inam ul rehman
Kashmir Valley’s largest circulating English newspaper the Greater Kashmir’s 4-month journalism course has raked a storm among the professionals and educational institutions. Taking a dig at 2 years regular degree courses, GK writes: “The new 4-month multimedia journalism course is not about abstract theory or outdated textbooks. It’s about real skills — shooting videos, editing content, writing compelling news stories, doing interviews, copyediting, anchoring, scripting, and learning how to work across digital platforms.”
It is the first of its kind initiative by any publishing house in Jammu and Kashmir, and one has to say it is a good and much needed one.
The journalism courses taught in colleges and universities of J&K are archaic, and mostly taught by people who have no or little experience of the field. I can count faculty members who have first-hand experience of the fieldwork. Starting from MERC, University of Kashmir, Dr Rashid Maqbool, Afsana Rashid, at IUST there is none, same is the case at Central University-Kashmir. Dr Suhail Ahmad at women’s college MA Road, Dr Danish Zargar at Barmulla Degree College, and Parvaiz Majeed Lone at Amar Singh College, Srinagar, are among the few who have worked in media and handled its operations. Rest all are academics who are reluctant to go for new and innovative things.
It is no surprise to know in all these institutions there is no daily or weekly newspaper, no websites of their own, no FM radio, no television productions. And surprisingly no YouTube channels to broadcast their own students’ programme. Even all these institutions don’t combine to have a film festival of students to showcase their work! These institutions have plenty of resources, yet the outcome is zilch.
How do these faculty members get salaries when they cannot think to enhance their student’s potential?
The GK initiative may not disturb the stagnant waters of these institutions for the time being.
As journalists from GK school of communication will start competing with journalists of government institutions, there will be huge question marks on the archaic teaching ability of faculty members. The lack of training methods will expose not only students of these institutions but teachers as well, raising questions about the relevance and effectiveness of journalism courses offered and taught in colleges and universities.
Although, it will certainly set a high bar for educational institutions, challenging them to rethink how journalism should be taught in the modern era, but training students in all these aspects in 4 months seems a tad faster. The course should be of 6 months so as to give these students a chance for higher education and a shot at government jobs as well. The other point that the GK needs to work on is on its multimedia production and presentation. Its hosts are not camera friendly. They look stiff. Podcasts must be segmented for users as well.
In fact, GK has the chance to improve and expand by including other short-term courses on audio-video editing, graphic and motion designs, and camera, et al.
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