I hate it, simply hate it. How can government give everyone a license to open a college with pathetic standards of Mass Communication? And the result... these colleges produce 'journalists' of such poor standard that we want to hang our head in shame.
Mass Comm was once considered a prestigious course which only a select few could crack after three-four grilling rounds. In my college itself, they selected only 28 out of the 2,500 who took the test that year. My parents would proudly claim that I am studying Mass Communication. But now it has become the course-next-door.
Everyone is offering this 'in-fashion' course. But mind you, fashion only lasts a few seasons. If you buy all the dresses of a particular fashion, you will have to change your full wardrobe to remain in fashion after sometime. Unfortunately, you cannot change your career after studying a professional course for three years.
You will end up rejected in media jobs or become teachers to produce more pathetic batches of Mass Comm students.
Please realise that India does not need so many journalists. The channels are full. The papers are full. The magazines are full. And they all want the best. You are not the best because you went to the Tom, Dick, Harry College of Mass Communication and did nothing there apart from getting a degree.
You don't know camera, editing, scripting, PCR, production, and you all want to become anchors or reporters. You stand in front of the mirror saying Good Morning with a smile and you imagine yourself on TV. Your parents encourage you without understanding that you are not meant for the business. You can't say a line without fumbling but you want to be Arnab Goswami or Barkha Dutt. You don't have good command over language, you write wrong spellings, you can't frame sentences, you can't pronounce simple words, still you have your own show in mind.
I am not saying that you must do Mass Comm to be a mediaperson. We have doctors and engineers doing quite well in this field too. But they are here for their passion, and not only for profession, and that's what is the key to every mediaperson's success.
Journalism is neither an art nor craft. It's not a job, it's not money. It's life, it's dedication... it's like what my boss says, 'Journalists are a separate breed of people, as if God made human beings and then God made journalists.'
If you don't have that in you, then perhaps God made you for something human. Don't mind, but please don't pollute this passion.
Mass Comm was once considered a prestigious course which only a select few could crack after three-four grilling rounds. In my college itself, they selected only 28 out of the 2,500 who took the test that year. My parents would proudly claim that I am studying Mass Communication. But now it has become the course-next-door.
Everyone is offering this 'in-fashion' course. But mind you, fashion only lasts a few seasons. If you buy all the dresses of a particular fashion, you will have to change your full wardrobe to remain in fashion after sometime. Unfortunately, you cannot change your career after studying a professional course for three years.
You will end up rejected in media jobs or become teachers to produce more pathetic batches of Mass Comm students.
 |
| Their motto: Bye-bye journalism! |
You don't know camera, editing, scripting, PCR, production, and you all want to become anchors or reporters. You stand in front of the mirror saying Good Morning with a smile and you imagine yourself on TV. Your parents encourage you without understanding that you are not meant for the business. You can't say a line without fumbling but you want to be Arnab Goswami or Barkha Dutt. You don't have good command over language, you write wrong spellings, you can't frame sentences, you can't pronounce simple words, still you have your own show in mind.
I am not saying that you must do Mass Comm to be a mediaperson. We have doctors and engineers doing quite well in this field too. But they are here for their passion, and not only for profession, and that's what is the key to every mediaperson's success.
Journalism is neither an art nor craft. It's not a job, it's not money. It's life, it's dedication... it's like what my boss says, 'Journalists are a separate breed of people, as if God made human beings and then God made journalists.'
If you don't have that in you, then perhaps God made you for something human. Don't mind, but please don't pollute this passion.
I think it's course next door and not course-next-door.
ReplyDeleteSome of your paragraphs contradict each other... 'you can't change your profession....' and then 'I am not saying....' you are negating yourself
'If you buy all the dresses of a particular fashion, you will have to change your full wardrobe to remain in fashion after sometime. '
Apropos this sentence, I feel the dresses of a single wardrobe going out fully is a sign of many buyers, not contrariwise'
It is not just govt colleges that are manufacturing defective pieces, but you know how we make ends meet teaching joiners how to begin sentence with a capital letter etc....
Can't agree more on your boss said... You know how he put me to the grind, re DYSS scripts, but still can't think myself as anything else but a passionate journalist. It is 100 percent passion,that keeps us going albeit working 10 to 12 to 14 hours, with scant resources!
I completely agree with the two of you,but I also feel that it's not just due to colleges like these,but to viewers who have no knowledge of journalism and become pseudo-journalists,that anyone and everyone can have a say on what journalism essentially is.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's ridiculous how people think that working in the field of broadcast media is an absolute blast and everyday is a walk in the park. What's more ridiculous is the fact that there are people who'd want the glamour that supposedly comes with being an anchor or a reporter, the importance of possessing an ID card that says,'Journalist' or 'Press', but put them in the middle of prime time chaos or let them face the heat,and they want out.