Journalism

Dear Jaitr,
Though Delhi University (DU) had intended to start its five-year integrated course on journalism from this academic session, the journalism programme has not even shortlisted its candidates. This at a time the academic session for the rest of the courses are about to enter the second month. The admission process for journalism, currently in its registration stage, will conduct the entrance test on September 17 and admit candidates between September 23 and 25. The coordinators have received close to 1,500 admission applications from students, who have mostly managed to get a seat in different programmes and courses across DU and private universities such as GGSIPU confirmed a senior admission committee official. As a result of delay in starting the programme, admission committee officials admitted that the course will experience some problems.

As the name suggests, mass communication is about disseminating information to the masses at local, national or international levels with or without a necessary intent. Journalism is more about telling a story, informing people about something (meaningful). Journalism is more conventional in its approach with information and facts taking centre stage. While, mass media is more about letting your creative instincts take over. There may not be clear cut differences between the two. Broadly, it is believed that Journalism is tilted towards news reporting be it for newspapers, magazines or television, while mass communication is a broader field encompassing films, online media, documentary, television, radio, graphics, events, advertising, corporate communications and so on. Mass communication encompasses the various means by which individuals or organisations present information (via media) to people. For example, it relates to newspaper and magazine publishing, radio, television and films, as these are all used both for disseminating news and for advertising. Journalism, on the other hand, is the practice of investigating and reporting events, issues and trends to a broad set of audiences. The field includes editing, reporting, photojournalism, and documentary making. Most professionals in journalism or mass communication are responsible for gathering facts/ opinions/ perceptions and informing the public about local, state, national, and international affairs. Often journalists are assigned a beat to cover like health, politics, business, international polity, sports, religion, theatre, weather, or social events etc. Although studies in journalism overlap with communications, journalism focuses on the written product (e. g. newspaper articles), whereas, mass communication covers a broad range of publications from writing for advertisements to broadcasting. Until a couple of years back, there were not many course options available for undergraduate studies, but now students can choose from popular courses like Bachelor in Journalism, Bachelor in journalism and mass communication, Bachelor in mass media and mass communication, Bachelor in communication studies etc. At the postgraduate level, students have the option of choosing between Masters and postgraduate Diploma courses. One can find courses in convergent journalism, advertising and PR, print and TV journalism, film studies, broadcast journalism, radio and TV production etc.