Developing alternative media traditions in Nepal

Abstract

Nepal's democratic revolution of 1990 awakened the suppressed voices of people throughout the Himalayan nation. Nowhere was this seen and heard more loudly than in the field of the dynamic new media that thrived after these momentous political events. Some of the most remarkable examples of these new media are the community television, radio, and newspapers produced in the town of Tansen, where they thrive far from the political hub of the state in the Kathmandu Valley. Developing Alternative Media Traditions in Nepal examines how these innovative media came about and the many obstacles their producers faced when attempting to speak of and to their own community. The book is based on long-term ethnographic research in Nepal in the mid-1990s and subsequent accounts of the continuing development of Tansen's community media organizations. It offers a unique perspective on how people in developing nations use mass media and is one of the first full-length, detailed accounts in English of new media developments in Nepal.