Osmania University Centre for International Programs
Osmania University, Hyderabad ? 500 007
International Conference on Media, Culture and Ideology
29-31 January, 2009
      This conference proposes to deliberate on 
how mediaprint and electronicmediates 
cultural configurations and influences 
ideological formations. We invite papers, from 
across disciplines, that examine in 
contemporary or historical context the uses 
made of visual, verbal & written language in 
sections of the mass media (television & print, 
primarily) with a particular focus on the 
relationship between these cultural forms, 
conventional understandings of the world & social power.
      In the last century, from colonial 
through anti-colonial and post colonial to the 
contemporary global phase, media has played a 
significant role in shaping culture and 
ideology and this phenomenon warrants critical 
analyses. Besides, media functions in the 
public sphere, a realm which exists between the 
State machinery and its formal authority and 
the private domain which comprises of the civil 
society and family unit and constantly 
negotiates the intermediary space between the 
public and the private and influences both the 
domains. This  crucial  function  of 
the  Media  as the creator and 
communicator   of alternate  Culture 
and  Ideology  in 
contemporary  societies  shall be the main   focus  of this  Conference.
 This conference will also focus in particular 
on how films, and later television in India and 
elsewhere, have had a massive impact in 
creating and circulating images of the nation 
and of a "national culture'. Both film and 
television have sought to define, forge and 
popularise images of a coherent, cohesive and 
organic national community.  Conversely the 
media  have  also offered alternative, 
dissenting and even oppositional visions of the 
nation and of a national culture, questioning 
'Establishment' values, or responding 
sympathetically to the socially disadvantaged 
and disenfranchised. A part of the task of this 
conference is to explore these issues of ideology and representation.
   Some of the issues that this conference wishes to address include:
   * Representations of nation and nationness 
in media including counter discourses of nation
   * Revisionist /Alternate Historio: Portrayal 
of historical incidents of the past from new and different perspectives.
   * Caste/ Class/ Gender issues in media representation
   * Media and Globalization
   * Representation of Violence and Terrorism
   * Media and ideology
   * Other Related Issues
Proposals for either (a) individual papers or (b) preconstituted panels
should include the following: (1) a title, (2) an abstract NOT TO EXCEED
300 WORDS, and (3) a brief one-paragraph biographical statement about the
presenter, including academic affiliation and email address. Proposals
may be sent by email to 
<mailto:(vijaya_chaganti /at/ yahoo.com)>(vijaya_chaganti /at/ yahoo.com) 
before 20th November, 2008.
Conference Directors:
Prof. C.Vijayasree       Prof. Kousar J. Azam
Director, OUCIP       Advisor, OUCIP