The School of Media, Communication and Culture is a centre for advanced interdisciplinary research on the social construction, dissemination and reception of texts in mass media. It also provides an interdisciplinary space for teaching of media, cultures and communities. Since the range of such studies is necessarily very large, involving many institutions and practices and the entire network of social relationships, some specific areas of study have been identified:

The role of audio-visual media in the formation and transmission of values

Media and the post-colonial experience

Media in development and modernization

Media and politics

Performing arts and communication

Media and education

Media and empowerment

Media, consumerism and globalization

Media policy

Media and urbanity

Audiovisual documentation and archiving

The strength of the School lies in its ability to combine research and critical exercise on the Media with creative practices. Projects have always been undertaken with a view to meaningfully intervene into actual practices and not merely to add to an existing oeuvre of research that simply hovers around classroom lectures. From audiovisual documentation of the city of Calcutta to research on Madrasa education, from workshops on NCERT curriculum framework to managing the University community radio station, the range of activities of the School testifies to this commitment. The kind of pedagogy the school wishes to promote, as is reflected in the syllabi of its newly offered courses in ‘Cultural Processes’, locates itself at the crossroads of theory and practice. The School has already established itself as a major rendezvous in the country for scholars from various fields, ones who are particularly interested in the issues of media and communications.