Centre for Media and Cultural Studies

The Centre for Media and Cultural Studies, (CMCS) is an independent centre of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, engaged in media teaching, production, research and dissemination.

A unique feature of the Centre is the close linkage between the technical and academic areas of its work. The work of the Centre straddles both realms, thus facilitating a synergy between research, teaching and production, all of which are informed by a keen sense of connection with local subaltern cultures of resistance and invention.

The CMCS has done pioneering work in critical media education in the country. The two year Masters in Media and Cultural Studies focuses on professional media practice and research within a framework that enables the development of a critical perspective on media, culture and society. It seeks to enable the creation of a lively group of thinking doers and doing thinkers.

Production has been an important component of the Centre’s work. It has to its credit, thirteen awards at national and international film festivals. The Centre is also involved in media and cultural studies research. It is in the process of setting up a digital video archive.

A video library and an annotated data base of media materials form a part of the Centre's resources. Faculty and students of the Institute actively access this collection. This database is also used by other agencies, visiting academics, activists and researchers.

The Centre has initiated various activities to facilitate networking and dialogue on themes relating to media and cultural studies within TISS and beyond. The programmes envisaged include a biennial seminar, an Artist/Scholar in residence, fellowships to new practitioners and a Study India Programme.

The M.A. in Media and Cultural Studies aims at honing skills of media production and research within a framework that enables the development of a critical perspective on media, culture and society. In contemporary society, media and culture are crucial sites where identities are produced and popular ways of seeing are consumed. Cultural Studies enables us to meaningfully engage and interact with these new modes of being and doing. By making us conscious of the many complex ways in which power impinges on our lives and constructs our cultures, it has the potential of empowering us to critically read the media and other cultural institutions and texts, to understand how they shape our identities and to think about how we could possibly shape them.

Films

Production is an important component of the Centre’s work. CMCS's video documentaries have been widely disseminated and screened at leading national and international film festivals and other forums. Educational institutions, activist groups, government and non-governmental organisations and campaigns use them. The Centre’s productions have been archived in many library collections, including the US Library of Congress. It has to its credit, thirteen awards at national and international film festivals. The themes explored include gender, communal amity, environment and natural resource management, the city, media and identity, to name a few. The focus has been on marginalised groups and issues concerning them, in keeping with the vision and mission of the Institute.

Forthcoming areas of focus include Globalisation and Marginalised Groups, Disaster Management and Rehabilitation, Path-breaking Initiatives for People’s Empowerment, Identity and Power and Dialogue on Developmenthttp://cmcs.tiss.edu/films.html

Awards

"Our Family", Indian Documentary Producers' Association Awards (4 awards):Gold for Best Script; Gold for Best Sound Design; Silver for Best Editing and Certificate of Merit Best DocumentaryMumbai, India May 2008

Mumbai International Film Festival Special Mention of the JuryMumbai, India February 2008

Signs 2007Special Mention of the JuryThiruvananthapuram, India October 2007

SheWrite, Best documentary Prize, IV Festival Internacional del Documental Tres Continentes (IV Three Continents International Documentary Festival, Venezuela 2005 and Indian Documentary Producers Association Awards 2005: The First Technical Award for Sound Design and the Second Technical Award for Cinematography.

Saacha, Second Prize, New Delhi Video Forum, 2001.

YCP 1997, Certificate of Merit, Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) 1998 and the Jury’s Award for Best Innovation, Astra Festival of Anthropological Documentary Film, Sibiu, Romania, 1998.

Kahankar: Ahankar, Jury's Special Mention at the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF), 1996.Odhni- A Collective Exploration of Our Selves, Our Bodies, Second Prize, Health and Population category, International Video Festival on Science, Society and Development, September, 1995, Thiruvanathapuram.

Identity- The Construction of Selfhood, Prix Futura Berlin 1995, Asia Prize for the best Asian entry, TV documentary section of the Prix Futura Berlin 1995- International Radio and Television Festival; Second Prize, Education and Literacy category, International Video Festival on Science, Society and Development , September, 1995, Thiruvanathapuram.The Plot Thickens..., First Prize and the award for Individual Technical Excellence in Editing, Sixth UGC Country-wide Classroom Video Festival, 1993, Calcutta.

From the Diary of a Genetic Counsellor, Best Programme Award, Open/General category, Fifth UGC Country-wide Classroom Video Festival, 1992, Hyderabad.http://cmcs.tiss.edu/awards.html

Research

The CMCS undertakes research in the following broad areas:Film and Television StudiesPolitical Economy of MediaParticipatory MediaDemocratic Decentralisation, Micro- Level Planning and Local Self GovernanceNew MediaDocumentary Film and Media RepresentationGlobalisation and its implications for cultureStudy of the nation state, cultural nationalist ideologies and movements of religious ‘revival’Religious globalisation and transnationalism, with a particular focus on Islamic societieshttp://cmcs.tiss.edu/research.html

Digital Archive

CMCS is in the process of creating a digital archive on specific thematic areas by acquiring films from various sources.The focus areas are:Development, including issues of globalisation, marginalised groups, environment, disasters, movements and so onEthnographic film from India and other countries

The digitising of the Centre’s extensive collection of footage on various themes and the acquisition of new materials will create a valuable archive that could be accessed through a searchable data base and used to further social work and social science education, research and extension. The project also envisages active use of the web in order to disseminate information and facilitate access to the archive. When sufficient bandwidth is made available, web based access and perusal of the archive will be enhanced.

The potential users of this archive are:Universities and other academic institutions dealing with the subject areas of social sciences and social work.GO/NGOs involved in development education, capacity building, research, advocacy and training.Institutions and schools of media, journalism, visual communication and design.Individual researchers and filmmakers working on relevant issueshttp://cmcs.tiss.edu/digital-archive.html

External links

*Official site of [http://www.tiss.edu Tatta Institute of Social Sciences]
*Official site of [http://cmcs.tiss.edu Centre for Media and Cultural Studies]