1st Edition
Community Radio in South Asia Reclaiming the Airwaves
This book explores the state of community radio, a significant independent media movement that began about two decades ago, in different parts of South Asia.
The volume outlines the socioeconomic and historical contexts for understanding the evolution and functioning of community radio in an increasingly globalised media environment. It provides a ring-side view of how various countries in South Asia have formulated policies that enabled the emergence of this third sector of broadcasting (public and private being the other two) through radio, rendering the media ecology in the region more pluralistic and diverse. The chapters in the volume, interspersed by practitioner perspectives, discuss a range of key issues related to community radio: radio policies, NGOisation of community radio, spectrum management and democratisation of technology, disasters/emergencies, gender issues, sustainability, and conflicts.
One of the first of its kind, this volume will appeal to scholars and researchers of community media and independent media studies, cultural studies, as well as sociology and social anthropology, and South Asian studies.
1. Introduction: Community Radio in South Asia: A Roadmap for Media Democracy
Kanchan K. Malik and Vinod Pavarala
PART I: THE POLICY TERRAIN
2. Deliberating Community Radio in India: A Policy Ethnography
Preeti Raghunath
3. Community Radio in Bangladesh: Policy and Practice
Mohammad Sahid Ullah
4. Community Radios of Nepal: Trajectory of a Cultural Movement
Sudhamshu Dahal
5. Community Radio in Sri Lanka: Need for Legal Recognition and Community Ownership
M. C. Rasmin and W.A.D.P. Wanigasundera
PART II: ISSUES IN PRACTICE
6. Beyond the Development Trap: NGOization of Community Radio in India
Vinod Pavarala
7. Radio Spectrum Management: Implications for Community Radio in South Asia
Ram Bhat
8. The Paradoxes of Technology: Reflections about Community Radio in South Asia
Hemant Babu
9. Women and Community Radio in South Asia: The Participation and Empowerment Dilemmas
Kanchan K. Malik
10. Community Radio in the Times of Disaster: Contemplations for South Asia
Ashish Sen
11. Not Quite There Yet: Sustainability of Community Radio in South Asia
N. Ramakrishnan and Venu Arora
PART III: CASE STUDIES
12. Conflict and Community Radio in India: Solutions Possible and Impossible
Pradip Ninan Thomas
13. Evaluating Community Radio: An Analysis of a Toolkit for Self-Assessment
Vasuki Belavadi
14. Mapping Material Media Practices: The DDS Sangam Radio in India
Madhavi Manchi
15. Grassroots Democracy via Community Radio: A Case Study in Rural India
Bidu Bhusan Dash
16. Community Radio for Creating Communication Channels: Theoretical Musings Emanating from Himalayan Rural Locales
Priya Kapoor
Biography
Kanchan K. Malik is Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Hyderabad, India. She is also a faculty fellow with the UNESCO Chair on Community Media since 2011, and Editor of the newsletter CR News.
Vinod Pavarala is Senior Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Hyderabad, India, where he has also held the UNESCO Chair on Community Media since 2011.
They have previously authored Other Voices: The Struggle for Community Radio in India (2007) and several joint articles and research reports on community radio in leading publications.
“This volume, put together by two of the leading researchers of community radio in South Asia, is an authoritative and rich collection of articles from a mix of esteemed and emerging scholars. This is a timely and important follow up on Pavarala and Malik’s much-cited 2007 book, Other Voices: The Struggle for Community Radio in India.”
Jo Tacchi, Loughborough University London, UK“Kanchan K. Malik and Vinod Pavarala, two of South Asia’s leading experts on the subject, have pulled together an impressive collection that shines a light on the complexity and contradictions of community radio in the region. Like all good books, it raises as many questions as it answers. If policy processes are slow, as they often are, might we be better off without policy? Why are there fewer community radio stations in India, which has a policy for supporting and encouraging them, than in Nepal, which doesn’t? What differentiates participatory and populist media? But the questions asked, and the answers offered, are fascinating and full of insights that will help define the next steps for community radio, development communication, and participatory communication for years to come.”
Bruce Girard, Author of A Passion for Radio
