Archive for May 2010

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[ecrea] New publication: What’s On Air. A study of the content of community-run FM radios in Nepal

Sun May 09 09:33:24 GMT 2010



What’s On Air. A study of the content of community-run FM radios in Nepal
by Binod Bhattarai, with Ghanendra Ojha


Published by the Community Radio Support Center (CRSC)/ Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ)
with Support from Free Voice (The Netherlands), 2010

Full publication available at http://www.nefej.org/pdf/what_on_air.pdf


Abstract from the foreword, by Raghu Mainali

Community radio is here to stay in Nepal. We in the radio movement talk about serving communities, giving voice to their concerns and talking with communities about things that can help to improve livelihoods. We now have over 130 community radios all of which say they are here to do all of the above. As believers in the empowering role that community radio can play in the lives of people, the Community Radio Support Centre (CRSC)/Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ) decided it was time to look at what they have been broadcasting. We hope this effort can be the essential first step towards getting the wide network of radios we have to start focusing on the soul of radio – the content.

The CRSC/NEFEJ has prepared and published a set of indicators for assessing community radios in collaboration with the stakeholders themselves. They all agree that content should be one of the most important basis for assessing whether the radio serves its community or not. This study was designed by CRSC to try to get a broad idea of the content of community radio in general. We hope it will be the beginning of interest and efforts to generate and disseminate knowledge on the A word on content content. That will serve as important feedback to stations and help them innovate, re-position and re-focus programming for better serving their communities. The study attempts to look into the nature of programs produced and broadcast by selected community radio stations in Nepal. It did not specifically look into scripts and/or news texts or the type of music and entertainment on air. The assessment was based on interpreting what was on their weekly program grids and interviews with people running the stations. If only a step towards quality programming on community radio, CRSC believes it is doing its part for the simple reason that the journey has begun.


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Nico Carpentier (Phd)
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Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Free University of Brussels
Centre for Studies on Media and Culture (CeMeSO)
Pleinlaan 2 - B-1050 Brussels - Belgium
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European Communication Research and Education Association
Web: http://www.ecrea.eu
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E-mail: (Nico.Carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
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