Rethinking Media and Communication: Meditative Verbs of Pluralization

<strong>CENTRE FOR MEDIA STUDIES SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES</strong> a workshop on <strong>Rethinking Media and Communication: Meditative Verbs of Pluralization</strong> DATE: <strong>26th April 2016, Tuesday</strong> Chair: <strong>Prof. Deepak Kumar </strong>(ZHCES and Centre for Media Studies, JNU) Presentation: <strong>Prof. Ananta Kumar Giri</strong> (Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, India &amp; Visiting Fellow, CMS, JNU.) Discussants: <strong>Prof. Asha Mukherjee</strong> (Visva Bharati, Shantiniketan) <strong>Prof. Bhagat Oinam (Centre for Philosophy &amp; Chairperson, CMS, JNU)</strong> <strong>Abstract:</strong> Media is part of spheres and systems of society but we need to go beyond a system perspective of media or a system-dominated view of media and link it our life worlds. The lecture discusses at length the concept of life world as it was articulated by Edmund Husserl, the inspiring founder of phenomenology, and subsequently developed by thinkers such as Jurgen Habermas, J.N. Mohanty and Margaret Chatterjee. The lecture brings a cross-cultural perspective on life world by dialoguing with Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo as they bring the dimension of Swaraj, Satyagraha and integral yoga to our vision and practice of life worlds. It critically discusses Habermas's argument about colonization of life world in our present-day world of which media is a part as it is being colonized by forces of state and market. It argues how we need to go beyond colonization of the media which calls for transformative movements both in our life worlds as well as in our living words. Ananta Kumar Giri is a Professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, India. He has taught and done research in many universities in India and abroad, including Aalborg University (Denmark), Maison des sciences de l'homme, Paris (France), the University of Kentucky (USA), University of Freiburg &amp; Humboldt University (Germany), and Jagiellonian University (Poland). Dr. Giri has written and edited around two dozen books in Odia and English, including Global Transformations: Postmodernity and Beyond (1998);Conversations and Transformations: Toward a New Ethics of Self and Society (2002); Self-Development and Social Transformations? The Vision and Practice of Self-Study Mobilization of Swadhyaya (2008); Mochi o Darshanika (The Cobbler and the Philosopher, 2009); Sociology and Beyond: Windows and Horizons (2012), Knowledge and Human Liberation: Towards Planetary Realizations (2013); Philosophy and Anthropology: Border-Crossing and Transformations (co-edited with John Clammer, 2013); Pathways of Creative Research: Towards a Festival of Dialogues (editor, 2015).