Women Journalists of Khabar Lahariya and Namaskar: Enabling Gendered Media Ecology in Rural India

Abstract

Based on the in-depth case studies of two community newspapers—Khabar Lahariya and Namaskar from India, the chapter contends that such grassroots media initiatives seek to address the gender gap in the access to communication spaces and enable a media ecology that is gender-sensitive. The women journalists foreground gender issues in these community newspapers and cover stories of the injustices faced by women in different spheres of life as well as their successes. Moreover, women in communities have become the primary readers of the community newspapers, overcoming the challenges of low literacy levels through forming communities of practice around the community newspapers where they read the newspaper in groups by helping each other in making sense of the news reports. This chapter argues that community newspapers contribute to giving marginalised women, a voice that matters, and one that forges diversity and plurality of perspectives in the media environment through its participatory approaches, rhizomatic networks, and democratic practices.