Dr Vinod K Joseph is a renowned journalist and an editor hailing from Kerala, India. After attaining his graduate degree in Communications and English, he did an MS in Communication from Manipal University, an MA in Journalism from Columbia Journalism School, New York where he was a Bollinger Presidential Fellow, and a Ph.D. in Sociology from Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi.

His contributions to Indian journalism are majorly in the area of narrative or literary journalism which has aided him receiving several awards like the Ramnath Goenka Award for his reporting on politics, Foreign Press Association award from Carl Bernstein, an honourable mention at the 2011 Kurt Schork awards in International Journalism for his work “River Deep, Mountain High” at the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. In 2010, Mr. Vinod was hired by the Delhi Press to relaunch The Caravan, India’s first long-form narrative journalism magazine. His exemplary profile on former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (Falling Man, October 2011) was mentioned in a centennial compilation of 100 Great Stories covered by Columbia School journalists. Today, he is the Executive Editor of the magazine, which is internationally acclaimed for its rigorous investigative journalism on stories about Indian politics and culture.

Dr Jose has set new standards for narrative journalism in the country. According to him, narrative journalism is a very comprehensive way of doing journalism and has to be done with a little more care to the facts and people at large. He also believes that “a journalist has three different hats: The hat of a good reporter, the hat of a good writer, and the hat of a good scholar.”

Want to hear what else Dr Vinod K. Jose has to say about Media Literacy and the current Media Landscape? Join us to listen to him as our inaugural keynote speaker at Media Meet 2020!

The 2016 Magsaysay award winner, Bezwada Wilson is one of the National Convenors of the Safai Karamchari Andolan, a human rights organisation that campaigns for the total eradication of manual scavenging and for the rehabilitation of all scavengers to dignified occupations. He is a crusader for the dalit community against the systemic discrimination. His constant efforts and dedication has resulted in the drastic decline of manual scavengers. He believes that his organization is not a formal body but rather a movement that currently involves over 4800 volunteers across the country.

His idea for the movement started with the basic thought that “nobody should do this kind of work” and it still forms the basis for all his efforts. As an integral part of the drafting and the execution of the Manual Scavenging Act of India, he believes that consolidated efforts by the government and uprisings by the manual scavengers can lead to a positive change. For his movement to create change, the Hindu deservedly called him “the Iconic Changemaker”.

Join us in understanding the role of “Media Literacy to counter Systemic Violence” through personal and experienced insights of Bezwada Wilson at Media Meet 2020!

Nolan Pinto is a well known name in broadcast media. He started off his career as a reporter and then sub-editor of Mid Day Bangalore, and later moved on to become a correspondent and anchor at News9 Bangalore and work for over six years. He has been working with India Today for over three years now.

A typical day in the life of Mr Pinto as a correspondent involves bringing light to various social development projects and various regional and national news stories. Being unbiased in his reporting has helped Mr Pinto gain credibility over his 12-year-long career. In the current light of events, Mr Pinto has taken upon him to report on the grave realities of Covid-19 pandemic. For the past seven months, he has been fearlessly working with health professionals, highlighting the dire circumstances the pandemic has caused. As a go-getter, he believes “The situation might be difficult, but there are always ways to circumvent all these hurdles.”

Understand more about the need for media literacy with experiential and reflective accounts from Mr Pinto’s personal experiences while reporting during the pandemic and more, on the plenary session “Fact vs Fiction: Taming The Infodemic” at Media Meet 2020.

Dr Kasun Ubayasiri, a former Sri Lankan journalist, and an esteemed member of the Griffith University’s Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance has gained immense recognition for his publications and contributions to news media on armed conflicts and reportage of human rights issues. Dr Ubayasiri is also a Research Associate at The Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security.

As a journalist, academic and an avid photographer, Dr Ubayasiri has spent time in the Sri Lankan conflict zone interviewing government officials, aid-agencies and civilian community members on numerous occasions.

Dr Ubayasiri realised very early on in his career that free press is vital for a robust and healthy democracy and that there is no logical reason to undermine it. He has always been an advocate of media freedom, an issue very close to his heart. He has a keen interest in issues around media censorship and democratic accountability.

Dr Ubayasiri is also the director of The Water Story, an initiative by the Journalism students of Griffith University, Australia to create socially and environmentally responsible communities. The Water Story aims at collaborating with journalists and leaders from around the world to create awareness about preserving precious water resources. He also has an eye for budding talent and is known to provide his students the practical exposure the media industry demands.

Let’s hear him share his experiences with us at the session: ‘From the Screen to the Streets: Media Makers and Democracy’ at Media Meet 2020!

Prof. Tim Fenton is a former BBC Political Correspondent and renowned journalist hailing from the United Kingdom. He earned his graduation from the University of Bristol with a BSc in Politics and went on to further attain his MBA from the University of Bradford.

After working as a Political Correspondent for BBC, he later moved to BBC News Online, where he became managing editor and contributed to recruiting more than a hundred journalists during the expansion of online news. He has also worked for several commercial news providers and was the General Manager of the travel news website, gapyear.com for two years. In the course of his career, he has written for local weeklies and national dailies and edited the front page of BBC News Online. He has also made television for Newsnight and Newsround and has broadcasted live from Old Trafford and the House of Commons. On behalf of organisations including the UN and UK Foreign Office, he continues to work to improve the standard of parliamentary reporting in developing democracies around the world.

Tim Fenton has gained an extensive amount of experience as a journalist and correspondent working for eminent organisations like BBC and believes in developing students who can tell “Important, honest stories about the world in a compelling way.”

Eager to hear what Prof. Tim Fenton has to say about “Fact vs Fiction: Taming the Infodemic”? Join him and other renowned experts at the plenary session only at Media Meet 2020!

Dr Shakuntala Banaji is a woman of many interests. Hailing from London, UK, she is an eminent academician and researcher having published extensively on young people, children and media on various topics such as gender, social class, ethnicity, orientalism and racism, news consumption and Hindi horror films.

Her achievements include winning the European Award for Excellence in Teaching which has made a significant mark in the academic field. With a penchant for writing and research, she has authored and co-authored several acclaimed research articles and books such as “The Civic Web: Young People, the Internet, and Civic Participation (The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning)”, “Youth Participation in Democratic Life: Stories of Hope and Disillusion” and her very first crime fiction novel, “True Lake”.

Dr Shakuntala Banaji has encouraged discussions and written extensively on freedom, democracy, civic participation, the internet, creativity and much more.

Witness Dr Shakunthala Banaji enlighten us on “Bollywood, Citizenship and Media Literacy” as a keynote speaker for Media Meet 2020!

Baradwaj Rangan, a well-known name in the Indian film industry is the senior editor for Film Companion (South). He was formerly with The Hindu and The New Indian Express.

He won the National Award (Swarna Kamal) for Best Film Critic in 2005. His writings on cinema, music, art, books, travel and humour have been published in various newspapers and magazines like The Hindu, The New Indian Express, The Caravan, Arts Illustrated, Open, Tehelka, Biblio, Outlook and The Cricket Monthly. His long-form story on Vikram was featured in The Caravan Book of Profiles, as one of their “twelve definitive profiles.” He writes a column on world cinema at Firstpost.

He has co-written the Tamil rom-com, Kadhal 2 Kalyanam. He has written the Tamil short film, Kalki. He has written dialogue and narratives for the dance dramas Krishna and Meghadootam. His short story, The Call, was published in The Indian Quarterly.

He teaches a course on cinema at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai.

He has served as a member of the jury at the National Film Awards, and as a member of the selection committee for international films at the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival.

Baradwaj has contributed to various anthologies, including an essay in Subramaniyapuram: The Tamil Film in English Translation, and an analysis of Rajkumar Hirani in Behind the Scenes: Contemporary Bollywood Directors and their Cinema. His first book, Conversations with Mani Ratnam, was published by Penguin in 2012. His second book, Dispatches From the Wall Corner, was published by Westland in 2014.

Eager to hear what Baradwaj Rangan has to say? Join us at Media Meet 2020 and witness him engage in an tete a tete on “Cinema and Representation”.

With over 15 years of overall experience in the online games industry, Saumya V. Iyer has worked in various roles and specializes in production for live services in mobile games. Before becoming a producer at Gear Inc., she worked with Electronic Arts (EA), GSN (TV & Games), and as a Producer at JumpStart Games.

She is a certified Scrum Master with experience in managing Scrum, Kanban and waterfall processes. She manages a diverse team of designers, artists, developers, analysts, product managers and drives on the motto of delivering on time with the best possible standards. She constantly works towards improving, planning, scheduling, and leading to more efficient processes that cut delivery time and increase buffer time.

Apart from game production, Saumya has worked as a writer as well as a voice artist in various projects (English and Hindi). With a background in BSc Physics, this uber-cool techie has a keen interest in animal welfare, environmental welfare, and human rights welfare.

To know more about her take on the online gaming industry and its alliance with media literacy in the current dynamic scenarios, join us for a Panel discussion on “Video Games, Media Literacy and Social Change” at Media Meet 2020.

Miss Ambarien Alqadar is an Indian-born writer and director. She is also an assistant professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, New York, where she teaches film production, history, and hybrid practices. Miss Alqadar has worked for some of India’s leading filmmakers and has extensive experience in the various aspects of film production including fund-raising, production management, and editing.

It was during her years of training at the Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, that she discovered her passion for screenwriting and direction. Miss Alqadar later became a Fulbright-Nehru Leadership Development Fellow at Temple University, USA, where she graduated with a postgraduate degree in fine arts (MFA) in 2012.

Her films have fetched her numerous national and international awards and have also brought Miss Alqadar immense recognition in the film industry. They have not only been broadcasted on national TV networks in India and the UK, but have also been screened at prominent film festivals in India, Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. Her films have also been screened in many well-known museums and galleries as a part of academic and interdisciplinary research.

Some of her award-winning films include Ghetto Girl, Four Women and a Room, Who Can Speak of Men and Elsewhere. Her upcoming film The Informant, based on her thesis short film, Ayesha, has garnered positive praise and appreciation for her in the film industry. It was chosen for the prestigious Athena Film Festival in New York in 2019.

Miss Ambarien’s films are psychologically and intellectually driven and also involve a mixture of various genres and technologies. The characters in her films are based on her autobiographical materials, early documentaries, and childhood fantasies.

Gear yourself up for an engaging and lively session by Miss Ambarien Alqadar on Documentary Realism & Media Literacy at the Media Meet 2020!

Stephen McDowell is a Professor and the Director of the School of Communication at Florida State University. Many of his research works revolve around the media and communication policies in India and Pakistan, which have been presented at several universities. Mr Stephen has worked to establish university contacts and academic exchange partnership between countries in America and Asia. His research and teachings address new communication technologies, internet governance and communication policies in Canada, South Asia and North America among others.

Mr Stephen has also served as an external reviewer for doctoral programs in Communication at Temple University and the University of Western Ontario while also serving as the Chair of the Communication Law and Policy Division of the International Communication Association from 2008-2010. Mr Stephen has written a book on India’s communication policies, globalization, liberalization and policy change: a political economy of India’s Communications Sector in 1997.

Mr Stephen is our speaker for the panel discussion on Media Literacy Praxis: from classroom to citizenry! Join us at Media Meet 2020 to hear his enlightening views.

Poornima Setharaman is one of the founding members of the Special Interest Group on Women In Games with the India Gaming Forum (formerly, NASSCOM Gaming Forum). Currently, she is a lead game designer at Zynga and has been a part of the gaming industry for more than 14 years. She is the co-founder of game development studios Pinaka Interactive and NammaLore Entertainment and has previously worked with the best names in the Indian gaming industry, including Indiagames (Disney India), Jumpstart (NetDragon), GSN Games, Square Enix etc. Poornima is also a visiting faculty, project consultant and curriculum committee member at the National Institute of Design.

Her passion for games and her belief in using the power of gaming to create a meaningful and impactful change in thinking is her driving force. Ms Poornima is also one of the esteemed members of the Indian edition of Google’s Indie Game Accelerator initiative. She has worked across a wide variety of genres, including casual games, free to play games, FPS, RPG, MMO, social casino, and augmented reality.

To know more about her exciting experiences and words of wisdom join us at the “Video Games, Media Literacy and Social Change” discussion at Media Meet 2020!

Shilpa Mudbi Kothakota is a filmmaker, theatre practitioner and vocalist born and brought up in Bangalore. She acquired her Masters in Filmmaking from the University of Technology, Sydney, in 2008 after which, she returned to Bangalore to direct films on agriculture, rural development and women’s empowerment for the Karnataka State Department of Agriculture, the University of Agricultural Sciences and Karnataka Mahila Samakhya.

Ms Shilpa was the coordinator of the 10^th Annual Ranga Shankara Theatre Festival held in November 2014. She has also performed many roles as an actor, manager, singer and songwriter for the Indianostrum Theatre and represented them at the SMART (Strategic Management of the Arts) forum in 2015.

She is the co-creator of the Urban Folk Project which is an initiative to archive Folk art forms in Karnataka and use elements of these forms to build bodies of work that engage an urban audience with folk art practices.

Join us at Media Meet 2020 to witness Shilpa Kothakota illuminate us with her keen observations on “The Power of Musical Storytelling”.

Vishaka George is a Bengaluru-based reporter at the People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI). She reports on agricultural distress, labour issues, and livelihood opportunities in rural communities across various parts of Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu.

As part of PARI for School Projects, Vishaka takes initiative in teaching school children about Rural India through the stories that are published in PARI. Vishaka has worked on reports like ‘Why is the climate changing like this?’, ‘Hoping for Swachh work after Tumkur polls’, ‘Promoting paddy’, ‘Reclaiming rice in Kerala’ among several others. Vishaka has graduated from Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, and has previously worked for Reuters. Vishaka has been a dedicated reporter for PARI and her passion and hard work can be seen through the articles and reports she has published for the organization.

To know more about Vishaka George’s passion towards PARI, join us at the “From Screen into Streets: Media Makers and Democracy” panel discussion only at Media Meet 2020!

Co-founder of Pedestrian Pictures, a Bangalore-based film collective, Pradeep KP is a filmmaker, actively engaged in documentary-making, film screenings, and cultural-political activism. He’s also a cinematographer with several narrative feature films, ad films and documentaries. He has previously taught at colleges across South India.

In Karnataka, Pradeep and his company have been actively involved in issues regarding struggles for Dalit rights, women’s rights, tribal rights, sexuality minority rights, class struggles, issues of environment and displacement, communalism and many more societal causes. Through his documentary films, visual reports, and articles, Pradeep has been creating awareness on these issues to get the attention they deserve.

‘Our Gauri’, a film about Gauri Lankesh, the fearless and robust journalist, was a personal tribute made by Pradeep K.R and his film company. It follows the journey of Gauri Lankesh’s career and the various struggles that she went through while fighting for communal harmony.

Eager to hear Pradeep KP’s insights on “Documentary Realism and Media Literacy?” Register now, for Media Meet 2020!

Priti David is a Journalist, Editor, and Teacher. She reports for the People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) under P Sainath. Her areas of focus are Adivasis, health, education, and livelihoods.

Priti is the Education Editor at PARI and works with schools and colleges across India getting students to see the ‘invisible’ (rural) India, to engage, explore and empathise. She works with them to document rural issues and migrant lives as part of their course curriculum. She also teaches reporting on marginalised people.

She leads the team at PARI Education - PARI's education website launched in August 2020 which features work by students, curated, verified, and edited. PARI Education is also working with students in rural areas to get them to document their own lives.

An Economics Honours graduate from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University, she began her career with The Economic Times in 1989, covering marketing and new business. She moved to television in 1994 reporting for India Business Report on BBC World as the Bureau Chief (south), reporting on the people behind the news. She has also reported for CNBC ABNI and anchored business news programmes on different channels.

Kavita Ratna is the Director - Advocacy at the Concerned for Working Children (CWC), a non-profit organization which has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize thrice. With over 29 years of experience, she has been working with CWC in various senior capacities related to communications, capacity building, advocacy, and resource mobilisation. She is a member of the International Advisory Group on Child Labour, Save the Children Canada and is also a member of the Expert Group Committee on Children’s Participation set up by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and UNICEF to prepare the General Comments of the CRC Committee on Article 12 (Right to Participation).

She has been a resource person for several international and national agencies including the Save the Children, Sweden, SIDA, Save the Children, Norway, UNICEF Mongolia, ECPAT – International, ILO, FORUT – IOGT, Norway, SIDA, Japan International Children’s Rights Centre, Japan. She has also been associated with the International Working Group on Child Labour (IWGCL) and the facilitation of children’s participation at local, national, regional and international levels.

Her key areas of interest as well as experience include Children's rights, Child labour, Children's participation, Democratic Decentralisation, Civil Society Participation, Developmental Communications.

To gain knowledge about Kavita Ratna’s perspective on “Community stories and Media literacy”, join us at Media Meet 2020!

Dr Pablo Correa is the Program Director and Assistant Professor of the Digital Media and Communication program at the University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford, Connecticut. He was also a visiting professor in the Civic Communication and Media department at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. Dr Correa specializes in digital media and documentary filmmaking with a special focus on the interests of the minorities such as the Blacks and Hispanics. His passion also includes teaching and inspiring people through the medium of documentary films. His documentaries highlight racial relations, stories of tension, and stories of perseverance and success.

Dr Correa won the Bronze Award for his film ‘Civil Rights Movement’ at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival 2015, under the ‘College Documentary Category’. The film was also screened at the 2017 Southern Margins Film Festival at Clemson University.

Dr Correa is currently working on projects commemorating Emmett Till who inspired the racial reconciliation movement in the Mississippi Delta. He also works as a web designer and a co-instructor for the Young Filmmakers Workshop that aims to empower the students from the Mississippi Delta high school to tell their own stories through digital media.

Catch Dr Pablo Correa speak in the panel, “What’s real? Documentary Realism & Media Literacy” with other renowned experts only at Media Meet 2020!

Vaibhav Diwanji is an Indian marketing communications researcher and practitioner with over 10 years of experience in new media technology enabled and user-led communications and advertising. He also has an established track record of developing and directing strategic communication initiatives for brands and businesses from all over the world. Currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Communications at Florida State University, Mr Vaibhav also has an in-depth knowledge of human-technology interactions and their implications for individuals, organisations and brands as a scholar-practitioner.

Mr Vaibhav has taught subjects such as new media technologies, advertising, diffusion of innovative communication strategies and multimedia designing. His research interests include advertising, digital marketing, strategic brand management, social media marketing, re-marketing, user-generated branding and public relations.

We’re excited to have Vaibhav Diwanji as one of the panelists for the panel discussion “Trends in Consumer Generated Advertising.” Register today to hear what Vaibhav has to share on the different trends of advertising only at Media Meet 2020!

An advocate for the destruction of mass violence, hunger, and homeless people, Harsh Mander, an Indian author, and social activist has dedicated his life in eradicating these issues. He is the founding member of the National Campaign for the People’s Right to Information and is currently the Director of the Centre for Equity Studies, a research center focused on social and economic justice.

In an effort to eradicate these societal issues, he founded many campaigns- Aman Biradari, for secularism, peace, and justice; Nyayagrah, for legal justice and reconciliation for the survivors of communal violence; Dil Se, for street children, and Hausla for urban homeless people. He has worked for almost two decades in the Indian Administrative Service, serving both in Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh.

He was a member of the Core Groups on Bonded Labour and Mental Hospitals of the statutory National Human Rights Commission. His contribution also extends to various official national committees.

Mr Harsh Mander identifies as a human rights activist and peace worker, writer, columnist, researcher, and teacher, dedicating his life for securing the rights to food, housing, land, and the right to health. Mander has received numerous awards including the Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award for peace work, the M.A. Thomas National Human Rights Award 2002, the South Asian Minority Lawyers Harmony Award 2012, and the Chishti Harmony Award 2012.

To gain his experiential insights on media literacy join us for a session on “Media literacy to counter systemic violence” at Media Meet 2020!

Dr Naresh Rao is an Associate Professor at the Department of Media Studies, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore. He is also the recipient of the Khadri Achyuthan Memorial Samvahana Award 2017 for his contributions to the field of education. Dr Rao has numerous publications to his credit in reputed journals and periodicals such as the Elixir International Journal, Global Journal for Research Analysis, and Deccan Herald. His research interests include politics and the relevance of new media - especially social media - in today’s times.

Dr Rao believes in an interactive classroom environment and ensures that his students apply theory to practice. He encourages his students to look at new media through a critical eye so that they emerge as well-informed citizens and skilled media professionals.

Are you all set to hear Dr Naresh Rao on “Critical Literacy through social media”? Join us at Media Meet 2020!

Prof. Ninad Samaddar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre Studies, CHRIST (Deemed to be University). He is known for combining the Vakhtangov style, movements and vocal and breath training to fully comprehend the art form of theatre.

After completing his graduation in CHRIST University, he went on to earn his postgraduate degree from the Drama Centre London Group and further attended the Boris Shchukin Theatre Institute in 2018. Mr Ninad was a lead actor in several departmental productions during his graduate course under the direction of late Ms Esther Yates, the founder of the Department of Theatre Studies, CHRIST. His endeavour in Taj Express; The Bollywood Musical took him to showcase his talent in the United States and Canada.

To learn more about theatre from Prof. Ninad tune in to the Plenary Session- “The Power of Storytelling” only at Media Meet 2020!

A firm believer in “be the change you want to see in the world”, Arathi Manay is an independent market researcher, engineer and general consultant working with individuals and agencies across the globe. She is also a part-time community anchor at Oorvani Foundation and consults on financial matters to private firms and NGOs.

Ms Arathi formerly worked with Clear Ideas and Engine International (formerly ORC Research and Consulting), Right Angle/ Incite Marketing Planning, Kantar (Lightspeed Research) and Median Research (India).

Her expertise includes research design, instrument design, data collection (in-depth interviews), statistical analysis, field briefing, and reporting in the field of advertising. She is also keen on mobilising the citizens to write about things they encountered in their daily lives.

As a supporter of media literacy, Ms Arathi will join us at Media Meet 2020! Join us at the “Community Stories and Media Literacy from the Indian Perspective” discussion to interact and know more about her takes!