RETRACTED: Community radio and land rights: Amplifying marginalised voices in rural resource conflicts in South Africa

Abstract

This study examines how community radio amplifies the voices of marginalised groups in rural land rights conflicts in South Africa, addressing the challenges of equitable participation and representation in the media during resource disputes. Drawing on a critical participatory communication framework, the research integrates deliberative democracy, empowerment theory and the participation, accountability, non-discrimination, empowerment, legality rights-based principles to analyse fieldwork from Limpopo and Eastern Cape provinces. Using qualitative interviews, content analysis and participatory observation in three community radio stations, the study reveals that community radio is uniquely positioned to facilitate local dialogue, inform policy engagement and counter elite-driven or exclusionary narratives. Results show that radio programming not only mobilises communities and mediates access to legal and civic resources but also reflects contestations around voice, ownership and power among diverse rural stakeholders. The study advances theory by conceptualising ‘mediated participatory empowerment’ as a dynamic process linking media practice with structural transformation. These insights offer practical guidance for broadcasters, policymakers and activists seeking to strengthen rights-based communication approaches in land governance across rural Africa.
Contribution: This article develops the concept of ‘mediated participatory empowerment’ to theorise the dynamic links between community radio practice and structural transformation in rural land governance. By combining critical fieldwork with a rights-based analytical lens, the study offers one of the first empirically grounded accounts, within a rights–based and mediated participatory empowerment framework, of how community radio stations enable marginalised rural voices to shape land rights debates, mobilise legal and policy resources and negotiate power in contested media environments. These findings provide actionable insights for media practitioners, policymakers and advocates working to strengthen participatory and equitable communication strategies in African land reform contexts.
Reason: The article, ‘Community radio and land rights: Amplifying marginalised voices in rural resource conflicts in South Africa’, by Juniper (2026), published online on 30 May 2026, has been retracted by the Editor-in-Chief and the Publisher, due to unreliable findings.