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Toda Language, Society and Worldview
1 September 2026
This course offers an in-depth journey into the Toda people of the Nilgiri hills — their society, sacred geography, pastoral economy, ecological knowledge, ritual life, material culture, and language. Across twelve units, learners move from the broader landscape of tribal Tamil Nadu and the Nilgiris into Toda social organisation, sacred institutions and ceremonial life, dress and architecture, and finally into the structure, vocabulary, and oral traditions of the Toda language itself.
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Documenting Tribal Cultural Heritage and Language
1 September 2026
This interdisciplinary course prepares students, researchers, and community practitioners for “language work”—an integrated framework that brings together documentation, description, analysis, advocacy, and reclamation within multilingual and socially stratified contexts such as India. Drawing on Wesley Leonard’s conceptualisation of language work, the course re-imagines language documentation as a collaborative partnership grounded in relationships, mutual accountability, and shared authority.
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New Media and Documentation
Start Date: 8 November 2026
Centre for Social Justice and Equity (CSJE) · Madras School of Social Work DIGITAL NEWSWRITING, AI & REPORTING FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE A practical, skill-oriented academic course in contemporary journalism, digital reporting, social-justice communication and responsible AI-assisted newsroom practice. ABOUT THE COURSE This course develops practical, ethical and contemporary journalism skills for reporting news and public issues through a social-justice lens. It takes learners from the fundamentals of news, reporting and news values to story construction, broadcast and digital writing, media law, source verification, data and public records, social media journalism, and responsible use of AI tools. The course is designed around the realities of modern newsrooms, digital media platforms, social-sector communication and independent journalism. Learning is organised through recorded lectures, readings, discussions, assessments, interactive activities and practical newsroom exercises. WHY CSJE IS OFFERING THIS COURSE The course connects academic learning in social justice with practical journalism, media production and public communication. It is intended to strengthen the capacity of learners to report inequality, discrimination, exclusion, rights violations and social change accurately, responsibly and ethically. * Develop skilled communicators who can document public and social-justice issues accurately and ethically. * Connect social-justice education with journalism, media production, reporting and public communication. * Strengthen evidence-based reporting on Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, women, children, workers, persons with disabilities and other marginalised communities without stereotyping or sensationalism. * Help learners understand how digital media, data, public records and AI-assisted tools are reshaping journalism. * Create pathways between social research, field documentation, journalism, development communication and contemporary media employment. SKILLS YOU WILL DEVELOP * Identify newsworthy issues using established news values and a social-justice perspective. * Research, verify and triangulate information before publication. * Conduct interviews, develop sources and report from the field with sensitivity and informed consent. * Write headlines, leads, short news stories, features, explainers and digital copy. * Construct broadcast scripts and short multimedia news packages. * Work with public records, basic datasets, polling information and digital research methods. * Recognise defamation, privacy, copyright, contempt and other legal and ethical risks in reporting. * Use AI tools for research support, transcription, summarisation, translation, idea generation and newsroom workflows while retaining human verification and editorial responsibility. * Produce social-media-ready news content and platform-specific storytelling. * Build a portfolio suitable for entry-level journalism, media, research and communication roles. LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of the course, learners should be able to: * Explain the nature, purpose and changing forms of news. * Apply news values to real-world social-justice stories. * Plan and execute a basic reporting assignment. * Write clear, concise and audience-focused news stories. * Develop broadcast, online and multimedia story formats. * Apply ethical and legal principles to reporting decisions. * Find, evaluate and verify sources and digital evidence. * Use basic data and public records to strengthen reporting. * Use AI tools critically, transparently and responsibly in journalism. * Complete a publishable mini news portfolio. COURSE STRUCTURE Five units · Six lessons per unit · Thirty learning hours Unit 1 News, News Values & the Social-Justice Reporter Understanding news and news values, representation, framing, reporter roles, professional responsibility, public-interest journalism and the process of turning social issues into reportable stories. Unit 2 Reporting, Research, Sources & Verification Background research, interviewing, source development, source diversity, fact-checking, digital evidence, public records, datasets, field reporting, consent, confidentiality and reporter safety. Unit 3 Newswriting, Broadcast & Digital Storytelling Story structure, leads, headlines, captions, concise news copy, single- and multi-element stories, broadcast newswriting, multimedia packages, online journalism, explainers and feature writing. Unit 4 Media Ethics, Law & Responsible Social-Justice Reporting Accuracy, fairness, accountability, inclusive reporting, dignity and representation, defamation, privacy, copyright, contempt, ethical use of images and audio, misinformation, synthetic media and editorial decision-making. Unit 5 Digital Journalism, Data & AI-Assisted Newsrooms Digital newsroom tools, open-web research, social media journalism, audience engagement, data literacy, public opinion polling, AI-assisted research and production, verification, human-in-the-loop practice and portfolio development. HOW YOU WILL LEARN Each lesson combines conceptual learning with guided practice. Depending on the topic, learners will work through a combination of: * Instructor-led video lectures * Short readings, cases and newsroom examples * AI and digital-tool demonstrations * Quizzes, polls, forums and peer discussion * Reporting, interviewing and verification exercises * Writing, editing, data and multimedia tasks * Portfolio-oriented assignments HANDS-ON LEARNING The course is practice-oriented. Learners will undertake newsroom simulations and applied exercises such as: * News-value ranking and newsroom simulations * Social-justice story pitching * Interview preparation and transcription * Fact-checking and verification exercises * Headline and lead rewriting * Broadcast news scripting and recording * Public-record and data extraction * Data and polling interpretation * Ethical editing of sensitive stories * AI-assisted newsroom exercises with human verification * Development of a publishable final news portfolio ASSESSMENT Assessment is integrated into the learning process and focuses on demonstrated journalism skills rather than recall alone. * Quizzes and news-value exercises * Story pitches and reporting plans * Interview, source-mapping and verification exercises * News stories, broadcast scripts and digital adaptations * Ethics and media-law case analysis * Data, research and AI-output auditing tasks * Discussion, peer review and LMS participation * Final multimedia news portfolio ACADEMIC & CAREER ORIENTATION The course is positioned between journalism education and social-justice practice. Its emphasis is not only on understanding journalism concepts but on producing evidence-based, ethical and employable outputs. Learners move progressively from concept to guided practice and then to independent portfolio work. The skills developed through the course may support pathways into roles such as DIGITAL NEWS REPORTER, NEWS WRITER, RESEARCH ASSISTANT, SOCIAL MEDIA OR CONTENT EXECUTIVE, MULTIMEDIA CONTENT PRODUCER, BROADCAST OR VIDEO RESEARCHER, DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION ASSOCIATE, NGO/CSO COMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATE, DOCUMENTATION OFFICER, FACT-CHECKING OR RESEARCH ASSISTANT, COMMUNITY MEDIA PRODUCER and FREELANCE OR INDEPENDENT JOURNALIST. COURSE AT A GLANCE Course Type Certificate / Skill-Oriented Academic Course Total Learning Hours 30 Hours Structure 5 Units × 6 Lessons 30 lessons in total Recommended Lesson Duration 1 Hour Delivery LMS-Based Blended Learning Video lectures, readings, discussions, AI-supported activities and hands-on newsroom exercises Course Instructors Ms. M. Jeyarani Ms. Krithika Srinivasan Dr. Srinivasan Ramani
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Training on THE SC/ST (PREVENTION OF ATROCITIES) ACT, 1989
Start Date: 11 December 2026
This practice-oriented certificate course introduces the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and its Rules, covering statutory provisions, institutional responsibilities, victim and witness protection, and justice delivery. Developed by CSJE, Madras School of Social Work, in proposed collaboration with CLPJE, NALSAR University of Law, the 30-hour, five-unit curriculum equips learners to analyze implementation gaps, document cases responsibly, and engage with justice institutions and affected communities.
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