Radio is one of the oldest, cheapest and most popular mediums of communication. It is like the theatre of our minds, open and free. Even in the digital era, it is said to be the best medium to reach remote areas and maximum number of people at a time, even when the other mediums stop functioning. It is still the most consuming means of communication to strengthen democracies by raising their voice on unjust practices. Every year, February 13, is celebrated as the World Radio Day. The main objective to celebrate World Radio Day is to spread awareness of the importance of Radio amongst people, to encourage decision-makers to use Radio to provide access to information and improve international co-operation amongst broadcasters.
To honour and celebrate this day, IBN had an in-depth conversation with Mrs. Subha Das Mollick, a documentary filmmaker, writer and a teacher of media & film studies. She is also the founder secretary of Bichitra Pathshala, an organization that explores alternative pedagogies using moving images. She has designed the course “Cinema in the Classroom” for Open Education Resource for a Better World. Presently she is designing a Media Literacy course called “Scanning Media”
Mrs. Subha Das Mollick, shared with us her latest podcast – Memories of Media, on the occasion of World Radio Day, where she spoke about the History of Media in India.
Reminiscing the whole process of successfully coming up with this Podcast, she said, “When I sat down to design a course on media literacy for teachers, I looked through my rear view mirror to understand the impact of media in my life. That is when it gradually dawned on me how much the media has shaped my growing up years. Memories came tumbling down, voices and tunes buried deep in memory rose to the surface and filled my head. Like a person in trance I sat down at the computer and started hammering away at the keyboard.
As I started writing, my jumbled up memories fell in a chronological order. My theoretical knowledge about history of media in India, which I have acquired as a teacher of media studies, fell in line with my personal memories. I became acutely aware of being caught in the flux of time. Personal memories fused with political headlines. I realized that I am not just caught in a flux, I am the flux. Media is a great unifier. It gives a collective memory.
Meanwhile, my husband had downloaded the Audacity software and he wanted to try it out. This was a golden opportunity for him. He got down to work and became obsessed with fine tuning my voice to make it sound somewhat decent. The internet was there to source the memorable voices of famous people and golden voices of broadcasters of the bygone era. The resulting podcast is our maiden homegrown effort at creating something for posterity. We are happy to share it with friends on World Radio Day. We are very hopeful that memories will be kindled in the minds of listeners.”
Quite informative for the ones who had no knowledge in this
Extremely interesting talk…the audio clips brought back memories of our childhood and teens!Thank you for the illustrated talk.