Reimagining community media – a rhizomatic analysis of Khabar Lahariya in Central India

Abstract

Based on an in-depth case study of “Khabar Lahariya” – a community newspaper located in Central India, this research paper analyses its decade-and-a-half journey and examines the metamorphosis it has undergone over the years. The paper borrows from Tanja Bosch’s (2010) synthesis of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s notion of “rhizomes” to analyze community media, and also from Chris Atton’s (2002) “Model of Alternative and Radical Media,” which he developed through an amalgamation of existing definitions and theoretical sketches on community media. Drawing on the characteristics of “heterogeneity,” “multiplicity” and “asignifying rupture” of rhizomes, the paper explains how Khabar Lahariya grew from a study tool for the neo-literate women of an NGO’s literacy intervention to an independent “media agency” having linkages with diverse media outlets. Atton’s model allows us to comprehend the “intersections” and “overlapping” of dimensions in Khabar Lahariya’s content, form, production, distribution channels, social relations, roles and responsibilities that generate “hybridity” in its products and processes. The authors conclude by flagging some of the consequences of this rhizomatic growth and multi-dimensionality of structure and processes of Khabar Lahariya that may signify a debatable compromise of a few of the non-negotiable principles that characterize community media.