Citation:Herath, D.B., Rupasinghe, W., Jayasekara, D., Gamage, D. and Attanayaka, M. 2015. Radio “Dambana”: A new experiment of Community radio in Sri Lanka, p. 297, In: Proceedings of the International Postgraduate Research Conference 2015 University of Kelaniya, Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, (Abstract), 339 pp.
Date:2015
Abstract:
Sri Lanka is the first country which started the Community Radio station in Asia, as
Mahawali Community Radio (MCR).But many researchers points out that it was not a proper
way of establishing a community radio.(Jayaratne,2008).The rationale behind is that its
name as ―community‖ but functioned as ―state owned‖. In 2010 the main MCR station
Giradurukotte Community Radio, launched as Radio Dambana. It was transformed as
community radio for Sri Lankan Vadda community mainly located in the area of Dambana.
In this research we are trying to analyze the main functions of the radio dambana as a
community radio. While doing this we are searching the sustainability of the station and its
scope.
We have used mix methods to collect data such as interviews field visits, content analysis of
the programmes as primary data. To analyze the data we deployed the SWOT analysis as a
tool.
The findings suggest the format of radio dambana would need a shift of its functions to
achieve the aims and objectives of the station.
