New Delhi, August 2023.
Mahindra University has recently launched the School
of Media with two undergraduate programmes spanning digital journalism, mass
communication, communication management, and technology-driven computational
media-related fields. Beginning this term, the School of Media’s new academic
session 2023-24 began this week along with the other schools under the
university—the schools of law, management and education, apart from the
flagship École Centrale School of Engineering.
The School of Media aims to build a generation
of creators and information-seekers who have futuristic capabilities in the
digital age of emerging technologies by investing not only in relevant
infrastructure and gadgets but in a renewed student-centricity that focuses on
the new environment’s demands in new and old sets of critical thinking.
The new school will offer two programmes, a
B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication, and a B.Tech. in Computation and
Media. A student of the B.A. programme is guided to choose from three strands
of specializations—digital journalism across media, audiovisual media
production, and communication management encompassing the various promotional
corporate functions. The B.Tech. programme prepares the student in three
specialized strands—interactive storytelling, virtual media, and media
forensics.
According to Dr. Yajulu Medury, Vice Chancellor of Mahindra University, "The School of Media embodies our
commitment to fostering cutting-edge education that addresses the evolving
needs of the media industry. With the beginning of the academic session of
2023-24, Mahindra University's strength stands at over 4,000 students supported
by more than 250 internationally acclaimed faculty members. Our
multidisciplinary approach, coupled with the expertise of our faculty, will
empower students to become leaders and change-makers in the media sphere."
Dr. Shashidhar
Nanjundaiah, Dean, School of Media, stated, "We are embarking
on a journey that will prove to be transformational. In this journey, we
integrate technology with humanities, creative with critical, concepts with
practices. Our students will have a tripodic grounding in
competencies—professional, conceptual, ethical. With this kind of emphasis, our
students will learn to understand change and the structural questions around
it—whether, why and how. A digital-first curricular and pedagogic approach may
sound almost obvious in today’s age, but it must be constructed in the
ecosystem of responsible use. Our B.A. students will seek to be ethical
practitioners and researchers of journalism, audiovisual production,
advertising, public relations, social media, and corporate communications. Our
B.Tech. students will not only use AI, AR-XR-driven objects for news, television
and promotions industries, but also be competent in media forensics, important
in tackling disinformation, the most pressing problem in today’s communication
processes.”
Mahindra University's academic offerings are diverse and industry-relevant, with specialized courses in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, VLSI and Design System, Computer-Aided Structural Engineering, Computational Mechanics, Transportation Engineering, Biotechnology, and Biomedical Data Science.