Community Journalism & Empowerment: Do they go hand in hand?

With the credibility of mainstream journalism decreasing each passing day, Community Journalism (CJ), assisted by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), stands out as a workable and interesting alternative. Using Rowland's Empowerment framework, this paper analyzes what impact CJ has on individual empowerment. The study is based on CGNet-Swara, a CJ project launched for tribal and marginalized communities of India. The study uses case study research design following hermeneutics as the method of data analysis. The study indicates that CJ projects do not strive to provide empowerment to the individuals in all its manifestations. Moreover, although these projects do empower individuals to certain extent, they sometimes also create false consciousness of attaining power.