Role of Community Media in Promoting Preventive Healthcare Awareness: A Critical Study from Rural India

Abstract

The community media have been known as forms of participatory communication that have the potential of meeting local needs, providing a voice to the marginalized, and bringing about social transformation. Within the framework of population health, community media, and specifically community radio, is an important tool in raising awareness of preventive healthcare among rural and underserved people within the population who continue to receive inadequate service in mainstream and digital media. The paper is critical in discussing the role of community media in the dispensation of preventive health information, attitudes about health, and behavior change in rural India. Using development communication theory, participatory communication models, health communication models, participatory communication models, the study uses a qualitative-dominant mixed-methods approach based on the systematic literature review, secondary analysis of public health reports, and critical synthesis of the empirical research on community media interventions. The recommendations indicate that community media have a niche to breach the linguistic, cultural and trust barrier which inhibit the success of centralized health communication campaigns. Nonetheless, policy oversights, structural limitations and lack of integration with formal health systems are still a hindrance to their full potential. The paper makes the argument that community media as health communication intermediaries should be strengthened to promote inclusive development, preventive healthcare, and health equity.