“We Struggle With Being ‘All Things To Everybody’”: Negotiating Multiculturalism at KFAI.

Abstract

This project explores KFAI – a non-profit, mostly volunteer based community radio station in Minneapolis, Minnesota – as a site of negotiation between assimilation and different types of multiculturalism. While KFAI’s mission of increasing understanding among peoples and communities by providing a voice to people ignored or misrepresented in the mainstream media corresponds to several theoretical conceptualizations of multiculturalism, various constraints of reality constantly push the station towards utilizing approaches that assimilate the difference. Based on a series of in-depth interviews with station’s paid staff and volunteers, author’s observations and the analysis of the listener survey report, the project reveals and discusses the major tensions between KFAI’s mission and everyday reality in areas of station’s programming, audience and internal relations among the staff and volunteers. Having determined the key areas of tension in station’s practices, the project also outlines the directions for future research.