Media and Volunteering: the India perspective

21 May 2004

The International Year of Volunteers (IYV) in 2001 was responsible for the initiation of a large number of volunteer initiatives across the world. To promote volunteering amongst media-persons and researchers, the IYV team in India initiated Samatvam - a development communication group. Samatvam volunteers in several cities of India put together a study on Media and Volunteering.

The study revealed that media has a balancing role to play between that of a watchdog and an activist. While most media persons and volunteer organizations contacted as part of the study agreed that media has a crucial role to play in giving a fillip to volunteer action, diverse and conflicting views emerge when it comes to the actual nature of facilitating such work. The study was conducted in Delhi, Kolkata, Pune , Lucknow and Chennai.

Role of the Media
While senior editors and journalists felt that it was not the media's primary role to promote volunteering, others were quite vocal when it came to outlining the media's role. They were in fact critical that media gives more

many local volunteering initiatives in India have become national movements due to the media coverage

coverage to political and entertainment related issues. Most media- persons agreed that many local volunteering initiatives in India have become national movements due to the media coverage. Almost everyone made a mention of the work of Tarun Bharat Sangh as an example of media transforming a local movement into a national and even an international action. Other examples include the campaign against prohibition in Uttaranchal and a similar campaign by a group of women in Nellore, Tamil Nadu, both of which were extensively covered by the media and had high impact.

However, the group felt that media could do a lot more by understanding the working and needs of volunteer organizations, and then highlighting success stories, innovative volunteering experience and positive volunteering efforts.
Almost all the journalists contacted for the study agree that media persons need to be sensitized on volunteering related issues. Many of them suggested the need for regular interfaces between media and volunteer groups on the

most volunteer groups do not know how to deal with news

issue of newsworthiness. This is because most volunteer groups do not know how to deal with news and they sometimes overrate themselves. There was a suggestion that an editor's conference should be held on volunteering besides regular interfaces on media and volunteering and also workshops for volunteer organisations for making their such issues newsworthy.

On the issue of whether exposure to volunteer work makes a better media person, the respondents strike a note of caution. Some said a journalist can be a good activist but an activist cannot be a good journalist. All of them, however, agree that a media person who has volunteered sometime during their life can be a better journalist with a better perspective on social and humanitarian issues.

Broad Recommendations

A] Need for extensive lobbying with television channels and media organizations to push the message of volunteering through popular television programs like soap operas and popular columns.
B] Capacity building of volunteers’ groups/organizations in terms of communication strategies is the urgent need of the hour.
C] There should be regular interfaces between media and volunteer groups/organizations on issues related to volunteering. This can include interfaces on newsworthiness.
D] There is need for editors conference on volunteering which can prepare a media action plan on how volunteering issues can be covered in the media.
D] Volunteer groups need to update the media regularly on the work they are doing; however they need to package the information they are giving in a way media would be interested in.
E] There is an urgent need for a guide book for volunteer groups/organizations which clearly outlines the format in which media needs to be provided information and provides tips on other nuances of media organizations.
F] The development of alternate media is necessary as volunteering efforts can be effectively highlighted through focussed and targeted magazines/journals.
G] While media organizations have to be more responsive, volunteer groups/organizations need to be more transparent.
H] Media has important role in facilitating volunteering efforts and this can be done by systematically nurturing a group of committed journalists who can be motivated to write on volunteer action and different social issues.
I] Fellowship schemes for such journalists to write on volunteer action could be worked out.
J] Since media persons who have exposure to volunteer work obtain in-depth perspective on social and humanitarian issues, placement of journalists in volunteer organizations should be encouraged. Such training could in fact be given in the formative stage itself in collaboration with journalism institutes.
K] There is need for institutional mechanism to promote and facilitate media efforts in volunteering. While volunteer groups/organizations could create media volunteering hubs in their respective groups/organizations to woo journalists who want to work on social issues, the media organizations can themselves can look at creating volunteering channels which would not only encourage interested journalists to go in for fellowship schemes on volunteering issues but also motivate them to write on them.
L] Some media group could evolve programs to encourage media persons to volunteer.
M] There is need to strengthen the traditional media in order to promote volunteer activities in the grassroots.

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