Dr. Aasim Khan is Assistant Professor at the Department of Social Sciences and Humanities, IIIT-Delhi. Aasim is a specialist in global and area studies, with a focus on South Asia. His research interests combine his training in communication, political theory and public policy, and he is particularly interested in studying the expansion of the Internet in the global South. He was educated in Delhi (St Stephen’s College and MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia) and London (SOAS and King's College London) and completed his PhD in Politics and Public Policy, from King's College London, in 2018. Most recently, Aasim was awarded the Fulbright-Nehru postdoctoral fellowship and he will be spending a year as a Visiting Scholar in Political Science at the Watson Institute, Brown University (beginning Fall 2022).
Piyush Kumar is a Junior Research Fellow in the Social Sciences and Humanities department at IIIT, Delhi. His current research interests include Political Communication, Politics of media policy, Digital news ecosystem and Hindi news media. Piyush holds an undergraduate degree in journalism and has a postgraduate degree in Media Governance from Jamia Millia Islamia along with a post-graduate diploma in media law from Nalsar. He has previously been associated with RGICS and IIMC in different capacities.
Ashutosh Kumar is a researcher, interested in socio-cultural aspects of digitization. He has involved himself in ethnographic study of digital communities and how they function in a Sierpinski Gasket of inflow of labour, leisure, and capital. He has completed MA in Media and Cultural Studies from Tata Institute of Social Science, Mumbai. Having experience in research and content management in Web 3.0 companies, has had a closer look at the operative side of digital transformative spaces of AI, and Blockchain technologies. At New Initiative, he is currently studying the presence and role of digital influencers in impacting the social, economic aspects of the city of Lucknow.
Sabah Maharaj is a researcher, interested in questions of religion, politics, and media. She has completed her MA in Sociology from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. At the News Intiative, she is currently studying the presence and role of digital creators in the regional politics and economics of Hyderabad. The project aims to add new insights on the impact of digital creators at a national level. She has written extensively in the public domain on student movements and gender. In her spare time, she likes to catch up on the news and the movies.
Prateek Talukdar is a multimedia journalist with six years of experience with various media organisations, including The Times Of India, NewsBytes, The Hans India, and Workers Unity.
He has written on tribal rights, labour rights, politics, and crime in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi NCR, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh. He is interested in questions of caste, religion, gender, language, history, and climate. His work at NewsLab focuses on the evolving landscape of journalism on YouTube and the adaptations made by journalists and content creators with respect to YouTube's algorithm. Prateek has an undergraduate degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya and a postgraduate degree in Communication from the University of Hyderabad.
Turab Zaidi is a third-year B.Tech Computer Science student at Jamia Millia Islamia, with a strong foundation in machine learning and network graph analysis. He is passionate about exploring the intersections of technology and social sciences, especially in understanding news media consumption patterns. Currently, his work focuses on analysing YouTube news consumers using network analysis techniques. By leveraging NLP, Turab aims to gain deeper insights into how news consumption behaviours evolve on digital platforms.
Midhat Fatimah is a journalist with experience in multimedia reporting. An avid consumer and producer of digital news, she takes a keen interest in exploring the socio-political impacts of misinformation and fake news. She is interested in understanding the scope of media literacy in an evolving media landscape. In the past, she has been associated with some of the mainstream news organisations in India like The Indian Express, Outlook, The Wire and India Today. As a journalist, she has worked on issues across beats such as politics, health, agriculture, education and culture. Her work at the NewsLab focussed on studying how journalistic practices and newsrooms are evolving amid the big data revolution, digitalisation and increasing relevance of social media. Midhat holds an undergraduate degree in Political Science and a post-graduate degree in Journalism from Jamia Millia Islamia.
Kabir Dureja is an aspiring software engineer and an undergraduate student of Computer Science and Social Sciences at IIIT Delhi. Devising optimal methods for challenging tasks and learning new technologies and tools is something that he finds exciting. His research interest lies at the intersection of computer science and social sciences. His work at the NewLab is focused on generating network graphs of Indian journalists using their Twitter accounts and facilitating a Social Network Analysis by understanding the network patterns. The project defines and examines journalists based on three categories: regional journalists, national celebrity journalists, and national non-celebrity journalists. The project aims to study the sociology of journalists and find how journalists connect to and learn from each other.
Prerak is an undergraduate at IIIT Delhi, studying both computer science and the social sciences. He is interested in the intersection of both fields and the influence of digital technologies on society and its effects on politics. He is currently working on his B.tech project under Dr. Asim Khan and Dr. Payel C Mukherjee which unravels the connection between google searches and election outcomes in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The project also covers constituency level google search data and its correlation with political rallies. In his free time, he cannot be seen and is probably sleeping.
Kheya is a Btech student studying Computer Science and Social science at IIIT, Delhi. Having an inclination towards research, Kheya is keenly interested in understanding the intricate relationships between technology and society and how these interactions can shape the political landscape. She is currently working on a project focusing on the relationship between the on-ground election outcomes and Google search data in the state of Uttar Pradesh. This project is aimed at understanding how online searches can impact real-world outcomes, particularly in the context of democratic elections.
Ishani is an undergraduate student at IIITD, pursuing a degree in Computer Science and Mathematics. With a curious and adventurous spirit, she is eager to explore various domains beyond her current field of study. Her current project is a perfect opportunity to integrate her technical skills with social and political aspects, allowing her to expand her knowledge and develop new perspectives. Through this project, she aims to uncover insights into how Google search trends may be related to election results and to provide a better understanding of the dynamics of the democratic process in Uttar Pradesh. As a passionate learner, she is always on the lookout for opportunities to broaden her horizons and gain new insights.
Mohammad Belal is a researcher with experience in the social implications of AI. He is currently pursuing PhD at Hamad bin Khalifa university Qatar. He is interested in socio-technical aspects of data and its solutions through Artificial Intelligence. His work involves extraction, understanding, and visualization of data. He has previously done research in "Rapid Face Mask Detection and Person Identification Model based on Deep Neural Networks", “Indian Healthcare Infrastructure Analysis during COVID-19 using Twitter Sentiments” and “Machine Learning-based prediction and Analysis of Metal Toxicity of Ramganga River (India) between Pre and Post-Lockdown Period”.
He was also part of the FIFA 2022 research group.
Hi, I'm Karishma Sinha, a final year Computer Science and Social Sciences undergraduate at IIIT Delhi. I've been working in the NewsLab on my B.Tech project under Dr. Aasim Khan on 'Understanding the Digital Dynamics of Minority Rights Movements: Casestudy #antiCAA in India and #BlackLivesMatter in the USA'. We have presented our research paper at international conferences such as SACA-AEJMC (Tier-1) and Centre de Sciences Humaines Conference, 2021. Currently, I'm undertaking research work under the mentorship of Dr. Aasim Khan and Dr. Anuj Grover on an early-stage startup, 'Stance-o-meter' which is a data-driven solution for digital news media and journalism. I have been awarded the Chanakya UG Fellowship of Rs. 2 lac to carry out this research under the domain of ‘Cognitive Computing and Social Sensing’ sponsored by IHUB Anubhuti-IIITD Foundation (IHUB).
I'm a final year Computer Science and Social Sciences B.Tech student at IIIT Delhi. I worked on my B.Tech project under Dr. Aasim Khan and Dr. Payel C Mukherjee entitled 'Understanding the Digital Dynamics of Minority Rights Movements: Case study #antiCAA in India and #BlackLivesMatter in the USA'. We have since presented our research at international conferences such as SACA-AEJMC (Tier-1) and the Centre de Sciences Humaines Conference, 2021. My current research interests include gender, caste, technology, and politics. Apart from my research interests, I enjoy reading and listening to music.
Hi, I am Soumyadeep Paul, a final year Computer Science and Engineering undergraduate at IIIT Delhi. I have been working under Dr. Anuj Grover on developing a news aggregator platform for the general public to show them the different polarities of media channels for helping them make an aware stance. Currently, I have pivoted and am working under the mentorship of Dr. Anuj Grover and Dr. Asim Khan on an early-stage startup, 'Stance-o-meter' where we want to provide advanced data-driven digital solutions for news media and journalism. I have been awarded the Chanakya UG Fellowship of Rs. 2 lac to carry out this research under the domain of ‘Cognitive Computing and Social Sensing’ sponsored by IHUB Anubhuti-IIITD Foundation (IHUB).
During his engineering at Manipal University, Suneet realised that his interests were multi-pronged. He worked in the space of sustainable development, trying to apply behaviour change advocacy to achieve healthy sanitation practices. He also made documentaries to help social-enterprises tell impactful stories. As a Young India Fellow at Ashoka University, his interests began taking more concrete shapes into the interdisciplinary folds of Media and Communication Studies. At IIIT-Delhi, Suneet worked with Professor Khan to help setup the initial phase of the News Lab by perusing the digital archives of Indian Newspapers and extracting a database of keywords around environmental news coverage. Currently, Suneet is considering going for Graduate Studies in the field of Digital Communication and New Media, inspired by his learnings and interactions at IIIT-Delhi.
She is a programmer, development practitioner and an academic researcher. She did her undergraduate training as an information science engineer and has experience working for some of the Fortune 500 companies. Her interests in the field of education and development had her move to Yadgir in Karnataka to work for the public education system. She later got her master's in development studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London for which she was awarded the Commonwealth and Ellenor Mary Anwyl scholarships. She has research experience in the domains of small cities, informal labour, peripheral urbanization, lakes, urban activism and new media and her research interests are in the intersection of urban, aesthetics, journalism and new media. She also conducts workshops for undergraduate students about 'space and the city' and her writings have been published in websites such as Daily O and Counter Currents. On the News Lab project, Priyanka researches on the ways new media is changing modes of journalism practices in the regional and English legacy media press in South India.
She is an independent researcher with a combined cross-sectoral experience of fifteen years in journalism, research and digital media for nonprofits. Her research interests lie in the intersection of gender, media, technology and society. She is currently associated with Co Media Lab, an organisation invested in the practice of journalism, research, media literacy and works on engaging varied communities in the city using different kinds of media. In the past, she has been associated with organisations viz. International Center For Journalists, Daily News and Analysis, Bangalore Mirror and other media organisations in different capacities. She is interested in exploring questions related to news, gender, labour and digital media technologies in contemporary India. At the Bad News Initiative, she collaborated with Dr Aasim Khan to study the changing journalistic practices and its impact of online social networks on India's crucial democratic ecosystem. She has also worked on research related to abuse, digital platforms and gender in India. She has a Masters degree in Sociology from Delhi School of Economics and an undergraduate degree in journalism from Mumbai University.
She was a Master's student of Linguistics at Jawaharlal Nehru University. She is interested in studying the intersections of political communication and disinformation narratives - more specifically, the constitution of politically-oriented "fake news" in India across linguistic boundaries. Her work with News Lab focussed on the assessment of environmental news coverage in the course of the General Elections of 2019 using Critical Discourse Analysis and Framing Analysis. The project examined multiple news dailies across the Hindi and English presses. She is also studying Ahirani, an undocumented language, for its its vitality, its interactions with its more dominant neighbor Marathi, and the functions it serves within the community of practice. She has an honours degree in Journalism from Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi; as well as experience in advertising as a writer.