School of Mass Communication, KIIT Deemed to be University organized talks by two eminent women, Dr Kuvleen Trehan and Ms Reema Gautam, on the occasion of International Women’s Day on 8th March 2022. The speakers, who have nearly two decades of experience in the field of media education and broadcast media, gave insightful talks on the theme Breaking the Barriers.
In her talk, Dr. Trehan, Assistant Professor, University School of Mass Communication, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University gave an interesting insight into the world of sports and how women are making slow inroads into the male bastion. She emphasised the need for gender sensitivity in sports in her talk on “Towards Gender Equality in Sports: Is Social Media the Great Leveller?” She said that change needs to happen at three levels – public sphere, policy sphere and media for women sports persons to break the bias against them. Dr. Trehan was conferred with the Iconic Women Award under the Exceptional Leaders of Excellence Category by Women Economic Forum in 2019. Her research areas are media literacy, advocacy, integrated brand communications, gender, media and sports.
Ms. Gautam, a senior broadcast journalist, gave a deep insight into the issues and problems faced by women journalists. “We have to look into the care-taking roles for family and work equally well in the office without any acknowledgement for the added burden”, she stated. Ms. Gautam has worked as principal correspondent and senior news presenter with Sahara Samay News Network. She is also honorary director communications for the Pythian Games.
Earlier, welcoming the guest speakers, Professor Himansu Sekhar Khatua, Director General, School of Mass Communication, thanked Prof. Achyuta Samanta, Founder, KIIT & KISS for initiating various gender equality programmes for women staff and girl students. Dr. Bidu Bhusan Dash also spoke on the occasion. Among others, Ms. Ruby Nanda, Assistant Professor & Convenor, IWD Talk, Ms. Sananda Mukherjee, Ms Chinmoyee Deka, Faculty Associates and several female students of KSMC were present.
The talks were followed by a cultural programme, which included performances by Ms. Sayonika Banerjee, 2nd semester student of Master of Communication and Journalism (Integrated) programme; Ms. Pushpendrika Som, 4th semester IMCJ student, Ms. Kalali Mohanty, student of Master of Communication and Journalism programme, Mr Souptik Garai, Assistant Professor, KSMC and others. A video prepared by students of 6th semester IMCJ programme on gender equality and gender discrimination was also screened at the event. Around 45 students and faculty members joined the programme online.
Last year, KSMC had organized a webinar with two award winning senior women journalists, Ms Subhra Priyadarshini, Editor-in-Chief, Nature India, New Delhi and Ms Teresa Rehman, Managing Editor, The Thumb Print, Assam on the occasion of International Women’s Day.