Achieving sustainable community broadcasting through an understanding of participation of community members in functioning of community radio stations in India

Community participation is an essential aspect of community radio stations. Community radios need collective participation and support of community for smooth and long run functioning. There are various factors affecting the community participation in CRS functioning. The present study is an attempt to assess the relationship between social, economic, communication and psychological characteristics of community radio listeners and their participation in community radio functioning. The results of the study indicate that some of these characteristics such as age, information seeking behaviour, mass media utilization, social participation, listening behaviour, attitude towards community radio station, perception about community radio programmes and communication skills had significant positive relationship with the community participation in community radio functioning. Whereas other characteristics like educational qualification and mass media exposure had significant negative relationship with the community participation in community radio functioning. In multiple linear regression analysis the R² value of 0.539 indicated that all the selected 16 independent variables put together explained about 53.90 per cent variation in the extent of community participation in community radio functioning.