Remembering Sarwat Hussain: OU journalism dept honours academic’s legacy in media studies

Hyderabad: The work and life of esteemed academician and a visionary in media studies, Sarwat Hussain, was discussed at a special lecture by the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Osmania University, on Saturday.

The lecture was attended by many prominent individuals and mass media and journalism students across the city at the Centenary Auditorium in the University College of Arts and Social Sciences.

The event featured a keynote address by Eric Chinje, former manager, external affairs and communications, World Bank. Prof C Kaseem, principal of the University College of Arts and Social Sciences, head of the Journalism and Mass Communication department Dr T Satish Kumar, patron of the department’s new digital media centre Vidya Bhandarkar spoke at the event.

Tributes to eminent journalist

Chinje paid tribute to his late friend and colleague Sarwat Hussain by recalling the values he lived by as a person and contributions to media as an eminent journalist and a visionary policy maker. He credited the university for shaping Hussain with a rare combination of three traits–intellect, creativity and humility.

Hailing Vidya for continuing Hussain’s legacy, he hoped that the new media centre would be a beacon of integrity, critical thinking and responsible journalism.

Chinje spoke of the growing role of technology in journalism and suggested students to work towards digital inclusion and optimal utilisation of emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for solving real-life global problems in the areas of climate change, finance and governance that the whole world is grappling with.

Rs 20 lakh worth of equipment donated

Vidya concluded by thanking former head of department Dr Narender K for guiding her patronage— Rs 20 lakh worth of equipment for the media centre—that would be instrumental for the students’ skill development.

Additionally, Vidya instituted Gold Medals in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication for the students scoring the highest marks in the MA JMC postgraduate course.