News through Community Radio

Broadcasting of news in radio gives a ‘light in the darkness’. The first news was broadcast through radio in India on July 23, 1927 by a private company. Since 1930, news has been broadcast by Indian State Broadcasting Service a public broadcaster, which was named as All India Radio in 1936. There are total of 510 news bulletins daily broadcast by this public service radio. But due to the technology and style of programming, the demand of the AIR is decreasing day by day. This is the age of FM technology and it is true that people want to listen noise free programmes, whether it may be entertaining or informative programme. But, the Community Radio policy of India does not allow the news to be broadcast through community radio, unlike the policy of Bangladesh.

The community radio (CR) stations of Bangladesh provide the most important information to the community through their news bulletins several times in a day that encourages the community to step forward with rest of the world. The people can be categorized now as ‘information rich’ and ‘information poor’. Community radio is targeted for the second category to overcome the biggest threat of the present time- digital divide. News in radio is the most suitable format of programme that provides information within a very limited time to feed the curious minds, which are unreached.

Another convincing justification on why community radio should broadcast news? The public service media is designed (may be written or unwritten) to promote the development activities of the ruling government. On the other hand, to survive in the most competitive era, the private media has to depend on advertisers or to the political parties may be in rule or in opposition. Therefore, the agenda setting role of both public and private media depends on what the establishment wants to inform or the advertisers or industrialists want to inform keeping in line with their motives. But, community radio believes to be run by a community and the community will decide what information should be helpful for the overall development of the community.

Cite this article as-
APA
Dutta, A. (2015, January 31). News Through Community Radio. Community Communications. https://www.comcomm.org/2015/01/news-through-community-radio.html

MLA
Dutta, Ankuran. "News Through Community Radio." Community Communications, 31 Jan. 2015, www.comcomm.org/2015/01/news-through-community-radio.html. Accessed ............