The idea of building an inclusive platform for media and communication academic and researchers came to my mind in summer 2022 while I was working with my doctoral dissertation on media representation of the Rohingya ethnic Muslim minority in Myanmar, in which I investigated how Myanmar Buddhist nationalist ideology and hegemonic media representation systematically marginalized and racialized Rohingyas. While studying critical media literature focusing on hegemony, ideology, identity, power, and presentation representation, I struggled to find adequate literature in the context of South Asian, where one-fourth of the global population resides. No doubt, there are some prominent scholars of media and culture studies in South Asia and the U.S. and other diasporas. Nonetheless, in doing some research, I rarely found any platform that can bring scholars to a common platform to conduct rigorous study on media and culture that examines social discursive practice, institutional hierarchies, systematic oppressions of marginalized groups, and how ideology and media function in this complex process of social practice. I started contacting young media and communication scholars based in South Asia and the diaspora, particularly in the U.S. I spent hour after hour sharing my thoughts with scholars in this field. The goal of CSAMC is to foster rigorous research and critical analysis of media practices, cultural expressions, and communication dynamics across South Asia. The center aims to decolonize knowledge, creating an inclusive environment with academic rigor and community engagement.
Media construct social reality and shape/reconstruct identity, and therefore communication and mass media are characterized as “the most dynamic part of ideological structure” (Gramsci, 2006, p. 16). As an ideological tool, the media has an enormous effect in shaping the political process, constructing social identity, and changing people’s attitudes and behavior. The media could be, simultaneously, a weapon to cause harm to the people and a threat to democracy and a hegemonic tool for the ruling class to oppress the working class. However, the media can be used as a tool of social change. In the context of South Asia, media and communication are used as ideological tools to suppress dissent and control power. We witnessed how past and current regimes in South Asia, particularly India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, use media and cultural establishments to control their domination over the masses and political oppositions. Moreover, the voices of the marginalized and underrepresented groups are silenced in the mainstream media. The CSAMC addresses salient issues in the context of South Asia, explaining broader historical and contemporary context, media repression, cultural erasure, dominant narrative, and diasporic disconnect. The center also aims to organize regular public events such as webinars, symposia, seminars, and publish scholarly articles.