Co Media Lab conducted a ‘Workshop on Community Media’ for students of Bhoomi Collage on 25 July 2018.
Meera K, the Co-director of the lab and Editor of Citizen Matters, talked to Bhoomi students about using media to reach out to a larger audience about their initiatives. She started with a context on the media ecosystem and the relevance of citizen voices and community media. Meera introduced concepts of news and media and discussed the elements of good journalism.
In the session on ‘Engaging with the Media’, she talked about role of Press Releases and how to collate and present the information while interacting with the mainstream media. The participants used a checklist to put gather information and draft a Press Release.
The next session was about what constitutes information and how to communicate a story with different elements of digital media. Meera concluded her session by encouraging the participants to look into / practice Solutions Journalism which is rigorous reporting on a response to a social problem.
Thereafter, RJ Anagha and RJ Shruti Sharada from Radio Active CR 90.4 MHz introduced the fundamentals of community radio. They spoke about what distinguishes a CR from a private radio station, what the term ‘community’ means, and what community development entails. In a free-flowing interaction, the group discussed the process of identifying community concerns, outreach activities, and the positive impact of social media and the Internet in general in expanding the reach of CR stations.
