Community Media/MARAA

= About Maraa =

Maraa means a Tree in Kannada, the local language of Karnataka state in India. We are a collective that is interested in doing anything which is related to media, creative arts, and even personal expression. We all stand strongly for people’s media, and that means people owning, managing and operating their very own media. However, we also would like to engage with mainstream media as well.

Our core principles are dynamic, and for the moment, can be summarized as:


 * 1) We are living in an information society wherein information is power, and media is the channel for information.
 * 2) Communities can bring about change by controlling flows and access to information
 * 3) It is not enough to give a voice to communities. Tone and process of giving voice is critical
 * 4) Vanguard approach to development doesn't work. We need to seek new ways of approaching notions of development, community etc

Along with these central principles, Maraa also four main values which can be summarised as:


 * 1) Community Media and its potential in urban and rural areas in India
 * 2) Possibilities of art practice and its synergy with social communication
 * 3) Usage of public space to democratize “the city”
 * 4) Lessons and challenges of a collective functioning amidst an institutionalized civil society

We are a small group, who see growth as a deepening and expansion of our networks and not physical growth in terms of finance, employee, etc.

At present we are engaged in community theatre and radio. Apart from field work, we are also developing modules which will help people set up their own media system. In addition to these generic modules, we also hope to upload and share modules which share specific capacities related to radio.

We are a registered charitable Trust, with Trustees, Lawrence Liang, Professor Leela Rao, and Arlene Manoharan from National Law School, Bangalore

Contact us at info at maraa dot in if you want more details about us or are interested in working with us.

List of Educational Resources

 * Community Radio (Hindi, Kannada, English)
 * Gender Resources
 * Rethinking Media and culture

Discussion Pages

 * HIV AIDS - Community Radio
 * Phonic Communities - Licensing
 * Spaces for Diverse Publics