Assessing the effectiveness of community radio during the 2015 floods in Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Flooding due to the unusual excessive rainfall during the month of December in 2015 was one of the recent calamities that turned the state of Tamil Nadu upside down. The arterial districts of the state were reeling under water due to the intense flooding and the coastal district of Cuddalore was one among the severely impacted. People residing in Cuddalore district were extremely traumatised and were clueless about the ongoing situation due to a major power outage and subsequent communication blackout. The advent of an emergency community radio in the post disaster phase of the 2015 floods in Tamil Nadu in the coastal district of Cuddalore carved a place for itself in history by becoming the country’s first ever emergency radio station and emerged as a timely disaster communication medium for the affected community. The present study aims to analyse the consumption of an emergency community radio Peridar Kaala Vaanoli (Tamil words meaning radio in times of extreme calamity) established for disaster communication in the context of a coastal district in a rapidly developing nation like India. The study is attempting to identify the predictors that envision the effective consumption of an exclusive community radio dedicated for emergency communication in the post disaster phase of the Tamil Nadu Floods, 2015, apart from a comprehensively analysing the socio-economic conditions and the extent of media technology diffusion with respect to the Cuddalore community through survey method. The empirical evidences from the current study state that the extent of media technology diffusion among the respondents is in line with their economic background and the emergency community radio Peridar Kaala Vaanoli has been effective through community empowerment, community resilience, needs gratification and inclusive communication design.