This research specifically addressed community radio in India led by development NGOs. This is comprised of a subset of organizations in the third sector that have distinctive, shared concerns with development and poverty reduction

Riaz, Suhaib

Satturu, Anusha Chaitanya

English

University of Massachusetts Boston: ScholarWorks at UMass

University of Massachusetts BostonScholarWorks at UMass BostonOffice of Community Partnerships Posters Office of Community Partnerships4-8-2015Challenges in Community Radio Development inIndia: Conflicting Institutional Logics, Paradoxesand Status QuoAnusha Chaitanya SatturuUniversity of Massachusetts Boston, Anusha.Satturu001@umb.eduSuhaib RiazUniversity of Massachusetts Boston, suhaib.riaz@umb.eduFollow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.umb.edu/ocp_postersPart of the Civic and Community Engagement Commons, and the Radio CommonsThis Presentation is brought to you for free and open access by the Office of Community Partnerships at ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. It has beenaccepted for inclusion in Office of Community Partnerships Posters by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. For moreinformation, please contact library.uasc@umb.edu.Recommended CitationSatturu, Anusha Chaitanya and Riaz, Suhaib, "Challenges in Community Radio Development in India: Conflicting InstitutionalLogics, Paradoxes and Status Quo" (2015). Office of Community Partnerships Posters. Paper 236.http://scholarworks.umb.edu/ocp_posters/236Summary A variety of organizational responses to conflicting institutional logics have been suggested by earlier studies. This research with community radio in India provides new empirical insights to suggest a different response by NGOs. Powerful actors such as government promote conflicting logics in the form of paradoxes, and NGOs consequently perpetuate these paradoxes, thereby maintaining the status quo.   Challenges in Community Radio Development in India:  Conflicting Institutional Logics, Paradoxes, and Status Quo Empirical Context Our research specifically addressed community radio in India led by development NGOs. This is comprised of a subset of organizations in the third sector that have distinctive, shared concerns with development and poverty reduction (Lewis, 2003; Vakil, 1997).  Findings:  2 Conflicting Logics Conclusions Paradoxes as Organizational Responses Methods Findings: 3 levels of paradoxes Challenges in Community Radio Development in India:  Conflicting Institutional Logics, Paradoxes, and Status Quo Community Radio in India Map of Community Radio: Actors and Roles Findings:  2 Conflicting Logics Conclusions Paradoxes as Organizational Responses Methods Findings: 3 levels of paradoxes Community radio that is “by the people, close to the people, and for the people” and is generally considered to facilitate social change (UNESCO, 2003) comprises an alternative to government and commercial radio. While this social initiative is well established across the world, the Indian government began allowing licenses for community radio in 2006 after activist pressure.  Challenges in Community Radio Development in India:  Conflicting Institutional Logics, Paradoxes, and Status Quo Primary Data Archival Data Data Collection & Analysis  NVivo 10 Software   Home Government policy documents from:  • Ministry of Information and Broadcasting • Ministry of Communication and Information Technology  Material available at the portal of community radio forum: • A major activist organization promoting community radio that provides voice to the voiceless 32 interviews conducted in January 2014  Interviewees coded by 3 mutually non-exclusive categories: • People involved in day-to-day running of stations and typically part of an NGO [Coded as CR] • People with background of working on community radio at a policy level with the government [Coded as POL] • People with background of working on community radio as activists or in community radio support organizations [Coded as BG]   Visited five community radio stations  • Spent at least a day in each of 35 villages to assess the impact of community radio Used to:  • Analyze interviews and archival data via coding and identifying themes  • Organize all data in one place   Emergence of repetitive themes led to identification of significant logics within themes:  • Pair of conflicting logics  • Aimed to understand how organizations were responding Challenges in Community Radio Development in India:  Conflicting Institutional Logics, Paradoxes, and Status Quo Example Themes & Logics Themes Comprising Autonomy Logic versus Development Logic in the Community Radio Context Home Context of Community Radio  in India Diversity To bring out diversity of local voices Freedom of Speech CR as a voice of the voiceless  Ideal Community Radio What CR should ideally be like Community based content Radio programmes prepared by community Good governance CR as a tool for local governance and accountability Professionally designed content Radio programmes prepared by professionals NGO agenda Agenda of NGOs that run CR stations Capacity building Meant for community by professionals Government agenda Agenda of the government for community radio Autonomy Logic Development Logic Quote Theme Institutional Logic “The rural radio stations which are in very specific communities or tribes or ethnic minorities do extremely well because for example, a [community] had an American idol styled [local music] program which was hugely popular. They love their [local] music.”    - BGPOL2  Community based content Autonomy logic  “Management committee would comprise of members from that community with a special emphasis on having women on that committee, with special emphasis on having dalits on that committee depending on which part of the country you are talking about or in other parts, it could be the adivasi community represented. So basically minorities represented would be higher in this.”  -  BGCR1  Minorities representation Autonomy logic   “There might be deeper issues which I think community radio stations need to be trained in how to do the research where some of the deeper issues can be identified.”  -  BGPOL1 Capacity building Development logic “It is not fully by them. Because their experience and knowledge may not, may have to be supplemented by professional people working here.”  -  CRPOL1 Professionally designed program content Development logic Challenges in Community Radio Development in India:  Conflicting Institutional Logics, Paradoxes, and Status Quo 3 Levels of Paradoxes Observed in Empirical Data Level 1 Paradox: Within  Two opposite ideas within a single practice, structural part, or agenda  Level 2 Paradox: Across  Two opposite ideas across practices, structural parts, or agendas PARADOX Quote Level Autonomy Logic Development Logic  “Community radio stations can do very structured campaigns or series of programmes, where they take up an issue in depth. So, take up one or two which are more structured and the rest can be more representative.”  - BGPOL1   1 Within a Practice Representative content  Structured content “And empowerment is not about awareness building and education. There are certain elements that have to come from outside, they may not be able to tell you.”  - CRPOL1  1 Within an Agenda Empowerment “There are certain elements that have to come from outside”  “Not as reporters …we want to talk to women then these women volunteer to collect women into groups so that we can have discussions so these are the volunteers who really provide that access to the radio team to the villages so those kind of volunteerism happens”     - BGCR4   2 B/n Practice and Agenda Volunteers from the villages Volunteers for the NGO to access villages and not the other way round i.e. not as voluntary reporters from villages “So, these minority groups, these people on the periphery are considered to be dangerous to the national security. And they never get a license. If I were a Hindi speaking guy in Delhi, I’d get a license. They want to create a very homogeneous kind of a nation”-BGPOL2  3 Community radio is to promote diversity The distribution of licenses reflects a trend towards promoting homogeneity  Home Level 3 Paradox: Macro  From Powerful Macro-Actors  LEVELS  Challenges in Community Radio Development in India:  Conflicting Institutional Logics, Paradoxes, and Status Quo           Conclusions & Implications   Home Summary of Findings  • Our findings show that institutional conflicts may be unresolved, and instead, organizations respond by developing ‘paradoxes’ at various levels.  • This response places these organizations in a role of perpetuating the institutional conflict at the macro-level by embodying it at a micro-level.  • Such micro-level paradoxes then bring these conflicts into the lived experiences of the organizational stakeholders such as the station managers and volunteers in our context.   • We also observe that paradoxes are promoted by powerful macro actors and the mutual reinforcement of the institutional conflict through paradoxes from micro and macro-actors results in maintaining status quo.  Overview of Implications • Presents role of community radio as understood by perspectives of various actors  • Identifies challenges of facilitating agency of community in community initiatives • Highlights complexity of social issues in heterogeneous communities such as various tensions based on caste, gender and class, and how community radio can be used to reinforce, reproduce, or resolve these tensions.  • Demonstrates bureaucratic hurdles faced by community initiatives  • Presents policy implications for community focused initiatives  Next Steps  • Share findings and analysis with interviewees to  inform practice for practitioners, policy actors, and activists.  • Write op-ed columns and articles based on research to promote accessibility by wider audience. Conflicting Institutional Logics   LEVEL 3 PARADOXES By powerful macro-actors  ORGANIZATIONAL  RESPONSES: PARADOXES LEVEL 2 Across organizational practices, structural parts and agendas LEVEL 1 Within organizational practices, structural parts and agendas Institutional System Status Quo Challenges in Community Radio Development in India:  Conflicting Institutional Logics, Paradoxes, and Status Quo           Contact Us Home UMass Boston, College of Management:  Anusha Chaitanya Satturu, PhD Student, Anusha.Satturu001@umb.edu  Suhaib Riaz, Assistant Professor, suhaib.riaz@umb.edu  Hong Kong Polytechnic University: Israr Qureshi, Assistant Professor, msisrar@inet.polyu.edu.hk 

Challenges in Community Radio Development in India: Conflicting Institutional Logics, Paradoxes and Status Quo

https://scholarworks.umb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1235&context=ocp_posters

Challenges in Community Radio Development in India: Conflicting Institutional Logics, Paradoxes and Status Quo

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

University of Massachusetts Boston: ScholarWorks at UMass