Community Media and Its Importance in Public Relation

Community Media and Its Importance in Public Relation

Introduction to Community Media

It’s not an easy task to precisely explain a broad term such as; Community Media. Yes, there are some definitions that explain the role that Community Media plays these days but in aspect to its strength, these explanations always lack a certain point of views and specific factors of this program that people should be aware of. It seems to a good idea not to use fewer words to explain such a global empowerment program and it should stay this way.

Community media is different from other media types in a simple way that it focuses on specific communities and ethnic groups. It helps local communities raise their voice from within and explain their problems and issues. The important thing here to understand is that the key members of a community media platform are chosen from inside that specific community.

Unless you are a part of an ethnic group, you can’t really understand the problems and issues that group is having and this can limit your capabilities in social circles.

Key role of community Media for the betterment of mankind:

The key idea behind Community Media is to choose people from within the community and help them train to raise their voices for taking a step forward for a better life.  It may seem unrelated to someone living in Asia that there is an ethnic war going on in South Africa but raising the voice about that war and explaining the agenda of both sides in that geographical area seems to be a useful tool.

This is what community media is based on. It’s not designed to tell the world about the problems social or ethnic group is having as a community but it is created to spread the word around your community to help people realize what they are missing or misunderstanding.

Another major role of Community Media in modern life is that it helps choose people from specific ethnic groups and gives them a solid platform to express and convey their message. Not all countries seem to include minorities in their media groups and it seems an important problem for many developed countries that their media groups don’t have enough minority or ethnic presence.

USA, Germany, Spain, France and many other democratic countries are facing this problem especially the countries where refugees tend to migrate and seek asylum. With community media, these groups and minorities have a voice to share their problems and a definitive platform to enlighten people around them about the situations they face.

Importance of community Media in public relations

Some people may comment that Community Media only seems to work on small demographic locations and it has its limitations and concerns as compared to other media factors around the world but the thing here to understand is that this program is not designed to compete with a wide range of media campaigns. It’s designed to help give a voice and a place to sleep to small ethnic groups, more importantly, migrants and people seeking asylum in a different country.

If a group of refugees from Syria in Germany or Turkey is having problems with the local communities, they don’t want to announce their issues and concerns in some country in Asia. What they want is the awareness of their problems within the communities that surround them.

This is where Community Media comes to rescue these people with getting the people from within these ethnic groups and share their problems with people around them. Another major aspect of community media is that because it’s based on broadcasting to local communities, it doesn’t need to have sources as a bigger global media group. With even a small budget and just couple of people, a community media can initiate.

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