ABSTRACT
COVID-19 public health campaigns in Ghana have primarily employed mainstream channels spearheaded by government agencies. Although this approach has recorded some successes thus far, what is unclear is the role alternative platforms play in the delivery of public health messages. Culture-centered approach, participatory communication, focus group discussions (FGD) and in-depth interviews (IDI) were used to explore how community radio attends to the communicative needs of their marginalized host communities. Radio Peace, a community radio station in Ghana’s Central Region, is the focus of this article. A reflexive thematic analysis reveals that the COVID-19 public health communication approaches adopted by Radio Peace are participatory. The decision-making process in developing locally relevant COVID-19 interventions was democratized through the active listeners’ access to the station’s activities. We suggest that community radio stations should be formally integrated into the national COVID-19 public health communication initiatives to attend to the needs of the subaltern.
