Abstract
Community radio is a powerful medium, which serves to voice the voiceless and is at the heart of communication and democratic processes within societies. Considering the diversity of the northeastern region of India, it is not possible for state-run broadcasting agencies to reach all the communities through its programming content. Radio Brahmaputra, located in Dibrugarh, eastern part of Assam, is the first and only grassroot community radio of Northeast India. Radio Brahmaputra produces content in various languages and local dialects, which create impact in the community engagement of the respective areas. Radio Brahmaputra assists in production of plural voices from the margins of the country against the backdrop of the politics of community radio in India. This chapter will also deal with the process of selecting themes for the radio program by the community reporters and the importance of narrowcasting over broadcasting for a visible impact of the stakeholders.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
References
Couldry N (2010) Why voice matters: culture and politics after neoliberalism. Sage, London
Dagron AG (2001) Making waves: stories of participatory communication for social change. The Rockefeller Foundation, New York
Noelle-Neumann E (1981) Mass-media and social change in developed societies. In: Katz E, Szecsko T (eds) Mass media and social change. Sage, London, p 139
Jethwaney J (2016) Social sector communication in India: concepts, practices, and case studies. Sage, New Delhi
Nair KS, White SA (1987) Participation is key to development communication. Media Dev 34(3):36–40
Noelle-Neumann E (1977) Turbulences in the climate of opinion: methodological applications of the spiral of silence theory. Public Opin Q 41(2):143–158. https://doi.org/10.1086/268371
Pavarala V, Malik K (2007) Other voices: the struggle for Community Radio in India. Sage, Thousand Oaks
Personal Interview, Bhaskar J Bhuyan, 3 Oct, 2017, Radio Brahmaputra, Dibrugarh, Assam
Personal Interview, Pinku Gohain, 6 Oct, 2017, Radio Brahmaputra, Dibrugarh, Assam
Personal Interview, Rumi Naik, 6 Oct, 2017, Radio Brahmaputra, Dibrugarh, Assam
Personal Interview, Sandhya Sharma, 6 Oct, 2017, Radio Brahmaputra, Dibrugarh, Assam
Taylor C (1986) Self-interpreting animals. In: Philosophical papers, vol 1. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 45–76
White R (1999) The need for new strategies of research on the democratisation of communication. In: Jacobson TL, Servaes J (eds) Theoretical approaches to participatory communication. Hampton Press, Cresskill, pp 229–262
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Kaushik, A. (2018). Plurality and Diversity of Voices in Community Radio: A Case Study of Radio Brahmaputra from Assam. In: Servaes, J. (eds) Handbook of Communication for Development and Social Change. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7035-8_9-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7035-8_9-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-7035-8
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-7035-8
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Literature, Cultural & Media StudiesReference Module Humanities and Social Sciences