Commonwealth Educational

Media Centre for Asia

Why Community Media in

Maldives?

Dr Ankuran DuttaProgramme OfficerCEMCA, New Delhi

Understanding Community

• What dictionaries define--.

• A group of people living in the same place or having a

particular characteristic in common (OUP)

• Montreal’s Italian community

• the gay community in London

• the scientific community

• A particular area or place considered together with its

inhabitants

• a rural community

• local communities.

Who is a community?

• A social unit of any size

• Having a particular characteristic in common or

that shares common values

• Having an identity, may be geographical,

political, economic, religious, cultural, or virtual

Understanding Community

Defining the term community is a complex concern,

with various diverging perspectives and outlooks.

How can we define the term 'community' in a

simplest yet most comprehensive way?

As we try to understand the term with a slightly

different approach it’s observed ‘community’

comprises of two distinct yet intricately imbibed

phrases- Common and Unity

(Common + Unity = Community)

http://comcomm.blogspot.in/

Understanding Community

Commons, simply refers to people or masses

Unity stands for the state or feature of being one, uniformity, being

in accord, harmony with one another or towards a particular

cause.

So, Community is a group of people with unification of some

specific genre, may be geographical, political, economic, cultural,

identity real or virtual.

For example, a Facebook or other social network’s community is

a virtual community. Similarly, the concept 'C3' finds its bases

primarily on geographical community. But it may also be identified

with socio-cultural identity!

http://comcomm.blogspot.in/

Understanding Community Media

“Community media are characterized by their

accountability to the communities they serve. They

emerge as a result of popular movements that strive to

attain an important space in citizen participation and

demand the right to own and operate free from political or

commercial interference.”- UNESCO

Community media is one that is operated:

• in the community,

• for the community,

• about the community and

• by the community.

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/media-development/community-media/

Understanding Community Media

• Community media, as its name reflects is a form of a

participatory media which is created, controlled and influenced

by community.

• Fuller (2007) defines community media as, when members of

the community have access for information education and

entertainment, when they want to access, and community

participates as planners, producers and performers.

• Community media as a potent tool enabling local communities

to represent themselves

• Community media promote ‘arts’ within the communities

Different Terminologies

• Counter-information media (Baldelli 1972)

• Independent media (Herman and Chomsky 1988)

• Citizens’ media (Rodriguez 2001)

• Tactical media (Lovink 2002)

• Participatory media (Servaes 2005)

• Community media (Rennie 2006)

• Social movement media (Downing 2008)

• Third Sector media (European Parliament 2008)

• Nano-media (Downing 2010)

• Alternative media

3 Basics of Community Media

• Community Ownership

• Not for profit

• Community Participation

Community Participation• Management

• Governance

• Policy making

• Operation

• Content Generation

• Content creation

• Gate keeping

• Sustainability

• Financial

• Social

• Feedback

Characteristics of Community Media• Community media is own media

• The appeal is at personal and intimate level

• Rapport is immediate and direct

• Community media is for all, irrespective of diversity

• Impact is much deeper

• Vibrant tool for community development

• Belong to a community and not to individuals, state or commercial organisation

• No threat of cultural colonialism and foreign ideological domination

• More credible than mainstream media; high acceptability

• Cost effective

• Global concept – Local communication; localized message and language

• Horizontal and two way communication

• Flexibility in content creation and delivery

• Free from political or commercial interference

Types of Community Media

Community Traditional

toolFolk media

Visual/ display tools

Community Print Media

Community Newspaper

Community Magazine

Community Electronic

Media

Community Radio

Community Video

Community Television

Community New Media

Social media

Community website/

portal

Why Community Media?

• Democratic views

• Social causes

• Development goals

• Towards Empowerment

Why Community Media?

• Democratic views-

• Offer democratisation of communication

• Break the information monopoly

• Comprehend the Freedom of Speech and Expression

• Realise Political interference

• Bridge the gap between government and public

• Encourage community discussion and debate

• Provide space for public opinion

• Promote good governance

Why Community Media?• Social causes-

• Cover topics which are relevant to the society

• Address the community issues

• Resolve conflicts

• Inculcate scientific temperament

• Play a role of activist

• Disseminate information

• Improve livelihood and wellbeing

• Act a tool for behaviour change

• Preserve art and culture of the community

Why Community Media?• Development Goals-

• Work for overall development of the community

• Vibrant tool for risk communication

• Create environment for co-learning

• Focus best practices

• Expand the range of economic and social choices

• Balance economic, environment and social needs

• Build an environment for healthy community

• Improves accountability to the communities they serve

Why Community Media?

• Towards Empowerment -

• Validate and strengthen community

• Develop skills for individual and community

• Promote women empowerment

• Inculcate enthusiasm for self sufficiency

• Guide children and teenagers

• Develop sense of responsibility

• Encourage local talent

Why Community Media in Maldives?

• Population structure-

http://planning.gov.mv/yearbook2013/

Best medium for risk communication-

On 26 December 2004, the tsunami affected the lives and livelihoods

of a significant part of the population and destroyed houses, health

posts, schools, harbours, jetties, and personal belongings across the

country.

www.planning.gov.mv/

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

HA HDh Sh N R B Lh K AA ADh V M F Dh Th Lh GA GDh Gn S

Num

ber

Number of fisherman by Atolls, 2012

Suitable medium for professions like fishing, where time to time information needed

http://planning.gov.mv/yearbook2013/

How Community Media Works

• Model of activism for development

• Model of Co-learning/ participation for community

empowerment

• Model of establishing identity

• Model of development process archiving

• Model of access to information

http://comcomm.blogspot.in/

https://www.facebook.com/communitycomms

http://cemca.org.in/

Thank You

You may contact-adutta@col.org

ankurandutta@gmail.com

Blog: comcomm.blogspot.in

Web: www.cemca.org.in