"This book tells the story of community radio in four South Asian countries: Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. The three parts of the book focus on policy (discussed country by country), issues in practice, and case studies. In effect, however, each of the chapters touches on these topics to
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one degree or another. The first section presents very helpful background on the introduction of community radio in the four countries, focusing not only on policy issues but also on the history of setting up the stations. The second section calls attention to particular challenges such as the role of NGOs, radio spectrum management, the introduction of somewhat advanced technologies into rural communities, the role of women, the possibilities of community radio for disaster response, and issues of sustainability. The third section (the case studies) offers a good deal of practical suggestions to address challenges such as conflicts in the communities, assessment of the stations, and the practices of democracy." (Review in "Religion and Social Communication", vol. 20:2, 2022, page 418-421, https://www.asianresearchcenter.org)
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"Community media is an integral component of CEMCA’s TYP 2012-15 and mission, “to assist governments and institutions to expand the scale, efficiency and quality of learning … in open, distance and technology enabled learning.” In September 2013, CEMCA contracted
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Ashish Sen to evaluate its Community Media activities for its Three Year Plan (TYP) 2012-15. The Evaluation process comprises three parts. These include: 1) Development of the Monitoring & Evaluation Plan (October 2013). 2) Interim Report (August 2014). 3) Final Report (April 2015). It focuses on the four key goals specified in CEMCA’s TYP. These comprise: 1) 20 % increase in number of community radio stations supported by CEMCA. 2) 100 community women empowered in media literacy, health, and leadership & democracy to develop community learning programmes. 3) 9 community radio stations adopt sustainable models & and show case best practices. 4) Increase in the number of stakeholders among content exchange platforms to share programmes in different formats and media." (Pages 9-10)
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"This book is the result of a research project covering eight countries in South and South East Asia examining the role and impact of alternative media. The definition of alternative media depends very much on the political, social, cultural and economic environment you live in. Thus, this book give
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s the reader an idea of the diversity of alternative media sources available across Asia, which is very much a result of the different media regulatory regimes in the countries we have included in this study. While Bangladesh has had alternative media, in the form of community theatre and other artistic expressions for a long time, yet, community radio, which is fast becoming one of the most effective forms of alternative media in Asia, is slow to take off, because the regulations still do not allow it. Meanwhile in Indonesia and Thailand, community radio has taken off rapidly, with regulators struggling to come up with a formula to help regulate the sector while not shutting it down. In the Philippine community radio has existed legally for many years and is thriving, thus, there may be lessons others can learn from this experience. In Malaysia, where legislation tightly controls the establishment of media outlets, there are yet, some interesting examples of how alternative media could be effectively operated via the Internet. Sri Lanka, offers an interesting model where elements of community broadcasting could exist within a public service broadcaster. Thus, this book, gives you interesting examples from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand of how people are getting their voices heard - or are struggling to make that happen - using a variety of media and methods of expression." (Publisher description)
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