Wanted, quality media education
The standards of the products of communication institutes and university departments do not match the needs of the industry.
NILAMBAR RATH suggests an active and purposeful interaction between media professionals and academics.
In the age of internet and global communication, the role of media has become highly challenging and competitive. Thus a candidate planning to pursue a career in media and communication needs to learn the art of the subject and acquire adequate skills that will be considered as advantage at the time of practising the profession. The contemporary university education in the discipline is not adequate and that is why many potential candidates are faring miserably at job interviews or while pursuing a career in the media.
Recently, a newspaper highlighted the alarming situation in producing high-performance future managers: According to a survey conducted by a private research firm, only 21 % of the MBA degree holders are eligible for different job positions. It means, 79% of them do not qualify or match the expectations of the industry. The agency had covered 2,264 candidates in the research. It was shocking that those young men and women were not from any ordinary business schools; they were from the top 25 B-schools of the country.
There is no reason to feel bad just about the MBAs. If we look at the contemporary mass communication and journalism education and training in India, we have very little to celebrate; needless to say the quality of output is simply poor.
Where have they failed?
Having seen candidates in job interviews in various media organisations in the past 15 years my opinion is that many of them are not ready for any media job. It’s because either they lack in many or all the areas of qualification such as nose for news, general understanding or awareness on current affairs, writing skills, analytical ability, imagination and creativity, communication skills, leadership skills and a sense of time management, etc.
If a prospective journalist can’t write 10 lines correctly or a candidate applying for a television producer’s role can’t visualize 10 shots what is he or she going to deliver to the reader/viewer? Same is the experience of new media publications and production houses. They are struggling to get good quality professionals. Whether it is the print media or the electronic or the new generation web media, the situation is the same.
Language skills
Lack of writing skills both in English as well as in one’s mother tongue is a major lacuna. Some of the mistakes committed are most basic which should have been taken care of at a very early stage of studentship. Who should be blamed for this: the candidates for not focusing on this vital area, their parents because they did not realise the problem, the school and college teachers who did not attend to the issue, or the departments at the universities where the candidates had spent two years? No one will be ready to take the blame. There is also no meaning is pointing fingers at them at this stage. But one thing is certain: the young aspirant is losing the race.
A couple of years ago a professor and the head of the department of mass communication at a university was asked why they hadn’t adopted a model in which the students could be adequately taught the proper use of language. He replied: “Do you expect me to teach the basics of language at the post-graduation level?” He might be right. But the answer does not serve any purpose.
Here the context is clear: without adequate knowledge and skills in language no media professional cam survive in the industry.
Change in the mindset
The students of mass communication need to change their mindset while planning for a job in the media market.
You just have to ask a simple question: “Why do you want to be in the media?” I am sure, most people will reply that they want to join a TV channel and be an anchor or a reporter. I have tested this in many institutions in the past decade. It seems as if there is no good job in the media other than a TV anchor and a reporter. This is probably a great irony for the media job market. When a prospective employer is looking for good personnel and leaders to manage different roles such as reporter, copy writer, copy editor, creative visualiser, director, anchor, field producer, photographer, video-journalist, visual editor and so on, we are producing hundreds of graduates who never look beyond the positions of reporter and anchor. And among them, most would want to pursue a career only in television.
A candidate interested in journalism and mass communication can learn from various sources about the characteristics and skills he/she should have in him and the opportunities available in the media world.
Alternative models
In every sector toady, there are alternative models to the old-fashioned and conventional university education pattern. Media education is no exception. Owing to the fast changing needs of the media and entertainment industry, education and training programmes in these areas have taken a dynamic shape. What the western countries introduced many years ago India is picking up now.
Instead of stiff classroom lecture patterns, the new generation media schools are adopting complete hands-on training models. The concept of media finishing school is also picking up in the country and more and more students and parents are opting for the institutions which run industry-oriented programmes and training.
Understanding the need of the hour, some leading media houses in our country have also launched their own media schools or dedicated training wings. A similar path is followed by many television houses which use their media training schools as feeders for their channels and also serve the purpose of quality media training in the country.
Synergy
There is an urgent need to bring the industry and the academics closer. In the west, this synergy is quite visible and has been proved useful. But in India, the university and media industry hardly collaborate in the areas of education, training and research. In one way, the industry, though searching for quality personnel, hardly shows any interest in academics. Similarly, the people at the universities do not bother about what is happening in the media.
In advanced countries, where media education and training have gone a long way, managements encourage their senior professionals to visit the universities and contribute to the system as and when possible. On the other hand, university professors also take interest in working at newsrooms for some time to have first-hand impressions of the trends and developments taking place in the industry. This knowledge-sharing and exchange programmes help both the segments immensely.
In India, this model has started giving fruits at some private media schools and finishing centres where the industry is actively involved with the academics.
Need for right skills
Take the case of EJS (Eenadu Journalism School, run by the leading media group Eenadu,) which used to conduct an entrance test every year for students who wanted to join its one-year programme in journalism. There was a time when for about 50 seats, the number of candidates in the written test was not less than 50,000.
This year, in a leading university of Odisha, less than 35 candidates had submitted their forms for admission to the two-year master’s degree course. Same is the case of a leading mass communication institution which could not fill the 20 seats in a batch.
On the other hand there are some media schools in our country which offer the best of programmes in the subject and proudly announce that they are not affiliated to any university. Indian mindset is more inclined and concerned about the university affiliation of any course than what the programme or the academy is really going to contribute in shaping up of the career of the student.
The Ramoji Group of TV channels could manage the huge attrition in their regional language channels through a series of need-based and strategic training and mentoring programmes. All media houses do not have the infrastructure for in-job training or even an attitude to run any finishing programme for their new recruits. Thus media schools play a great role in addressing the need of the industry and shaping up future journalists, producers, media managers and technicians.
In the age of media convergence, practising journalists and media professionals too need to understand the dynamics of the media and upgrade their knowledge and skills through a lot of reading, knowledge-sharing, and on-job training. Universities and private media schools, especially the alternative media training schools and production centres and finishing schools, should come forward and offer the right value to the professionals at different levels.
(The writer is a senior broadcast journalist and mass communication faculty)
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