Shanti Kumar
· Associate ProfessorUniversity of Texas at Austin · Film and Media Studies
Active 2002–2022
About
Shanti Kumar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas-Austin. He is also a faculty affiliate in the Department of Asian Studies, the Center for Asian-American Studies, and the South Asia Institute. Before joining UT in 2006, Prof. Kumar taught at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and the University of North Texas in Denton. He holds a B.Sc. degree in Math, Physics, and Chemistry from Osmania University in Hyderabad, India, obtained in 1987, and a B.A. and an M.A. in Communication and Journalism from Osmania University, earned in 1988 and 1989 respectively. He further earned an M.A. in Media Studies from Texas Christian University in 1994 and a Ph.D. in Telecommunications from Indiana University-Bloomington in 1998. Prof. Kumar's research focuses on globalization, nationalism, and media, particularly in the context of Indian television and South Asian media. He is the author of Gandhi Meets Primetime: Globalization and Nationalism in Indian Television and has co-edited several books on global television and communication. His publications include book chapters and articles in various academic journals. At UT, he teaches undergraduate courses such as 'Introduction to Global Media,' 'Global Hollywood,' 'Indian Cinema,' and 'Media and Popular Culture,' as well as graduate seminars on media theory, global media, and postcolonial cinemas. Prof. Kumar has professional experience in journalism, advertising, and multimedia industries in India, including work as a sub-editor and reporter for Deccan Chronicle and as a multimedia designer and scriptwriter at CMC Limited.
Research topics
- Computer Science
- Geology
Selected publications
Routledge eBooks · 2022
1st authorCorresponding- Computer Science
- Computer Science
This chapter argues that the shift toward individualized entertainment engendered by digital disruption and Technology-Media-Telecommunications convergence is heralding a new phase in Indian Media and Entertainment industries on global, national, regional and local scales that the author describe as post-Bollywoodization. It examines the rise of individualized entertainment in relation to the historical legacy of “family viewing” as a state-sponsored nationalist ideology in India. The chapter outlines the emerging strategy of Consumer acquisition, retention and transaction that traditional and new media organizations alike are embracing to target the complex mobilities of their constantly shifting audiences. It is important to note that the concept of individualized entertainment is hardly representative of the current industry practices or of media consumption patterns in India or in other globalized markets today. The shift away from the ideology of a “national family” of audiences toward the delivery of individualized entertainment through digital platforms is clearly challenging the Bollywoodization of the Indian media and entertainment industries.
Routledge eBooks · 2022
1st authorCorresponding- Geology
This chapter focuses on the streaming video platform Hotstar to situate the growth of streaming video services within a longer history of television’s transformation in India. Deep structural and cultural realignments sparked by cable and satellite television since the early 1990s continue to shape the development of streaming video and the imagination of Indian audiences in the current phase of digitalization.
BioScope South Asian Screen Studies · 2021 · 2 citations
1st authorCorresponding- Computer Science
- Computer Science
4. Film/City: Cinema, Affect, and Immaterial Labor in Urban India
2019-12-31
book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding2019-10-29 · 1 citations
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingThis chapter advocates a move away from the active versus passive audience debate in Television Studies, and outlines a theory of “affective audience” by drawing on non-representational theories of affect. Focusing on the television industry and culture in India, it examines how the globalization of media industries, the proliferation of transnational and domestic channels, hybridization of programming, and the diversification of viewer/consumer experiences and expectations have fundamentally altered the relationship between television and its audiences. It also explores how researchers in television, marketing, and advertising are seeking newer avenues to target audiences in ways that go beyond representational strategies of conscious “looking” toward multisensory experiences of affect in non-representational terms.
4. Film/City: Cinema, Affect, and Immaterial Labor in Urban India
2019-12-31
book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding2018-06-22 · 1 citations
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingMedia, Communication, and Postcolonial Theory
2014-03-28 · 26 citations
other1st authorCorrespondingPostcolonial theory has for most part been ignored in communication studies, even as the turn toward cultural studies has brought issues of postcoloniality to the forefront in media and communication studies. This chapter first focuses on the historical debates over the question of modern nationalism in postcolonial theory. Then it foregrounds the ways in which scholars in the field of international communications have dealt with the issue of nationalism in international affairs, specifically in relation to debates over question of “Third World” nationalism. Finally, the chapter outlines the challenges that both postcolonial theory and international communications face in the contemporary contexts of globalization, paying particular attention to the debates over post-nationalism, transnational capitalism, and the state of the world since the 1990s, after the end of the Cold War.
Oxford University Press eBooks · 2014-02-01
book-chapter1st authorCorrespondingAbstract This chapter critically evaluates changing definitions of ‘public’ in Indian television in relation to discourses of globalization and media privatization. It examines the debate over the nationalist agenda of public broadcasting in India in relation to the demands for alternative models of broadcasting, and the rise of private commercial satellite channels since the 1990s. It also discusses how representations of traditionally private desires of sexuality and intimacy in soap operas, reality TV shows and music television are redefining the public in India. It outlines the ways in which private desire is made visible — and thus made public — through the convergence of the television screen, the cinematic screen, the computer screen, and the mobile screen. It argues that binaries of ‘public’ versus ‘private’ force us into either/or debates even though such category systems are always-already hybrid in postcolonial societies such as India.
Media Industries in India: An Emerging Regional Framework
Media Industries · 2014-02-01 · 8 citations
articleOpen access1st authorCorrespondingThis paper critically evaluates how recent industry reports have explained the rapid growth of regional media in India. In these reports, regionalization is described-often in euphoric terms-as the result of a unique historical conjuncture where the rise of digital technologies of production, distribution, and consumption and the rapid privatization of public infrastructure have created avenues for both big and small media players to expand their reach into regional markets and rural hinterlands. However, a more interesting story is emerging alongside the celebratory narratives of digitization and media conglomeration in India. It is the story of how key players in the industry are turning to regional media to redefine their organizational identities in new ways that are simultaneously national, subnational, and transnational. At the same time, regionalization is also being embraced in the media industries to reimagine audiences in new terms that at once connect national and diasporic audiences with subnational or regional audiences in smaller cities, towns, and villages. In this context, regionalization has emerged as the framework for understanding the globalization of media industries and audiences in India.
Frequent coauthors
- 5 shared
Michael Curtin
- 4 shared
John Banks
- 4 shared
Marwan Labor
University of California System
- 4 shared
John Majewski
University of California, Santa Barbara
- 4 shared
Kōichi Iwabuchi
- 4 shared
Toby Miller
- 4 shared
Jade L. Miller
- 4 shared
U Southern California
University of California System
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