Mahindra University

DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF DIGITAL MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION
mahindrauniversity.edu.in

Dr Shashidhar Nanjundaiah is regarded as one of the pioneering leaders in the private and corporate-backed higher education space in India in revamping the pedagogical approaches to media and communication.

He returned from the US in 2023 on an invitation to be the Founding Dean and Professor at Mahindra University’s School of Digital Media and Communication, which conducts courses that speak to the future—such as computational media and AI humanities, gamification and immersive media. This is one of four media schools he has built or transformed. He has led Symbiosis Institute of Mass Communication, and started Indira School of Communication, as well as India Today Media Institute.

Dr. Nanjundaiah has also served in journalistic leadership positions for nearly a decade. He is an award-winning business editor in Mumbai and a managing editor of The Indian Express North American edition in New York. His media practice spans across media, from print to television and digital, from news to non-fiction programming formats. He has spoken on global platforms and written numerous commentaries in national dailies on technology policy, political communication, media literacy and ecology, and strategic communication.

Dr Nanjundaiah is the author of a new book, titled News Aesthetics and Myth: The Making of Media Illiteracy in India. This work, published by Routledge, critically explores the aesthetics of news and its relationship with narrative construction of what he terms “media Illiteracy”. Reviewers and scholars have termed this a “vital” and “ground-breaking” book and have placed it alongside a body of literature by such renowned authors as Paulo Freire and Susan Sontag, claiming that the book is “unexpected but canny” as it “skillfully theorizes” illiteracy in contemporary media ecosystem.

Dr. Nanjundaiah has received international prizes, awards, and honours both for his academic and media practices. Recently, he was honoured by the Public Relations Society of India (PRSI), the largest and oldest association of public relations in India and an associate of the International Public Relations Association. PRSI honoured Dr Nanjundaiah with its highest national honour, the PRSI Leadership Award, given in recognition of outstanding efforts in education and practice. He was recently invited on the Expert Advisory Committee of AI & Data in Reporting and Accountability, an initiative of DataLeads that seeks to build an AI-ready media and information ecosystem in India.

Dr. Nanjundaiah holds a PhD (4.0/4.0) in Mass Communication and Media Arts from Southern Illinois University, USA; an MS (4.0/4.0) in Corporate and Professional Communication from Radford University, USA; and an MA in English (4th rank) and BSc in Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics from the University of Mysore.