[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”4217″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”3/4″][title title=”Shashidhar Nanjundaiah (India)” title_text=”” float=”text-left” style=”style-1″][vc_custom_heading text=”Bio” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]Prof Shashidhar Nanjundaiah is a nationally reputed media educator and brought in pioneering concepts and pedagogy into media education. He has led institutes of repute as Director of Symbiosis Institute of Mass Communication, as Founding Director of Indira School of Communication, and first Dean at India Today Media Institute. He has also been an editor of newspapers and magazines in India and the US. He has researched, spoken and written extensively on international forums on the media, communication ownership and production, political communication, and more. Recently, he has introduced a media literacy course for schools and colleges under the banner “BeingResponsible”.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row disable_element=”yes”][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”4217″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”3/4″][title title=”Shashidhar Nanjundaiah (India)” title_text=”” float=”text-left” style=”style-1″][vc_custom_heading text=”Bio” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]Shashidhar Nanjundaiah is a nationally reputed media and communication educator and media professional.
As educationist. A well-known name in shaping modern media education in India, Prof Nanjundaiah held led three major media and communication institutes to positions of leadership in progressive academic values:
- As the Director of Symbiosis Institute of Mass Communication, Pune, in the early 2000s, he is reputed to have led the next-stage growth, bringing about both strategic transformation and forward-looking pedagogic changes in journalism, communication management and mass communication. During his tenure, SIMC became the first college in India to go online with admissions in 2001. Students produced independent and pathbreaking on-ground documentaries from Gujarat riots (2002) to Kashmir valley militancy (2003), and won a UGC award for best documentary in 2001 for their documentary on Chambal valley bandits.
- As Founding Director of Indira School of Communication, Pune, in the mid-2000s, his team and he brought in new, futuristic practices of education in the early 2000s that are now commonly practised. Interdisciplinarity, seminar-style seating, mentoring and advisement, daily mutual feedback system, and healthy practices were introduced. In a short time, ISC became nationally reputed and the very first graduates received international placements.
- As the first Dean of India Today Media Institute, Noida, in the mid-2010s, Prof Nanjundaiah quickly transformed a small institute to one of specialized leadership, including several new progressive initiatives, designing the pedagogy as an interface between concepts and hands-on practice within and outside the parent India Today Group. He expanded the academic offering from broadcast journalism to cover most courses within media and communication.
Research and writing. In the mid-1990s, Prof Nanjundaiah was one of the first researchers on the India’s post-liberalization media communication policy and its impacts on content strategy. Internationally published, his thesis continues to be an influential piece of historical-critical literature on India’s television policy. His recent research has examined the communication management of Donald Trump’s campaign rhetoric, and India’s news television’s on-screen eyeball strategies in political content.
As a journalist, he analysed policies and practice trends, and interviewed top international and national leaders. He has been on the panel of Fulbright Master’s Scholarship Committee, and the governing board of Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI). He has chaired discussions conducted by universities, international governments, and UNESCO.
Prof Nanjundaiah is a commentator, and continues to write influential opinion-editorials on various subjects in prominent publications. His newspaper column “Dean’s Desk” critiques and
analyses eclectic subjects from a communicator’s lens . His online portal column “The New Literate” examines facets of the media. His upcoming column for communication managers analyses the future of corporate storytelling.
As storytelling, media and communication professional. Until recently, Prof Nanjundaiah was the Bangalore-based consulting Chief Storytelling Officer at Enzen Global, an energy MNC headquartered in Birmingham, UK. In that role, he wrote the policy for corporate culture around communication and created activities of storytelling, leadership training and other behavioural learning for various levels of employment.
Prof Nanjundaiah has also held influential positions as a mediaperson: as New York-based managing editor of The Indian Express North American Edition, as Mumbai-based group executive editor of reputed business magazines including Infrastructure Today, which won international accolade during his editorship. At Zee News, he managed news research and current affairs programmes.
The BeingResponsible initiative. Prof Nanjundaiah is the founder of BeingResponsible, a movement that envisions to create a world that is more aware of its accountabilities. He delivers training programmes in Responsible Media Literacy at schools, colleges and corporations, and Responsible Storytelling for corporations. Responsible Professionalism is an intervention programme for corporations and colleges.
Education. Prof Nanjundaiah has an MS (1995, GPA 4.0/4.0) in Corporate and Professional Communication from Radford University, USA, an MA in English (4th rank) and BSc from the University of Mysore, India. He has an unfinished PhD (GPA 3.9/4.0) in Mass Communication from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, USA.
When he’s not doing any of the above activities, Prof Nanjundaiah is solving cryptic crosswords, singing, or hiking. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]