Tuesday 17 October 2017

FUTURE OF JOURNALISM IN INDIA


Currently, India is undergoing an unusual media expansion, with penetrating competition between players in the media industry; the media scenario has become more challenging. Broadcasters and Newspapers are anxious to get the story first, which can also be exclusive in nature. As a result the investigative journalism has also evolved drastically with the existing times.

Journalism in India has extensive employment opportunities for the professionals these days. With media houses opening the newspapers or news channels on a consistent basis, the competition and survival is becoming the talk of the time. The Salaries are shooting up, but the real question arises whether the pool of qualified and skilled journalists are keeping the pace with current media scenario or not?. Without a sufficient number of good reporters and editors, the challenge that the profession faces is striking and does hope and demand for better professional standards.

The dynamics of news delivery has changed. Though print media is read widely and makes money, but Indian news organisations are now focusing on online technology rigorously. Through web the ability to search the content and instantly share information as to deliver the most recent and up-to-date information with others has emerged as the recent trend among media suppliers and media users.

All major TV stations and newspapers in India have tossed their own websites to complement their traditional methods of news delivery. Some are also smearing multimedia technology, mixing text, audio and video in news reporting, and in some cases, the real-time as well. Users are able to acquire information on their cell phones, computers and several other hand-held devices.

In this media setting, aspiring journalists will benefit most from training on a rigorous, hands-on curriculum intended to acquaint them with each and every aspect – be it practical, technical and  theoretical, – of digital reporting.

As never before, India needs more skillful young journalists who have the aptitude to cover each and every aspect of the story in detail. There are many well-intentioned, sincere journalists in the field who lack adequate training, especially in digital reporting and are practicing the old fashioned Journalism technique to acquire a story. This suggests a significantly wider mission for journalism colleges to fill that need.

There are few, among the dozens of journalism colleges in India that have an adequate curriculum. The journalism institutes should be equipped and become innovator in the field of digital journalism education, introducing the multimedia stream in their curriculum. Students may opt to study in the Broadcast, Print, or Multimedia streams and gain both a practical focus as well as teaching in theory.

Institutions like AJMCRC,IIMC,Symbosis,Xaviers, IIJNM ,MICA, aim to bring about thoughtful impact on India’s media scenario in the years to come. These institutes allow its students to tap all media sources for greater placement opportunities. Extensiveness of their curriculum, resources available, background of faculty, at the institution, and job placements and awards received by graduates are noticeable indicators of the excellence of these J-schools.

With enhancement in the quality of Journalism and mass communication study, we can positively hope for superior news delivery and reporting, leading to stronger democracy and better governance and in India.


Ms. Garima Malhotra
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Communication Studies


No comments:

Post a Comment