Wednesday, July 25, 2007

A Proposal to Provide Media Services in Rural Areas

Media services such as television and radio are an important intervention to support and accelerate development programs in rural areas. This proposal explains the crucial role played by media, the current problems with the media in rural areas, and outlines a scalable model to enable media services through a new form of networked community radio stations. The proposal is in three parts: a technical section in which appropriate technologies are suggested that can reduce the capital and operating expenditures for community radio stations; a deployment section in which an operational model is suggested that includes training programs for media personnel, expert advice, financial sustainability, and support and maintenance of the infrastructure; and a research section in which a long-term sociological study is proposed to observe the effects of media and determine the parameters that improve the effectiveness of media services. The media services model proposed here is scalable and easily replicable in other areas. Once verified on a pilot basis, it can be expanded from radio to other forms of media as well.

http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~a3seth/cr_proposal.pdf