Indian Journal of Media Studies launched

My compliments to Prof Veena Noble Dass, the Vice Chancellor of Sri Padmavati Mahila Visvavidyalayam, to have encouraged and supported its Department of Communication and Journalism (DoCJ) to launch Indian journal of Media Studies.

Media educators in India would certainly join me to offer similar compliments to Prof Dass because vice-chancellors of most Indian universities fail to support such initiatives in media studies. It could because they do not realise that there is no media research journal for communication researchers, teachers, and students. It could be because of paucity of funds, or could be because such a journal for media research is always a low priority.

Prof V Durga Bhavani, the Editor and DoCJ Head and Associate Professor P Vijaya Lakshmi, have utilised the support to bring out the 98-page journal that has carried seven research papers. These deal with Telugu Press, Television and children, Internet use in Andhra Pradesh and gender sensitisation through media intervention.

The journal will be brought out every sixth month. The Volume I Issue I includes papers submitted by teachers from Sri Padmavati Mahila Visvavidyalayam. I do hope that the editors will make every effort to make the journal a useful platform for educators and researchers from other universities as well to justify 'Indian' in the title of the publication. Perhaps, eventually, the journal will be made peer-reviewed to ensure quality of the contents.

Indian Journal of Media Studies, Volume I Issue I (March 2008) published by Department of Communication and Journalism, Sri Padmavati Mahila Visvavidyalayam, Tirupati 517502 Andhra Pradesh.

Contact details: www.padmavatiwomen-univ.org, telephones: (91-877) 2284536 and (91-877) 2284516, Fax: (91-877) 2284568 email: sapcj_spmvv@yahoo.co.in