Profile of Campus Radio (98.6) Hazara University, Pakistan: The Role of Community Media in Civic Education

Abstract

This study highlights the role of community media in inculcating civic education in communities. Community media is an independent, civil society based media that operates for social benefit. These are small scale non-profit entities that enable the local community to express their issues, concerns, cultures and languages. The harmony between the awareness and understanding of rights and duties of a native towards the nation-state is enabled by civic education. Sound 'Civic Education' allows citizens to get involved in their own democratic governance; they do not just passively accept the orders or surrender to the demands of others. Studies suggest that communities have positively been facilitated by community radio stations during election process due to awareness of civic responsibilities and rights. Community radio and other forms of media are the tools that spread the education and information among communal beings, therefore it enables them to think and consequently people have a voice in decisions that affect them. Community media is an agent of communal transformation. The role of community media-in the form of community radio- regarding civic education is discussed in this paper. A quantitative survey method was conducted in Hazara University to gather public opinion regarding role of Campus Radio FM 98.6 in promoting civic awareness in the communities of Mansehra District.