The Departments of Journalism and
Mass Communication of St Xavier’s College, Mapusa scaled up north India,
to the national capital, New Delhi, as part of the annual media study tour
organised for the final year students. The tour is undertaken with the
belief that healthy interaction with professionals from the field enables
students to get better insights and understanding, helping them
to go beyond the classroom experience and learn more.
The week-long tour organised
during their winter vacations provided the final year
students with a cornucopia of ideas and opportunities to pursue in
the near future. On the first day, a visit to the Parliament of India aided the
students to understand better the legislative structure of the country, and
also how elected representatives’ carry out business, claiming to represent the
public’s concerns.
The following day, a very
interactive session was held with The Quint, a news portal,
where the team, which is led by Jaskirat Singh Bawa, senior
editor, explained the functioning of their digital news portal and how
they use this digital tool to get through to their audience.
Aishwarya S Iyer, a reporter at The
Quint, also shared her journey in the field of journalism, and directed
students to be alert when looking out for story ideas. ‘WebQoof’ – The Quint’s
fake news and fact checking initiative, was also highlighted,
and they also spoke of how Google reverse image search verification
can enable us to debug fake news. Something creative that caught the student’s
eye was The Quint’s Lab, which is a micro-site that hosts special projects on
different occasions.
A visit to Republic TV had a
different atmosphere, where digital studio set-up and high-end production
control rooms opened up a profusion of chances for students wanting to pursue
future lines in production. During the visit, students also witnessed how
the news channel broadcast live news and produce a panel discussion.
On the final day of the media tour,
students visited the A J Kidwai Mass Communication Research Centre at
the Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi. Here, studio lightings,
editing techniques, set-up and productions, along with the community radio
station at the University were explained.
This was followed by a visit to the
NDTV Studio, which presented to the students how professional national news
channels function. A visit to the production control room, along with the NDTV
desk was a part of the visit.
The Delhi-NCR region is rich with
Indian history, and holds significant value to the way our country has shaped
forward. The students visited the Jawaharlal Nehru Museum and the Indira Gandhi
Memorial, which had on display different pieces of history associated with the
Nehru and the Gandhi families. Besides this, Humayun’s Tomb, Qutub Minar, Red
Fort and India Gate were also some locations covered during the
tour.
