Empowering locales: Need for an effective community media

EMPOWERING LOCALES: NEED FOR ANEFFECTIVE COMMUNITY MEDIA

MOINA KHAN

India is a pluralistic society, and a synthetic mosaicconstructed with an amalgamation of different kinds ofcommunities and hence community communication becomesan urgent need. Though with the phase two of FM licensing inJuly 2005, airwaves were made accessible and manycommunity radio stations belonging to non-governmentorganisations and educational institutions were set up all overIndia. Many campus community radio stations have been setup in urban areas under the governance of respectiveeducational institutions, with an aim that these will act as agood communication agent. In Indian metropolitan cities,where there are many sources for information andentertainment, what is the image of community radio stationsamong its audience? Campus people, can be aware of it, butwhat about the community it caters to? Why do they actuallylisten to it? Do they actually depend on this kind ofcommunication strategy?

INTRODUCTION

THE COMMUNICATION and information need of every society isdifferent. “Every nation needs to define development for itself and find itsown strategy.”(Servaes, 1989 in Srampickal J, 2006) India being a pluralisticsociety needs an entirely different communication approach. With changein every region, tradition, culture, and group, a different communicationneed and strategy is required. It is not just a nation’s growth in terms ofpower, trade and economy but there is more to development. A society issaid to be developed when its people are informed, aware and areempowered. They have their unique cultural and indigenous identity. Theyinitiate and participate in dialogues and are the decision makers and agentsof change. For such a kind of individual development, another kind of

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media is required. Demassification of media has made it possible to createa niche format for the audience. Providing wide variety of choices, throughthis kind of media, people can be reached at grassroots.

Community specific communication medium can initiate dialogue andinformation transmission to transform it into a more updated one. Theneed for such a specifically designed communication strategy in India wasrealised in the mid-1990s and airwaves were declared a public property bythe Supreme Court in 1995. As a result, India witnessed the setting up ofcampus community radio stations by educational institutions andcommunity radio stations by NGOs. Currently community radio stationsare being run by NGOs in under-developed areas and campus communityradio stations by educational institutions mostly mushrooming in the urbanareas in India.

According to World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters,the characteristics of a community radio include:

– Non-profit making

– Community ownership and control

– Community participation.

Mc Luhan rightly termed Radio as the ‘Tribal Drum’. Radio with itsunique informal quality develops local, emotional and humour connectswith its audience. “This was quiet evident when I spoke to one of thevillagers in my last visit to Sangham Radio, a community radio in Medak,Andhra Pradesh, India”. “I feel as if I have a friend with whom I can talk,share problems, cry, smile and laugh”, stated Sridevi. Another villager,Ramudu said, “I realised the importance of education because of radio.Now I send my kids to the school.” (Personal Interviews, September, 2013)

Their counterparts, campus community radio stations in urban areasare also required to serve the community through specific programming.Since the term involves, ‘community’; along with students’ involvement,a participatory programme approach for the community, by the communityand of the community is essential too. How much of this democratic aspectis explored in such stations in the urban areas? How much is the communitygetting involved when they already have information sources in abundance?Do the people need a medium at all for their community specificinformation? In order to find the answers for all these questions, the studyfollows a survey method. The results of the survey method created a needfor further investigation and an experimental methodology was used.

Review of Literature A study done by Kanchan Kumar, Sarojini Naidu, School of

Communication, University of Hyderabad, explains the basis on which

EMPOWERING LOCALES: NEED FOR AN EFFECTIVE COMMUNITY MEDIA / 157MOINA KHAN

the cause of establishing community radio in India is being followed byIndians from different fields. The author takes up case studies of communityradio stations like: Alternatives for India Development project, DeccanDevelopment Society, Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan, etc... The studyextensively talks about capacity building and participation. With theselected case studies, this research work gives interesting illustrations ofthe work done by the different community radio stations. (Kumar, 2005)The first attempt to use radio in India for education was a pilot projectknown as ‘Rural Radio Forum’ initiated after Independence (Mathur andNeurath, 1959 in Agrawal, 2007). Rural Radio Forum was modelled aroundCanadian Rural Radio Forum’s first broadcasting in 1941. In spite of RuralRadio Forum’s success beyond expectation within 15 years, it was closeddown and few years later, there were no functional rural radio forums inIndia (Yadava 1989; 66-67 in Agrawal, 2007). The struggle for radio inIndia, and the policies and regulations governing it, had been a matter ofdebate for long and has been studied a lot. A research paper on the samegrounds by Saima Saeed is an attempt in analysing the conduciveness ofcommunity radio policy in India. The suggestions provided in the studyare only related to policies and regulations, giving scope to further studythe ground issues faced by the broadcasters.A UNESCO sponsoredworkshop in July 2000, got media practitioners, academicians, studentsand people working for developmental issues, together. This was thePastapur initiative on Community Radio that led the government to createa three-tier structure for Indian radio broadcasting. (Pavrala and Malik,2007)

Binod.C Agrawal examined the socio-political scenario that led to theissuance of community radio licences in India and suggested ways forenhancing its functionality. Project in Radio Education for Adult Literacy,(PREAL) with the new education policy 1986, Government of Indiainitiated National Literacy Mission (NLM), and involved the use of radioto improve the quality of teaching-learning process. It included anassignment that imparted literacy though radio. The project set a goodexample on the demassified and niche use of radio. (Agrawal, 2007). DavidFrohlich in his study of community radio explored the challenges inapplying the technology of digital story telling for specific ruralcommunities in South India. StoryBank is the way of incorporating digitalstories as short as two minutes for encouraging thinking and empowermentamong communities. David Frohlich belongs to the Digital World ResearchCentre in the University of Surrey. The Centre has collaborated with theNGO VOICES for carrying out this project in India. (Frohlich, 2009) OtherVoices, a book by Vinod Pavrala and Kanchan Malik, has tremendously


contributed in studying community radio. The book discusses communityradio initiatives in different parts of the world and takes up case studies ofcommunity radio stations run by NGOs in India. The book interestinglygives real life instances of how this kind of radio has been used by villagersfor getting, using and creating information.

The studies done and mentioned so far have elaborated on CommunityRadio Stations in rural or under developed areas. The campus communityradios in India have not been touched upon yet. In this way the presentstudy, investigating functionality of campus community radio station inthe urban area, and giving an alternate dimension to various other studiesdone so far, will definitely add to the research pool.

Methodology for the StudyThe study aimed at assessing the need of community communication

in a metropolitan set up where the information need of the people is metby the mainstream media. It also tries to suggest ways that such stationsbecome known among community members and act as agents of change.The study started with a survey (Pre test) among people of Jamia Nagarcommunity in Delhi. The analysis of this survey revealed that a majorityof the community members are unaware about the community radio conceptand its utility. The result of this test demanded a further analysis of thegroup in a post test, hence the method—Before and After without controlexperiment was used.

Background of Radio Jamia 90.4 FMThis campus community radio station, started in 2005, is run by the

Anwar Jamal Kidwai Mass Communication Research Centre of JamiaMillia Islamia University. Its first trial transmission went on air on March15, 2005. It is broadcast twice a day consisting of a live transmission from2 pm to 5 pm, and a repeat version from 10am to 1pm, every day, except onnational holidays. According to Dr. G. R. Syed, Associate Professor, JamiaMillia Islamia University and in charge Radio Jamia 90.4 FM, “Theprogrammes are generally produced by the Jamia Nagar community peopleand University students. The programmes are made keeping in mind thetarget listeners who are Jamia Nagar community people.” Radio Jamiacovers a radius of up to 12 km and reaches areas like Batla House, ZakirNagar, Joga Bai, Okhla, Ghaffar Manzil, Sukhdev Vihar, New FriendsColony, etc.

Pre-Test Methodology A survey was undertaken among 100 randomly selected people residing

within the radius of Radio Jamia. The major questions asked in the survey


included:• What according to you is community radio?

• What kind of programmes would you like on a community radio?

• Is there any community radio in or around your area? If yes statethe name.

• Do you think community radio is useful for the society? State withreasons.

Pre-Test FindingsApart from homemakers, the sample included working men and women

from Jamia Community belonging to professions like School and Universityteachers, Media, Engineering, Business, IT, rickshaw pullers, maids, peons,bpo workers, doctors, housewives, etc….Translation was provided touneducated people and their answers were recorded. After the analysis ofthe survey, it was found:

Description Percentage

Number of people neither having knowledge of the 57% OR 57existence of a community radio around their area nor the understanding of the concept of acommunity radio.

Number of people who understand the concept of a 20% OR 20community radio and are aware about the existenceof a community radio in or around their area

Number of people who lack the conceptual knowledge 19% OR 19and consider community radio as any other radio.

Number of people who know the concept of community 04% OR 04radio but are unaware of its existence in their area.

Pre-Test DiscussionTable 1 clearly indicates that a large number of community people,

don’t understand the community radio concept and are unaware that sucha radio exists in or around their area. The figure of 19 per cent thoughindicates the number of community people who consider community radioas any other radio; it is in a way a reflection of their unawareness about theactual concept of the medium like their 57 per cent counterparts. So it canbe said that around 76 per cent community members lack knowledge aboutthe concept of a community radio. Hence a large number of people areignorant about the usage of a strong medium. Around 16 out of the abovementioned 19 people named Radio Jamia as the community Radio in oraround their area thinking it is like any other radio. The other two people


out of 19 said they don’t know while one named Radio Mirchi as thecommunity radio in their area. Only 20 per cent actually were familiarabout community radio conceptually and existence of Radio Jamia in theirarea which is quiet low as compared to the 76 per cent unaware people.Out of the 20 community members who were aware of community radioconcept and Radio Jamia, two people said they listen to it every day, fivesaid sometimes, eight mentioned very rarely and the rest of the five peoplesaid they never listen to Radio Jamia. These people mentioned that theywould like to listen to cultural, career, informative, and entertainingprogrammes on Radio Jamia. One out of these 20 persons said thatcommunity radio is not useful to the society while the rest 19 peoplementioned that it is useful for the society since it provides, socio-culturaland health information, providing awareness and initiating communitydevelopment.

Treatment of the Selected GroupThe data in the pre-test revealed that majority of respondents don’t

understand community radio concept and hence are unaware that such aradio station can actually work as a tool for societal development. For aneffective use of participatory media it is essential to not only know aboutits existence but also, what it stands for. With stratified sampling, out ofthe 100 people surveyed, those who lacked the conceptual knowledge ofthe community radio and its existence in their area were selected:

The total number of people neither having knowledge of the existenceof a community radio around their area nor the understanding of the conceptof a community radio and people who lack the conceptual knowledge andconsider community radio as any other radio as well as people who knowthe concept of community radio but are unaware of its existence in theirarea come to 80 persons.

This group included working men, working women and housewives.These respondents were invited at a common place. Out of which only 51people turned up. These 51 people from Jamia Nagar community werethen addressed about the following:

• What is Participatory communication?

• How can it lead to development?

• What is a Community Radio Station?

• How such a radio station involves participatory communication?

• Examples of how the community people have used such a mediumto raise their voice and bring a change in their society.

• The existence of a community radio, Radio Jamia 90.4 FM in theirarea.


Post-TestA survey was done among these 51 treated respondents. The

questionnaire was distributed among them after around 40 days of thetreatment. The major questions included:

• What is a community radio station?

• Is there a community radio station in your area?

• If yes, what is it called?

• Have your heard it? If yes, how often: Many times, sometimes,rare, not heard?

• How do you rate the station if heard? Good, Bad, Average, Poor,Can’t Say.

• Do you think your community requires development? If yes, whatall needs to be done?

• Can this station help in developing your community or area? If yes,how? If no, why?

Post-Test Findings and DiscussionAmong the 51 respondents there were two uneducated respondents,

translation was provided to them and their answers were recorded. Afterthe analysis of the survey, it was found:

A large number of respondents are now aware, about the communityradio concept and its utility. The post-test revealed that all the respondentsin the selected group are well aware about the existence of Radio Jamia,52.94 per cent respondents heard the station, and remaining 47.06 per centdidn’t hear it. Out of the people who didn’t listen to it many mentionedthat the timings 10 am-1 pm and 2 pm to 3 pm don’t suit them. Many statedthat this is not an appropriate time for broadcast and that it should beextended to early morning hours and late evening. Out of the 27 respondentswho heard the station, eight rated it as average, nine as good, four as poor,two as excellent, and the remaining four didn’t give any rating.

All the respondents agreed that their community needs development.Major preference was given to the necessities like clean drinking water,sanitation, proper health facilities, and proper roads. Some respondentsreferred to illegal constructions that are ruining the area. Some stated thatsince many areas in this community are not regularised, government doesn’ttake care of this. Around 35 people stated that the development of educationis required. Around 10 people out of the 35 mentioned that education forwomen and girls need to be stressed on. One respondent stated that “BatlaHouse incident had an adverse effect on community people. They areimaged as negative”. Another mentioned, “People feel this community is


just a Muslim hub and are often scared to be associated or even come here.This isn’t true. There are many non-Muslims as well. The wrong perceptionneeds to be diluted.” It is quiet evident that it’s not only the usual communitydevelopment issues but people even think about the personality andperception of the community.

Out of the 17 people who didn’t believe that the station can developthe community, many gave reasons like lack of awareness about the stationwithin the community, improper broadcast time, ineffective and unrelatedprogramming and no encouragement of public participation. Some peoplestated that programmes are irregular and the station is not clearly audiblein some areas within the radius. However, out of the 16 people who wereassociating community development with the station, many stated that thestation can bring a change in the society if programming is made evenstronger and effective and the station reaches the community withdevelopmental issues. All people though agreed that their community needsdevelopment on one or the other basis, but only few contradicted that thisstation can develop their community. In order to make people believe in amedium, an effectively and strong campaign and programming is required.

The responses are a clear indication that the Jamia Nagar communitypeople are not depending on Radio Jamia 90.4 FM. This lack of dependencecan be associated with lack of information about the existence and utilityof this form of alternative media, weak programming strategy failing to

Description Percentage

Number of people who understood the Community 42 or 82.35%Radio concept and its utility

Number of people who now know the existence of 51 or 100%Community Radio, Radio Jamia90.4FM

Number of people who heard the station. 27 or 52.94%

Number of people who heard and believe that this station 08 or 15.69%can develop their community

Number of people who didn’t hear the station 24 or 47.06%

Number of people who didn’t hear but think this station 08 or 15.69%can develop the community

Number of people who don’t believe that the station can 17 or 33.33%help in developing the community

Number of people who believe that their community needs 51 or 100%to be developed?


attract the listeners and to create a space for itself in a city that had alreadyand continues to witness the growth of mainstream media.

Graphical RepresentationGraph 1 shows the wide disparity in awareness during pre and post-

test, symbolising that people need to be informed about community radioutility.

Graph 2 shows a wide disparity in the pre and post-test knowledge ofrespondents about the existence of community radio in their area,symbolising the importance of creating awareness.

Limitation of the StudyOut of the 80 respondents selected for the post-test, only 51 turned up

and underwent a treatment. Due to unsuitable broadcast timing of theselected radio station, some of the respondents were not able to listen to itand hence were neither able to rate the station, nor associate it withdevelopment. Around eight respondents, who didn’t listen to the stationbut still linked it to development, can be due to the knowledge that theyreceived during the treatment stage and hence it can be stated that they areassociating community radio but not specifically Radio Jamia withdevelopment.

Graph 1: Conceptual Knowledge of Community Radio among Respondents


Conclusion and Suggestions The efficacy of any communication strategy largely depends on its

content, the medium through which it is executed and the awareness thatsuch a strategy is being executed. The potential of radio with its ability toreach particular audience with specific format and language is not beingutilised properly. The community media is widely spreading in differentparts of the country in the form of community radio or campus communityradio since phase two of FM licensing policy. This alternative form ofmedia is bringing a change in many small Indian villages where there arevery few or no information sources. Though the people in urban area realisethat development is required at the community level but they are sooverpowered or have been overpowered by the mainstream media that theirown community specific needs are sidelined. A developing nation needsan even stronger development at the local stage before it reaches for aglobal development. A multicultural society like India needs developmentfirst at the base level that is within its different communities. The study

Graph 2: Respondents Identifying the Community Radio Station in their Area


reveals that people do identify with and respond to the media, if they areaware about it. After the treatment, around 40 days’ gap was given for thesurvey. Respondents still reflected clarity on community radio conceptand recognised Radio Jamia as the community radio. The wide gap betweenthe pre and post-test graphical representation reflects this fact. The needof the hour is to make the process of community communication popularamong Indian masses specifically in urban areas by creating awarenesscampaigns. Until and unless they know about it, they won’t be able toparticipate in this form of democratic communication medium.

The study indicates that communities in the urban areas are not ableto relate to the programming strategy of the station. This can be due to theprogramming which is weak, that is not specific to the need of the listenersas mentioned by some respondents during the study. It’s time thatcommunity specific communication for development be created. Beforegiving licenses for a community radio in a specific location, the problemsand issues concerning that community should be identified and accordinglythe programming strategy of the station should be created. Hereparticipation of the community people becomes highly essential as theywill be able to efficiently locate the fragile point of the community. Thestudy reflects that like communities in non-developed areas, even those inurban and developed areas can have problems either same or differing invariety or degree but they still need a way, an involvement to arrive atsolutions for the same.

The citizen journalism idea is very well used by many Indian televisionchannels, in the same manner, community journalists can actually beactively involved for such stations. It is observed that more and moreeducational institutions are acquiring licenses for the community radiostations in urban areas. These campus community stations usually havethe broadcast time within their institutes’ regular timing. Morning andevening are proven hit slots for the medium radio, like every good station,even the community stations should consider the listening habits of theiraudience. Many respondents in the study indicated that the existing timeof the selected station doesn’t suit them. Capable people from within thecommunity should be given licenses for running these stations and largefunds need to be directed by the government for the same. Since theseeducational institutes don’t get much government funding and run thestations on their own expenses, they can’t be held accountable for thefunctionality and thus can escape. There is a need to reformulate policiesand regulations.

Informing the masses creates awareness that leads to a progressivesociety. With the aforementioned suggestions it may be concluded that


community radio in India should be reworked as a campaign fordevelopment, targeted towards a specific audience providing informationand converting the information into actions for a better society. Realisingthe status of community radio in Indian urban areas and proposing measures,this study gives scope for further studies on the development need ofcommunity people.

REFERENCES

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5. Frohlich D.M., Story Bank: Mobile digital storytelling in a development context.Proceedings of CHI 2009:1761-1770. New York: ACM Press.

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11. R, R. (n.d.). Farmers’ Interaction with Researchers through Ham Radio Network inTamil Nadu, India – an analysis. Retrieved from http://www.col.org/pcf3/papers/PDFs/Rajendran_etal_Alluri.pdf

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13. Saeed, S. (n.d.). ‘Community Radio: Policies, Power and Possibilities.’ Retrievedfrom http://communityradio.in/pdf/community-radio-policies-power-and-possibilities-paper.pdf

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Empowering locales: Need for an effective community media