IIMC Dhenkanal Releases e-Monograph ‘Media in the time of Covid-19’

Bureau,Odishabarta

Dhenkanal, 23 June 2020 : Covering various aspects of the media during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) Dhenkanal has come up with a monograph titled ‘Media in the time of Covid-19 ‘on Tuesday.

DrMrinalChatterjee Professor, and Director of IIMC, Dhenkanal electronically released the monograph during an online panel discussion held at the Institute.

On releasing the monograph, DrMrinalChatterjee said, “While the whole country is struggling to contain Covid-19, we have decided to publish a separate monograph on Covid-19 as a responsible national media institution. We have received more articles and tremendous response for the monograph than what we had expected. With the compilation of all the research papers, and articles monograph has turned into a treasure house of Covid-19 related articles”.

Despite the lockdown, the contributors, editors, and designers worked remotely to publish this volume. “I am happy that we could come up with this collection despite many hardships during this lockdown over Covid-19,” said Dr Mrinal Chatterjee.

IIMC Dhenkanal Monograph on ‘Media in the time of Covid-19’ is a collection of forty-seven (four in Odia language) academic and semi-academic essays, research papers written by media academicians, journalists, media industrialists, research scholars, and the budding journos. This monograph broadly covered the topics like the impact of coronavirus on media and its coverage in media and social media, media consumption, visual communication (cartoons/info graphics/photographs), fake news, health communication, coverage of mental health, alternative media, government communication, public relations, advertising, and online education.

This monograph has been edited by Dr Mrinal Chatterjee, Professor, and Head of IIMC, Dhenkanal, and assistant professor Sambit Pal.

The IIMC Dhenkanal has also released its first Odia audio book on mass media ‘Ganamadhyama O Sambadikatha’ for visually impaired journalism students. The book has been written by Dr Mrinal Chatterjee in Odia. The audiobook consists of eighteen chapters covering various topics on communication. It was recorded in the Institute’s audio lab, and the book has been narrated by the faculty member of the Institute, Padmaloochan Pradhan. This audiobook is available for onsite listening at the Institute’s centre for visually impaired persons, Jyoti.

Speaking about the audio book, Dr Mrinal Chatterjee said, “Audio books are a great way to make the learning easy for visually impaired people. In earlier times, students with visual impairments had to stay in their homes because of learning difficulties at colleges. But, with the advent of modern technology, digital audiobooks have made learning easier.” He also urged all parents of visually impaired students to send their children to educational institutions without hesitation.

In addition, the Eastern-Regional campus of IIMC released another book named Shabdanjali. It is an anthology of translated poems of various Indian language poets like Gulzar, JavedAkthar, Manglesh Dabral, and the other young poets like Nirmala Putul who writes in the Indian tribal language, Santali, Nandita Sharma, and also the poems of unknown persons. Many of these poems are themed up with the migrant crisis. This anthology has been written by D rMrinal Chatterjee, Professor, and Head of IIMC, Dhenkanal.

In an effort to fight misinformation and promote media literacy, IIMC Dhenkanal has come up with two more sets of comic strips to stop fake news. Along with the other releases, the Institute has also released these comics strips. Comic strips have been created by the IIMC assistant professor Sambit Pal.

IIMC is also planning to release another monograph on ‘Agriculture Journalism’ in the month of July 2020.

The members of the Institute’s faculty including assistant professors Dr Jyoti Prakash Mohapatra, Sambit Pal, senior section officer Kedarnath Jena and Jitendra Pati, academic coordinator were also present on the occasion.