Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai

XIC Media Research Lab

How should humans communicate, create, collaborate, and build trust in a world shaped by AI and emerging technologies?

An applied research lab studying how emerging technologies are reshaping the media landscape, the communication professions, and the relationship between organizations and their audiences.

Three overlapping perspectives: media landscape and industry, communication professions, and consumers and organizations, meeting at the lab's guiding question Media landscape and industry Communication professions Consumers and organizations the guiding question

Communication is changing faster than the evidence about it

Artificial intelligence and emerging technologies are transforming communication at every level: the media landscape through which information flows, the professions XIC trains students for, the organizations that communicate with the public, and the audiences who consume, trust, share and act on media.

In India, these shifts are happening faster than the evidence about them is being produced. Decisions about AI adoption, editorial policy, campaign strategy and audience trust are being made largely on instinct.

One guiding question, three vantage points

No single vantage point can answer how communication is changing, so the lab studies it from three interconnected perspectives. The research is applied and industry-facing.

The media landscape and industry
How the structures of media are changing: how content is discovered, distributed, monetized and trusted as AI-generated material, algorithmic feeds and new multi-modal interfaces reshape the ecosystem.
The communication professions
How the daily work of advertising, PR, corporate communication, journalism and content creation is being redefined: which tasks change, which skills matter, and where human judgment remains essential.
Consumers and organizations
How audiences perceive, trust and respond to technology-mediated communication, and how brands, corporates, newsrooms and institutions can communicate credibly in this environment.

What the lab studies

  • Adoption of generative AI across advertising, PR, corporate communication and news production in India
  • The shift in discovery from search engines and social feeds to AI assistants and conversational interfaces
  • Audience perception, trust and sharing around AI-generated and AI-assisted content, including the effects of disclosure and labelling
  • The creator economy: influencer credibility, formats, monetization and the rise of AI-generated creators
  • Information integrity: deepfakes, synthetic media detection, misinformation patterns and fact-checking workflows
  • Organizational change: how communication teams, agencies and newsrooms are restructuring workflows, roles and skills

What students take away

Research literacy as a professional skill

Designing studies, weighing evidence, and separating hype from reality about emerging technology.

Critical experience with new tools

Working with generative AI, analytics platforms and new media formats as investigators, not passive users.

Transferable analytical skills

Survey design, experiments, interviewing, content analysis and data storytelling, for planning, research, analytics and strategy roles.

People

Ms Akhila Joshi

Research Lead, XIC Media Research Lab
Faculty, XIC

Mr Vinod Srivastava

Advisor, XIC Media Research Lab
Associate Dean – Academic

Ms Sandra D’Souza Rana

Advisor, XIC Media Research Lab
Dean, Finance & Administration

Contact the lab

xicresearchlab@xaviercomm.org