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Programs

Media Education

Education: Vision: Skills

“I see a culture formed around humanity’s hearts and desires, not manufactured by commercial greed. I see media and entertainment that expresses, enriches, and enhances, rather thanteaches compulsive debt, substance abuse, violence, and risky behavior because there is profit in it. I see a world where everyday people have the power to shape their culture because they have access to the information and communication venues upon which democracy depends”.  —De Benedittis, P. “Guiding Principles for Creating Media Literacy Projects” 

In present day context, Media caters in all the corners with the ushering in of technology. In this context, when media looms large and controls over every human life, media education becomes very important and imperative. In the wake of the 21stcentury, media as an industry has emerged as a profit making sector. At the same time, as De Benedittis, P. opined, we cannot ignore the power of Media. Power and profit seem to dwell intertwined in Media industries as a part of Media Education, Media literacy is an act of imparting the ability to understand the nature, techniques and impacts of Media messages and production. Media literacy backs up the target audience with knowledge of the working of mass media and ignites among them the desire and necessity to interpret meanings wisely regarding different issues around them.

Since 1980’s Media has undergone tremendous metamorphosis, with TV being extensively available and electronic media gained huge currency over the Print Media. In this era of rapid transformation and development of media imparting media education has become imperative. Media education demands to incorporate how to communicate, create and contribute to the welfare of the society. 

A basic component of Media literacy is the encouragement to identify ‘who is the target audience of a media production and why.’ Media aims at disseminating relevant information making it accessible to the mass. Keeping in view the objectives of Media Education, Dr. Anamika Ray Memorial Trust (ARMT) ventures the following programmes as a part of its humble duty to contribute to the field of media education.

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Dr. Anamika Ray Memorial Trust, Guwahati organized an international web symposium on hundred years of radio broadcasting in South Asia on the theme “democratisation of airwaves.” In four plenary sessions, 30 speakers participated from the region and more than 450 participants registered from about 10 countries. At the beginning, the Chairperson of the Trust, Rajat Baran Mahanta welcomed all the speakers and participants to the conference, which was formally inaugurated by Dr. D. K. Renuka Ekanayake, Director of the SAARC Cultural Centre, Colombo and a senior officer of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service with a long-standing experience in the Public Service. The history of radio in South Asia was the focus of the first plenary session, which was chaired by Prof. K V Nagaraj, the former pro-vice chancellor of Assam University. 

The second plenary session was on ‘Radio in South Asia: A Social History of the Golden Age’, which was chaired by an Emeritus Professor of the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka Prof. Padmasiri Wanigasundera. The third panel was chaired by Prof Mrinal Chatterjee of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication and the last session was chaired by Prof Sanjeev Bhanawat. Read the report. 

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Journalism and media education in South Asia have made giant strides into its centenary without much fanfare. It was in 1920 that Dr. Annie Besant offered Journalism as a subject of study along with other subjects at her national university located at Adyar, Chennai, India. It is said that students were provided practical training in Journalism on New India, her publication. We are not aware of any other efforts of this kind earlier to it. Later many more public institutions started imparting courses in print journalism at various levels. However, journalism education per se gathered steam and status only after Independence. Journalism and media education took a big leap in 1980s, when with the boom in electronic and new media, both public and private sector institutions started offering courses ranging from diplomas to doctoral degrees. 

The centenary year of 2020 is not only a milestone to celebrate but also an opportunity to evaluate the achievements and shortcomings as well. It will help us chart an action plan for a futuristic development of media education in the country. The quantum growth should lead us now to concentrate on quality consolidation in terms of instruction and employability. 

It is our earnest appeal that individuals and collectives engaged in media education should come together to celebrate the centenary of media education in a befitting manner all over the country. We seek your support and co-operation for a national convention for this purpose where an intellectual churning can be initiated.

CommonLinksis an open access repository of text, audio, video, photographs, graphics dedicated to the media education and research hosted by Dr. Anamika Ray Memorial Trust. The original idea of creating an e-resource platform titled CommonLinkswas developed by Dr. Anamika Ray, a known media educator of India. The idea of Dr. Ray was to serve the students of media and communication primarily with academic materials and reference articles, which would help in pursuing  mass communication and journalism courses apart from providing a platform for the media researchers to share their ideas, discussion on different issues, availability of information on seminars, conferences, workshops, share presentations and publish quality research articles. The portal is also going to produce educational audio-video materials on different areas of media and communication for better understanding of the students and scholars.

Asian Journal of Media and Communication Studies (AJOMACS) is an open-access online academic refereed publication that is hosted by Dr. Anamika Ray Memorial Trust and which is dedicated to research in the fields of media and communication studies. AJOMACS welcomes high-quality, original submissions on a wide range of related topics to media and communication studies that develop communication and media theories, report empirical and analytical research, present critical discourses, apply theories to case studies, and set out innovative research methodologies. It aims to advance research and understanding of media and communication in the Asian region and beyond.

AJOMACS publishes two issues annually; the summer issue in June and the winter issue in December. Each issue focuses on a specific theme, and is divided into three sections: one for full length refereed papers, one for the short communications and another for reviews. To encourage the students of masters and bachelors levels, the journal has another additional section titled- Students’ Research. Views expressed in AJOMACS are not necessarily endorsed by the Editor/s, Advisory Board, or the Dr. Anamika Ray Memorial Trust.

Media Education
Media Literacy

Media Literacy

Passion:: Creation:: Nobility

“Photography is an austere and blazing poetry of the real----Ansel Adams”    

P R A S A R: Photography for Reporting the Actuality of South Asian Region

South Asian Region or SAARC region comprises of eight countries, i.e. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka located in the southern part of the Asian continent. About 3% of the area of the world is represented by this region with around 1.7 billion population. South Asia is ethnically diverse, with more than 2,000 ethnic entities with populations ranging from hundreds of millions to small groups. South Asia has been invaded and settled by many ethnic groups over the centuries - including various Dravidian, Indo-Iranian, Tibeto-Burman, and Austro-Asiatic groups. The amalgamation of these various groups has produced composite cultures with many common traditions and beliefs. The combination of vivid cultures, tempting cuisine, white sandy beaches and steamy jungles make South Asia to a perfect destination for the journalists, artists and tourists.

Photography is one of the new media forms that have the power to change perception as well as the structure of society. Susan Sontag opines that, “to photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting one's self into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge, and therefore like power." Regional cooperation with mutual understanding has always been the driving force of this region. Since South Asia is a group of neighbouring countries with different cultures, people and life styles, it is not possible to bring mutual understanding without understanding each other. The project PRASAR is a humble initiative of Dr. Anamika Ray Memorial Trust (ARMT) with its country partners to foster broader understanding of different aspects of lives in actual of member states. With it, people will see and understand different issues of the states through the lenses of the young photographer.

Lewis Hine had inscribed his views on photography to immortalize the quality of art as “If I could tell the story in words, I would’t need to lug around a camera”. Poverty, communal dis harmony, child labour, gender inequality are some of the burning issues that have stretched their iron arms over almost all the SAARC member nations. Dr. Anamika Ray Memorial Trust (ARMT) as a non profitable organization aims at ensuring a pro-research environment initiating and inspiring to uphold the diverse languages and literature of the South Asian region, along with promoting skills development among the students and young learners, through the visual appealing photographs as a narration of reality.

A photograph is worth of a thousand words

P I O N E E R : Photographic Images of North East- Exploring Reality

Photography is a small voice, at best, but sometimes one photograph, or a group of them, can lure our sense of awareness. The beauty of photograph is that it does not need any words to explain its depth.  21stcentury is hugely dominated by digital photography. More than 99% of photographs taken around the world are through digital cameras, increasingly through smart phones.Photography is one of the new media forms that has the power to change perception as well as the structure of society. Susan Sontag has rightly said, “to photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting one's self into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge, and therefore like power."

Photograph is a visual communication photograph can unveil new horizons of reality. If we can remember the famous photograph of a vulture and a little girl taken bythe South African photojournalist, Kevin Carter in the year 1993, we can realize the potential of a good photograph. 

North East being one of the most fascinating, wild and untouched region of the country with its ageless forests and formidable mountain ranges has immense potential to be explored. The images of north eastern region that are usually available often depict pictures of violence and insurgency, which has apparently represented this region as a hostile and unreceptive land of the country.   There are many more issues that need to be properly addressed in the region and one of the most viable tools to portray it is through photography.    

With its aim to serve humanity and to be a machinery to develop society, Dr. Anamika Ray Memorial Trust (ARMT), envisions the PIONEER to be one of its projects in bringing to fore the real image of the North-east India in its diverse milieu, with its varied flora and fauna, the rich cultural heritage, the dilapidated kingdoms, through the lens. The project PIONEER of the trust aims at being a subaltern voice from this region, defining itself to the world, transcending the barrier of words and languages and asserting a global appealing and redefining the land in its true color through images capturing the essence and truth of that very moment…. 

Media literacy encompasses the practices that allow people to access, critically evaluate, and create media. Media literacy is not restricted to one medium and therefore has had several different attempts to have a specific definition over the years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Community Communications

Innovation:: Communication:: Human Happiness

Communication for Development: Scope, Strategy and Policy

 

 

Communication for Development (C4D) is a continuous process that aims at social and behaviour change of a society through participatory approach. It’s a complex process to promote and motivate for positive change in a developing country like India. It involves understanding community, their culture, societal norms and values that directs their lives. Although Government and development agencies have strong intervention in the area of communication for development, still there is dearth of effective policies that can touch the grass root level of the country. 

 Objectives of the Three Day National Seminar are to identify priorities and strategic initiatives for emerging role of C4D, to create a platform for cross-learning of C4D strategies among participants, academia and other stakeholders, to advocate C4D as a part of academic disciplines ranging from school level to post graduate courses and to prioritize different tools for promotion of C4D in Assam and North- East India.  

Following Sub- themes will be covered in the Seminar: 

  1. Status of C4D in Media Education in India

  2. C4D & Adolescents Empowerment : Role of agencies in C4D related issues

  3. C4D in Mainstream Media (print, radio, television and film)

  4. C4D through Traditional/ Folk form

  5. New Media and C4D

  6. Community Media: Advocacy Tool for C4D

  7. Strategies and Policies for C4D in Indian Educational Architecture

  8. C4D Integration for skilled India

  9. C4D in India: The Success Stories and the way ahead

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