Despite emergence of several new forms of media and increasing dominance of national and global media platforms, regional media bears enormous importance in facilitating and establishing participatory democracy, spreading scientific temper in the communities it serves, and raising local issues that are often ignored by national and global media. This presentation was made for educational purpose and presented in a seminar at Institute of Media Studies, Bhubaneswar, India.

1. Regional Media
Its role and importance
Basudev Mahapatra

2. Regional Media: Importance
• Media operating at the regional level have
special significance for participatory
democracy.
• The relationship between regional media and
persons from the areas and communities they
serve tends to be closer, stronger and more
representative.

3. Regional Media: Importance
• Significance of regional media for
participatory democracy is due to regional
journalism’s coverage of regional politics and
issues that are either underrepresented in, or
absent from, national journalism.
• Regional journalism also fosters public
discussion of, and engagement with, regional
politics and issues.

4. Regional Media: Importance
• Regional media promotes and upholds
regional identities and languages, mostly
marginalized by dominant/ mainstream
national media.
• The communicative space created by regional
media allows regional identities (including
cultural, linguistic and religious identities) to
be explored, sustained and promoted.

5. Regional Media: Role
• Facilitates opinion forming and decision-
making as parts of a broader participatory
paradigm/ idea.
• The notion of voice being central to media,
regional media empowers local voice and
processes to echo locally as well as beyond.
• It empowers people with a choice of choosing
role models from the people around us.

6. Regional Media: Role
• Regional media or Local newspapers are ‘the
lifeblood of local communities,’ and they have
an important role to play in holding the likes
of councils, the police, and government to
account.
• It raises issues that are important to local
communities, which are more often ignored
by national media.

7. Regional Media: Role
• The way journalism as a profession guided by
ethical principles is degrading, regional media
is often dismissed as “rags.”
• Yet, their familiar names are part of the glue
which holds communities together.

8. Regional Media: Role
• The bigger role of regional media is to create a
scientific community by spreading scientific
temper in the communities.
• Regional media needs to empower people of a
region by informing, to question the power.

9. Perspectives
• Chris Britcher, editor at Kent on Sunday, which
is owned by Archant, said: “Never has the
ability to access news and information been so
easy, and yet never has the need to have
reliable, trusted articles, well written and well
researched been so essential.

10. • In conclusion, I would leave you with this
quote by American advertising creative
director William Bernbach:
“All of us who professionally use the mass media
are the shapers of society. We can vulgarize
that society. We can brutalize it. Or we can
help lift it onto a higher level.”

11. Thank you!