Local Media PDF

Recognising that the media will not be interested in covering 'small' issues that involve ordinary people and their daily lives, several local groups have come forward to start their own media. Several people use community radio to tell farmers about the prices of different crops and advise them on...

Recognising that the media will not be interested in covering 'small' issues that involve ordinary people and their daily lives, several local groups have come forward to start their own media. Several people use community radio to tell farmers about the prices of different crops and advise them on the use of seeds and fertilisers. Others make documentary films with fairly cheap and easily available video cameras on real-life conditions faced by different poor communities, and, at times, have even given the poor these video cameras to make films on their own lives. Another example is a newspaper called Khabar Lahriya which is a fortnightly that is run by eight Dalit women in Chitrakoot district in Uttar Pradesh. Written in the local language, Bundeli, this eight-page newspaper reports on Dalit issues and cases of violence against women and political corruption. The newspaper reaches farmers, shopkeepers, panchayat members, school teachers and women who have recently learnt to read and write.