Vaishnavi Pandey
Reporting and Editing in Print
Date: 4.07.2023
It has been a total of eight months, two semesters, and a full first academic year for me to grasp the periphery of a very complex discipline-the study of journalism. These eight months have been utilised in up-skilling, learning and holistically developing. As a student of journalism, I’vr become more curious, more patient and more creative. I’ve learned to be more present both in theory and practically! As my first year of undergraduate study comes to an end, I would like to present the following report summarising my learnings and understandings.
Pursuing BA Journalism (Hons.) Degree, I’ve had a total of six papers so far, wherein ‘Introduction to Journalism’ (IOJ) was taught to us in the first semester which was was an introductory paper with the subject matter explaining the varietal meanings and definitions of journalism, ingredients of an event that make it newsworthy, attribution, balance, fairness and brevity in news, a historical perspective of journalism encompassing yellow journalism, the Rudolf Flesch formula and use of archives, along with Principles of writing on different platforms. On the other, in the second semester, ‘Reporting and Editing in Print’ (REP) has been taught to us in the most exciting of ways. Under this paper, we focused on covering news via news beats for print, news agency reporting, interviewing skills, structure of a news story, articles and feature stories, the organisation , structure and dynamics of a newsroom along with a brief introduction to editing, We also dug deeper into the issues of sensationalism and voyeurism, fake news, sociology of news, etc. We’ve also had four other papers, which delve into the History of Journalism, Communication studies, Broadcast media and the Study of Advertising-Public Relations!
However, personally, I’ve learnt and enjoyed REP AND IOJ the most as I’m into more hardcore print journalism. Both these papers has given students the opportunity to dive and delve into the complex and fast paced world of journalism, I was beyond excited at the beginning of my study, and I continue to exude the same excitement for the coming two years! I have always dreamt of what it would feel like to be a part of history being made right in front of your eyes everyday. I won’t disagree, I might have romanticised it to some extent, but that’s what crime thrillers such as the ‘Zodiac’ ought to do to you. So yes, I do study subjects that I thoroughly enjoy and I’m passionate about!
Thus far, in class, all topics are assimilated to the students via one of three ways i.e. research, classroom teaching and hands on activities, especially with papers like REP AND IOJ, Different topics from the syllabus are firstly given to us for research, for a more comprehensive absorption in class. After having done our research, the students are taught and explained the particular topics in class. As we’ve done our own research, all the students are able to contribute in class and help out our peers in case of doubts. Once the topic has been thoroughly discussed and explained in class, we either write a short note on the particular topic as home-work, or do an activity pertaining to it!
For example, in the second semester, REP gave us a glimpse of the world of print media and newspapers! Having learnt topics such as headings, subheadings, attributions, different types of pages in a newspaper, etc. we were asked to make our own newspaper in groups. The activity was not only held in class, but was also a group activity and hence, contributed to peer-bonding and team spirit.
Therefore, till now, all topics taught to us have been critically designed and holistically imparted-having both a theory and practical component. This is also the reasons why classes are not only more fun for the students, but also easily comprehensible!
(Words: 641)
Vaishnavi Pandey
Batch of 25/26
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