Project 01
Course Code And Name: MSJ-11102, Communication Research
Project Name: Research proposal on how community radio helping Bangladeshi People
Date: Spring 2020
Project Description
Our research proposal subject was ‘how community radio helps Bangladeshi people’. By analyzing the impression we seek to learn more about community radio. This project delves into the profound influence of community radio in enhancing the lives of Bangladeshi people.
Project Justification
This project’s main goal is to thoroughly understand and demonstrate the manner in which community radio plays an essential role in resolving the distinct difficulties that different communities in Bangladesh encounter. Community radio has shown to be an essential medium for education, information sharing, and building a feeling of togetherness among varied groups in both urban and rural areas.
DEPARTMENT OF MEDIA STUDIES AND JOURNALISM
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
ON
How Community Radio Helping Bangladeshi People
Course Name: Communication Research
Course Id: MSJ 11102
Section: 02
Submitted To: Ms. Nandita Tabassum
Submitted By: Ashikur Rahman
Id: 193012062
Introduction
Community radio is a medium of expressing and sharing views, thoughts, ideas, problems and prospects of rural, disadvantaged, vulnerable and hard to reach population with the mainstream population. As the media of root level people of the disadvantaged areas, Community radio has become popular in recent years and it has opened a new arena for both the policy makers as well as grassroots people to be involved in the development process of their community. There are about 17 Community Radios broadcasting 135 hours of programmes in a day across the country. The Community Radio can help us in addressing social, economic, cultural, educational, health, water and sanitation and disaster related issues more effectively and strategically. My topic is about how community radio helps Bangladeshi people. This is not possible for me to research about all the community radio in Bangladesh. That’s why on this topic I will not talk about all the community radio in Bangladesh. Here I only talk about Radio Sagor Dwip 99.2. I will talk about how Radio Sagor Dwip helps Noakhali people, and what types of programs they are doing there.
Background
Community Radio Sagor Dwip 99.2 situated in Hatiya upazila under Noakhali district. Radio Sagor Dwip was officially inaugurated on 12 November 2015. Radio Sagor Dwip, established with the patronization of social development organization Dwip Unnayan Songstha (DUS) is currently being aired for 06 hours in a day from 9am to 12pm & 2pm to 5pm. Seven core staff and 30 volunteers are currently working for the station. According to a survey, nearly 2.5 lakh people listen to community radio. Radio Sagor Dwip has focused on the issues of disaster to provide relevant quality information and to gain confidence from the villagers with the aim of saving lives in disasters. The station is also providing news and information on agriculture, Health, Education and social safety net issues. Most of the people of Hatiya are fishermen; they depend on fishing in the deep sea for their livelihoods. The community radio Sagor Dwip is serving these people with information and programs related to entertainment, Disaster, Agriculture, Health, News, Local & weather forecasts. They are doing a lot of work for Hatiya upozila people. https://youtu.be/IOhO000bvgQ in this video you can see what they are doing for the people…
Self- Reflection Of The Research
As human beings we all should help other people. From my childhood I have been trying to help people around me as much as possible. Radio community is also doing similar things. They are helping people by giving them useful information,they also help to increase public awareness day by day,they also entertain people by their work. The way they help people impresses me so much. And I believe that the radio community will be bigger day by day and also help people with their work.
Research Objective
●What type of problems commonly faced by the people in Noakhali and how community radio helped them to fight these problems?
●What are the obstacles faced by the people who run these community radios?
● What types of programs are they doing for helping people or entertain people?
Research Question
· What is the role of Radio Sagor Dwip in helping Noakhali People ?
· What are the most effective strategies to improve community radio?
· What are the advantages and disadvantages of running this community radio?
Scope and Limitations
Because of this research I have studied a lot about community radio and I have learned a lot about community radio. This research is about how community radio is helping the people of Bangladesh, Because of this research people will know what is the role of community radio in helping people. For this research I wanted to go to the people of Noakhali Hatiya and talk with them about how Radio Sagor Dwip helps them, but I can’t do that because of coronavirus.
The limitations of this study are as follows:
i. Unavailability of primary data to understand the present scenario of community radio in Bangladesh
ii. ii. The inadequacy of secondary data for better evaluation
Literature Review
STUDY: Role of Community Radio for Community Development in Bangladesh
Community radio plays a vital role in the communications of a country. Community radio mainly serves a definite community and is a form of public-service broadcasting. It reflects the culture, ideology and thoughts, norms and values of a particular community. . Community radio is that kind of radio which is owned and controlled by a community and always broadcasts those programmes which are related to that community interest. Numbers of community radio are not sufficient in Bangladesh to represent the interest of the local rural population. Considering these drawbacks, this analysis titled “Role of Community Radio for Community Development in Bangladesh” has been conducted.
Objectives
The main objective of this analysis is to explore the importance and effectiveness of community FM radio in Bangladesh especially in remote rural areas. On the basis of the general objective, this analysis has following specific objectives;
· To analyze the effectiveness of community FM radio programs
· To know about the forms and features of community FM radio
· To explore the development and need of community FM radio in Bangladesh
· To explore the opportunities of establishing community FM radio station
· To assess the need of setting up community FM radio station
Methodology
This context analysis was elaborated using secondary data collected from national and international literature, journals, books, articles etc. These secondary data have been reviewed for understanding the comprehensive picture of community radio in Bangladesh especially for the marginalized population.
Finding
To facilitate the social advancement especially for hard to reach areas Setting up more community FM radio station is necessary to spread the voice of marginalized and vulnerable group to the policy makers, social scientist and others To build up awareness about social issues, social problems like child marriage, poverty and unemployment problems can be ensured through community FM radio station Any area based upcoming natural calamity could broadcast towards the focused group of people .Education and training could be provided easily ƒ
Community broadcasting would be sustained by the principles of access and participation, volunteerism, diversity, independence and locality
STUDY: COMMUNITY RADIO: PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES
DEVELOPMENT:
The modern concept of development gives emphasis to human and social development and
does not end with economic development only. It has also been accepted that there cannot be any sustainable development unless people can become the agents of their own development and do not remain just a beneficiary. They are required to participate in every stage of the development process and in its decision-making. Empowering the people at the grassroots and their capacity building are the major concerns for modern development. Community Radio can emerge as a major tool for doing both. Community radio can play a significant and effective role in modern concepts of development like the Human Development Index and Human Security. Community Radio can come forward to give development a human face. It can also be a platform for bringing accountability of the development process, ultimately making the system more transparent and ensuring good governance.
Challenges
The most challenging factor is the coverage area of broadcast. In Coimbatore City there are one
Public Broadcast and one Educational broadcast and five commercial broadcasts all are 10 kilowatts transmitter and radiating from the antenna at 150 meter height. Also two functional community radios and the third one is yet to start. Three frequencies allotted here namely 107.8, 107.4 and 90.4. All the three community Radio stations are located at a distance over 20 kilometers to each other. PSGCR operates from 107.8 MHz through 50 Watts FM transmitter propagating through an Antenna located at a height of 30 meters from the ground level.PSG CR is surrounded by concrete trees higher than that of the Antenna height. Because of the low power and lesser height we are unable to reach fully and clearly in our blanket area. Hence our main challenge is its height and Transmitting power. If the height is 50 meters and transmitter power is 250 Watts we can distinctively cover with a good signal and clear audio. PSG CRS aims at getting its transmitter-power increased to 250 Watt, so that it could serve a larger number of people in Coimbatore. Global networks like CEMCA could play a major role in giving a helping hand to PSG CRS.
Finding
The PSG CRS thus does its best in disseminating knowledge to the local community on the need of the hour, bringing all the concerned people at proximity to each other and creating awareness among the public. Besides, it broadcasts programmes of entertainment value too. The need of the hour is to create awareness,motivate communities and facilitate CRSs to begin.
STUDY: Exploring the Link Between Community Radio And the Community
Research methods
This analysis employs a case study approach (Yin, 2003). I selected four cases of community radio programs in each category—content- or participation-oriented—from both KOOP and KPFT. These programs are all based in a local geographic community: Austin or Houston. These cases also represent a variety of interest and identity communities
Content-oriented programs:
KOOP-People United. The hour-long weekly radio program features news, interviews, and lectures on a variety of social justice topics. The program addresses “the concerns of a diverse, interdependent people opposed to oppression in all its various forms and committed to the struggle for social justice.”
KPFT-KPFT News. It is a half-hour daily news program that provides “local news in a global context
KPFT-Progressive Forum. The weekly news and public affairs program covers issues from a progressive perspective and features interviews and speeches by local and international activists, scholars, and writers
Who still cares about community radio?
One important research question this study attempts to answer is who still listens to and participates in community radio, a seemingly outdated media outlet, in this new media environment of information overload. I will briefly outline the available audience statistics of each station and then discuss how listeners participate in community radio broadcasting. One of KOOP’s own surveys sheds some light on its listenership. In 2011, a web-based survey was sent out to the station’s e-mail list of about 3,000 listeners. I compared the survey results with the 2010 City of Austin demographic profile (U.S. Census, 2010). The data indicate that KOOP attracts more male (57%) than female listeners. The majority of its listeners are middle aged, predominantly White (87%), and better educated than the general population.
Finding
This study also presents one of the first attempts to examine the use of new communication technologies in community radio. The research shows that for tech-savvy community radio programmers and listeners with resources, new communication tools do provide more options for audience participation at the local as well as global level. However, for those on the other end of the digital divide, new communication technologies have hardly changed the way programmers and listeners interact. I do not wish to unilaterally advocate that every community radio project should use digital tools to reach a global audience. Instead, I posit that community radio provides a starting point to stimulate local community participation, and new communication technologies may enhance the associational relationships among community members, especially the younger generation.
Research Design And Method
The research design uses a mixed-methods approach and consists of interviews with program hosts and station/program managers; survey of social media interaction and web presence; and netnographic observation of social media interaction. Combining multiple methods is generally considered beneficial for the research since it allows for deeper understanding and adds rigor to the research design. Using a mixed-methods approach will increase reliability and avoid a common limitation where studies only rely only on interview material with staff, whose claims of practices can be hard to test . All methods come with both strengths and weaknesses and to harvest the advantages it is also crucial to consider which methods to combine and how each of them will provide added value to the data. The data collected is of both quantitative and qualitative nature, working to complement each other. The quantitative data is represented in the survey where the program hosts and producers are asked to map out what channels they use for interaction and to what degree the feedback they get is important and affects the content of their shows. In order to fill the gap in what this data can offer, the interviews and netnographic data collection through social media observations add depth and qualitative dimensions to the quantitative data set. The research design has its limitations and a few weaknesses and challenges should be noted. While the design is meant to provide reliable data, all methods are aimed at the community radio’s staff, and not the listeners. Thus, there is a risk of biased informants, but including the netnographic observations as an additional method has partly minimized such influence. Including the listeners in a survey or interviews would have been desirable.
Methodology:
1) In-depth interview
Using a semi-structured interview approach allows for an open discussion and allow for the interviewee to respond to the questions and emphasize things that they find important.By asking the interviewee to state specific examples and narrate their experiences rather than answering general questions, s/he can actively construct/deconstruct issues of participation and empowerment.
2) Survey:
The survey must be designed to provide quantitative data on the community radio’s use of social media, its importance and its challenges. The survey can be made available online and distributed by the station managers via e-mail.
3) Web content analysis:
We can include screenshots of social media interaction to support and complement the other methods use
Sampling Method: Sampling is the process of selecting a small group to represent the whole population. The two categories of sampling are probabilistic Sampling and Non- Probabilistic Sampling. The researcher uses probabilistic sampling by constructing a list of the target population, as the study is purely based on survey through questionnaire and what the researcher had thought to be appropriate for this study.
Time Frame
Approximately study will take 3 month to complete
Budget
The budget required for this is approximately 1,000$, where most of the money is required for hiring people and arranging seminars and online podcasts.
References
· The International Technology Management Review, Vol.6 (2017), No. 3, 94-102
· Lei Guo, College of communication, Boston University , Boston, MA 02215, USA
· Communication, culture & Critique ISSN 1753-9129
- https://scholar.google.com/scholar_url?url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/cccr.12141&hl=en&sa=T&oi=ucasa&ct=ufr&ei=HU-LXoaWDIWH6rQP7aypIA&scisig=AAGBfm32W4N087UT4FVDdzFUWQ1BDD90Xw
· https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317137836_Role_of_Community_Radio_for_Community_Development_in_Bangladesh
Learnings and outcomes ( self reflection):
This was my first time writing a research proposal, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This study provided me with invaluable insights, such as competence in qualitative research procedures, understanding of data interpretation and analysis, and the capacity to properly distribute research suggestions. I also improved my critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Most significantly, for this research I had to explore numerous areas of Bangladeshi community radio. As a result, I came away with a slew of ideas for how community radio might help people in rural places. The experience enhanced my knowledge of the beneficial influence that community radio, particularly in rural areas, can have on communities.