From Airwaves to Algorithms: Tracing the Circulation of Community Radio Content into Social Media in Limpopo Province, South Africa

Abstract

Community radio remains central to local public communication in South Africa, yet its entanglement with platformised media environments is poorly understood. This study examines how content from two community radio stations in Limpopo Province circulates on social media and how this circulation reconfigures local publics. Drawing on an integrated framework of circulation, community media and platformisation, the analysis combines a three-month sample of broadcast programmes, cross-platform trace data from Facebook and WhatsApp, and interviews with producers and youth listeners. Results show that only a small subset of broadcast content travels into social media, that circulation is patterned by genre and issue, and that listener-initiated clips and screenshots increasingly rival station posts as focal points for public talk. The study advances theory through the concept of mode as filter, which captures how infrastructural arrangements and everyday sharing practices jointly shape the visibility and authority of community radio in networked communication.