Information | Conference

 National Conference on Communication for Social Change, Sept. 18-19 at Shimla

The Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla is organising a National Conference on Communication for Social Change and Development: Imperatives and Constraints on September 18-19, 2015

Abstract Idea: In a country as diverse as India, framing of narratives for social change and development needs to take a number of factors into consideration. The political establishment has been particularly sensitive to this as it impacts upon its fortunes at the time of the polls. A run over of political sloganeering in successive elections reveals that this has varied from one political party to another depending on the social group or sub-group it has considered important for its electoral victory. But, the process of nation building cannot be left to the vagaries of political arithmetic. A nation, after all, is greater than the sum-total of its political parties. There could be times when such political rag-tagging could be at variance with the interests of the nation. Political cartelization cannot be ruled out as a means of hijacking the national agenda to suit one dominant group, not necessarily in terms of numbers, could be even in terms of access to communication media and/or prevalent ideology. This calls for the framing of a coherent national communication policy that takes into consideration the cultural and developmental interests of all social groups and sub-groups while framing the imperatives of growth and development at the national level. What is important is the direction of the policy-making process. It should begin from the bottom of the pyramid and work its way up to the summit of the pyramid; an approach as old as the Gandhian philosophy and as new as the post-modernist insistence on the micro-narratives, as opposed to the beguiling meta-narratives. This would call for a huge effort at the grass-roots level, which is not difficult in these days of big data analytics and management.
This Conference attempts to bring together communication experts from the academia, government, independent thinkers and non-governmental organizations to address the issue of national communication policy formation and the role of various stakeholders in its formation and implementation. The following list of areas in which experts can present their papers is not exhaustive, but suggestive:
1. Media and Citizens’ Right to Communicate
2. Media and Social Empowerment
3. Social Media and Agenda Setting
4. Democratization of communication
5. Media Ownership patterns and Narrative Strategies
6. Media Economics and Right to Freedom of Expression
7. The Politics of Media Ecology
8. Gender and Media Management
9. Media and Social Justice
10. Media Ethics and Nation building
11. Media Access and Control

Due to financial constraints the department will not be in a position to pay TA/DA. You are requested to manage it from your respective institutions.
However, will extend local hospitality whose papers are accepted.

Registration fees for the teachers Rs1000/-
Students Rs 600/-

For any further query you can contact the following persons:

Dr(Mrs) Virbala Aggarwal
Professor and Chairperson
Mobile: 09418168234
Email: virbala.aggarwal@rediffmail.com
or
Dr Vikas Dogra
Assistant Professor
Mobile : 09418033126
Email: vikasdogra77@gmail.com