Two explorative workshops are held, the first one at Lund University, Sweden, on 19–20 October; and the second in New Delhi, India, to be held 7–9 December. The aim is to highlight the future media landscapes in India and Sweden. The workshops will also link Indian and Swedish media researchers and journalists together to seek new ways of working with future challenges and also to highlight possible projects. 

The purpose of the project is to create a forum for exchange of ideas, perspectives and future outlooks on the South Asian and Swedish media landscape, and to build up a network of Indian/South Asian and Swedish journalists, as well as media researchers, to discuss and exchange ideas about work methods, trends within the media industry and business models. It is being planned by Andreas Mattsson, lecturer in journalism at the Department of Communication and Media, Lund University, and currently working as project coordinator at SASNET. More information about the background.
The entire workshop was being recorded on video by Talat Bhat, and will soon be available to see from this web page.

Large audience for Lund workshop

The two-day explorative workshop in Lund brought up questions related to the following topics:
• Working Condition of Journalists
• Political Influence on Media
• Online Ethics
• Gender in Media
• Innovation in Media

Indian media researchers and journalists presented their experiences and outlooks on the future media landscape during panel talks, presentations and seminars.
The workshop became a success. More than 80 people – students, researchers, journalists and other interested turned up when the workshop started in the morning of 19th October. 

First out was Associate Professor Vibodh Parthasarathi, media researcher from the Centre for Culture, Media & Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi, speaking about ”Digital Dissolve: On the Economic Salience of the Media in our Times”. Photo to the left.
He was followed by Professor Anjali Monteiro and Professor K P Jayasankar from Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS) in Mumbai, with a presentation entitled ”Storytelling in the Digital Age”, focusing on their film project about Remembering the 1992 riots in Mumbai. Photo to the right.
The fourth invited academic speaker was Dr. Devika Jayakumari from Centre for Development Studies (CDS) in Thiruvananthapuram, who gave a presentation on Journalism and Politics in India, based on her experiences from running the website kafila.org.
Devika also took part in a fascinating session entitled Political Scandals in Media together with Mia-Marie Hammarlin, Lund University. 

Invited Indian journalists

Besides, four Indian journalists also gave presentations. Hindol Sengupta, Editor-at-Large for Fortune India, being one of the key persons involved in planning for the Sweden-South Asia Media Project from the beginning, took part in a highly interesting panel discussion on What are our Future Challenges for Journalism in Sweden and india? along with Heidi Avellan, Political Editor in Chief at regional newspapers Sydsvenskan and Helsingborgs Dagblad. Andreas Mattsson moderated the discussion (photo).

Christian Andersson from Södertörn University to the left with Priyanka Borpujari and Jonas Nordling after panel discussion on journalists’ working conditions in India and Sweden.
In another highly relevant panel discussion, Priyanka Borpujari – independent reporter based in both Mumbai and Guwahati – talked about  Journalists’ Working Conditions in Sweden and India together with Jonas Nordling, President of the Swedish Union of Journalists (SJF). Again Andreas Mattsson was the moderator.
Divya Rajagopal, Financial reporter at Economic Times newspaper, gave an engaged presentation about Online Ethics and hate campaigns against controversial reporting in India, and took part in a discussion on Online Harassment and Politics of Free Speech – Can Journalism create Change? together with Danish journalist Emma Holten, with Karin Arbsjö, Lund University, as a moderator.
Finally, Shweta Punj – Senior Associate Editor for the Business Today magazine – was involved in a panel discussion on Gender and Diversity in the Newsroom, together with Swedish freelance journalist Linda Stark. After this final session, many questions were presented from the audience, and a heated debate erupted between the Indian journalists, on the role of the Indian middle class and the status of Dalits in India, where Devika Jayakumari strongly opposed arguments put forward by Shveta Punj (supported by Hindol Sengupta)
See the complete Lund workshop programme.

The three-day Delhi workshop to be held 7–9 December 2015 is being planned in collaboration with Lund University Commissioned Education (LUCE), and the Swedish Embassy in Delhi (that has committed itself to cooperate with the project).