The School of Media and Cultural Studies, (SMCS) is a part of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in India, engaged in media teaching, film production, research and dissemination. The school was in the news recently because some of their students produced a documentary film Caste on the Menu Card which was not given permission to screen.
Contents
Profile
The School of Media and Cultural Studies is an independent centre of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, engaged in media teaching, production, research and dissemination.
The SMCS has done pioneering work in media education in the country. The two-year master's degree in Media and Cultural Studies focuses on professional media practice and research.
Production is an important component of the school’s work. SMCS video documentaries have been screened at national and international film festivals and other forums. Educational institutions, activist groups, government and non-governmental organizations 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 The Centre’s productions have been archived in many library collections, including the US Library of Congress.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 twenty two awards at national and international film festivals. The themes explored include gender, communal adfdffe, natural resource and environmental management, the city, media and identity. The focus has been on marginalized groups and issues concerning them.
The centre also has a digital archive of films, video footage and photographs. Faculty and students of the Institute access the collection. The database is also used by other agencies, visiting academics, activists and researchers.
Centre programmes include a biennial seminar, an artist/scholar in residence, fellowships to new practitioners and a Study India Programme.
Awards
SMCS films have won several awards. These include:
So Heddan So Hoddan
Videokaaran
Before Dark
Do Din ka Mela
There are no Borders Here
Inside Out
352, Remembering Emergency
Where's Kishore
XXWhy
Our Family
SheWrite
Saacha
YCP 1997
Kahankar: Ahankar
Identity- The Construction of Selfhood
From the Diary of a Genetic Counsellor
MA Media and Cultural Studies
The M.A. in Media and Cultural Studies aims at honing skills of media production and research. The programme will impart training in video production, including direction, research, scripting, editing, camera and sound. It also has a strong research focus. Students produce documentaries and short films. The programme culminates in the production of a documentary and a research term paper.
The programme also teaches basic skills in community radio, graphics and web design. The students have access to the facilities and the visual archive of the Centre for Media and Cultural Studies (www.tiss.edu/cmcs). The teachers of the course include CMCS and TISS faculty as well as professionals.
Students of the course will be equipped to work in the areas of media and television production, independent media practice, media education, advocacy and research. The potential employers include NGOs, television production houses, educational and research institutions and governmental agencies.
M.Phil/Ph.D in Media and Cultural Studies
The school has doctoral students working in the area of Media and Cultural studies. Admission to these programmes is centralized The broad list of research interest of research supervisors in the Centre for Media & Cultural Studies are: Affect and Ideology, Cultural Studies, Documentary film, Hermeneutics, Semiology, Critical theory, Media audience reception studies, Censorship, New media, Film and television studies, Decentralisation, local governance and gender, Political economy of media, Participatory communication and development
Research
The SMCS undertakes research in spheres, including film and television, new media and studies of the nation state, cultural nationalist ideologies and movements of religious ‘revival’.
Digital Archive
SMCS has a digital archive of films, video footage and photographs. It has a collection of over 2500 films.
The focus areas of the archive are:
The collection can be accessed through a customized on-line data base, which is available within TISS through the Intranet for researchers, students and faculty.