new media & society 1–16 © The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1461444815581148 nms.sagepub.com ‘Can you hear me?’ Mobile– radio interactions and governance in Africa Iginio Gagliardone University of Oxford, UK Abstract The exponential diffusion of mobile phones in Africa and their ability to interact with other media have created new avenues for individuals to interface with power. These forms of engagement, however, have primarily been interpreted through the lenses of the ‘liberation technology’ agenda, which privileges the relationship between citizens and the state, neglecting the variety of actors and networks that intervene in shaping governance processes, alongside or in competition with the state. Through an ethnography of two local radio stations in Kenya, this article offers a more realistic picture of mobile–radio interactions and their repercussions on governance. The findings illustrate that (1) while these interactive spaces are open to all listeners with access to a phone, they are in practice inhabited by small cohorts of recurrent characters often connected to existing power structures; (2) even in places where basic services are offered by actors other than the state, including non-governmental organizations and criminal networks, the state continues to represent the imagined figure to which listeners address most of their demands; (3) in contrast to the expectations that authorities will act on claims and grievances made public through the media, other factors, including ethnicity, intervene in facilitating or preventing action. Keywords Africa, convergence, hybrid media, interactive shows, media and development, mobile phone, political participation, radio It was my third day at Pamoja FM, a radio in Kibera, Nairobi’s largest slum, when the host of the morning programme received a phone call from a regular listener claiming some students in the primary school in Makina, one of the slum’s villages, had been Corresponding author: Iginio Gagliardone, University of Oxford, Manor Road, Oxford OX1 3UQ, UK. Email: iginio.gagliardone@csls.ox.ac.uk 581148NMS 0 0 10.1177/1461444815581148new media & societyGagliardone research-article 2015 Article at Oxford University Libraries on February 7, 2016 nms.sagepub.com Downloaded from