Community Radio in South Asia: Reclaiming the Airwaves

This book explores the state of community radio, a significant independent media movement that began about two decades ago, in different parts of South Asia.

The volume outlines the socioeconomic and historical contexts for understanding the evolution and functioning of community radio in an increasingly globalised media environment. It provides a ring-side view of how various countries in South Asia have formulated policies that enabled the emergence of this third sector of broadcasting (public and private being the other two) through radio, rendering the media ecology in the region more pluralistic and diverse. The chapters in the volume, interspersed by practitioner perspectives, discuss a range of key issues related to community radio: radio policies, NGOisation of community radio, spectrum management and democratisation of technology, disasters/emergencies, gender issues, sustainability, and conflicts.

One of the first of its kind, this volume will appeal to scholars and researchers of community media and independent media studies, cultural studies, as well as sociology and social anthropology, and South Asian studies.

Kanchan K. Malik is Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Hyderabad, India. She is also a faculty fellow with the UNESCO Chair on Community Media since 2011, and Editor of the newsletter CR News.

Vinod Pavarala is Senior Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Hyderabad, India, where he has also held the UNESCO Chair on Community Media since 2011.

They have previously authored Other Voices: The Struggle for Community Radio in India (2007) and several joint articles and research reports on community radio in leading publications.