[cr-india] “The poor and marginalized find themselves without a voice in that monolithic public sphere”: Interview of Prof. Vinod Pavarala by Alexander Vojvoda, Civil Peace Service (CPS) peace worker in Buea, Cameroon .

[Kanchan K. Malik]

*“The poor and marginalized find themselves without a voice in that
monolithic public sphere”*

Interview of Prof. Vinod Pavarala by Alexander Vojvoda*

* CPS peace worker at the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC) in Buea,
Cam­eroon

*Prof. Vinod Pavarala* is UNESCO Chair on Community Media at Uni­versity of
Hyderabad. For over a decade, he has been one of the lead­ing campaigners
for democratization of airwaves in India and the South Asian region. As
past President of the Community Radio Forum of India, he has been playing
an active role in civil society’s engagements with forging alternative
media spaces for the marginalized communi­ties. His much-reviewed book,
co-authored with Kanchan K. Malik, *Other Voices: the struggle for
community radio in India* (Sage, 2007) doc­uments community-based efforts
across India to carve out an alter­native public sphere. He has addressed
international forums such as UNESCO, AMARC (World Association of Community
Radio Broad­casters), and CMFE (Community Media Forum of Europe) in the
cause of media pluralism and diversity.

*When was the UNESCO Chair on Community Media established and what are the
main aims of your work? *

The UNESCO Chair on Community Media was established in 2011 at University
of Hyderabad in India to promote the cause of community-owned, managed and
controlled media through research, policy advo­cacy, capacity building, and
knowledge dissemination. The overall goal is to use the intellectual space
of the Chair to make a case for democra­tization of the media landscape and
contribute to media pluralism and diversity.

*What are the characteristics of community radios as the third pillar in
the media landscape in comparison to the public-service and commer­**cial
media?*

Community broadcasting is essentially a non-profit service. Unlike the
other two types of broadcasting, community radios are characterised by
participation of members of a community in production and manage­ment and
are typically reliant on community’s own material and human resources. They
tend to focus on local issues and events and showcase local cultures,
identities, and languages. The state and commercial sta­tions are used for
propaganda and profit, and are not accessible to ordi­nary citizens, except
as passive listeners.

*Participatory structures, open-access, diversity in opinions, languages,
cultures and persons producing the programmes in general are seen to define
community radios. These aspects of community radios also con­stitute a
‘community public sphere’ in which citizens are able to take part in
democratic processes. How would you describe this arena where citizens are
interacting with the society via community radios? *

The dominant public sphere constituted by the government, a national
market, and the mainstream mass media is exclusionary in nature and
privileges the elites. The poor and marginalized find themselves with­out a
voice in that monolithic public sphere and lacking access to it. It is here
that community media such as community radios have the poten­tial to forge
‘subaltern counter public spheres’ (to use Nancy Fraser’s concept) where
subordinate classes could circulate alternative dis­courses and articulate
their own interests and identities. Such alterna­tive spheres, by shifting
control over media technologies to the mar­ginalized, facilitate collective
action and offer a realistic potential for emancipation.
*How important is the local context community radios are working in?*

The local context is extremely important. Against the homogenizing
influences of globalized media, community radios could offer a local anchor
to reassert the primacy of the village and neighbourhood and encourage a
healthy respect for local languages (many of which are marginalized as
‘dialects’) and local identities. This does not mean that participants in
community radio (producers, managers, and listeners) need to be confined to
the ‘local’, but engage critically with the ‘national’ and the ‘global’
through uniquely context-specific worldviews.

*The term ‘community’ underwent critical analysis in the recent time and
was redefined in new ways. In (post-)conflict situations community radios
are regarded as a tool to facilitate reconciliation processes. What are
opportunities and limits for community radios during conflicts and in
post-conflict situations? How would you see the term ‘community’ in
community radio especially in the context of peace building and con­flict
resolution? *

The notion of ‘community’ could sometimes work adversely leading to
hardening of attitudes towards the ‘other’, which in turn could result in
inter-ethnic violence and conflict. Without romanticizing ‘community’ and
upholding perverse tendencies among local groups, we can retain the idea of
community as a peacekeeper and builder of peace that empha­sizes a
collective, participatory approach to addressing conflict. A
com­munity-based approach to peace building is essential in societies
ridden with conflicts; it helps guide people towards more sustainable,
peaceful relations between different communities. It has been suggested by
those with experience in building bridges in post-conflict societies that
partic­ipatory processes and community-based forums could be mobilized to
build social capital by providing secure spaces for interaction,
communi­cation and collective decision-making. Such mechanisms could
contrib­ute to dispelling mistrust and set the stage for peaceful and
constructive management of communal disputes. Community radio stations
broad­casting in local languages could offer a vibrant forum for dialogue
and debate on key issues that could be fuelling conflict. Ideas about
peace­ful reconciliation, respect for human rights, and civic education
could be systematically and effectively communicated through community
radios. As Clemencia Rodriguez has shown so incisively in the context of
armed conflict in Colombia, community media can play a role in
reconstruct­ing webs of meaning and strengthening the agency of the
community through locally situated knowledges, languages, and aesthetics.

*In addition to their local focus community radios are worldwide organ­ised
in various interest groups e.g. AMARC (World Association of Com­munity
Broadcasters) with regional sub-organisations like AMARC Africa. How
important is the exchange between community radios, especially in the
context of peace building and conflict resolution? *

Community radio stations must take up opportunities for horizontal
networking among similarly placed groups around the world. There is huge
learning and sharing of valuable experiences that would emerge from such
interactions. Organizations such as AMARC provide impor­tant platforms for
exchange of ideas and practices among community radio stations globally. I
can well imagine critical lessons to be learnt through discussions among
community radios, say, in Nepal (which, for decades, dealt with a
debilitating Maoist conflict), Colombia (which had been a basket case for a
variety of violent conflicts involving drug lords, paramilitary groups, and
leftist guerrillas), and Central Africa.

Please see: Christiane Kayser & Flaubert Djateng (eds), Media & Journalism
in Peace Work, Civil Peace Service (CPS)/ BfDW-Mano River Region, Great
Lakes of Africa & Cameroon, 2015
http://www.peaceworkafrica.net/Media-and-journalism-in-Peace-Work

-- 

*Dr. Kanchan K. Malik*

Associate Professor, Department of Communication

Faculty Fellow, UNESCO Chair on Community Media

Sarojini Naidu School of Arts & Communication

University of Hyderabad

Gachibowli, Hyderabad 500046

Phone: +91-40-23135506 (O)

           +91-990-858-2613 (M)
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