Shobha S V

Biography

I am a fourth-year PhD student at the Media School. I am interested in the fast-changing media landscape mediated by technology with a particular focus on journalism, its labor, gender, consumption of media, and its impact on democracy.

Before starting my PhD, I worked in different capacities in the world of media in India. I have had a combined cross-sectoral experience of fifteen years in journalism, research, and digital media for non-profits. As a journalist, I have worked with prominent Indian news publications including the Times group, DNA and Mid-day. I have reported extensively on gender and have also been the recipient of awards and fellowships for the same. Some of my stories about gender were published in the following book: Across the crossfire Women and Conflict in India published by Women Unlimited.  My engagement with gender also had me leading a team at a women’s rights organization that worked on digital campaigns aimed at mitigating violence against women using pop culture, media, and technology. I have also worked with the ICFJ‘s Knight Journalism Fellowship as their program manager in India. My stint at Co Media Lab, a journalism resource non-profit allowed me to interact with working journalists through various digital skill-building workshops, develop educational materials, and teach reporting, fact-checking, and journalistic misinformation at different universities in Bengaluru. As an advocate of open access, I am an active Wikipedia volunteer and have worked on varied projects contributing towards bridging the gender gap on the platform.

I have a Masters’s degree in Sociology from Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University, India.

Publications

Khan, Aasim. SV, Shobha. Chamuah, Angelina. “From Objectivity to Openness: A study of digital journalism in Elections 2019.” In Economic Political Weekly.

Book chapter

Gajjala, R., Chattopadhyay, S., Nori, S., SV, Shobha. & Purayil Sneha, P. (2019). Dialogue Interlude: ‘Ghar and Bahir’ In Gajjala, R. Digital Diasporas: Labor, Affect in Gendered Indian Digital Publics (pp. 65-80). UK: Rowman and Littlefield International.

Scholarly Annotations

In Shah, N., Purayil Sneha, P., & Chattapadhyay, S. (2015). Digital activism in Asia reader. Lüneburg: Meson Press.

• Annotation for “Wikipedia, Bhanwari Devi and the Need for an Alert Feminist Public,” pp. 177-178.
• Annotation for “Old and New Media: Converging During the Pakistan Emergency (March 2007 – February 2008), pp. 233-234.

Pilot study

Kovacs, Anja, Padte, Richa K, and S.V., Shobha. (2013). “‘Don’t Let It Stand!’: An Exploratory Study of Women & Verbal Online Abuse in India.” New Delhi: Internet Democracy Project. https://internetdemocracy.in/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Internet-Democracy-Project-Women-and-Online-Abuse.pdf.