DAY 1:
Lighting the flame: IIMC is a highly reputed and premium institute in the field of mass communication studies and research just as IITs, IIMs and AIIMS have higher place in their respective fields. Three-day long orientation program was started on August,1 in ‘Mahatma Gandhi Manch’ by Director General of IIMC Mr. K. G. Suresh by lighting the lamp. In his inaugural speech, he introduced the students to the institute and the faculties of IIMC after that he told the students about the meaning of Journalism and Mass Communication and shared his experiences as a media-person with the audience. Other faculty members also greeted their best wishes to all the students for their upcoming session.
Orientation lecture by Ms. Navika Kumar (Managing Editor, Times Now): In the second session of the day, Managing Editor of Times Now Ms. Navika Kumar delivered a sharpen lecture on the topic ‘Journalism of Mission’. She spelled out what the mission and vision of a journalist should be. Very clearly, she said, “Journalism is all about to separate the facts from the fiction”. She shared her experiences and motivated the students to have nationalism to be a better journalist and to do what is favourable to the country despite of a person or a party. In Q&A session, she also answered all the sharp questions asked by the students.
DAY 2:
Orientation lecture by Sh. Achyutanand Mishra (Senior Hindi Journalist): The first session of the second day started with welcoming senior Hindi journalist Sh. Achyutanand Mishra. In his orientation lecture he narrated the students about the history of Indian & world journalism. He also clarified what the current situations and problems are by which Indian journalism is going on. He motivated the students to be a ground level journalist and to do what is in the favour of Citizen, Environment and Society. He advised the students to be a journalist of common issues. He also threw lights on the major issues that a journalist faces during his career and he also guide the students how to handle such kind of problems.
Orientation lecture by Mr. Ruben Banerjee (Editor, Outlook): In the second session of the day Editor of OUTLOOK magazine Mr. Ruben Banarjee was chief guest of the orientation program. He delivered a matured lecture on the topic ‘Media Ethics & Challenges’. He defined various faces of media and its roles. He highlighted the challenges that are coming in the way of unbiased & fair journalism. He motivated the students to be objective in the field of media. He also answered the sharp questions asked by the students.
DAY 3:
UGC recommendation & orientation lecture by Campbell Brown (Global Head, News Partnerships, Facebook): Third day of the orientation started with the good news that UGC has recommended deemed university status for IIMC. After the announcement Mr. K. G. Suresh welcomed Campbell Brown. HoD of New Media Department Anubhuti Yadav interacted with her on various topics. In this interactive session, Anubuti Yadav and students asked her many questions related to digital media, its roles and challenges. Campbell Brown answered all these questions and told the audience what Facebook is doing to carb the fake news and unusual content. She also announced that very soon a ‘Facebook Media Lab’ will be open in IIMC Campus.
Orientation lecture by Dr. Ajit Pathak (National President of Public Relation Society of India): In the post-lunch session Dr. Ajit Pathak, National President of Public Relation Society of India, interacted with the audience. He talked on every aspects of Public Relations (PR). He delivered his lecture with his beautiful cartoony presentation. He introduced the students to the need of PR, its role, scopes, challenges and its engagement with media. In Q&A session, he cleared all the doubts asked by the students. At the end of the session he declared that IIMC and PRSI are going to organise a national level events in the campus of IIMC throughout the year.
Session’s closing speech: At the end of the day, Director General of IIMC greeted his bless-full wishes to all the students for their upcoming session and thanked all the faculty members, visiting guests, technical teams, camera-persons and Ms. Vishnupriya Pandey for successfully hosting, supporting and organising the three-day orientation program.
POINTS TO PONDER
In a subjective way it can be said that it was a pre-learning session for all the students where they learnt and interacted with all the dimensions of mass-communication. This beautiful event could not be successfully held without the help of the team of IIMC. Special Thank should be go to DG Mr. K.G. Suresh, who not only welcomed all the guests but also gave three ‘Beautiful Saugat’ (UGC recommendation, Facebook Media Lab and IIMC-PRSI collaboration) to the IIMCians by his own efforts. There is also a person who also deserve special thanks; who not only host the event beautifully but also seized the house by his fluffy-poetry, that is none other than Ms. Vishnupriya Pandey.
This article can be concluded with the words of DG Mr. K.G. Suresh – “Don’t speak without listening and Don’t write without reading. Develop the habit of READING, WRITING, SPEAKING and LISTENING as these all are the four-basic attitude of a media learner.”