Other Voices: The Struggle for Community Radio in India

Other Voices is a significant study of an emerging alternative media scene in India in the larger context of the globalisation of mass communication. It explores community radio in India. When the trend globally is toward mergers, acquisitions, an concentration of ownership in fewer and fewer corporate hands, civil society organisations all over the world have been promoting such alternative, community-owned media. This study investigates the ideologies and communication practices of various community-based organisations that have been using community radio as a means for empowerment at the grassroots. Adopting the case-study method, the authors do an in-depth analysis of four community radio projects in India–in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat and Jharkhand. This book documents the struggle for community radio in India in the context of the state’s reluctance to open up the airwaves. It explores appropriate frameworks for policy-making, including a comparative study of the policies related to community radio in liberal, democratic countries. It also offers a comprehensive assessment of the history of broadcasting policy in India, leading up to the announcement of a community radio policy at the end of 2006. The focus on the importance of alternative media for the marginalised makes compulsive reading for those interested in the media and its impact on grassroots development in India.