Community media will reflect needs at ground level: Expert

Hyderabad: Prof Vinod Pavarala, Chair holder for the UNESCO Chair for Community Media at the University of Hyderabad, has underlined the need of promoting community media being run by gross-root level activists and enthusiasts in a big way to address the real problem being confronted by common people.

Addressing journalism students and PR professionals to mark the 12th Public Relations Education Day organised by the Hyderabad chapter of the Public Relations Society of India (PRSI) at NTR auditorium of Potti Sriramulu Telugu University on Sunday, Prof. Pavarala said: "Community Media is the third sector media after Public Radio and Commercial Radios. It gives voice to the voiceless in the purest form. This media should be seriously considered to ensure the last mile connectivity." He observed that community media as 'an effective bridge' between people and administrators. According to Prof. Vinod, 250 community radios are operating in the country and it will become 350 with the government's decision to provide licences to 100 more last week. "In fact we need 3000 to 4000 stations and many more stations are possible. Owned, managed, operated and produced by ordinary people with local content, these stations will reflect the aspirations of the needy at ground level," he said and highlighted the salient features of Sangam Radio, India's first community radio in Telangana and CGNet Swara, a central Gondwana mobile platform to drive his point home.

The Guest of Honour Dr CV Naraisimha Reddi, Editor of PR Voice, said that there is a need for training for PR professionals for the effective dissemination of information. "Education, Training and Research are very important for this profession to excel," he said.

As part of the PR Education Day celebrations, the PRSI felicitated Dr.K.Raja Ram, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication and Journalism, Telangana University, Nizamabad, with the "Best Public Relations Teacher" award. T.Sujatha, a teacher at Andhra Mahila Sabha, won the Best Best PR Counsellor award. Prof.Vinod Pavarala and Dr CVN Reddi gave away prizes and certificates for 25 students from various educational institutions for scoring highest marks in public relations. The PRSI took it as an opportunity to felicitate its member Yadlapudi Venkateswara Rao, editor or Raithu Nestham, for having won Padma Shri award recently.

Dr Venu Gopal Reddy and Mohan Rao, President and Secretary of PRSI Hyderabad chapter also spoke. Earlier, the PR fraternity paid rich homage to its senior most member M L Narasimha Rao who passed away last month.