1

UNIT-3
Unit III: [Development Journalism]
1. Role and performance of Mass Media in Development
2. Development Support Communications: Social Audit, Grass-root Activism,
Whistleblowers
3. Role of NGOs in Development
4. Cyber media and Development: e-governance, digital democracy & e-chaupal

TOPIC-1
ROLE AND PERFORMANCE OF MASS MEDIA IN DEVELOPMENT
We know that mass communication is a process of disseminating messages to a large number
of audiences through some forms of technology at a time. And some forms of technology used
to disseminate messages are the mass media.

Mass media are the means of public communication reaching to the large, scattered,
heterogeneous and anonymous audience at the same time. Mass media have been proved a
boon to human society. Nothing has influenced the lives of modern men as the mass media
have.
Mass media are the powerful means that do not only influence today’s world but also shape the
globe of tomorrow. In this case, mass medium perform essential task in order to cast its effect
to the audience and maintain the society.

Information: Dissemination of information is the major function of mass media. Since

information is knowledge and knowledge is power, media offer authentic and timely facts and
opinions about various event and situations to mass audience as informative items. Information
provided by mass media can be opinionated, objective, subjective, primary and secondary.
Informative functions of mass media also lets the audience knows about the happening around
them and come to the truth. Media disseminates information mostly through news broadcast
on radio, TV, as well as columns of the newspaper or magazines. Moreover, advertisements are
also mainly for information purpose.

Education: Media provide education and information side by side. It provides education in
different subjects to people of all levels. They try to educate people directly or indirectly using
different forms of content. Distance education program, for example, is a direct approach.
Dramas, documentaries, interviews, feature stories and many other programs are prepared to
educate people indirectly. Especially in the developing country, mass media is used as effective
tools for mass awareness. In context of Nepal, media have been successful in eradicating
various traditional and evil superstitious practices from society through continuous advocacy.

Entertainment: The other important function of mass media is the entertainment. It is also
views as the most obvious function of media. Actually, entertainment is a kind of performance
that provides pleasure to people. Mass media fulfill this function by providing amusement and
assist in reducing tension to large degree. Newspaper, magazines, radio, television and online
medium offer stories, films, serials, and comics to entertain their audience. Sports, news, film

NOTES COMPILED BY GARIMA NAGPAL, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, KRCHE, GGSIPU

 2

review, columns on art and fashion are other instances. It makes audience recreational and
leisure time more enjoyable.
But these days, media have comprised information and education in the entertaining programs.
The fusion of entertainment and information is called infotainment. Similarly, the inclusion of
education in entertaining programs is regarded as edutainment.

Persuasion: It is another function of mass media. Persuasion involves making influence on

others mind. Mass media influence audience in varieties of ways. Media content builds
opinions and sets agendas in the public mind. It influences votes, changes attitudes and
moderates behavior. Using editorials, articles, commentaries and among others, mass media
persuades audience. However, all audiences are not well known about it. Many of them
become influenced or motivated unknowingly towards it. Advertisement is the example which
is designed to persuade.
Along with the above mentioned general functions, mass media performs some specific
functions too. Hence, the specific functions of mass media are explained below:

Surveillance: Surveillance denotes observation. Here observation means to watch the society
closely. The function of mass media is to observe the society closely and continuously and
warn about threatening actions to the mass audience that are likely to happen in future in order
to decrease the possible loss. Likewise, mass media also informs about the misconducts
happening in the society to the concerned authority and discourage malpractices among mass
audience in the society.
Warning or beware surveillance occurs when the media inform us about threats from
hurricanes, erupting volcanoes, depressed economic conditions, increasing inflation or military
attack. These warning can be about immediate threats or chronic threats. Similarly, news of
increasing deforestation, drug abuse, girls trafficking, crimes etc. are also disseminated which
may harm the peace and security of the society. News about films are plying at the local
theaters, stock market prices, new products, fashion ideas, recipes, and so on are examples of
instrumental surveillance.

Interpretation: The mass media do not supply just facts and data but also explanations and
interpretation of events and situations. Media offer various explanations correlating and
interpreting information to make the reality clear. Unlike normal reporting, interpretation
functions provide knowledge. News analysis, commentaries, editorials, and columns are some
examples of interpretative contents. Basically, such types of interpretative contents are
prepared by those journalists who have a vast knowledge of background information and
strong analytical ability.

Linkage: The function of mass media is to join together different elements of society that are
not directly connected. For instance: mass advertising attempts to link the needs of buyers with
the products of sellers. Similarly, by broadcasting news of those suffered from the disease or
natural disasters, media can help in collecting aids and provide the collected amount to the
victims. In this way, media become bridge between different groups who may or may not have
direct connection.

Socialization: Socialization is the transmission of culture. Media are the reflectors of society.
They socialize people, especially children and new-comers. Socialization is a process by which,
people are made to behave in ways that are acceptable in their culture or society. Though this
process, we learn how to become a member of our society or human society in greater sense.
Whenever a person reads newspaper or watches television, individual knows how people react

NOTES COMPILED BY GARIMA NAGPAL, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, KRCHE, GGSIPU

 3

on matters and what types of norms and values they perceive on particular event, issue or
situation.

Though the process of socialization media help to shape our behaviors, conducts, attitudes and
beliefs. The process of socialization brings people close and ties them into single unity.

Provides jobs:The media industry provides a lot of employment, helping people grow their
careers and live a comfortable life. To ensure that people are useful members of society, it is
crucial to avail jobs, and give them an opportunity to do their part in development. It is for this
reason that radio is important, as it employs a lot of people.

Promoted businesses: One of the top ways to grow a business is to rely on marketing, and in
the process reach new clients while maintaining the current ones. One of the best ways to get
reliable results from marketing is using the radio platform. Businesses have been able to reach
clients, and sell their products, in the process providing jobs themselves and growing nations.

NOTES COMPILED BY GARIMA NAGPAL, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, KRCHE, GGSIPU

 4

TOPIC-3

Role of NGOs in Social Development

New trends emerge in NGOs activities from 1950 to 1960 when it start to work in field of
development. Similarly, the concept of people’s participation does not have a long history. It
reflects partly the failure of the” trickle down” model of economic development advocated
after World War II .In 1980,s NGOs become a major phenomenon in the field of development.
Tvedt analyzed NGOs “as an outcome of complicated processes where factors like
international ideological trends, donor policies and agenda interacts with national historical and
cultural conditions in a complex way. On the whole these organizations are commanding
growing attention as possible alternative to government in addressing the needs of vast of
population.So, we can summarize NGOs development in three stages-
-Social and cultural in early stage.
- Community services and development in intermediate stage.
- More recently target oriented activist groups.

The major development roles ascribed to NGOs are to act as:

- Planner and implementer of development programmers
- Mobiliser of local resources and initiative,
- Catalyst, enabler and innovator,
- Builder of self-reliant sustainable society,
- Mediator of people and government,
- Supporter and partner of government programme in activating delivery systemimplementing
rural development programmes, etc.,
- Agents of information,
- Factor of improvement of the poor, and
- Facilitator of development education, training, professionalization, etc
NEED FOR NGO’S
There is none the less a single answer to question why NGOs are formed? How they are
givenmeaning and how they operate? One cannot perceive NGOs as entities but we have taken
intoaccount the notion of multiple relation. The entry of NGOs in the field ofdevelopment
process thus represents important response to the need resulted due to theoverburdened
government, the hesitant private sector and underutilized people power.
These are appeared to compose of overlapping social networks. The development experience of
1970s and 1980s have raised more and more critical concerning as growing awareness about
the widening gap between very few rich and the vast majority of poor in developing countries.
This has also given a momentum to search for a more adequate and appropriate strategy for
NOTES COMPILED BY GARIMA NAGPAL, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, KRCHE, GGSIPU
 5

improving conditions. So, strategies constitute basic elements of the development of a number
of NGOs throughout the world, which get people’s participation. Recent, global
transformations and the search to a variable new option for supporting grass-root development
presently provide quite significant opportunities for a rapid development of NGOs in the
decade of 1980s in following consideration:
Growing interest among donors and national governments in strengthening the development
roles of institution outside the public sector.
The demonstrated capacity of some non-governmental organizations to reach the poor more
effectively than public agencies.
A sharp decline in public development resources, necessating a search by government for
more cost effective alternatives to conventional public services and development programs.
Ability to carry out programme on national scale and influence national policies and agencies.
Today, the NGOs address every conceivable issue and they operate virtually in every part of
the globe. Though international NGOs activity has grown steadily, most NGOs operate within
a country and frequently they function properly. According to one estimate some 25000 NGOs
now qualify as international NGOs up from less than 400 a century ago.

ROLES OF NGO ACCORDING TO THE EXPECTATION OF PEOPLE

NGOs play a critical role in all areas of development. People and policy makers are agree on
one thing that NGOs play a very important role in development. Role of NGOs vary over the
years as the policy of government changes. NGOs are almost dependent on polices of
government.
Socio economic development is a shared responsibility of both i.e. government and NGOs.
Role of NGOs are complementary but vary according to polices of government.

If we closely pursue the voluminous literature on NGOs many roles can be found according to
the expectations of people.
The major development roles ascribed to NGOs are to act as:

 Planner and implementer of development programmers,

 Mobiliser of local resources and initiative,
 Catalyst, enabler and innovator,
 Builder of self reliant sustainable society,
 Mediator of people and government
 Supporter and partner of government programme in activating delivery system
implementing rural development programmes,etc.,
 Agents of information,
 Factor of improvement of the poor, and
 Facilitator of development education, training, professionalization,etc.

Basically NGOs role is to prepare people for change. They empower the people to overcome
psychological problem and opposition of oppress. Its role cannot be denied.
NOTES COMPILED BY GARIMA NAGPAL, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, KRCHE, GGSIPU
 6

OBJECTIVES OF NGOS IN DEVELOPMENT

NGO is one of the alternatives available among various development organizations and one of
the inputs among technical, financial and other resources, major merits of NGOs are emerging
from their limited scale of operation; the sporadic efforts of NGOs can be consolidated and
made more effective. Still the primary role of NGO is at the local level as mobilizes of people
and their resources for an indigenous self-sustainable development.
And at this level it can be a pioneer, mediator power broker, catalyst and has many other roles.
NGOs and their long liberations also are very in playing their role as advocates in policy issues
beyond local level-national or even international level. Proper assessment of expected an actual
roles of NGOs enable us to make them an effective alternative in the development process.
However, small and sporadic NGOs are, they are valued in a pluralist society as an alternative
approach to conventional system of attaining human well being and as such NGOs have a
pivotal role to play in any society especially where institutions are alienated and development
is dehumanized.

An Ngo is nowadays not expected to deliver directly some benefits to people, but to motivate
people, mobilize resources, initiate leadership, and participate in development programmes for
self reliance. An NGO is only an enabler and as and when a society is made self reliant, role of
NGO is shifted to another place where NGO service is required. But NGO works in relief and
delivery of public goods as direct suppliers and majority of the development NGOs are also
involved directly in productive activities. The roles of NGOs an enabler or catalyst for self
reliant society and as supplier or implementer is relevant where bureaucracy is indifferent or
inefficient, programs lack flexibility and cost effectiveness poor are ignorant, elite are
ambitious, successes and services are pre conditions for motivation etc.

Objectives:

Relief and welfare

Community development
Sustainable system
People’s movement.

TYPES OF NGOS

Types of NGOs can be understood by their level of orientation and level of cooperation.
Types of NGOs on the basis of their level of orientation. It has further types asunder,

Charitable orientation.
It often involves a paternalistic effort with little participation by ’’beneficiaries’’. It includes
the ngo,s which directed the people towards meeting the needs of poor and help them by
gaining them food, clothing, medicine, provision of housing etc. such ngo,s may also undertake
relief activities during natural or manmade herds.

Service orientation.
It includes with ngo,s with activities such as the provision of health, family planning or
education services. in which the program is designed by the ngo,s and people are expected to
participate in its implementation and in receiving the services.

NOTES COMPILED BY GARIMA NAGPAL, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, KRCHE, GGSIPU

 7

Participatory orientation.
It is characterized by self-help projects where local people are involved particularly for
example in the implementation of a project in any village by contributing, cash, tools, land,
materials and labour etc. this type is basically cooperation based and on limited scale.

Empowering orientation.
The aim of these NGOs are to help poor people an d develop a clear understanding of the social,
political and economic factors which are effecting their lives, and aware them how can they
solve their problem by using their resources and purpose to mobilize the people or self
mobilization. In any case there is maximum involvement of the people with NGOs acting as
facilitators.

NOTES COMPILED BY GARIMA NAGPAL, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, KRCHE, GGSIPU

 8

Types of NGOs by the level of their operation.

It has further types which are as following.

Community based organization(CBOs)

When people start feelings that what are their needs and how can they fulfill them. These
NGO,s arise out of people’s own initiatives. These can includes sports clubs women
organizations neighborhood organizations, religious and educational organizations. Some
supported by NGO, s ,national and international NGO,s and other independent outside help.
Some are devoted to raising the consciousness of urban poor or helping them to understand
their rights in gaining access to needed services while others are involved in providing such
services.

City wide organizations.

These NGO,s are organized for some major or personal purpose. For example chambers of
commerce and industry, coalitions of business, educational group. Some exist for other
purposes and become involved in helping the poor as one of many activities, while others
are created for the specific purpose of helping the poor.

National NGOs.
It includes organizations such as the Red cross, YMWCAs, YWCAs, professional
organizations etc. Some of these have state branches and assist local NGOs.

International NGOs.
These range from secular agencies such as REDDA BARNA and save the children
organisation, CARE, UNDP, UNICEF. Their activities vary from mainly funding local
NGOs institutions and projects and implementing the projects themselves.

NOTES COMPILED BY GARIMA NAGPAL, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, KRCHE, GGSIPU

 9

TOPIC-4- CYBER MEDIA AND DEVELOPMENT

A) E-Governance:
At the most basic level, it's about putting services online and making it easier for people to
access them. On a broader definition, it involves an effort by the government to lead society
from an industrial to an information age.
Benefits of E-governance: e-Governance sees the people in government, business and citizens
working together for the benefit of all. If properly implemented, the benefits of e-Governance
are enormous. Some of its obvious benefits are:
Integrated Information: e-Governance targets to use a government-wide electronic
information infrastructure to simplify service delivery, reduce duplication, and improve the
level and speed of service to clients at a lower cost. It recommends creating, managing, and
prudently sharing information electronically among the various government departments and
the different services offered by them.
Integrated Services: Different types of services offered by different government departments
like collecting taxes, granting licenses, administering regulations, paying grants and benefits,
can be availed at one place.
Anywhere Services: Provision of fully interactive on-line services by e-Governance gives
public access to government services with quicker responses at convenient times. This on-line
accessibility of stored information from remote locations allows government officials to serve
any citizen from a government office located in any part of the state or country. Anywhere,
Anytime Information: Delivery of services may require interaction between government
officials and citizens, but delivery of public-domain information to citizens can be done without
any such interaction. Citizens can obtain information related to government processes and
procedures through an on-line system without interacting with any government official. There is
no pressure on individuals to physically visit a Government Office.
Improved Overall Productivity: e-Governance will significantly contribute to improved
overall productivity of both the government officials and the citizens, as it ensures faster
interaction among them by electronic mail instead of moving paper files and letters, and in
streamlining the workflow of internal government administrative processes. On the other hand,
improved productivity of citizens results because of the facility of anytime, anywhere services
and information.
Better Decision Making and Planning: The integrated information base of e-Governance
helps planners and decision makers to perform extensive analysis of stored data to provide
answers to the queries of the administrative cadre. This facilitates taking well informed policy
decisions for citizen. This in turn helps them to formulate more effective strategies and policies
for citizen facilitation.
Better Security and Protection of Information: E-Governance uses the integrated
information approach for keeping all information at one place in electronic form. Thus, keeping
information secure against theft or leakage. Proper backup mechanisms also help in protecting

NOTES COMPILED BY GARIMA NAGPAL, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, KRCHE, GGSIPU

 10

the valuable information from getting lost due to natural calamities such as fires, earthquakes,
and floods.

Successful E-governance projects in states:

BHOOMI of Karnataka: The first e-governance project of on Land Records Computerization
System.
WARANA of Maharashtra: ‘Wired Village’ concept at Warana cooperative complex in
Kolhapur and Sangli districts in Maharashtra.
RASI (Rural Access to Services through Internet) of Tamil Nadu: Rural IT infrastructure in
Tamil Nadu.
E-SEVA of Andhra Pradesh: Provides services relating to payment of Utility Bills,
Certificates, Permits / licenses, reservation etc.
CARD of A.P: System of registration through electronic delivery of all the registration services.
Tax Administration: Better, faster, easier: In order to ensure that tax administration, including
that of VAT, is faster and easier, the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers has
flagged off an initiative called the National Tax Information Exchange System (TINXSYS)
project across the country.
IT for Railways: Railway Reservation Systems and online delivery of tickets.
Community Benefits: Community centres with IT: The Government of India has set up
Community Information Centres (CICs) in the North East and Sikkim. These CICs provide
broadband Internet access at each block. They provide services such as birth and death
registration, and act as e-Suvidha service facilitation centres for marriage and SC/ST certificates.
They also provide information about agricultural prices and related matters, and educational and
employment opportunities.
Computerising the Police: Connecting the cops: The Kolkata Police has built a WAN that
connects the police headquarters and important bureaus with more than 400 police stations
across the state of West Bengal. This network is in its final stage of implementation. The older
special messenger system has been abolished, and all information is sent over the new network.
Sukhmani: The government of Punjab commissioned a project called Sukhmani as the citizen
gateway for over 120 services provided by the government.
E-Governance is also referred to as SMART Governance because it aims at using IT to the
processes of Government functioning to bring about Simple, Moral, Accountable, Responsive
and Transparent Governance.
Emergencies: During/after natural disasters, it is difficult to install radio communication
stations for establishing contacts with the outside world. However, much easier to communicate
throughcyber media.
During the 2001, Bhuj (Gujrat) earthquake, cyber media played an important role in
establishing contact, treatment of the injured and other relief and rehabilitation operations.

NOTES COMPILED BY GARIMA NAGPAL, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, KRCHE, GGSIPU

 11

B) Digital Democracy Model

Both in developed and developing countries, a four stage model of digital democracy is
accepted and practiced. The stages are:

Information disclosure,
Listening/consultation,
Online deliberation, and
Online decision-making.

Digital democracy develops from lower-level stage of information disclosure to higher-level

stage of online decision-making. These stages are ordered according to the extent of citizen
participation by means of the Internet.

(i) In the stage of information disclosure, public agencies provide useful information
about policy matters on the Internet so that citizens can read and form opinions.
(ii) In the stage of listening/consultation, public agencies receive feedback or opinions
from citizens through government Web sites.
(iii) In the stage of online deliberation, citizens and public officials discuss policy
issuesonline.
(iv) In the stage of online decision-making, citizens participate in decision-making
online - making it genuine computer supported cooperative work. As time goes on,
the development of digital democracy iscumulative.

To realize democracy, there exist lower-level values such as accountability of public officials,
responsiveness of public officials, transparency of public administration, and efficiency of
administration. Often, these values are discussed with regard to establishing good governance.
These values are particularly important for developing countries where authoritarian
government dictates and corruptions are rampant. Thus, for developing countries, stage one and
two of digital democracy are important to address first.

By contrast, in developed countries, people are dissatisfied with government and representatives
because people have little opportunity to influence the decision-making process. So, stage three
and stage four are considered important for citizens.

Considering these gaps in stages of digital democracy, best practices should be grouped to
either develop digital democracy or advance digital democracy.

NOTES COMPILED BY GARIMA NAGPAL, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, KRCHE, GGSIPU

 12

C) E-Chaupal

E-Choupal is an India-based business initiative by ITC Limited that provides Internet access to
rural farmers. The purpose is to inform and empower them and, as a result, to improve the
quality of agricultural goods and the quality of life forfarmers.

ITC Limited (formerly India Tobacco Company Limited) is a consumer product and
agribusiness conglomerate in India known for their production of cigarettes, specialty paper,
food products and packaging services. Through the e-Choupal initiative, ITC has created more
than 6,500 e-Choupal computer stations in rural areas that serve an average of six hundred
farmers each. Using this technology, farmers may order supplies, learn about best agricultural
practices, receive weather reports and read about pricing for crops throughout the region.

Farmers can use that information to their own prices. They also obtain higher profit margins
because they’re no longer forced to sell through a middleman. ITC Limited also benefits from
the initiative, by simplifying its supply chains and increasing its profits.

Problems Addressed

Traditionally, commodities were procured in mandis (major agricultural marketing centres in

rural areas of India), where the middleman used to make most of the profit. These middlemen
used unscientific and sometimes outright unfair means to judge the quality of the product to set
the price. The difference in price between good quality and inferior quality was little, and
therefore there was no incentive for the farmers to invest and produce good quality output.
With e-Choupal, the farmers have a choice and the exploitative power of the middleman is
neutralised.

Statement of a farmer who is a member of E-choupal: "Before ITC introduced us to e- Choupal,

we were restricted to selling our produce in the local mandi. We had to go through middlemen
and prices were low. ITC trained me to manage the Internet kiosk and I became the e-
ChoupalSanchalakin my village. Today we are a community of e-farmers with access to daily
prices of a variety of crops in India and abroad – this helps us to get the best price. We can also
find out about many other important things – weather forecasts, the latest farming techniques,
crop insurance, etc. e-Choupal has not only changed the quality of our lives, but our entire
outlook.

Effects of E-Chaupal

ITC Limited has now provided computers and Internet access in rural areas across several
agricultural regions of the country, where the farmers can directly negotiate the sale of their
produce with ITC Limited. This online access enables farmers to obtain information on mandi
prices, and good farming practices, and to place orders for agricultural inputs like

NOTES COMPILED BY GARIMA NAGPAL, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, KRCHE, GGSIPU

 13

seeds and fertilizers. This helps farmers improve the quality of their products, and helps in
obtaining a better price. Each ITC Limited kiosk having Internet access is run by a sanchalak
— a trained farmer. The computer is housed in the sanchalak's house and is linked to the
Internet via phone lines or by a VSAT connection. Each installation serves an average of 600
farmers in the surrounding ten villages within about a 5 km radius. The sanchalak bears some
operating cost but in return earns a service fee for the e-transactions done through his e-
Choupal. The warehouse hub is managed by the same traditional middle-men, now called
samyojaks, but with no exploitative power due to the reorganization. Indeed these middlemen
make up for the lack of infrastructure and fulfill critical jobs like cash disbursement, quantity
aggregation and transportation.

Since the introduction of e-Choupal services, farmers have seen a rise in their income levels
because of a rise in yields, improvement in quality of output, and a fall in transaction costs.
Even small farmers have gained from the initiative. Customized and relevant knowledge is
offered to the farmers despite heterogeneous cultures, climates and scales of production.
Farmers can get real-time information despite their physical distance from the mandis. The
system saves procurement costs for ITC Limited. The farmers do not pay for the information
and knowledge they get from e-Choupals; the principle is to inform, empower and compete. At
the same time ITC Limited has obtained benefits from the programme:

Elimination of non value added activities

Differentiated product through identity preserved supply chains
Value added products traceable to farm practices
E-marketplaceforspottransactionsandsupportservicestofuturesexchange

There are presently 6,500 e-Choupals in operation. ITC Limited plans to scale up to 20,000 e-
Choupals by 2012 covering 100,000 villages in 15 states, servicing 15 million farmers.

Notes Compiled by GARIMA NAGPAL, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, KRCHE, GGSIPU.

 14

TOPIC-2-DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT COMMUNICATION

A) Social Audit
Social audit is a way of measuring, understanding, reporting and ultimately improving an
organization's social and ethical performance. It as a term was used as far back as the 1950s.
There has been a flurry of activity and interest in India and neighboring countries since 1990s.
It is based on the principle that democratic governance should be carried out, as far as possible,
with the consent and understanding of all concerned. It is thus a process and not an event.

B)
GRASSROOT ACTIVISM?

What is Grassroots Activism?

At its most basic level, grassroots activism is a group of people who feel strongly enough about
an issue to actively campaign to make a difference. Grassroots activism relies on the basic
rights to freedom of speech and expression by individuals when it comes to trying to make a
change to a particular issue. This type of activism is not controlled by any particular political
party. They are an independent group of people who feel strongly about a certain issue and are
willing to put in the effort to affect a change on the issue they are concerned about.

Political Power in Grassroots

In a number of cases there will be individuals involved in grassroots campaigns who do hold
political power. It could be politicians who pick up on a certain campaign through the media
and believe in the issue strongly enough to add their support. In some cases this could look like
the actions of a political party trying to gain favor from the public. However in many cases it

Notes Compiled by GARIMA NAGPAL, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, KRCHE, GGSIPU.

 15

will often be that the politician does actually support the cause and wishes to help the people
involved in the campaign.

Who are Grassroots Activists?

Grassroots activists can be anyone from any walk of life who feels passionately about a cause.
Activists can be communities that are opposed to a large retailer moving into their town. They
can be a group of individuals that are opposed to animal testing or who want to change a
council’s policies. Grassroots activism is politics at its most fundamental level; people coming
together to stand up and make a difference. This could mean protesting outside the gates of a
factory where an employee has been unfairly dismissed to leafleting a whole community on an
issue that affects them.

How Grassroots Activism Works

Once a grassroots campaign starts to pick up momentum it can be very effective when it comes
to making a change. A successful campaign can start off with one or two activists that can soon
turn into hundreds and even thousands. If the media picks up on the campaign then this can
make a real difference to the cause. If the cause has significant support it can effectively change
government policies and laws.

Recent protests have included marches against the war in Iraq to campaigns to stop knife
crimes in London. These have been protests started by a small number of people that grew to
huge numbers through the strength of feeling regarding the particular causes.

Peaceful Protest
Although most grassroots protests are intended as peaceful demonstrations for change this has
not always been the ultimate outcome. Many activists have been arrested and in some cases
endured time in prison due to their strong beliefs. Animal rights protestors often use extreme
methods to highlight their protests including breaking into testing facilities. Protestors against
nuclear disarmament in Britain are frequently arrested when they hold sit-ins outside warhead
manufacturing plants. Some campaigns can last for many years and take real commitment from
those involved.

Making a Difference
Anyone who feels strongly about an issue can start their own grassroots campaign. The power
of the Internet has made a real difference to the way campaigns are now run. Thanks to social
networking sites it is now easier to recruit likeminded activists and organise protests and
campaigns. This is grassroots activism at its most basic level but it can make a difference and
change the public’s attitude towards certain issues.

Holding a political office is not always needed to make a difference to policies and issues.
Many changes have been made in the world thanks to the results of grassroots activism. From
civil rights activism to the campaigns for nuclear disarmament, grassroots activism will always
be a way for the public to make a difference to the world in which we live.

Notes Compiled by GARIMA NAGPAL, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, KRCHE, GGSIPU.

 16

Notes Compiled by GARIMA NAGPAL, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, KRCHE, GGSIPU.