BHUBANESWAR: In a first, Odisha State Archives has taken up usage of social media to promote local culture and make people aware of the rich heritage of the state.
To cater to the larger audience, the history keepers have taken the help of online video sharing platform YouTube. The public body has videos with 20 hours of runtime in their official channel.
Housing clips of eminent researchers, scholars and historians, the channel ‘Odisha State Archives’ is India’s first and only archive to feature on YouTube.
“The rich culture and heritage of Odisha needs to reach more audience. Observing the increasing number of people accessing social media platforms, we came up with the idea of creating a channel of our own. YouTube is one of the best websites to share videos and thus we shared our content through it,” said Prashant Mahakud, a senior official at the state archive.
Shot, designed and produced in studio of their own, the channel has videos of noted documentary maker, Siddharth Kak, MLA Ayub Khan and German historian Herman Kulke. From Indian culture to tribal deities in the courts feudatory Rajas, cultural content of almost any subject can be accessed through the intuitive channel.
However, just like any other new channel, the Odisha State Archives is struggling to gather enough views and subscribers. Started about a year ago the channel has only 81 subscribers and has an average of 200 views. With just 1k views, Sanjeeb Hota’s talk on ‘Odia O Utkaliya Sanskruti Anya Eka Diga’ remains the most viewed video in the channel.
“Lack of awareness about the channel is the reason for fewer views and subscriptions. We have also observed that videos of longer lengths garner lesser attention. Hence, we are planning to make shorter videos. We will also be adding English subtitles to Odia videos for larger participation of the viewers,” Mahakud stated.
But those who have come to know about the channel have appreciated the initiative of Odisha State Archives. While students of humanities and anthropology have made the most out of the videos, others have given thumbs up to the monumental efforts made by the members of the body.
“The best thing about the channel is the range of videos. The information is tremendous and anyone interested to know about Odia or Indian culture can view these. However, English subtitles to some videos could have been really helpful,” said Rashmi Sahoo, a student in humanities at a government college here.
Aviral Mishra, OP