Uva Community Radio

UCR is broadcast 24 hours per day, and includes music, news magazines, and reports generated by community members who are part of groups called Knowledge Societies.

Community participation is UCR's central strategy. The initial need for a community media outlet was gleaned from meetings of Knowledge Societies. Participants in these meetings first articulated the need for a radio for the people, by the people, that would address problems and issues specific to their community (like water scarcity and lack of transport facilities). A three-day residential workshop was conducted for UCR communicators who coordinate UCR on a divisional secretariat level. At this workshop, the communicators presented details of the Knowledge Societies in their respective areas, as well as the communication needs of the people in their communities. The following suggestions were made: The broadcasts should be in the Sinhala and Tamil languages, with programmes designed to teach the English language also included. Further, innovative programme formats should be created based on folk traditions, like a news magazine featuring interviews conducted by citizen reporters.

To refine these initial suggestions, organisers conducted a survey of 300 persons randomly selected from all divisional secretariat divisions of the province. The questions were structured to assess the listeners' needs in terms of subjects and issues most important to them. The survey revealed that major attraction of the electronic media, for them, is news programmes. Programme schedules of other radio stations were given to the members of the Knowledge Societies, which they used in analysing and designing their own schedules for UCR. The communicators took these suggestions into account, participating in lengthy discussions to prepare the final schedule. A workshop was also held for the communicators on programme schedule design.

The Uva Provincial Council recruited 20 radio producers representing young people from rural communities in the Uva Province (both Sinhala and Tamil communities). In February 2002, UNESCO began a training curricula designed to provide these producers, in addition to 378 volunteers, with theoretical knowledge on the communication process through extensive discussions and workshops. Four residential workshops were conducted for the station producers; 378 community volunteers were exposed to the community radio concept through 57 field training sessions held in different parts of the Uva Province. Topics addressed included the problem of meaning, language and speaking, intertextuality, and the communication potential of the radio medium. More in-depth training sessions were then held on the concept of community radio and its role in fostering development, facilitating communication, and eradicating poverty. Subsequent training of the core group of producers involved multitasking aspects of community broadcasting in contrast to the organisation and operational set-up of conventional radio.

In addition, a group of about 800 selected volunteers were trained specifically in the area of news gathering and investigative journalism. These volunteers report the incidents from their areas; the news team at the radio station, consisting of both Sinhala and Tamil communicators, produce the magazine.

Advanced training sessions for the core group of producers were conducted between April and June 2002. The sessions focussed on creating a cost-effective production environment with multi-skilled producers capable of writing, presenting, interviewing, operating equipment, and managing the budget. Other topics included news gathering, analysing, and production with an emphasis on subaltern groups as newsmakers and methods of investigative journalism to ensure the effectiveness of development inputs.

Economic Development, Rural Life, Community Media.

UCR will be linked to a network of community multi-media centres throughout the province, with the objective of introducing information and communication technologies (ICTs) to the poorest citizens in the Uva Province.