This course will provide a broad understanding of various theoretical approaches within media studies. It will introduce critical and historical perspectives for understanding the evolution and working of mass media institutions, political economy of media and programming in a global economy, with a focus on media and power. It will also examine the different ways in which media audiences have been conceptualised.
Module 1 (20 hrs): Media Institutions and Political Economy
Mass Society Approaches; The Culture Industry: Frankfurt School; Dependency Theory and Cultural Imperialism; Neo- liberal Market and Political Economy of International Communications; Geo-politics and Mass Media; The State, Market and the Media Control; Public Sphere; Globalisation and Glocalisation
Module 2 (10 hrs): Media Audiences
Effects Approaches; Uses and Gratifications; Audience Reception and Cultural Studies Audience Reception Studies in India
MC02: CULTURAL STUDIES: AN INTRODUCTION
This course will introduce students to basic concepts and theoretical developments within Cultural Studies, with the aim of imparting critical perspectives, which would help them look critically at their own cultural landscapes.
Defining Culture; Cultural Studies: An Overview; Basic concepts and Some Key Thinkers: Antonio Gramsci, Francois Lyotard, Jacques Derrida; British Cultural Studies: the work of CCCS, Birmingham; Post Colonial Theory: Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, Gayatri Spivak; Nationalism; Class and Cultural Capital; Identity and Cultural Rights; Race Politics; Feminist Cultural Studies; Sexuality and Queer Theory; Globalisation; A Critique of Cultural Studies
MC03: WAYS OF KNOWING
As a broad introduction to the scientific and interpretative paradigms, this course is intended to provide the student with a conceptual map of social sciences research. It explains the basic concepts and categories that are used in research and delineates their linkages. The aim is to equip the learner with a basic understanding of the different ways in which ‘social reality’ could be conceptualised and studied and the implications of this for the research process.
Module 1 (8 hours): Approaches to understanding social reality
What is research? Natural Sciences, social sciences and the scientific method; Realism, Empiricism, Positivism and Post-Posivitism; Idealism and Constructivism; Marxist approaches; Locating and comparing different approaches; Situating qualitative and quantitative methodologies in relation to these approaches
Module 2 (6 hours): The Scientific Research Process
Hypothesis and variables; Reliability and validity; Sampling; Scales; Tools and Instruments of data gathering; Descriptive and Inferential Statistics
Module 3 (16 hours): Towards an Interpretative Research Process
Developing a research question, reviewing literature; Methodological approaches: Ethnomethodology, Ethnography, Phenomenology, Action Research, Historical and archival research; Developing a Methodological Design; Brief Introduction to Methods- Textual Analysis, Interviewing, Observation, Focus group Discussions, Using Archives; Analysing and Writing; Ethics, power and ideology; Reflexivity
MC04: IMAGE MAKING I
This module critically explores visual images and media narratives, to understand how they are constructed in and through relationships of power and resistance. The course would also try to sensitize the students to appreciate the many complex layers and codes involved in image making and representation. The course also facilitates a critical engagement with contemporary Indian visual culture.
Transmission Model- A Critique; Introduction to Semiology- Sign, text, code, denotation and connotation; Image and Myth; Ways of Seeing and the Practice of Art; The Female Body and Advertising; Art, Craft and ‘Tradition’; Image and Subjectivity- An Introduction to Lacan and Screen Theory; Image and Power; Photographic Practice; Popular Art Practices.
LC01: VIDEO PRODUCTION
This course familiarises the students with all technical aspects of video production, equipment, materials and processes, with hands-on exercises.
Handling the Camera; Sound Acquisition; Lighting; Shooting a Sequence; Interviewing Skills.
MC05: WORKING WITH VIDEO I
This course focuses on conceptualising, visualising and creative writing for the production of very short non-fiction films. It combines the technical and aesthetic aspects of production, drawing on the skills acquired in the media labs to involve the students in a series of small group productions.
The process of video production from concept to final product; Visualisation and story boarding for a poem; shooting and editing of a piece based on interviews/vox-pops; shooting and editing of a spot on an issue of contemporary concern.
MC06 IMAGE MAKING II
This course introduces key issues, debates and movements in documentary film, illustrated with screenings of selected documentary classics. It also imparts familiarity with the formal elements of documentary film.
History, theory, modes, authorial positions and movements; the aesthetics, ethics and politics of representation; Changing modes of production and distribution; Influence of digital technologies; Contemporary documentary in India; Censorship and documentary.
MC07: MEDIA RESEARCH
This course draws on the notion of media and cultural studies as disciplines that explore the workings of power and resistance in contemporary media and culture, where the researcher and the research work are also constructed in and through ideological signifying practices. The aim of the course is to introduce the students to various methodological issues of doing cultural studies research, to enable them understand and use various methods and reflect on the ethics and politics of representation within their research praxis. The course will also introduce them to the range of methods used for studying media institutions, texts and audiences.
Module 1 (10 hours): Ethnography
Representing the ‘other’ – interviews/film/writing; Working with the archives (power and the production of history); Objectivity, Rationality and the ‘Scientific’ method: challenging received wisdom; Standpoint, position, voice
Module 2 (6 hours): Exploring the Spaces and Locations of Cultural Practices
Module 3 (14 hours): Methods for Media Studies
Content Analysis; Survey Research; Experimental Research; Textual and Discourse Analysis; Audience ethnographies and Reception Studies; Focus Group Discussions and Interviewing Techniques; Case Studies and Narrative Analysis
MC10: READING FILM
Beginning with the dense historical processes that made cinema possible to its evolution into a standardized/institutionalized mode of visual production, the course aims to unravel some of the most important issues and debates, both old and contemporary on cinema. These concern the problem of meaning, the processes of spectator identification or the construction of spectatorship, stardom and politics, and the end of cinema and its relationship to television and multimedia cyberspace. In doing this, the course aims to provide the student with adequate inputs to conceptualize complex and nuanced aspects of the relationship between film and society; in order to finally arrive at processes and procedures of critically reading and evaluation of films.
The Construction of the Modern Observer - A Foucauldian Understanding; Classical Hollywood Film and Melodrama; Film and the Problem of Meaning; Film and Psychoanalysis; Phenomenology and Cinema; Film and Spectatorship; Stardom, Cinema and Politics; The End of Cinema; Evaluating Film
LC02: WRITING SKILLS
The aim of this course is to give students the skills to write and report as journalists. It will explore the workings of various media organisations, train students to write reports, features, columns, book and film reviews. It will also engage with the ethics of media practice focussing on how to report sensitive issues.
Introduction to Journalism: What is News? Characteristics of News; Developing a News Sense; News Selection; How a Newspaper Works – hierarchy/functions/deadlines; News Organization Structure; How a story gets done; Beat Reporting; Skills of a Journalist.
Elements of a Good Story: Reporting: News gathering; Research; Interview techniques; Sources for news information; Crafting a News story.
Writing Features/Long stories: Checklist for a good story; Interviewing /Profiles/writing process; Lead writing; Nutgraf ; Adding description, style.
Copy Editing; Content analysis
More Writing/Reporting: Researching/Interviewing /Organising information/writing process, The Great Ideas Quest
Reportage and Writing of Sensitive Issues: communal riots, war, nuclear issues, terrorism etc.; Specialised Beat Reporting; Reviewing Films/Books; Writing for Television; Comment writing/editorials; Column Writing
Media Ethics: Dilemmas faced by journalists in the field
LC03 VIDEO POST-PRODUCTION
This course familiarises the students with all technical aspects of post- production, equipment, software and processes, with hands-on exercises.
Editing Skills: Introduction to video editing and compositing software and hardware.
Music and Sound Design: Use of sound effects, music, filters, mixing and layering
LC06 UNDERSTANDING ART
This course aims to explore the cultural histories of contemporary art movements. This would involve a study of modernism, its contents and discontents and trace the Euro-American evolution of specific art practices and also look at the growth of the contemporary art movement in India.
Early stages of 20th century art in Europe: impressionism, post-impressionism, fauvism, cubism, expressionism, constructivism, abstractionism, abstract expressionism et al.; Art and politics 1910-1945; Languages of art in the 20th century; History of Modern Indian Art 1940-present; Some themes in contemporary Indian art; The discourse of identity in contemporary Indian art.
MC08 MEDIATED DEVELOPMENT
This course presents critical perspectives on communication and development. The course will sensitize the students to the relationship between dominant knowledge and the exercise of social power. It also equips them to critically look at the power of dominant knowledge systems in their own social and cultural spaces. Through this interrogation, it seeks to enable an exploration of alternative ways of understanding development and communication.
Development discourse: History, theory and practice; Community Media; Hegemony, Power, Conflict and Participatory Decision Making; New Social Movements and the Media; Development Communication Experiences (Global and India); Skill Development Workshops
MC09 WORKING WITH VIDEO II
This course familiarises students with research techniques, conceptualising, visualising, creative writing, production and post-production for documentary films. The expected outcome is the production of a series of short documentaries by groups of students around a common theme or space.
The Process of Production: Pre-production- concept, research and reconnaissance; Writing a proposal and budget; Elements of scriptwriting- visualisation, storyboarding, producing a shooting script; Production- schedules, logistics, cue sheets, production team etc.; Post-production- working with layers of image and sound; pace and rhythm; affect, image and sound; punctuating devices; titles and subtitles; graphics; use of music and effects.
MC12 CYBERCULTURE – AN INTRODUCTION
The course will serve as an introductory study of various social phenomena associated with Internet and other new forms of network communication. Students will study phenomena such as online communities, online multi-player gaming, issues of online identity, the sociology and the ethnography of email usage, cell phone usage in various communities; the issues of gender and ethnicity in Internet usage etc. The course attempts to understand culture of today and yesterday, including printing, comics, television and digital media, focusing on the social construction of technology, how people build a sense of identity and social reality. The emphasis will be on human interactions within the context of new media objects.
Introduction to the new technologies and mediascapes; Theories and Practice of New Media Convergence; Digital Technology and Cinema; Cybercirculation, Copyright Issues and Debates on Intellectual Property; Debates on the Regulation of Cybermedia
MC13 TELEVISION STUDIES
This course equips students to critically engage with the study of popular television, from institutional aspects, to televisual discourses and audience reception. It also focuses on television in the Indian context, including policy and contemporary issues.
Module 1: The Codes of Television;
Module 2: Television Production processes;
Module 3: Critical Approaches to Analysing Television;
Module 4: Television as Discourse;
Module 5: Television Audiences;
Module 6: Television Policy in India.
MC 14 GENDER, MEDIA AND CULTURE
This course focuses on concerns of gender and culture, raising questions of representation, power, sexuality, class, caste, space and the media, to name only some. The course locates concerns of culture in the Indian context specifically engaging with the contestations around ‘Indian womanhood’. The course also responds to the overarching challenges posed by globalization in relation to media cultures. The course uses a feminist lens to interrogate the construction of gender, femininity, and masculinity – in popular cultural texts with a focus on how social, political, and historical forces function in tandem with each other and with other identities such as class.
Module 1: Gender, Culture and the Indian Context
Gender Engages Culture, Gendered Pasts; Is there an Indian Woman, The Colonial Construction of Indian Womanhood.
Module 2: Gender Representation and the Media
Representational Hegemonies: Gender, Class and the Media, A Question of Appearance: Advertising Imagery, Constructing a Category: Women’s Magazines, Bollywood: Popular Culture and Interpretation.
Module 3: Sexuality, Culture and the Media
Indian Culture Anyone: Questions of Sexuality and Obscenity, Censorship Debates and Legal Questions.
Module 4: Contemporary Conundrums
Disciplining Bodies, Veils, Turbans and the Politics of Clothing, Masculinities, Gendering Fun in Public Space, Morality, Post Feminism.
MC15 SEMINAR II: PRESENTATION OF MEDIA PROJECT
This seminar course will involve group presentations by students related to their documentary film project. It will involve proposal presentation and defence, including the objectives, content and treatment. Assessment will be based on both the written and oral presentations of the groups.
LC04 VISUAL DESIGN
The rapid growth and development of new technologies has extended and transformed the visual discrimination, skill and conceptual base of communication practitioners. This course aims to provide students with the knowledge, skill and understanding of visualization through theory and practice.
This will be enabled through a series of four modules in Visual Communication, Typography, Colour and Visual representation. The methodology includes lectures, practical assignments, class presentation and discussions. Photography, Drawing and Image manipulation on the computer will be integrated in all modules.
Elements of Visual Communication: Line, Shape, Colour, Texture; Elements of Composition: Rhythm, Harmony, Balance, Symmetry, Contrast, Layout, Grid, Point of View, Introduction to Aesthetics and History of Art
Typography: Anatomy of a font, Classification, Semantics, Letter Design, Resume Writing, Usage concepts, Type in Motion/Web Typography
Colour: Hue, Tint, Tone, Saturation, Colour Wheel, Primary, secondary, Tertiary colours, Colour Interaction, Colour models RGB, CMYK, RGY
Visual Representation: Illustration techniques, Modes of Representation, Storyboarding, Style and Treatment, Continuity
LC05 MEDIA LAB V: COMMUNITY RADIO
This course will attempt to familiarise the students with the
processes of radio production within the context of a community.
Through case studies of the community radio projects in India and
other countries, it will critically look at the history of community
radio.
Module 1: Introduction to Community Radio (CR);
Module 2: History of CR in the world;
Module 3: Indian CR experiments, projects and models;
Module 4: The basic principles of CR; Community participation, ownership and management and the legal frameworks.
Module 5 : Radio production
LC7 MEDIA LAB VII: WEB DESIGN
The course will involve hands-on learning experience, covering the design, and development of websites. Students will design a website using software such as Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver.
Module 1: The basics of the Internet and the structure of a Web page. Analysis of the structure and design of selected websites.
Module 2: Designing a website; paper prototyping, including the Information structuring, the various interaction mechanisms in use, and the visual design of the website.
Module 3: Implementation of the website; Introduction to HTML/CSS syntax and programming, using Dreamweaver. Using Photoshop to create graphics;
Module 4: Further enhancements, fine tuning and troubleshooting of websites; Flash, video on the web, websites in local languages (font technologies); introduction to Java
MP MCS MEDIA PROJECT
This involves the production of a documentary film of approximately 30 minutes duration, undertaken by groups of 3 to 4 students, who will handle all aspects of production. Each group will have a faculty supervisor. In addition to the film, and graded presentations, the students would be assessed on a viva voce examination. The evaluation of the film project will be done by a panel of three examiners, including an external examiner.
MR MEDIA RESEARCH PROJECT
This individual guided project will take the student through the entire research project and will culminate in the production of an MA dissertation, involving literature review, formulation of research questions, data collection and analysis. The student would be evaluated by his/her faculty supervisor and an external examiner.
MC11 SEMINAR I: PRESENTATION OF RESEARCH PROJECT
This seminar course will involve individual presentations by students on the topic of their research project and will include a survey of literature, objectives and methodology. Evaluation will be based on both the oral presentation and defence and the written proposal.
3 RESEARCH SEMINAR COURSES (In lieu of MR & MC11)
RS01: GENDER, CULTURE AND SPACE
The aim of this course is to open up new ways of thinking about gender, space, power, citizenship, and urbanity. While the course will have some lectures, the eventual idea is to make it as interactive as possible with several activities, discussions and exercises.
The primary objectives of this course are: to familiarise the students with the theoretical debates on private and public space, cities and citizenship; to engage with hierarchies of class, caste, gender, religion, physical ability and sexual orientation in the city especially as they are played out spatially; to think through questions of respectability and pleasure in relation to debates in feminism.
Exploring Space: Private and Public Space; The Gendered Politics of Class and Caste in the City; The Discourses of Safety and Risk in the City; City Planning and Material Design; Infrastructure and Questions of Access to Public Space; Anonymity, Identity and the Politics of Claim-staking; Sexuality, Respectability and Public Space; Community, Ghettos and Public Space; Mills, Malls and Other New Spaces of Consumption; Walking the City; Work and Pleasure in the City; Re-imagining the City: The Politics of Loitering
RS02: MEDIA AND GOVERNANCE
This course will attempt to critically examine the interface between media and governance institutions and public policy in India. The course will explore the multiple players, (state, market, civil society) their inter linkages and processes that shape governance and the mediated reading of these complex relations. Using case studies and situational analysis the course will seek to build a comprehensive understanding on subject.
The primary objectives of this course are: to familiarise the students with the theoretical debates on decentralization, local governance and development from various perspectives in the context of India; to develop a critical knowledge of the mediated reading of the issues of governance across class, caste and gender relations at local , national and global levels; and to critically look at the ways in which issues of power and résistance are contested and negotiated in the context of global media and its concentration and governance and devolution of power.
Conceptual Spectrum: Decentralisation and Governance; Situating Media in Governance Discourse ; Global Media and Local Engagement; Media, Governance and Politics of Common Sense ; Subaltern Voices and Mediated Governance and E- Governance & E- Movements
RS03: MEDIA AND LAW
In an attempt to prepare ground for young media practitioners and to develop a critical understanding of the issues, the course will begin with the foundational understanding of ‘press laws’ and argue for the relevance of ‘media laws’. It will critically examine the normative understanding of the media function.
The primary objectives of this course are: to familiarise the students with the theoretical debates on media, law and ethics in the Indian context; and to attempt to evolve a nuanced understanding of the complexities of ethical and legal media practice.
“The fourth estate” and the idea of democracy; the Indian Context; Constitutional provisions, Laws and Regulations; International conventions and media; Towards media law; Media Vs State; Media Vs Market; Media and Globalisation
INTERNSHIP
The students will undertake 2 graded and supervised internships, one during the summer break between the first and second year and the second in the 4th semester. Students will be encouraged to do at least one internship with an NGO/ people’s movement or other development sector related placement.