[cr-india] Fwd: The Struggle for Community Radio in India

[Ramnarayan.K]

For your kind information

ram
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From: Jharkhand Forum <jharkhand.forum at yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 9:13 AM
Subject: The Struggle for Community Radio in India
To: jharkhand at yahoogroups.co.in




For more than fifteen years, India has been experiencing a turbulent
period of transformations in the broadcasting system. The launch of
STAR TV in 1991, followed by a proliferation of domestic and
international channels, opened up the formerly state-run broadcasting
system to commercial competition. While the impact of this change on
audiences has been thoroughly studied, much of this work has focused
on affluent, well-educated, urban audiences.



Other Voices convincingly directs our attention to the rural poor,
those people in India who are still in the majority, but are very much
left out of the new media sphere.

The main goal of Other Voices is to advocate for community radio as an
important means for empowering marginalized groups in society. Vinod
Pavarala, dean, and Kanchan K. Malik, lecturer, at the Sarojini Naidu
School of Performing Arts, Fine Arts and Communication at the
University of Hyderabad, are long-term activists in the Indian
movement to establish community radio. They bring to this project the
perspectives of empirical researchers but also of passionate media
advocates. The main part of the book analyzes four non-governmental
community radio projects in Jharkhand, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Andhra
Pradesh. The evaluation of these projects is contextualized in a wider
global media policy framework.





The book's strength is the well-documented argument the authors
advance. Pavarala and Malik support a "three-tier system" of
participatory community media beside state-run/public and commercial
broadcasters. In this Internet era, many communication scholars tend
to forget that radio as a low-tech medium has tremendous advantages.
It is fairly inexpensive to produce and receive, overcomes the hurdles
of illiteracy, and does not even require steady electric power.



While the particular circumstances vary, all of the cases studies are
projects launched during the last decade amongst some of the poorest
and most disadvantaged people in remote parts of India. The authors
led a team of field researchers who conducted focus groups of
listeners and participants as well as interviews with producers and
reporters who were often recruited as volunteers from local
communities. Of note is how the authors connect the specifics of their
cases to more general concerns such as their potential for creating
effective counterpublics, participatory communication, and gender
equality.



Another strength of this book lies in the thick description of the
case studies. Empowering moments are in abundance, such as the
villagers in Karnataka who listened to a program they produced as
"tears rolled down their cheeks." Or the illiterate women who, after
hearing their issues addressed in their local languages, gained the
confidence to participate in village councils. There are even
successful instances of political change, such as the village chief
who finally initiated a much-needed repair to water pipes only after
he was worried the radio station would broadcast the villagers'
concerns. The radio programs ranged from women's concerns (such as
dowry abuse or girls' right to education) and to general issues
affecting the villages, such as corruption, alcohol abuse, or lack of
electricity or water. Beyond developmental programs these stations
also served as archives and protectors of local languages, music, and
stories.



The authors carefully evaluate the limitations of radio as an agent of
change. Just as a young man in impoverished Jharkhand heatedly asked
the researchers "Can we eat radio?", Pavarala and Malik don't see
radio as a "quick fix" for social problems. They also report that
despite best intentions the most disenfranchised people (illiterate
and very poor, especially women) tended to participate the least.



A less convincing part of the book is the second chapter in which the
authors present a comparison of community radio frameworks in several
countries (Australia, Ireland, South Africa, Canada, United States).
While it makes sense to understand the media development in India in a
more global context, the choice of these countries is not clear. Also,
the underlying assumption that many other countries already have
well-established community radio systems is too optimistic. In the
United States, for example, community radio's counterpublic potential
is often drowned out by an overwhelming commercial media output. While
the authors hope that India can learn from examples abroad, media
activists anywhere can learn from the Indian example how to
orchestrate a concerted grass-root effort to change media policy.



Now that the Indian parliament finally ratified guidelines for
launching community radio (in late 2006), it will be crucial to
translate these impressive first projects into sustained endeavors. At
worst, the country ends up with a system of local but disconnected
stations with small groups of villagers talking to themselves. At
best, independent but well-funded efforts can enable marginalized
people to establish broader political will.


Even for people less optimistic about community radio than the
authors, this book presents a thought-provoking case for anyone
interested in the potential of mass media to create more informed and
engaged citizens.


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