In line with its Curriculum Integration Program for Fall 2011, the Media Studies and Journalism (MSJ) Department will hold a forum entitled "Complexity of the Bangladeshi Mind" on October 20, 10:00 am to 12:00 pm, at the ULAB Seminar Room, Campus B.  ULAB Senior Lecturer Razibul Hossain will explain the Cognitive Complexity Theory while Assistant Professor Md. Asiuzzaman will situate the theory in the context of Bangladesh (peeping to the workings of the Bangladeshi mind).  Associate Professor Anis Pervez will facilitate the event.

The theme for Fall Semester 2011 is "Complexity of the Bangladeshi Mind."  The theme highlights the concept of Cognitive Complexity, introduced by Brant Burleson and Scott Caplan of Purdue University. According to them, "cognitive complexity has been treated as an aspect of social cognition, with research focusing on individual differences in the complexity of cognitive structures applicable to the self and, especially, other persons. Considerable research has found that individual differences in cognitive complexity underlie a diverse array of communication-related abilities, including skill in social perception, message production, message reception, and social interaction.” For them, cognitive complexity is better understood as an information processing variable.  Individuals with developed (differentiated, articulated and integrated) systems of personal constructs have greater information processing capacity in a particular domain, and thus possess greater expertise in that domain.  Hence, studies comparing cognitively complex with less complex individuals are analogous to studies of expert-novice differences."

As applied to the curriculum integration programme, the various courses will study the Bangladeshi mind in terms of its cognitive structures vis-à-vis the different domain or fields.  For example, how do we analyze the way Bangladeshi consumers think?  How do Bangladeshi consumers receive messages in TV advertisements or BTL promotion activities?  Do they get tantalize by the word “sale” or “discount?”  How do advertisers produce messages given their knowledge of consumers’ cognitive structures?  What are the cognitive constructs of advertisers in the first place?  A person’s cognitive complexities in relation to communication processes have been measured using the Role Category Questionnaire, where participants provide free-response descriptions of several persons know to them.  These descriptions are then coded for the number of interpersonal constructs they reflect.  The resulting number of constructs is viewed as an index of interpersonal cognitive complexity.

There are 14 courses under the Curriculum Integration Program – “Advanced Multimedia Production” (Imtiaz Ahmed Chowdhury), “Multimedia Production” (Imtiaz Ahmed Chowdhury), “Introduction to Photography” (Razibul Hossain), “Video Communication 2” (Razibul Hossain), “Photojournalism” (Razibul Hossain), “Video Communication 1” (Shazzad Hossain), “Visual Communication” (Shams Bin Quader), “Development Communication” (Monami Haque), “ “Reading Media Text” (Bikash Chandra Bhowmick), “Research Methodology” (Afroza Akter), “English for Media” (Md. Asiuzzaman), “News Gathering and Reporting” (Shams Bin Quader), “Global Communication” (Bikash Bhowmick) and “Consumer Culture” (Monami Haque). The program will culminate with a campaign presentations on December 18, research presentations on December 19, visual exhibit on December 20 (at the Russian Cultural Center), and film exhibit on December 22 at the Central Public Library.