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Community broadcasting is a nascent and unique sector now operating together with the commercial and national players in India and is identified by three significant characteristics—community participation, non-profit making, and community ownership and management. The overarching philosophy of community radio, acknowledged worldwide, is that it is a tool for social justice and a platform for community voices. Community radio seeks to counter the hegemony of the mainstream media and move away from the commerce-driven negative tendencies of media and journalism such as sensationalism, tabloidization, celebrity-worship, the unrestrained use of hidden cameras and paid news. Ordinary people, through participation in management, content production and organization, produce information relevant to them, choose their own stories, express their voice and define their identity. As India witnesses an endeavour to erect a nationwide network of thousands of autonomous, locally orientated community radio stations, it becomes necessary to build a set of codes of practice for this third tier of broadcasting so that it does not become a clone of mainstream media. This paper looks at some of these principles that the community radio sector in India must hold as sacred in order to strengthen civil society, journalism practices and democracy in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The challenges faced by rural communities in India in both access to mainstream media and coverage by it have major implications for democracy and civic participation. CGNet Swara, a citizen journalism initiative, attempts to address this problem by enabling rural or tribal communities to obtain and report news, and, to facilitate coverage of their concerns, by acting as “a bridge” between those communities and professional news outlets. Our research on the project’s relationship with mainstream news outlets in central India finds that while at least some professional journalists endorse the ideals of citizen journalism, they reject the idea that CGNet Swara can assist them. These findings lead us to re-evaluate the potential of citizen journalism as a transformative and democratizing force. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]