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Humanities lecturer wins top gong at international conference

Journalism lecturer Dr Thomas Yesudhasan’s passion for community radio was rewarded when he received the Best Paper Award at an international academic conference in Dubai late last year.

Competing against almost 200 delegates from 100 countries, Dr Yesudhasan’s paper, ‘Qualitative Audience Ethnography and Grounded Theory in Researching Indigenous Media Audiences,’ took out the top prize at the International Conference on Emerging Research Paradigms in Business and Social Sciences.

Dr Yesudhasan’s paper presented findings on the role community radio plays in influencing cultural and economic activities in small villages in southern India.

“Through my research, I met with around 150 people of all ages and backgrounds from four farming villages,” Dr Yesudhasan said.

“I found that the government funded stations were playing an active role in engaging the community by methods such as offering location specific farming advice and encouraging cultural activities through traditional Indian tribal song.”

The findings from Dr Yesudhasan’s paper have been well received by the International academic community.

Over the past five years, Dr Yesudhasan has been invited to present his research on this topic at conferences inUnited States, Canada, Australia, the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Thailand, India, China, Malaysia and Singapore.

Dr Yesudhasan's involvement with community radio started in high school when he was encouraged to prepare a script for the local youth radio program in Nagercoil, India.

Many years on, he is now sharing his knowledge and skills with Curtin University students by teaching Media Ethics, Intercultural Communication, and Cultural Literacy at undergraduate and post graduate level and also coordinating Master of Arts program in Journalism.

12 March 2012