Tezpur University - MA in Communication for Development

Programme Objectives are as follows:

• To develop human resources with specialised knowledge and skills in communication for social change;
• To expand the knowledge base of theories around development, and its interrelationship with culture, behaviour change, social transformation, and human rights principles;
• Understand the newer approaches to C4D concepts, methods and techniques;
• To cater to the growing demand for communication experts to work in the development sector in the Northeast region of India;
• To impart skills for carrying out the research, design, development, implementation, and monitoring & evaluation of C4D interventions; and
• To facilitate in the field exposure to techniques of designing and developing effective C4D strategies and interventions for social transformation.

The programme has a clearly defined focus on participatory communication.

Over the two years of the Masters programme, the course offers a mix of the following core and elective courses to be taken over four semesters: 

Theories of Communication and Media - Communication is an evolving discipline. Traditions of its intellect have come primarily from two streams - the humanities and social sciences making it a multi-disciplinary arena. This course seeks to offer an overview of this complex and exciting mix of intellectual traditions while providing insights into the theoretical, critical, and analytical vocabulary. This should enable the consumers of media and communication forms to become informed critics.

Development Journalism - The objective of this course is to help students understand the concept and scope of development journalism. This course is designed to impart skills of journalistic writing for different media platforms with a focus on issues of development. The course incorporates changes in the nature of media professions and the need to adapt to convergence of media productions and technologies, and also to acquire the ability to work on multiple platforms.

Theories of Communication for Development - This course is about communication for social change and is designed with a view to provide an introduction to the social utility of communication activity. The course seeks to understand some of the ideas of development models and to explore the alternative conceptions of communication and media in the light of new social movements, non-state actors, and more people-centred approaches to social change. It would provide an in-depth understanding of the concept and process of development as well as introduce the new paradigms of development. The syllabus also introduces strategies for employing communication as a participatory and inclusive process for social change.

Issues in Development - This course intends to equip students with knowledge of basic issues, documents, and policy priorities across technical areas in India and globally, while providing them with understanding of politics and policies of development. This should enable students to do critical analysis of challenges and current policies and programmes across key development issues through which they will be able to develop coherent arguments about the successes and failures to address the problems facing society.

Communication Research Methods - This course aims to impart the fundamental techniques and philosophy of research, specifically related to media and communication, and to prepare students for undertaking research projects during the MA programme. Further, it seeks to equip students with research skills for their future professional careers.

Radio for Development - The course is designed with a view to provide students with an in-depth understanding of the concept and process of radio production, as well as introduce the latest developments in the field of radio. The main objective of this course is to make the students aware of radio production, process, and formats.

Participatory Video Production - This course is designed to teach the basics of various television and video genres, including an understanding of the functions of camera and other equipment used in production. The primary focus, however, is on process of facilitating participatory video productions through community interaction.

Information & Communication Technology for Development - This course offers students an understanding of the paradigm shift in society in the context of the emergence of information and communication technologies (ICT). It will help in understanding the structure of web, cyberspace, mobile phone, blogs, and other online services. In addition,  it will deal with the differences, characteristics, and activities of different net-based communities. Students will also learn how to apply ICTs for social change.

Campaign Planning - This course is designed to provide students with an overview of the basic steps for designing and implementing communication for development strategies and plans.

Folk and Community Media - This course intends to help students understand the various folk and alternative forms of communication. It seeks to train students in the development of street theatre production (exercises, research, scripting and performance), familiarise them with different types of puppetry, and help them develop puppet shows for community communication.

Message Design and Evaluation - This course intends to familiarise students with message design for development programmes and to understand the different formats and approaches to development message designing. It further introduces students to techniques of monitoring and evaluation so as to establish links between programme objectives and social indicators.

Internship - After the second semester, students will undergo an internship of four weeks with a non governmental organisation (NGO) or government organisation engaged in development communication. At the end of the internship, the students will be evaluated by the host organisation, as well as the departmental faculty based on specific evaluation criteria and an internship report submitted at the end of the internship period.

NGO participation and management - This course attempts to help students understand the nature and context of development organisations as civil society initiatives and develop skills in planning and management of civil society organisations. It will also guide them to understand contemporary development discourses and suitable strategies.

Human Rights and Media - This course looks at the various human rights charters and declarations, and focuses on writing about human rights and the role of the media related to human rights. Issues covered include: the rights of girl children and women; the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) movement; casteism; violence against women; and child Labour.

North East India: Demography, Culture and Identity - This course introduces students to the multi-ethnic cultural matrix related to the customs and traditions, religion, arts etc. of North-east India, and interrogates the socio-political and cultural identity assertions in the region. It also takes into consideration the various discourses emerging from within and outside the region, and seeks to explore the notion of the North East as an entity formed by political, economic, and cultural agendas.

Project - Students will undertake project work in association with an NGO or other developmental organisation during the fourth semester. During this period, they will be attached with the host organisation and do some original strategic designing of a communication project as advised by the organisation. They will also be required to submit monthly progress reports to a supervising faculty at the department.

Students also need to select Choice Based Credit Transfer (CBCT) courses offered by different departments during the first three semesters, which will make up 20% of the total credits. 

Click here for a full course description.

The course offers a mix of classroom and field-based learning, where most of the courses offered have a practical training component. The unique feature of the programme is that the students have to undertake a six month internship with a development agency in their final semester.  The course also tries to facilitate interaction with field experts during all parts of the programme, with some well known C4D experts in the country interacting with the students. Students are also required to continuously work with people from marginalised rural communities and facilitate participatory media exercises.

See the Curriculum document for a list of core teaching materials for each course.

Click here to view publications by faculty members.

Key staff involved in this MA:

• Dr. Joya Chakraborty - Associate Professor and Coordinator, M.A. C4D Programme. Area of Interest: ICT for Developement, Development Communication,Women and Media; Traditional Media.
• Prof. Sunil Kanta Behera, Professor of Eminence
• Prof. Abhijit Bora, Professor
• Dr. P. Anbarasan, Associate Professor
• Dr. Joya Chakraborty, Associate Professor
• Dr. Uttam Kumar Pegu, Associate Professor
• Dr. Anjuman Borah, Assistant Professor
• Dr. Perosh Jimmy Daimari, Assistant Professor
• Dr. Junali Deka, Assistant Professor
• Ms. Kapou Malakar, Assistant Professor
• Mr. Manoj Deori, Assistant Professor

Visiting faculty members include:

• Debarun Dutta,Executive Director, DRISHTI, Ahmedabad
• Sanjeev Kumar, C4D Freelance Consultant, New Delhi
• Monisha Behal, Director, North East Network, Guwahati
• Sheetal Sharma, State Representative for Assam, UN Women, India
• Arbind Sinha, Adjunct Faculty, MICA, Ahmedabad
• Veena Kumari, C4D Officer, UNICEF, Assam
• Rita Bannerji, Dusty Foot Production, New Delhi & Green Hub, Tezpur
• Mayuri Bhattacharjee, Sikun Foundation, Tezpur
• Sushmita Dutta    Project Officer, Awareness Generation, Assam State Disaster Management Authority, Guwahati
  Sushanta Takuldar, Editor, Nezine, Guwahati
• Manjari Barkataki, Radio Jockey, Red FM Guwahati
• Utpal Dutta, Assistant Director, All India Radio, Guwahati
• D Uday Kumar, Associate Professor, IIT Guwahati
• Shantanu Nandan Sharma, Senior Editor, The Economic Times, Delhi

Click here for more information on faculty staff.