[cr-india] on community radio forum meet

[Tripta B Chandola]

To introduce myself, I am not a CR person, have engaged with the  
issues and concerns not through any direct involvement but always  
through networks, workshops, and extensive readings over the net and  
where ever available. I am Tripta, a researcher interested in the  
areas of urban cultures, media practices, technological cultures,  
technologies in a social context, etc. Currently, I am pursuing my  
PhD from QUT and my doctorate research concentrates on exploring  
‘radio sound as a biography of everyday urban sound’. I am working in  
the slum settlements of govindpuri, in south delhi, and through radio  
sound/sonic cultures, I am interested in looking at the social,  
cultural, political, spatial interactions between the city and the  
slums.

Community Radio is fascinating to me, besides the obvious, for the  
different kinds of creative and innovative experimentations with  
sound and formats which it can possibly incorporate. I am also  
interested in the policy, implementation level of CR.

Here, I comment/reflect on proceedings of Community Radio Forum India  
held at IIC yesterday from a researcher/ enthusiast point of view.

The new CR policy was well de-briefed and explained at length, making  
it much more convenient for novices like me to articulate beyond the  
jargons and legalities. The discussion on eligibility, licensing,  
application procedures were also very in-depth and for those who were  
interested in applying for the same, very helpful. However, it was  
the open session on Training, capacity building, and ownership, which  
brought forth issues, opinions, and discussions, which dealt with, so  
to say, the ‘everyday of community radio’. An intensive participation  
from the community radio programmers, producers, livened the  
discussed and as Stalin said, ‘brought forth the complex reality’ of  
the running, sustaining, doing community radio.

The main issues that were raised focused on:

a) Issues of participation

b) Funding (or sustaining the CR initiative)

c) Ownership

Most of the other discussions were auxiliary to these main issues. I  
am not repeating all the discussions, as through this exchange, the  
intention is to take forward the off-line discussions and keep them  
going.

A few reflections/ suggestions:

The first half of the day concentrated on Policy issues, applications  
procedure, eligibility, etc, all very significant and strategic  
issues pertinent to Community Radio. However, in the second half of  
the day, when most of the CR producers were voicing their opinion,  
they all felt that the discussions in the previous section were not  
concerned with CR. On later reflection, I wondered why there was a  
sense of disconnect between the producers and discussions on  
policies? After all, it is the producers who are the ones who get  
directly affected/ influenced/ aggrieved by the policy? So the, why  
don’t they feel part of these discussions?

Reflecting on this, I think there is a need to ‘demystify’ the  
policy. I am aware that all the discussions held were geared towards  
that goal. However, what I mean, is that the producers have to be  
involved in these discussions not as proactive agents of change. For  
instance, I think, the policy needs to be translated into local  
languages. There seems to be some sort of information hierarchy where  
certain people/ groups deal with the policy while the producers do  
not engage with it. The whole essence of the policies, with its legal  
jargons, orders, and commands, is to make it as incomprehensible to  
most as it is possible. Our attempt should be to remove this layer of  
incomprehension and thereby, inaccessibility.

The second issues I want to bring up is, what Staling referred to in  
the passing, the ‘romanticization of the community’. Throughout the  
day, ‘community’ was referred to, evoked, spoken about constantly.  
However, I failed to understand, who, what this ‘community’ was? In a  
parallel conversation with a filmmaker on the same issue, he  
remarked, an individual is also a community.

Also, I got the sense, which I usually do in a lot ‘development’  
forums is, when one talks about the ‘community’, one works on the  
presumption that the community is awaiting, eagerly for such an  
intervention. I am not stating or even suggesting that everyone  
approaches the ‘community’ in this manner but one will have to agree  
meetings/ forums such as these resound with such rhetoric more often  
than not. There seems to be huge gaps and lacunae’s in ‘the idea of  
the community’, ‘describing this community’, ‘the everyday of the  
community’ and interventions. What is the everyday operational,  
functional distance between the imagined and the real community?  
Through personal experience of witnessing the workings of a few CR  
groups, ICt initiatives (which also is plagued with similar  
concerns), I have understood that the community has little or no  
interest in these initiatives, whatsoever. Here, I am evoking  
‘community’ in the same, homogenized, manner as these initiatives do.  
The individuals, groups, families, do not feel a part of such an  
initiative and have nothing to offer/learn from it. Again, I am  
reiterating, this is not a generic picture I am portraying.

My intent only is to raise discussions around these issues and  
concerns in a diverse forum as such. I constantly have to deal with  
these issues and concerns in my research field and till now, I  
haven't been able to resolve it adequately. Hoping that discussions  
that follow help resolve some of these issues.

Regards

tripta


PhD Researcher
Creative Industries Research Centre
Queensland University of Technology
Victoria Park Road, Kelvin Grove, QLD 4059
Australia

http://the-summer-afternoon-stillness.blogspot.com/
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