The Logic and Scope of DU’s 5 Year Integrated Mass Communications Programme

The University of Delhi (DU), has been debating starting off with a 5 year integrated Bachelor’s plus Master’s course in Journalism and Mass Communications. No official Notification has come out, so all discussion now is a mere speculation based on some press reports.But this brings us to an interesting discussion on the applicability of such a course. We have divide the discussion into three sub-components- benefits to students, benefits to industry and possible entrance syllabus.

Benefits to Students:

Students would be the biggest beneficiaries as it opens up a viable career option towards an industry experiencing massive growth. Media is one of the fastest growing industries especially the digital and the TV. As of now there are a good number of options at the Master’s level for pursuing media studies, but few at the undergrad level. Once enrolled for this course, students will be assured of completing Master’s. A lot of students who finish off undergrad studies in journalism get disillusioned by the quality of jobs on offer. This will ensure that they start at reasonably senior positions. 

Benefits to Industry:

Several news channels are in existence with many new being planned or recently inaugurated. In addition online media is constantly increasing in scope and popularity. In India, unlike in the developed countries, even print media is experiencing a rise due to increasing literacy rates all over the country. A large part of the news network revolves around Indian languages so the course will need to tailor itself somewhat to accommodate job opportunities in say,a Kannada language newspaper or Hindi news channel or Bengali online blog site. Trained professional will now be available studying at India’s premier university. Five years is substantial time to groom these students for the career ahead. Due to the heavy role of technology in media, these students will need to be exposed to gadgets right from the outset. 

Possible Entrance Syllabus

Like most entrance exams for journalism or even other courses at undergrad level, there are some pointers to its syllabus. While no official curriculum ever comes out for entrance exams, there are some universally accepted maxims for them. The following table will explain the likely topics. 

In all likelihood, Mathematics should play no role in short-listing candidates for this paper, even if some component is included, it will be primarily inclusive of elementary level till class X. Another facet could be a two stage test. The first round could be an aptitude test to weed out candidates. But the second round could actually be more subjective to test the writing skills of shortlisted candidates. 

Overall, this course should usher in a win-win situation for all. The industry will get more trained professionals and students will get more opportunities. The university needs to sort out the list of participating colleges and how seats will be divided. There are already some DU colleges where such courses have been going on and quite a reputed ones. So, the challenge will be to integrate with them and not cannibalize one’s own product. The ultimate aim has to be increasing opportunities for students and opening up the market pool for the industry.