radios for communications. They also conduct trainings for regional government teams on how to build communication strategies for local media. Similarly, rather than replicate Foro Ciudadano internationally, Victoria will use her leadership position in the Asociación Mundial de Radios Comunitarias (World Association of Community Radios) or AMARC, to spread her best practices to community radios in countries across the region. Latin American community radios could benefit by having websites and by forming networks to broadcast the same programs.

Born and raised in a middle-class Santiago neighborhood, Victoria was beloved by her community for her warm, generous, and social personality. Her parents encouraged her through their own examples, to actively participate in community life and local organizations.

During Chile’s dictatorship, Victoria lived for nine years in Sweden in exile. Throughout this time, she continued to help communities in Chile. In Sweden, Victoria studied mathematics, which she credits with teaching her to be organized and think logically, both skills she takes to her current work as a social entrepreneur.

When she returned to Chile, Victoria became involved in various social movements, particularly the feminist movement. With a commitment to women’s rights, in 1989 she co-founded the CO La Morada, buying an AM radio wave and starting Radio Tierra. After complaining to the station’s director about the lack of programming between seven and nine in the morning (high listening hours) Victoria found herself hosting an early morning talk show. She fell in love with radio and reached many people across the country. Her show became the radio’s most popular program.

Soon after, Victoria took over as Director of Radio Tierra. She became fascinated with the world of community radio and traveled to visit radio stations in many countries; contacting different networks. She became a leader in AMARC and in 2001 a recognized expert in community radio. Victoria left Radio Tierra to found Foro Ciudadano.