"Nepal's community radio sector has flourished since it liberalized the airwaves for the first time in 1997. Drawing on an established tradition in other areas of the developing world, Nepal embraced community radio for its potential to overcome propagandistic and exclusive national media systems, to bring news and information to remote areas, and to educate people about human rights, equality, health, family planning and sustainable agricultural practices. This thesis has two major objectives: first, to explore how marginalized social groups use radio as a tool of empowerment. It focuses upon the case of Radio Jagaran, a community-based radio station in Butwal, Nepal that uses participatory media to advocate for social justice on behalf of those who are otherwise excluded and discriminated against. Second, it problematizes the ways in which the funding requirements established by the international NGO donor community appear to be re-focusing the programming agendas of grassroots media organizations such as Radio Jagaran. It attempts to highlight the potential implications of donor-led community media projects by drawing attention to the ways 'truths' and 'realities' of poverty, human rights violations and related issues are constructed by CR stations through negotiating what they perceive to be INGO priorities and objectives." (Abstract)