Syllabus for
Bachelor of Arts (Communication and Media, Psychology)
Academic Year  (2023)

This course has been conceptualized to provide an overview of digital culture, exploring how digital technologies, social media, and other related communication technology have transformed society. This includes the history of digital technologies, their effect on society and culture, and their impacts on human life. 

Course Description:

Through this course, students will be exposed to the aesthetics and technicalities of photography with hands-on experience. Students can pick up the basic skills necessary to handle diverse photography assignments.

The purpose of this paper is to empower stakeholders in the field of communication and media, primarily schoolchildren, NGO workers, and the target groups of these NGOs. The media domain skill sets would be used to bridge the gap between service-learning students and the community.

Cognitive Processes are the most basic aspects in the attempt to understand the psychology of

individuals. This course will help students to understand the structure and functioning of

senses; the principles of perception, and how perception helps an individual to understand

their world; principles, and theories of memory and attention. Through classroom discussions

and research discussions, the student will also be able to apply this knowledge in their daily

lives to improve their own functioning, as well as apply it to evaluate various real-world

issues such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, design thinking and so on. The

experimental psychology laboratory practicum taken alongside the course during the semester

will help students understand various psychophysical experiments and connect the theoretical

underpinnings of such tests to concepts learned in this course.

The coursework aims to provide undergraduate psychology students with the knowledge and hands-on practice of experimental psychology. The course imparts training in classic and contemporary experiments from the domains of sensation and perception and other cognitive processes. The course introduces students to traditional psychophysical experiments and contemporary computer-assisted experiments. In the process, they will be provided with an understanding of central concepts, such as ethics, lab protocols and major elements of a psychological experiment, including variables and hypothesis. The course adopts a problem-based learning approach where students will get an opportunity to conduct a computer-assisted experiment to explain a given psychophysical phenomenon. Due attention is given to issues of identifying and selecting experiments, conducting experiment processes in an ethical manner and writing APA-style reports. The course has two components of lecture and laboratory work. The lecture classes will consist of a mixture of lectures and group discussions. Lectures are designed to clarify and deepen understanding of experimental methods and descriptive statistics. The laboratory sections will be a space to practice conducting psychological experiments and to begin learning some basics of data analysis.

The course offers a comprehensive reading on the history and contemporary landscape of the Indian film industry. The course considers several critical issues, including questions of ownership and control, global dimensions of the Indian language film industry, division of creative workers, cultural hybridization, the national versus the transnational, regionalism, the cultural flow, and mixes in cinema. Students will have the opportunity to analyze and appreciate Popular Indian cinema.

This course has been conceptualized to provide students’ knowledge and skills required to become multimedia professionals in news and non-news environments. The new media ecosystem requires media professionals to be well-versed in all formats from Broadcast, Digital, and social media, to Mobile. Journalists and other professional communicators today must be trained to create and edit content according to the need of the format. As content in audio-visual form is being consumed more than any other form these days, budding journalists and content creators must learn the art of visual storytelling.

The course also intends to enhance the theoretical understanding of students on the principles of video production and multimedia storytelling. The students will learn how interesting and professional stories can be created using new technological tools like advanced cameras, smartphones and video editing software. They will learn how to write, report, and video edit the story. They will nurture video production skills for multimedia formats and learn the whole process from pre to post production. After this course, the students will be able to work both as freelancers and as multimedia professionals with established media outlets.

The course will help the students to develop an understanding of human development from conception to the later stages of life. This course has been conceptualized in order to provide a general introduction to various developmental concepts across the different stages of the lifespan, with the nature versus nurture debate as a concurrent theme. The primary purpose of this course is to examine the physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional development of infants, children, adolescents, and adults and the various factors (e.g., genetics, parenting, peer groups, culture) that influence development. Prominent theories of development and research methods in developmental psychology are reviewed. Specific topics that are covered include prenatal development, aggression, attachment, gender development, language development, moral development, cognitive development, cultural influences, and ageing.

This course has been conceptualised for students to understand the historical and scientific developments in the field of social psychology. Students will explore the theoretical bases of the development of the social self and the dynamics of social perception and cognition, interpersonal attraction, prosocial behaviour, aggression, prejudice, attitudes, social influence and group processes in a social context. The course will engage students through pedagogy designed for a hands-on experience, critical reading of journal articles, discussion of contemporary social issues, and small study groups to facilitate a deeper understanding of human social behaviour. Further, the course aims to use a multicultural and intersectional lens to build on the student's understanding.