Folk Media and its Role in Development 1

Folk Media and its Role in Development

Development Communication

Submitted by: Ahsan Sajjad

Roll no 42

Semester 7th

Session 2017-21

School of Communication Studies

University of the Punjab, Lahore.

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Abstract

This assignment aims to explore the significance of folk media in socioeconomic development.
Folk media, deeply rooted in local cultures, traditions, and customs, has played a pivotal role in
conveying information, preserving heritage, and fostering community cohesion. This paper
delves into various aspects of folk media, its modes of communication, and its impact on
development, including education, health, cultural preservation, and social awareness. Through
this exploration, we uncover how folk media contributes to sustainable development and
empowers marginalized communities.

Introduction

Folk media refers to a form of communication, expression, and cultural representation that
emerges from and is deeply rooted in the traditions, beliefs, and practices of a particular
community or group. It encompasses a wide range of cultural expressions, including oral
traditions, folk music, dance, storytelling, rituals, festivals, visual arts, crafts, and more. Folk
media is distinct from mainstream or mass media in that it is often passed down through
generations and is closely tied to the cultural identity and heritage of a specific community.

Key characteristics of folk media include:

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1. Cultural Preservation: Folk media plays a crucial role in preserving and transmitting
cultural heritage, traditions, and values from one generation to another. It encapsulates
the collective wisdom, experiences, and history of a community, providing a link
between the past and the present.

2. Local Relevance: Unlike mass media, which often has a broader and more standardized
appeal, folk media is deeply rooted in local contexts. It addresses the specific needs,
concerns, and perspectives of a particular community, reflecting their unique way of life,
language, and worldview.

3. Participatory Nature: Folk media is often participatory in nature, involving active

engagement and interaction among community members. Whether through communal
storytelling sessions, folk dance performances, or craft-making workshops, folk media
encourages collaboration and shared experiences.

4. Oral Tradition: Many forms of folk media are transmitted orally, through storytelling,
proverbs, songs, and chants. This oral tradition not only communicates information but
also serves as a means of entertainment and social bonding within the community.

5. Expression of Identity: Folk media provides a platform for communities to express their
identity, beliefs, and social norms. It strengthens the sense of belonging and pride among
community members, fostering a deeper connection to their cultural roots.

6. Adaptability and Evolution: While folk media is deeply rooted in tradition, it is not
stagnant. It evolves over time, incorporating new elements and responding to changing
circumstances. This adaptability helps ensure its relevance in contemporary contexts.

7. Non-Hierarchical: Folk media often lacks the hierarchical structure typical of

mainstream media. Anyone within the community can contribute and participate,
regardless of age, gender, or social status.

8. Emotional Connection: Folk media tends to evoke strong emotions and resonate deeply
with its audience. Whether through the nostalgic melodies of folk songs or the captivating
narratives of folk tales, it has the power to evoke feelings of joy, nostalgia, sorrow, and
more.

Overall, folk media is a powerful tool for cultural expression, education, and community
cohesion. It provides an alternative perspective to mass media by offering an authentic and
localized representation of cultures and societies. As societies modernize and globalize,
preserving and promoting folk media becomes essential to maintaining the diversity and richness
of human cultural heritage.

Historical Background and Evolution of Folk Media in India:

Theatre, music and dance are the three traditional art forms which have been part of human
culture. They are performing arts which create great impact on the human mind. Traditional
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media by nature are those indigenous forms of communication which have their roots in the
cultural tradition of the country.

The word tradition implying customs, habits and way of life existed in a society from time
immemorial and practiced from one generation to another. It can be transmitted through written
scriptures or by word of mouth. The nomadic primitive people sharing a common cultural
heritage based on oral tradition are generally said to have a folk culture. Folk implies the
people’s participation and spontaneity.

Folk culture in a society is seen in four different forms: (Nag, December 2013)

1. Oral tradition: These include mostly verbal arts or expressive literature consisting of spoken,
sung and voiced forms of traditional utterances like songs, tales, poetry, ballads, anecdotes,
rhymes, proverbs and elaborate epics.

2. Material culture: These are visible aspects of folk behaviour such as skills, recipes and
formulae as displayed in rural arts and crafts, traditional motifs, architectural design, clothes,
fashions, farming, fishing and various other types of tools and machinery.

3. Social folk customs: These are areas of traditional life, which emphasize the group rather than
the individual skills and performances. They include large family and community observances
and relate to birth, marriage, death or annual celebrations, festivals, fairs, ritual and ceremonial
gatherings, market occasions and rural meets.

4. Performing arts: These consist of traditional music, masquerades, dance and drama. (Nag,
December 2013)

Among these, the oral tradition and the performing arts appear to be the main media of
communication. Storytellers, singers and other kinds of folk entertainers have acted for centuries
as sources for the transmission and dissemination of news and information through face-to-face
live communication. The values, attitudes, beliefs and culture are depicted in the form of satire
by the folk artists for curing societal evils.

Development Communication:

Communication is the key to human development. For the development process people’s
participation is the key element to the progress. Communication is the essential to the
development task in many ways. For example, it permits proposers, when classifying and
framing development programs and to check with people in command to take into account their
requirements, attitudes and traditional information.

Development communication is the kind of communication which is functional to the prompt

conversion of a country and the mass of its people from the insufficiency to the self -moved state
of economic progression that creates possible enormous social equivalence and the higher
implementation of human potential this is known as the process of Development
Communication.
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Five Universal Facts about Communication:

1. Communication is related to every human activity

Communication is closely linked with every sphere of human life. It is essential in leading a
meaningful human life. Enjoying peaceful life, developing person-to-person relationships,
building a prosperous state etc. are not possible without communication.

2. Communication involves two or more parties

At least, two parties are involved in any communication process. The party who sends
information is called sender and the party who receives the information is called receiver.
However, in some cases a sender can send message to a large number of receivers.

3. Communication may be one-way or two-way process

Communication can take the shape of two-way or oneway process. In two-way communication,
the receiver sends his feedback to the sender after receiving the message. One-way
communication refers to the flow of information from sender to receiver only. In this process of
communication receiver does not convey his reaction to the sender.

4. Communication in organization flows in various patterns

In organization information flows in various directions, such as upward direction, downward

direction, horizontal direction etc.

5. Communication is media or channel based

Every human communication occurs by using a particular medium. The media may be written,
oral and nonverbal or a combination of verbal and non-verbal media. In light of the above
discussion and definitions, Communication is the transfer of information from one person to
another person. It is a way of reaching others by transmitting ideas, facts, thoughts, feelings, and
values. (Prabavathi & Nagasubramani, 2018)

Role of Folk Media in Development Process:

Folk media is the inimitable in the nature, as it is look like the day-to-day life pattern of the rural
masses. This type of media is a source of prevalent entertainment for the audience of rural areas,
in addition to providing education and information to the people of the society. Countries like
Pakistan, India, Bangladesh has a rich inheritance of folk art, folk tales, folk dance, classics,
ballads and dramas that can be used for the development work in the society. (Traditional and
Folk Media in Development Communication Role, 2017)

The folk media is used as to reach the people in the process of change and development of the
country. Folk media have a extraordinary impression on the rustic society because of their
adequate idioms, purposeful significance and entertainment component. Countries like Pakistan
Folk Media and its Role in Development 6

and India who have more rural areas than urban and have low rate of literacy and have intense
heritage of culture, in those places, Folk media can overcome the exertion of language, dialogue,
words and other communication barriers like, understanding, clarification, curiosity, attitude and
perception.

Traditional media like television, newspaper is playing a vital role in the society. The attainment
of agricultural development programs in many developing countries mostly depends on the
nature and the magnitude of use of mass media in deployment of people for the progress in the
society. Developers in emerging countries recognize that the expansion of agriculture could be
accelerated with the active use of mass media in the society. Radio, Television has been much-
admired to be the most operative media for disseminating the methodical knowledge to the
masses. In a country like Pakistan and India, where the literacy level is very low-slung, in those
countries the choice of communication media is of dynamic status. In this esteem the television
and radio are the important mediums for those who cannot read, as these mediums transfer the
contemporary agricultural skill to the knowledgeable and uneducated farmers alike even in the
internal areas, within short period. In country like India farm and home transmission with
agricultural shove were familiarized in 1966, to instruct the farmers on the usage of numerous
technologies to improvement the agricultural development in their society. Media is providing
rights education and building the society. Traditional media also awares the masses from social
and economic levels. The very important role played by the traditional media is to educate the
people. Like in Pakistan many development projects like “Parha Likha Punjab” is helping
people to get education and this add is run by television and its creating awareness of education
amongst the people. The programs like AUO are also run.

Preservation of Cultural Heritage:

Efforts to preserve resources on cultural heritage have gained new momentum throughout the
world nowadays. Protecting cultural heritage is economical, as well as historical and also a
cultural process. m. Cultural heritage is based on the aspects of our past that we cherish, want to
keep and pass on to future generations and outside world. However, the economic benefits of
preservation are secondary to the intrinsic value of that heritage which is been preserved.

Libraries, archives, and museums hold disparate collections in a variety of media, presenting a
vast body of knowledge accumulated over the institutions’ history, and the mission of these
institutions is to make their collections accessible to intended users. Then the question, what are
the roles of library and information science professionals in the preservation of cultural heritage
becomes relevant here? Lynch (2002) described several roles that Librarians may play in digital
libraries as digitizers of unique materials in special collections (a role also played by museums
and archives). Librarians are providers of such services as “virtual reference, preservation and
indexing, and as managers and facilitators of scholarly communications, through their
participation in establishing institutional repositories”. (Ekwelem, Okafor, & Ukwoma, 2011)

IMPORTANCE OF FOLK MEDIA IN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION:

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Ninety percent of the world's population lives in developing countries and 70% of them live in
rural areas. Mass media such as newspapers, television, and the internet still do not effectively
reach these people. Moreover, many research studies show that these media do not have the
required impact in terms of motivating change and development. (Gupta, January 2015)

Thus, Folk media can play a vital role in communicating to and with the people, particularly, in
rural areas, including the modern messages. They can be effective mass media for preventing the
tribals and the illiterates from continuous exploitation, as they do not understand, the language of
modern communication. In India folk forms have special significance as mass media. People in
remote rural and tribal areas do not have an access to the modern media and it does not reach
these target groups. Here, folk forms of communication can help immensely in dissemination of
the messages emitted by the electronic media.

In the recent years educationists, media experts and development practitioners have realized the
tremendous potential of folk art forms as means of communication with people. Folk media are
primarily concerned with appealing to emotions and include strong dimension of communication
of message. They constitute an integral part of the culture and tradition of the people and they
have instant mass appeal. They function within the cultural framework of the society, which
appeals to the audience and thus folk media acquire credibility among masses. Folk media
provide for face to face communication. (Nag, December 2013)

Using Folk Arts and Traditional Media Involving Theatre For Development:

The urge to express, communicate and share something beautiful gave birth to performing arts
such as folk and traditional media. In the process, the living progressive impulse to the timeless
universal got a coherent shape in creative designs. Folk performing arts have changed structure
continuously over centuries, modifying to the needs of changing situations, yet continuing to be
functionally relevant to society.

For social change and development, what is required is a change in the beliefs and the value
systems of individuals, thus making them more adaptive and responsive to organic evolution and
growth. Folk media particularly theatre offer an important apparatus in the process of inspiring
rural masses towards accepting social changes, which also establish a constructive means for the
overall development of the common people and can build a scientific temperament among the
mass. Folk media imply the people’s participation and spontaneity. The communication potential
of Indian traditional performing arts has been proven time and again throughout history.

PREREQUISITES TO THE USE OF FOLK:

MEDIA An understanding of the rural audience

 Careful consideration of its content

 Characterization for their possible adaptation for development purposes
Folk Media and its Role in Development 8

 Consistency with the needs of the social context

 Integration with the customs and beliefs of the local communities
 Provide rural people with entertainment in order to attract their attention and to ensure
their participation in developmental activities
 Efforts should be made to preserve the originality of each folk form, adaptation need not
alter nor destroy the form
 For effective community-level communication strategies, the integrated and planned use
of both folk and mass media is necessary Collaboration between the folk artistes and the
media producers is absolutely essential

Political Puzzles and Prospect of Media in Pakistan:

Pakistan’s road to its destiny has not been smooth since its creation in 1947.While passing
through several social, political and economic crises; the state has been deeply fissured along its
ethnic and religious lines.

The country witnessed the wars, military and democratic regimes and economic crises. It
attained atomic capabilities, constitutional amendments. Masses indulged into ideological and
liberal clashes and finally entered into the 21st century with the country’s biggest posture as a
front line state for war against terror. With the overview of the country’s situation, this article
deals with the media birth, its growth and its current situation especially of electronic media. The
media’s puzzles and prospective in national integration has been also discussed. Particularly, the
overall focus remained at the point that how the media could contribute in achieving national
goals. The past government’s efforts to take control over media were also picked briefly.

Thе rеlаtiοnѕhip bеtwееn thе ѕtаtе, thе mеdiа, аnd rеligiοn in Pakistan, аѕ Gitlin'ѕ (1987)
ѕuggеѕtеd thаt "thе fοrmѕ οf mаѕѕcultural prοduсtiοn dο nοt еithеr ѕpring up οr οpеrаtе
indеpеndеntly οf thе rеѕt οf social lifе" (Gitlin 1987: 510). Thе media in Pakistan οpеrаtеѕ with
ѕеvеrаl pесuliаr fеаturеѕ tаilοrеd tο thе idеοlοgiсаl viѕiοn οf thе Pakistani еlitеѕ. Pakistan
Tеlеviѕiοn prοgrаmѕ, juѕt likе οthеr cultural аѕpесtѕ οf thе ѕtаtе, аrе сοnсеptuаlizеd mаinly in
сοntrаdiѕtinсtiοn tο Indiа'ѕ nаtiοnаl culture аnd idеntity. Thеy аrе аdаptеd kееping in viеw thе
ѕtаtе idеοlοgy, viеwеrѕ' tаѕtеѕ, rеligiοuѕ pаrtiеѕ' dеmаndѕ, аnd thе gеnеrаl mаrkеting
rеquirеmеntѕ. Аt а lаrgеr lеvеl, nοnе οf thеѕе саtеgοriеѕ wеrе fixеd, аnd thеy wеrе frеquеntly
rеаѕѕеmblеd сirсumѕtаntiаlly. With the pаѕѕаgе of time reputation of Pаkiѕtаn’ѕ media have
sullied due to its failure in thoroughly сοmprеhеnding аffаirѕ. (Sabir, 2018)

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the intricate tapestry of folk media weaves together cultures, traditions, and
communities, serving as a linchpin in the realm of socioeconomic development. As we have
explored throughout this assignment, folk media plays a multifaceted role that extends far
Folk Media and its Role in Development 9

beyond entertainment. It is a conduit for education, a vessel for cultural preservation, a catalyst
for health awareness, and a force for social change. Through its various modes of communication
—be it oral narratives, traditional performances, or visual arts—folk media carries the wisdom of
generations, enabling knowledge to transcend time and be accessible to all.

The preservation of cultural heritage is among the foremost strengths of folk media. It safeguards
the essence of communities, keeping alive their traditions, rituals, and histories. This role not
only instills a sense of pride and identity but also establishes a foundation from which further
development can spring. By integrating folk media into educational practices, communities can
impart knowledge in a manner that resonates deeply, transcending mere information transfer to
create a holistic learning experience.

Folk media's role in health awareness and social change is equally commendable. From tackling
public health issues to challenging societal norms, folk media becomes a catalyst for
transformation. It has the unique ability to influence behavior and shift perspectives, harnessing
its cultural significance to inspire collective action and positive change.

One of the most profound aspects of folk media is its empowerment of marginalized
communities. By providing a platform for self-expression and representation, folk media enables
these communities to reclaim their narratives and assert their agency. In a world often dominated
by mainstream media, folk media's grassroots origins become a potent tool for amplifying voices
that might otherwise go unheard.

Yet, this enduring force faces challenges in the face of modernity. Globalization and the digital
age pose both opportunities and threats to folk media. While these advancements can aid in its
dissemination, they can also dilute its authenticity. Therefore, it is crucial to strike a balance
between innovation and preservation, ensuring that folk media remains a vibrant thread in the
tapestry of development.

In the journey toward sustainable development, folk media stands as a testament to the richness
of human expression and its power to drive progress. It is a living testament to the resilience of
cultures, adapting and evolving while holding steadfast to their roots. As policymakers,
educators, and communities look to shape the future, acknowledging and nurturing the role of
folk media is essential. By doing so, we not only celebrate the diversity of our world but also
harness a force that can uplift, inspire, and propel societies toward a brighter and more inclusive
tomorrow.
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Bibliography
Ekwelem, Okafor, & Ukwoma. (2011). Preservation of Cultural. Library Philosophy and Practice , 1-2.

Gupta, V. (January 2015). FOLK MEDIA IN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL

of RESEARCH , 1-2.

Nag, B. (December 2013). ROLE OF THEATRE AND FOLK MEDIA IN PROMOTING SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT.
Global Media Journal-Indian , 2-3.

Prabavathi, R., & Nagasubramani. (2018). Effective oral and written communication. Journal of Applied
and Advanced Research , 1.

Sabir, M. (2018). Political Puzzles and Prospect of Media in Pakistan . Journal of Political Studies, Vol. 18,
Issue 1, 109-123 .

Traditional and Folk Media in Development Communication Role. (2017, Oct 16). Retrieved 2023, from
www.ukessays.com: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/media/traditional-folk-media-development-
communication-6388.php#:~:text=The%20folk%20media%20is%20used,purposeful%20significance
%20and%20entertainment%20component.