Graduate Student, Department of Media and Communications
Thesis Title: Young people, digital literacies and divergence: interpretations of an online genre
About
Ranjana started her PhD in the Department of Media and Communications at the LSE in October 2008. Her doctoral work studies youthful interpretations of Web 2.0 genres and is supervised by Professor Sonia Livingstone. Ranjana focuses particularly on the interplay of literacies and legibilities in young peoples' negotiation of social networking sites. Her project is with young people in London, and combines tried and tested social science research methods with unorthodox/creative methods. It also involves a comparative analysis of generic features in ten European social networking sites. Her research positions itself within the theoretical transition of audience reception studies from mass media to the age of interactive media. Her current interests include audiences and users, reception aesthetics, digital literacies and new media texts.
SUMMARY OF THESIS PROPOSAL
* As new genres of social media emerge and as critical questions are raised about youthful practices in online environments, media and digital literacies are increasingly central, and even contested zones in academic and policy discussions.
* This project with 11-19 year olds in London aims to generate qualitative findings around digital literacies as complex, collaborative, design-mediated and divergent practices rather than as a homogenous technical skill set within the minds of individuals.
* The empirical work proposed with young users focuses on emergent literacies in social networking. The thesis has a simultaneous empirical focus on the media itself- proposing a comparative analysis of a single digital form (social networking sites) in ten European linguistic variations.
* The methodology combines tried and tested social research methods with creative and unorthodox ones, providing a platform for youth to speak in the project in conventional and unconventional ways.
* A central component in her research is her focus on divergence across age i.e. how do children and teens of different ages develop divergent digital literacies. In her conceptual framework, she seeks to bring together Vygotskian approaches with reception aesthetics as she thinks through age and interpretation.
* Four themes are expected to emerge in the findings: digital genres- legibility, form and conventions; linguistic/cultural diversification of social media forms; literacies- divergence and consensus and pan-media use as interpretative work
Some RECENT WORK
EDUCATION
2008-2011 : Ph.D. (anticipated 2011)
Department of Media and Communication, London School of Economics (LSE), UK
Research Supervisor: Professor Sonia Livingstone
Thesis Title: Young People, Digital Literacies and Divergence: Interpretations of an Online Genre
2007-2008: M.Sc. (Distinction)
Department of Media and Communications, LSE, UK
M.Sc in Media and Communications Research
Selected Courses
MC402: The Audience in Media and Communications: Distinction
MC4M2: Advanced Principles of Social Research: Distinction
MC499: Dissertation in Media and Communications: Distinction
2005-07: M.A. (Second in the First Class)
AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, New Delhi, India
M.A. in Mass Communication
2002-2005: B.Sc. (First in the First Class)
Lady Brabourne College, University of Calcutta, India
B.Sc. in Geography, Economics and Sociology
SCHOLARSHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS, AWARDS and PRIZES
Academic Awards Held:
2009-2010: POLIS Silverstone Scholarship
Awarded a sum of �5000 by POLIS the Media and Society think-tank at the LSE. This Scholarship is awarded annually to one person in honour of the late Professor Roger Silverstone, former Head of the Media and Communications Department at the LSE. http://www.polismedia.org/events/silverstonefellowship.aspx
2009-2010: London School of Economics: Media Research Studentship
Awarded for doctoral studies at the LSE
2009-10: Sir Richard Stapley Trust Educational Grant
Awarded by the Sir Richard Stapley Trust for 2009-2010.
2009-10: University of London Central Research Fund Grant
Awarded by the CRF for 2009-2010.
2008-09: London School of Economics: Media Research Studentship
Awarded for doctoral studies at the LSE
2004-05: Lady Brabourne College: Award of Excellence
Awarded a Gold Medal for standing first in the first class in the University of Calcutta B.Sc examinations
2005: Lady Brabourne College: S Mukherjee Award for Outstanding Academic Performance
Award for standing first in class for three consecutive years from 2002 through 2005
Academic Awards Offered
2008-2011: University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign: Illinois Distinguished Fellowship (declined)
2008-2013: University of Iowa: Presidential Fellowship (declined)
2008-2012: Scholarships/Funding for Doctoral Studies Offered by: UIUC, University of Iowa, University of Wisconsin at Madison, Bowling Green State University at Ohio, Goldsmiths University of London, London School of Economics and Political Science.
PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS
Livingstone, S., & Das, R. (2009) Public Attitudes, Tastes and Standards: A Review of the Available Empirical Research: A Report for the BBC. Available here or see http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/25117/
Livingstone, S., and Das, R. (2009) The End of Audiences? Paper presented at the Transforming Audiences II Conference, University of Westminster, September 2009. See the conference talk here, or visit http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/25116/
Das, R. (2009): Researching Youthful Literacies: Concepts, boundaries, questions. Report as Silverstone Scholar 2009-2010 for POLIS, the Media and Society think-tank, Summer 2009. Available at POLIS Papers: http://www.polismedia.org/workingpapers.aspx, or click here
Das, R (submitted): Meaning at the Interface: new genres, new modes of interpretative engagement?
Das, R (submitted): Soap Opera and Telenovelas. Entry for the Encyclopaedia of Consumer Culture (2011)
Livingstone, S., and Das, R. (2009) Audiences and/or Users? Prospects for the Cross-Fertilization of Audience Reception and User Studies. Paper to be presented at the session "At the Intersection of Materiality and Meaning: The Dynamics and Consequences of User Agency in the Study of Media, Information and Communication Technologies" at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science in Washington, DC, October 28 to November 1.
Livingstone, S., and Das, R. (2009) Theoretical Echoes of Reception amidst the Uncertainties of Use. Paper presented at the Ends of Television Conference, University of Amsterdam, July 2009. See http://www.mediastudies.nl/pdf/Ends of Television.pdf
Das, R (2009): From Re-telling romantic drama to representing Web 2: Hermeneutic relationships. Paper to be presented at the Mediatised Stories pre-conference at the Transforming Audiences II conference organized by the University of Westminster, September 2009. See http://www.transformingaudiences.org.uk/
Das, R (2009): User-representations of social networks. Poster to be presented at the Transforming Audiences II conference organized by the University of Westminster, September 2009
Das, R (2009): Interpretive Work for an Online Genre: Challenges in Reception Analysis. Paper presented at the Doctoral Symposium organized by the University of Westminster
Das, R. (2009). Tony Wilson, Understanding Media Users: From Theory to Practice. Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Particip@tions: The International Journal of Audience and Reception Studies 6(1). See http://www.participations.org/Volume 6/Issue 1/das.htm
Das, R. (2008). David Gauntlett, Creative Explorations: New Approaches to Identities and Audiences. London: Routledge, 2007. Media, Culture & Society 30 (6)
TEACHING AND RESEARCH ASSISTANCE
2009-2011: Ranjana is Research Assistant on the EU Kids Online project till June 2011. The project is based at the Department of Media and Communications, LSE and is directed by Sonia Livingstone.
2009 onwards: Ranjana is Research Assistant from October 2009, on Sonia Livingstone's section of the FamilyPlatform project. The project is headed by Prof Uwe Uhlendorff of the Tech University of Dortmund.
2009: Ranjana was Research Assistant on the EU Kids Online project, a 21 country thematic network directed by Professor Sonia Livingstone, at the LSE, from January 2009 to June 2009
2009-2010: Ranjana is Graduate Teaching Assistant on the MC Labs course in the Department of Media and Communications at the LSE, offering hour-long seminars twice weekly, and once a week office hours. In collaboration with two colleagues, she is working on the design of a seminar series called MC Labs for Masters students in media and communications.
2009: Ranjana assisted Sonia Livingstone on her consultancy for the BBC on Public Attitudes, Tastes and Standards which resulted in a report. Ranjana worked on this consultancy project by searching the literature, producing critical summaries of key articles and drafting a version of the report.
2007-08: Ranjana provided research assistance on a project for COMPAS, Oxford and Kalayaan, a charity in London
ACADEMIC/RESEARCH SUPPORT ROLES
2009: Organising, as Silverstone scholar 2009, an autumn event titled Digital Natives: A Lost Tribe?- at the LSE. The event is scheduled for 24th November, 2009. Details at POLIS events: http://www.polismedia.org/events/eventdetail/digital-natives-the-inter
2009: Worked on organising an international one-day conference to mark the conclusion of EU Kids Online I. The conference took place at the LSE on 11th June, 2009 and saw the network present its findings and also saw research papers being presented from all over Europe.
2008-09: Ranjana has been a PhD Students� Representative, Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science. Responsible for organizing consultative meetings with students once a term as well as attending Staff-Student Liaison Committee meetings thrice a year.
2006: Ranjana was rapporteur for a UNESCO workshop on Ethnographic and Action Research at New Delhi, India.
Contact Information
http://personal.lse.ac.uk/dasr/
