Guwahati – A group of university students discussed Media, Culture and Society in the context of current national media scenario at Assam Don Bosco University (ADBU) Azara campus. The group presented 23 papers on the topic ‘Media, Culture and Society’ at a pre-conference colloquium scheduled for 2-3 November on “Quality Configuration for Media Education in India.”
The one-day colloquium had masters level students from Universities of Mizoram, Madras, Itanagar, Tezpur and Guwahati participating at 31st October event.
Of 23 papers presented at the colloquium, 12 presentations were from the first batch of ADBU Mass Communication Department, and 11 presentations from University of Madras Mass Communication Department.
“Popular and mass culture may not necessarily reflect each other even though they seem to look overlapping with ethno and religious overtones,” warned Dr K.V. Nagaraj former Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Assam University Silchar and currently professor of Mass Communication at Mizoram University.
Prof Nagaraj reminded the enthusiastic crowd of some 80 students, of Chinese philosopher Tao who stressed “peaceful co-existence among people – where religion and culture meets,” because he says, “communication is a product of human interaction.”
“The ADBU Dept of Mass Communication, emphasizes on inculcating research culture in students so that they know the sense and importance of knowledge production,” says Joint-Convener of the Media Education Conference and HoD Dr Machunwangliu Kamei.
Dr Kamei adds, “The ability and skills to think critically about situations are essential for academic success in today’s educational world. They must be able to ask questions to analyze the information further, think about how it applies to real-life situations, and draw their own conclusions based on further information gathering and fact-finding.”
Some of the papers presented at the colloquium included topics like “Framing the death of Nido Taniam by Chennai editions of The Hindu, New Indian Express and Times of India,” “Divergence in the Coverage of National and Local Media on the Return of Pandits to Kashmir,” and “Influence of Bollywood Cinema of Youth.”
Presenting the paper entitled ‘Everyday Life Practices of Vietnamese Students in Chennai,’ Hua Thu Ha and Trinh Thanh Thu say, “it was important for us to go beyond the language and cultural barriers of Chennai, and fight initial homesickness of the first few weeks of our stay.”
“Now we have fallen in love with idli and dosa, and have begun to dress like locals in Chennai,” says Hua Thu Ha. The theme of the national conference is ‘Quality Configuration for Media Education in India.’