IQAC, CUO Organizes Webinar on ‘Can We Resolve our Present Predicament by telling and listening Better (?).
Odishabarta
KORAPUT:A webinar on “Can we resolve our present predicament by telling and listening better?” was organized by the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) of the Central University of Odisha on 10.06.2021. The aim of the webinar was to create awareness on what to listen, how to overcome mental illness by better telling and listening during this Covid19 induced period. Prof Akshay Rout, Visiting Professor, Department of Journalism & Mass Communication and former Director General (Special Projects), Swachh Bharat Mission was invited to deliver the talk as the key speaker on this occasion.
Prof I Ramabrahmam, Vice Chancellor, CUO inaugurated the webinar and highlighted some major problems we faced in our daily life due to Covid19 pandemic and expressed his happiness that Prof Rout was sharing his varied experience with the university community.Prof Sharat Kumar Palita, Dean, SBCNR and Director, IQAC, delivered the welcome address and briefed about the importance of the word ‘predicament’ and the its relation to the present times. Dr. Pradosh Kumar Rath, Head-in-Charge, Dept of Journalism&Mass Communication, delivered the introductory note and explained the relevance of the topic.
Delivering his address Prof Rout referred to the current Covid19 situation and stated that “scientific listening and scientific talking is need of the hour”. He explained the importance of listening to the model of administrative authority known as PM-CM-DM-VM (VillageMukhia) which is responsible and urged the influencers to fight against this pandemic. He opined, “Mass Communication is an affordable way to heal the mental illness of people in this difficult time.” He emphasized the importance of various stakeholders of society like, youth, spiritual leader and preacher to communicate with masses to overcome mental illness and adopt Covid19 appropriate behaviour. He lauded the efforts of the Prime Minister of India in tackling the Covid19 situation as the Chief Communicator drawing reference to the Swatchha Bharat Mission and lamented that appropriate activism at every level is still inadequate and we must adopt the habit of effective telling and listening.
The talk was followed up by an interactive session where the students and the faculty members of different departments participated with questions and comments. The lecture was beautifully summed up by Prof P.Durga Prasad, Visiting Professor, Dept of Sociology who explained about ‘decentralization of information and role of influencers”.
Dr. Sourav Gupta, Assistant Professor, DJMC, tendered the vote of thanks. The programme was ably compeered by A T Sunny, PhD research scholar of DJMC. The University community actively participated the program with great enthusiasm.
