Abstract Book of the 7th International Conference on Future of Social Sciences and Humanities
Year: 2025
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Still Tuning In? The Relevance of Community Radio in The Digital Age
Moina Khan
ABSTRACT:
For coping with various economic, social and environmental challenges confronted throughout the globe, the solution couldn’t just be found in development but sustainable development. Sustainable development is best attained if it is proposed, planned and worked upon by including and involving the people for whom it is meant. There is a distinct relation between sustainable development and women empowerment, wherein women play a major role in sustaining this sustainability. This descriptive study with its foundation derived from participatory paradigm sets out to understand development from the perspective of women in a communication atmosphere where they are supposed to have their own control over the media.
Community Radio is one such media which, with its inherent features of participation and democratized communication potential, serves this purpose. With this background, the objective of the study is to understand the relevance, effectiveness and potential of community radio in the postmodern era as a medium for women to utilize it and create a public sphere for themselves through mediated discussions of their private spheres. For this purpose, data would be collected from 100 women listeners of community radio stations in India, through a quantitative and qualitative survey to understand the kind and relevance of communication taking place in this postmodern era when we are at juncture chasing sustainable development goals. The study also tries to understand the scope and potential of a local and indigenous media, community radio in an era of emerging technologies.
Keywords: participatory communication, SDGs, India, women, indigenous media