The outdated syllabus taught in media institutes deserves to go

The journalism syllabus taught in most educational institutes in India is outdated. It’s high time that we address the elephant in the room. While we are busy talking about skill development and Outcome-Based Education (OBE) with euphemistic adjectives, we tend to ignore the basis of all teaching-learning process – syllabus and pedagogy. And does the syllabus taught in journalism institutes across India really provide professional education? Does the pedagogy provide all skills that a student needs to make him or her significant in today’s cutthroat competitive media market? The answer is a big NO.

Just take, for instance, the course Digital Media taught to mass communication students is one of the most important keeping in sight the large-scale investment of corporates in marketing their products digitally. Now, are we teaching them how to handle real-world clients? Make-up artists are dependent on digital and social media for their functioning and they are doing it through Facebook and Instagram. Interestingly, Instagram has floated digital courses to guide these people on how to market themselves in a skilled manner on their platforms. While students abroad are making huge money on digital media clients, syllabuses in India is still stuck with ‘what is internet’ and ‘what is intranet’. The problem is we aren’t telling our students that if you are dealing with the hotel or tourism industry, how will you market their products and deliverables with technical dexterity. The eye of the student opens wide when he or she lands into an internship or job in the final year of study and is totally shocked to see a new world of the industry altogether. While this is the case with leading institutes in India situated in metro cities, the institutes that are in tier-II cities are still in oblivion about the real industry connect. For them, industry connect is only about appointing a person with an MBA to look after industry connect of media students. For them, industry connect is synonymous with guest lectures. However, this profile can be best be handled by a media professional with teaching experience.

Now I am not even talking about students going straight out of colleges and managing marketing campaigns but at least knowing the basics of digital marketing makes them part of the team. Hordes of media institutes have mushroomed in tier II cities catering to students whose parents are wary of sending their wards to metro cities. While these institutes in tier II and metro cities have garnered a good magnitude of admission this year keeping the menace of COVID-19 in perspective, this has only resulted in providing employment to media graduates who were fed up of the rat race of industry and wanted to settle down with a 9 to 5 job teaching students. Sadly, it can be said in some cases they hardly have any knowledge about academics. A couple of weeks ago, I saw one of my students who graduated in 2016 with bachelor's degree in journalism joined a media institute as “professor”. The person naming himself as a professor makes it amply clear that UGC guidelines of having qualified in UGC-NET, having a Ph.D., having Ph.D. scholars passing under one’s guidance, being deft in research and others guidelines to become a professor is still unknown to the newly appointed ‘professor’.

And it is not one course’s syllabus that is out of touch with reality, there are others as well. Print Journalism is still about the history of journalism in India and its concepts. The print media in India has come way ahead of 5Ws and 1 H and ‘objectivity’. No report was written can be objective totally otherwise it will be not a news report but a Wikipedia post. Every report ought to take the side of truth as per prima facie or in-depth factual details collected by the journalist. The crux of the matter in case of objectivity is the journalist should side with facts and not opinionated fake stories. We need to learn the basics but also at the same time, need to understand the grass root situation and act accordingly. “The Lucknow Boy” written by Late Vinod Mehta, who is credited with starting a number of newspaper dailies and magazines, provides a lot of real-life journalistic challenges that a cub reporter should know before facing an internship or job. In all, knowing what is news is much more important than knowing the news values. Remember if your news clicks with the readers and viewers, you will have an impact and maybe success. And your news will click only when you are made accustomed to the skills to know which story is the news and will click with a large audience and which is not. Interestingly, no PowerPoint presentation or excel sheet can tell you that but case studies, examples and an experienced teacher assisted with a practical instruction plan.

While Indian TV news media has become agenda driven ages ago, top media institutes in India still are teaching generic topics like - “Indian TV Industry: trends, features and issues”. What is the job of a TV Associate Producer today? To develop concept and content for events – both national and international. For instance, to bring in events concepts and select target sponsors for the same. For this the person should be deft in skilled theme composition, keep an eye upon all major ideations composed, let his or her eyes through at least four newspapers daily to catch with what other concepts are being put forwards and executed. In other words, to bring across branded event concepts and strategy that sells in crores of rupees to sponsors. And if he or she is managing a prime-time show as an associate producer then, most importantly to get panellists who have good communication skills and are able to create an impact on the audience. Now do teachers in media institutes tell you that this is the job of a TV Associate Producer today while teaching “TV news production desk”? The answer to the question I leave it to media students in India. Being in the academic industry for a decade, I can say this with all my conviction that a successful career of a student can be carved only when there is a minimum gap between what the student is taught in class and the work that the student will do during the job. And a teacher should strive for that always.

There are examples galore to cite the indispensability of innovation in syllabus composition which is the need of the hour. This clearly shows that there is a big void in media education in India and it can be fulfilled only when independent media educators compose syllabus and teach students. When education can really become skill-oriented and when pedagogy is innovative and lively as media is. You deny or agree, but you cannot ignore that we are sitting on a minefield of media brilliance in India today. We are an English-speaking country with technical brilliance which we have shown in the field of technology and medicine. With a number of media houses in India have applied for global TV news broadcasting rights, soon we will be having global TV channels airing out of Indian cities increasing employment opportunities for media students. However, providing skill-oriented education by independent educators to students for cashing on these employment opportunities will be the game-changer. And I am sure that in the coming ten years an academic institution will come up in India established/run/governed by independent educators to provide skill-driven education to media students in a real sense.

The author is a Senior Academician and Political Analyst

(Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own and do not reflect those of DNA.)