05. Pan-Commonwealth Forum 5 (PCF5), 2008

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Browsing 05. Pan-Commonwealth Forum 5 (PCF5), 2008 by Subject "Community Radio"

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    A Healthful Recipe For Development: A Space Called Community Radio
    (2008) Vemraju, Rukmini
    PCF5: Cross-Cutting Theme // Where can illiterate women in resource poor settings with low access to learning opportunities learn about health care? How can universities and other institutions of higher learning, who have the means and the knowledge reach out to communities? Community Radio (CR), is one such low cost simple technology that can provide a bridge linking the two. C R has received a new impetus in India with the recent liberalization of the broadcasting licensing policy, whereby recognized educational institutions and selected NGOs are granted licenses to operate low power transmitters. Despite the rapidly growing interest in CR and not withstanding the need for this people’s media, the ground reality today is a bit of a conundrum. The license holders, mainly educational institutions despite the financial resources and technical skills at their command, rarely carry the mandate or the experience to work with communities, and, the communities who need a local voice lack the capacity to operate/sustain a radio station. // It is this gap that CEMCA seeks to bridge, through a project called Science for Women: Health and Nutrition, (SFW) supported by the Government Department of Science and Technology. SFW is a radio series, articulated through 13 community stations over a period of one year , where we engage the students and the listening communities, in a participatory process where the universities understand the community needs and the women learn simple production skills to create relevant content for radio. At each of the 13 locations, 1000 community women are profiled in a baseline survey with community participation, to map their media habits and information needs. Further, a smaller group is engaged in a joint capacity building exercise with the university. Other outreach activities like health camps and interactions with doctors further synergize this knowledge sharing process. The focus is on health and nutrition, where the listeners are active participants, at highest end creating their own content and the lowest, active listeners. // Our paper documents the shared gain and learning by both partners and helps build a model to successfully appropriate the medium for mutual gain. // Paper ID 195
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    Interactive Community Radio and Its Role in Distance Learning: Aspect in Bangladesh
    (2008) Chowdhury, Badrul Haider
    PCF5: Cross-Cutting Theme // Open and distance learning (ODL) is experiencing rapid growth throughout the world. Although started in 1956, the ODL has expanded remarkably after the establishment of Bangladesh Open University (BOU) in Bangladesh in 1992 as the only national public university. Meanwhile, BOU has launched 23 formal and 19 non-formal academic programmes throughout the country. It uses several print and electronic media to deliver instructions to its formal students and non-formal target groups. Among the various media used in BOU, it appeared that radio is one of the effective media for delivering instructions to the students and target mass peoples living in remote rural areas of Bangladesh. It is the cheapest and uninterrupted medium for those who live in the areas with no telephone and electricity. The effectiveness of radio can significantly be increased by changing its current format into an Interactive Community Radio (ICR). The ICR would be a cost-effective educational device for approximately 200,000 junior, secondary and higher secondary levels students living in rural places where electricity is still unreached. This research paper discuses ICR importance for BOU,budget of a ICR station, the problems and prospects of ICR as an effective medium of BOU ODL system and suggests possible ways to get benefits from this cost-effective medium. // Paper ID 102