In the seventh episode of The Zanaan Wanaan Podcast, we discuss Media as an academic discipline in the context of Kashmir. This episode discusses the need for storytelling to amplify the narratives from Kashmir, the challenges confronting Kashmiri women journalists, the politics of institutional affiliation, the perplexities in media practice due to censorship and the changing dynamics of this field due to social media and emerging technologies. For this episode, we were joined by three brilliant journalists and researchers from this discipline:
Ifat Gazia is currently pursuing her PhD in communications with specialisation in film at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her PhD research looks at the intersection of identity, technology and memory. She previously has a degree in Media from SOAS, University of London. She is a recipient of UMass Research Enhancement and Leadership Fellowship and also the Muslim Women in Media Fellowship 2020 awarded by Encyclopedia of Women in Islamic Cultures (EWIC). She is the founder and host of The Kashmir Podcast.
Ashwaq Masoodi is an award winning journalist, who most recently was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. Ashwaq has been working as a longform writer for almost a decade, covering the lives of the minorities in India. She has reported from 22 Indian states.
Bisma Bhat is a Kashmiri journalist who reports on education, conflict and crime. She has a Master’s degree in Convergent Journalism from Central University of Kashmir. After her Master’s, she joined The Kashmir monitor, a local english daily of Kashmir where she worked for 3 years. Presently, she is working with the weekly local magazine, Free Press Kashmir, as a reporter. Her stories have also featured in news portals such as First Post, Article 14, The Wire and Gaon connection. She has also been a winner of the Sanjay Ghose Media Award 2020.