Religions & Development Research Programme

An international research partnership exploring the relationships between several major world religions, development in low-income countries and poverty reduction.

The project will look at relationships between religious values and development concepts and practice, politics and Governance, the role of faith communities in contemporary social movements

iii. Religious identity, faith-based organisations and development activities etc.

The project involves Prof. Vinod Pavarala & Kanchan K. Malik.

Media System, Political Culture and Informed Citizenship: A Comparative Study

The central objective of this 11-nation study is to investigate how different media systems and political cultures influence the acquisition of knowledge about public and international affairs, and about key policies.

This eleven-nation comparative media study seeks to investigate, what affects the supply of news, on the one hand, and, attentiveness to the news on the other, in order to investigate the conditions that contribute to informed citizenship. The study is based on a comparison of news coverage (content analysis) and public knowledge (through national online survey) in eleven nations simultaneously.

The project is anchored by Prof. James Curran, Goldsmiths College, University of London andProf.Shanto Iyengar, Stanford University, U.S.A. The two institutional partners in India are: Department of Communication (Sarojini Naidu School of Arts & Communication, University of Hyderabad) and Mudra Institute of Communication Research (MICORE). 

At the department, the project is led by Prof. Vinod Pavarala and Dr. E.Sathya Prakash.