Role of Community Radio for Community Development in Bangladesh

Abstract

Community radio is a medium of expressing and sharing views, thoughts, ideas, problems and prospects of rural, disadvantaged, vulnerable and hard to reach population with the mainstream population. As the media of root level people of the disadvantaged areas, Community radio has become popular in recent years and it has opened a new arena for both the policy makers as well as grassroots people to be involved in the development process of their community. There are about 17 Community Radios broadcasting 135 hours programmes in a day across the country. The Community Radio can help us in addressing social, economic, cultural, educational, health, water and sanitation and disaster related issues more effectively and strategically. In order to highlight the importance and effectiveness of community radio for the community development of Bangladesh, this study has been conducted based on the secondary data. This is a group effort that has become successful by the co-operation of many individuals and institutions. Access to Information (a2i) Programme would like to express sincere gratitude to Monisha Mohonto, Project Focal and Bakul Mohonto, Program Assistant, BTV for introducing such an innovative project. As this is a new concept, there is no significant study has been conducted. Therefore the study has been directed to explore the importance of community FM radio in Bangladesh particularly in remote and rural areas.

Communicating Sustainability: Using Community Media to Influence Rural People’s Intention to Adopt Sustainable Behaviour

“…Therefore, throughout the developing world since the 1990s, community radios have been established faster than either state or commercial radios; across Africa, they multiplied by 1,386 percent between 2000 and 2006, as well as growing remarkably in Asia [26,27] and Latin America [28]. After great success in Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Nepal and India [29], it is a reasonable assumption that radios can play a critical role in harnessing information communication technologies (ICTs) for development in Bangladesh [26], where currently 17 CRs are in operation [30]. In this country, as the socio-economic developmental gap between rural and urban areas is significant [31], only mass popular access to ICTs can improve the situation [30].…”

“…After great success in Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Nepal and India [29], it is a reasonable assumption that radios can play a critical role in harnessing information communication technologies (ICTs) for development in Bangladesh [26], where currently 17 CRs are in operation [30]. In this country, as the socio-economic developmental gap between rural and urban areas is significant [31], only mass popular access to ICTs can improve the situation [30]. Therefore, CRs were launched in Bangladesh in 2011 with the motto of institutionalising citizen's participation in local government, building capacity to adapt with climate change effects, achieving socioeconomic and environmental sustainability and protecting local culture, identity and language [32][33][34][35].…”

“…Its purpose and pattern of communication are different from the conventional social media. For example, it is a real participatory broadcaster (face-to-face meetings between the beneficiaries and the benefactors happen frequently and easily), a grassroots media, voice of the voiceless and a tool for progressive social change and development to protect local culture and language [24,25,30,[32][33][34][35][36][37].…”

“…Moreover, community radio is independent of both government and private individuals and is governed by the community it serves, therefore, it has become a vital part of a healthy, pluralistic media sector [35]. Unlike other social media, a community radio mainly targets rural, disadvantaged, vulnerable and hard to reach populations instead of mainstream population [30]. Researchers claim that "the globalized commercial media can never respond to the socio-economic and development needs of the countries they reach, let alone those of marginalized communities within those countries with irrelevant entertainment, whereas CRs deal with local issues in the local languages and cultural context, relating to local problems and concerns, and aiming to help the community develop socially, culturally and economically" [24] (p. 70).…”

“…Although community radio is not the only social media in Bangladesh, it is a powerful platform for communication [36]. It has importance to rural areas and marginalised communities not only from the perspective of the government's "Access to Information (a2i) Program" [30] (p. 100) but also from many other aspects. For example, countryside people do not have access to commercial FM radios that cover only the metropolitan areas.…”