Celebrating freedom with Article 19

The college fest, Article-19 in progress || Photo Courtesy : Suraj C

Manipal: Workshops, screenings, Las Vegas theme party, football for a cause and discussions centered on “Media imperialism” marked the three-day communication fest of Manipal Institute of Communication, which concluded on Feb 27th. Dr Pushpa Kini, Director of Student Affairs at Manipal University declared the fest open by reading out “Article -19 1(a)” (Defining the Right to Freedom and Expression) of the sacred Constitution of India. She reminisced the formative years of the fest and congratulated the student-body for bringing it a long way, in her address at the inaugural function.

A workshop on Corporate Film-making by Prem Chawla, a veteran in the field, detailed the process and the equipments involved in the making of corporate films. Movies, documentaries, advertisements and radio productions were amongst the entries from various colleges across the country, received in nine categories, and screened during the three-day event. The winner in each of the nine categories walked away with a glittering trophy and a cash prize at the "Express Awards," on the final day. Students of Manipal University broke the barriers of nationality, and between colleges, as they came together to play a game of football, the proceeds of which went to Shiridi Sai Baba Cancer Research Centre (an associate of Kasturba Hospital, Manipal). The teams Oncolo Busters and Chemo Chargers battled it out on the field, with Oncolo Busters emerging victorious in the charity match.

Pablo Bartholomew, an award winning photo-journalist with a myriad of experience, mesmerized the audience with a glimpse of his works, which justified the saying by Ansel Adams, “You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” Other workshops included one on Sports Journalism by budding ESPN commentator, Jatin Sapru, "Advertising tools" by G V Krishnan, executive Vice-President of Lowe Lintas- a leading ad agency, and "Aesthetics of web-designing" by a young and promising web-designer, Amit Paul, from Roorke, Uttarakhand. The workshops aimed at converging students and media professionals to the same platform.

The impact of media hegemony and the disturbing trends of commercialization were discussed at Manipal Media Students’ Convention (MMSC) – a sub-event of Article 19. Speaking at MMSC, Pradip Thomas, professor of Social Media and Change, University of Queensland, Australia, rued that the role of media is limited to selling audiences to advertisers. He also called for democracy in internet which is controlled by groups like Google and Microsoft. “Journalism and media in India are reduced to bite collection only. There is no enthusiasm left”, said Aniruddha Bahal, co-founder of Tehelka, another expert and member of the panel. Sadanand Menon, professor from Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, one of the leading journalists in the country and a panelist at MMSC, seemed wary of newspaper content and asked for disclaimers like “Reading this newspaper is injurious to health” on national dailies.

The three-day fest culminated in the form of a dazzling, musical evening where communicative excellence was awarded, and in relieved faces that toiled hard for more than six months in making expression, your right.

Sub-edited by: Aditya Ramachandran