Course Sessions

Module I: Introduction – Media and associated concepts
2 sessions
Instructor – Zainab Bawa
Key concepts and questions for the sessions:
• What is media? – media as transmission and media as site of production
• Different registers of media
• What lies between media and regulations? – media and mediation
• Concepts of authorship and reception of media
• Thinking through the concepts of text and textuality
• Thinking through the concept of speech acts
• Question of site – what does site for production of media mean? Is the site physical or ephemeral?
Readings for the Module:
1) Noam Chomsky – excerpts to be suggested
2) D. H. Lawrence - Lady Chatterley’s Lover
3) A newspaper report (to be suggested) on a recent film ban


Module II: Why regulate the media?
3 sessions
Instructor – Zainab Bawa

Screening of the film ‘Elephant’ (2003) by Gus Van Sant

Key concepts and questions for the sessions:
• Regulation and Censorship as control of behaviour, especially sexual and moral behaviour
• Colonial history of regulation in India
• Why does the state control media?
• Concepts of Content and Form of media
• Forms of censorship – religious, social, moral, etc.
• Globalization, liberalization and regulation of media
• Between 1993 and 1997 – introduction of cable television and a period of several cases of censorship
• What is being initiated through censorship?
Readings for the module
1) Edward Said – excerpts from culture and imperialism
2)


Module III: Objects of Regulation - Pornography
2 sessions
Instructor – Nishant Shah, Ph.D. Student, Center for the Study of Culture and Society
Key concepts and questions for the sessions:
• What makes an object ‘pronographic’?
• Registers of pornography
• Aesthetics of pornography
• Sites of pornography in the city – the cyber café, prostitution, etc.
• Introducing the site of the city where pornography is regulated
• The triangle – city, regulation and pornography
Readings for the module: To be recommended


Module IV: City and Media
2 sessions
Instructor – Zainab Bawa
Key concepts and questions for the sessions:
• Drawing the connection between city and media
• The notions of Fantasy and Real – drawing the connection between city and media
• City as a site where media is controlled and contained
• City as produced in the media – concept of ‘the city in crisis’
• Affect and the City
• The age of the Malls and multiplexes in the City – what happens to media and regulations?
• Flash mobs
Readings for the Module: To be recommended


Module V: Crisis in Media – the cable TV networks and piracy
2 Sessions
Instructor – Zainab Bawa
Key concepts and questions for the sessions:
• Why regulate cable television? – watching the interplay between city, economy and local politics through Cable wars fought in Mumbai
• Laws governing cable television – role of government in regulation
• The triad – city, government and regulation
• What is copyright?
• Context of Copyright – United States and the rest of the world
• What is piracy?
• Is copying good or bad?
• The City and Copyright – regulating street economies and hawkers selling pirated materials

Activity: What is the one location in the city that come to your mind when I say media? Can you create an advertisement/short film/a write-up for Lonely Planet on any one location in the city which comes to your mind when I say media? How would you introduce that location to the rest of the class?

Readings for the module: To be recommended


Module VI: The City in Crisis – Mumbai train blasts and the ban on blogspot
1 Session
Instructor – Zainab Bawa
Key concepts and questions for the session:
• What is Crisis?
• Crisis and Regulation
• Introducing blog as media
• Context of blogspot ban
• Government and regulation – concept of legitimacy of government
Readings for the module: To be recommended


Module VII: Bangalore – the making of the IT City
1 session
Instructor: Nishant Shah
Readings for the module: To be recommended


Film screening: Good Copy Bad Copy - consolidating the learning from modules V, VI and VII


Module VIII: New digital technologies
1 session
Instructor: Namita Malhotra, media practitioner and lawyer at the Alternate Law Forum (ALF)
Key Concepts and questions for the session:
• What is digital technology?
• Digital technology as media form
• Digital technology – copy, cut, paste, edit – introducing the idea of creative commons
• Screening: ‘Kaun mile kisko’ created by Namita Malhotra
• Technologies for new digital technology – how these are produced and circulated in the city
• Technology, media and regulation – introducing the relationship
Readings for the session: To be recommended