Master's Course In Journalism

Ranchi, May 5: Ranchi University vice-chancellor A.A. Khan announced a two-year master’s course in journalism.

The course will begin from the new academic session. Head of the department of journalism department, Ranchi University Rita Shukla, said it would be a one-year degree programme.
“Now we will have a two-year master’s degree instead of a one-year bachelor’s course,” Shukla added.

There will be 100 seats for the course and 16 faculty members will be appointed. “All formalities are complete and we would start the course very shortly,” Shukla said.

One of the students, Manisha Singh, who plans to opt for the course, said that she was planning to move to Delhi for higher studies. “But now since the VC has given us an assurance, I will complete my masters and then apply for a job,” Singh said.

Journalism, which is considered to be the fourth pillar of democracy, is now ruled by technology. “The basic principle of journalism is getting lost day by day. We have confined ourselves to report on corruption, crime, celebrity and cricket,” said Achyutanand Mishra, vice-chancellor of Makhan Lal Chaturvedi Rashtriya Patrakarita Evam Sanchar Vishwavidyalaya, Bhopal, at the journalism department of Ranchi University today. While addressing a gathering of teachers and students, Mishra said that the field is changing. “Even editors are unable to write on social issues,” he said.

Nowadays journalism institutes are also mushrooming in all the corners of the city. “During my days there were no such training institutes. If we had something on our mind, we took out our pens and wrote,” said Mishra.

He said that journalism was all about principles.

“In Allahabad there was a magazine Swarajya and its eight editors were put behind the bars for speaking their minds. But they still wrote even though their families faced hardship,” Mishra said.

There was a time when one used to remember the principles of journalism and also remembered the work of the long gone writers. “But today even the renowned editors of the country are unable to justify journalism,” he added.