In today’s world, where we need immediate connectivity to thrive, social media has become an integral part of our day to day activities. An institution that practices the art of “Communicating life”, Xavier School of Communications (XCOMM), XUB is the only communication school in Odisha, organizing an International Conference on media studies. The third conference is expected to provide research based evidences across the country and abroad on “Social media in the Changing Communication Environment”.
The two-day conference is to be held on December 15-16, 2017. It will have significant keynote speakers, Areil C Sebellino, Executive Director of Philippine Press Institute and Dr. Sharon Wilson, Assistant Professor from University Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia.
Mr. Sebellino will speak on “the low down of social media” on the first day and on the second day, Prof. Wilson will address “WhatsApp with my students? Mobile learning and interactivity in a virtual space.”.
Mr. Krishna Prasad, former editor-in-chief of The Outlook, will elaborate on the use of social media in India on the first day of the event. Mr Anupam Dasgupta, a senior assistant editor with the Times of India Group, Mumbai will moderate the panel discussion on the media reality in India, Asia and Europe.
Around fifty research papers will be presented by the national and international academicians and scholars, which will expand and generate the understanding of current and future trends in Social Media. Media students and scholars from Kolkata, Bangalore, Pune, Bhopal, Ranchi, different regions of Odisha, as well as from various other parts of India are going to present their research papers on different topics; issues related to Whatsapp, gender issues with social media, recent revolutions like use of memes, impact of GST, and various other interesting research papers will be a part of the international conference.
The paper presentation are segmented on various sub-themes such as, “Social media and society”, “Social media and education”, “Social media and business”, “Technology and challenges” and other related topics which will be held in three parallel sessions in the XUB city campus. The sessions will start at morning 9:30 and end by 4:30 in the evening.
The selected research papers from the 2nd International Conference will be released as a book titled “Media and Democracy”. The book is edited by Dr. George Sebastian, the visiting faculty of XCOMM and several other International Universities.
The topic, Social media: The Changing Communication Environment is highly relevant today because majority of the youth are on social media platforms; it is a new phenomenon that could bring revolution in communication both socially and academically, said Fr. Louduraj Ignacimuthu SJ, Dean of Xavier School of Communications.
All students, professionals and practitioners of communications and media are welcome to participate in the conference. The organizers are planning to get some buses ply from the city to the campus on both the days of conference.