Public perception of Development An Analysis of theuse of RadioinDevelopment inNepal

Abstract

We are doing the 'guff' of developmentsincemany years and to do development we haveplanned so many planning so many approaches and so many tools. Most of the time wetake development as an 'experiment' borrowing so many development approaches fromthe west. 'West and the rest' was the dominant approach and Nepalcompelled to adopt itfor various reasons. The aspiration for development to Nepal is always far from us. Mostof the time we fight for political rights and politics become the major challenge to us.That could not bring the hope to the public level rathermake us fighter for another hope.Unless the politics is stable no development would prevail. But fighting for political right we enjoyed a lot of freedom and radio is one of them. If welook back at the time when only and one Radio Nepal was in existence it disseminatedmost of the information about the rulers not ruled. That situation is totally changed now.Now we have more than 300 radios around the country. Though still they are situated inthe urban places however they are maximizing the information from rural level too. Sinceuse of media is become a major tool for development and no developmental activitieswould take place and sustain unless people have enough information. The trickle downapproach of development lasted for many years and consequence was nothing and it isrealized that bottom up approach can only work and for that we need to have flow ofinformation from bottom to up also. Radios are serving this approach. The public perception toward development is diverse since the development itself hasdiverse meaning. What we called development might have also differences to othersbecause in development there are so many values. Radio can mingle up that values anddifferences into a consensus so that a sole perception of development could bemade.People's meaningful participation in the developmental activities can longer last thedevelopment. If the things are transparent and governance is smooth then the stake overthe developmental activities will increase more which can only then possibleunless thepeople have proper information. This study explores such public perception of development by using radio. Since radio isbeing taken a tool for development for many years but still people have differencestowards the actual meaning of development because of the less information flow andinformation flow from top to bottom. Now the situation has been changed and peoplehave so many options to get the right information that the activities are taking a place intheir localities. Being a cheap and easy medium in comparing with other media radio has taken aremarkable place in Nepali listeners who are also the ultimate beneficiaries ofdevelopment. There are so many stories to be explored that radio plays a vital role and inthis context this study contributes a very little role however after mapping a publicperception from a small layer of representative society a simple assumption can be madethat people have good perception of development with the use of radio.