… University corrections began today…. in the few that i managed to plough through here are some sparkling gems. (italics mine)

• There are some people like women who want a whole bunch of articles from themselves like cookery, fashion, homemaking, personal problems etc…..Similarly there are magazines for men where there are things like automobiles, gadgets, women, and everything a man would want.
• India is a Development Country
• Example of Developmental Journalism is the Indo US Nuclear Deal where the PM Manmohan Singh says that this deal will lead to develop its power
• Hyderabad is the place in Andhra Pradesh. It is the place where all Tulu’s live. It is a perfect destination for 3-4 days.
• Youth always having changing minds. They will always want to have something now. So the magazines which always tell its TG something new can be said as Youth Magazine. eg. Filmfare ,Stardust, Cineblitz, Sports Star etc.

And one day … these will not only inherit the earth but also the media….
More gems here.

Tags: Teaching

… one of my students actually knew that today is the anniversary of the Quit India Movement. As i said in class today … a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away …. India achieved independence !

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Tags: India, Teaching

This year I began teaching culture studies to my students. Culture studies is not the study of culture perse - but the study of cultures - their power structures internally and in relation to other cultures - their internal & external dynamics and their overall relationship in the power pyramid. One of the more difficult things for me to explain to students - in context of culture studies in India - is the caste system. For most students - the caste system is dead because there have been reservations for the last 60 years. One tries and demolishes that logic by saying that the ‘upper castes’ have had 100% reservation in key professions for the last few millenia. But, the key issue is not so much their mindset (which can be overcome with data) but their lack of knowledge about the system that influences us even today. Most believe that SC’s are the shudra’s as defined in the chatur varna system, or that the recent reservation protests have been Brahmin & Kshatriya ("upper caste") v/s the lower caste (dalits). For students, atleast in a Mumbai based educational system - the term Dalit and Shudra are the same. So, in order to teach them caste & culture - one has to start at the basics. When I began teaching the subject this year, the first thing that i needed to do was to revise my own knowledge of caste & class - before teaching them. And, part of the process is giving students upto date stuff on caste dynmaics. This is one from the ToI that struck me as being particularly illustrative of the problem.

While most other boys his age jump at the sight of a cat, six-year-old Khemchand Sapera helps his dad catch poisonous snakes. Too young and feeble to lift a python, Khemchand can, however, give a free demonstration of how to catch a live cobra. You would think he’s a local hero, idolised by neighbourhood boys. On the contrary, Khemchand is shooed away by them as they cry out calling him an "untouchable". If you thought untouchability has lost its grip, here’s a reality check — it’s being practised, and not by the upper castes only. Just 20 metres from National Highway 12 and 170 km from Bhopal near Rani Pipariya village in Hoshangabad district resides a community of snake charmers. Considered one of the lowest among Dalits, even other sects of the Dalit community do not mix with them. "We cannot even reside in the main village and have to live at least 200 metres away from rest of the society," said Mallunath Sapera, an elderly member of the community. "Although they might be pushed to one corner, other Dalit communities are permitted to at least live inside the villages. But no one will accept us. The Kathiars, Charmkars and Meras are also scheduled castes, but they don’t touch us. At weddings, we sit to eat with animals. As for the upper castes, we go stand in front of their houses during Nag Panchmi festival and they throw us a rupee or two. We still cannot enter the temples, our children cannot go to school and politically we have no power since we are less in numbers," said Mallunath.

India - circa 2007. Caste still exists. So does discrimination based on caste. MSM often glosses over caste dynamics - as do parents and other value formers. Schools and colleges teach it as something that happened somewhere else and to someone else. And, when future media practitioners are taught in this vacuum - the output is bound to be one sided.

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Tags: Caste, Discrimination, India, Society, Teaching

Part of the last week or so has been spent at the University Of Mumbai - Kalina - correcting BMM papers. One of the good things about this years lot has been the number of students who seem to have understood the subject rather than mouthing the same set of standard notes that float around. But, as always the bizarre is always more interesting. Here are a sample of some of the statements made in the papers:

• Radio is a sensuous medium
• Print is a vertical medium
• When the satellite falls to earth, the dish catches it
• The Convergence Bill is the Prashar Bharati Act
• All channels are sent by waves on air
• in 1991, CNN won the rights to broadcast the Gulf War Live
• In the last few centuries that radio has been broadcasting news …..
• The Indian Independence Movement used radio to create a patriotic feeling
• CNN broadcast the Vietnam war leading to political instability in the USA
• News channels dump news on us and this is called dumping down of news (the question was on dumbing down)

If there were marks for the most amusing answers, then these would definitely score

Tags: India, Teaching

A friend of mine, who subs for a leading English newspaper, sent me this: ….(a) robbery story I subbed today…

Police officials inform that the gang approached a showroom at night, tied the watchman and eloped with the loot.

And of course, the dish ran away with the spoon. Maybe, journalism programmes ought to have written & spoken language modules!

Tags: India, Teaching

3 days a week, 3 hours at a go, for the last three years - I have been teaching students at Sophia College, Mumbai,the basics of media. I enjoy it. Looking at theories of media over a decade after i studied it as a student, and a over a decade of practise A a professional - is a trip. It is amazing, how either by design or default or simple common sense we begin applying these to the the media. It is a lovely campus - they have a beautiful garden and an excellent library. But, the thing that I really like there is the ‘atmosphere’ of education that pervades the place. And the students, they are quite wonderful. But, you will not believe how boistrous a class full of girls can be:) The buildings are a bit too pink for my liking. On a overcast day the pink is quite ok - on a nice bright sunny day …. it can hurt the eyes.

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Tags: India, Sophia College, Teaching

Last week i had the chance to feel like Simon Cowell. I was judging a set of student films. Phrases such as which butcher did you use to edit that; or was the camera broken; or Is there a point to this; or where is the script; wtf, wtf, wtf; oh god - please let this end; cut, please cut, pleeese - crossed my mind.? ? One of my co-judges leaned across and whispered to me, I know it is ametuer, but does it have to be so bad? And bad it was. In the four years that i have been teaching, i usually find student films to be quite good. They have a germ of an idea - and they can express that idea. What is usually lacking is technical sophistication - but since we aren’t looking for narrative sense more than visual sense- it is fairly ok for now. But this lot - was just plain bad. I have never seen such an unstructured approach to work. There was one film that had a germ of idea and was fairly well put together - the rest were a waste of everyone’s time and energy (and that includes the people who made them). And it is not so much the students’ fault - as much as those who are supposed to guide them. This is unmonitored, unguided work - and student films are not supposed to be made with no input. And it is not the fault of those who guide - they really don’t know too much about the media - either in terms of theory or in terms of practice. The fault is of the University of Mumbai for introducing courses like this - without ensuring that there is a) competent faculty to teach it; b) adequete infrastructure to support it. The body of work that i reacted to is part of the Bachelor’s in Media Studies programme offered by the University of Mumbai. One of the ‘paid’ courses. Parents pay an average of around 15k per annum for a variety of these so called professional courses. This includes a bachelor’s in Management, Bio Technology, IT etal. The fact that there is a demand in the market for cattle fodder - and these courses somehow manage to fill the numbers - no way deters from the fact that the courses are not really khaas. Students are better off doing a general BA or a BSc and specialising at the time of their Masters. The courses neither have the theory to give one an academic rigour, nor have the infrastructure to give the practical orienation that is needed, nor indeed industry backing to ensure employment.Courses like Bio Chemistry are run without either faculty or lab. It is someone’s future that we are talking about. End of the day the blogging world may go up in arms against private sector instutes like IIPM for their claims, but what when the University of Mumbai puts out programmes that don’t deliver?

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Tags: India, Teaching

One of the things that I do, is teach. And, i enjoy it. I have been teaching various aspects of media for the last 4 years - for the Bachelor’s in Media Studies programme. The first year was at SIES - where i studied, and the last three years with Sophia’s, where my mother taught. Each year I set them a project - that is meant to test their understanding of how to communicate. I have so far stuck to print and video - the two media that i understand the best. And, the process of guiding them through their project helps me improve my own understanding of the media. And, the students have by and large delivered. I had a batch that worked on an incredible ecotourism project for Latur. I had one which did a wonderful piece on street foods in mumbai. And, this year has been a very exciting news magazine project. This year I volunteered to teach 3 subjects that i formally studied but hadn’t tought before - broadcast journalism, news media management and global issues in the media. And this year’s project was the creation of a video news magazine that is aimed at youth issues. The topics chosen were interesting.

• The lead story was on AIDS (un) awareness in colleges in Mumbai. As such gutsy and hits you right between the eyes. Kids think that AIDS is caused by mosquitos, toilet seats and don’t believe that sex education is required. The DNA picked up the story. The team was majorly chuffed at that. But, my question is where is the MSM on this - if awareness is so abysmal - students get to hear about AIDS one week ina year maybe - then where is all the NGO work going. What are parents, teachers and the government (afterall it funds the bulk of this campaign) doing?
• The second story was on an American employer who cribbed about the fact that our educational system produced functionally useless fodder. in a world where communication and presenation skills matter as much as academic credentials, the system has failed to deliver both.
• Then comes a straight from the heart issue - dress code in colleges. The obvious divide between generations is fairly apparent. As is the divide between authority and individualism. It seems like yesterday when i was in college and it was the same issue then
• A story on how basket ball is making its mark in the college scene was the sports story. We are so much influenced by the mass media and its focus on cricket - that sometimes we forget that there people who play other sports, and a bit of exposure of the local scene may actually go a long way in attracting talent.
• And finally an ‘entertainment’ story.? The team did a good job in taking a different POV of entertainment. They looked at a lady who designed for films, and without any formal training has launched her own fashion label

All in all a good magazine - could have run on any channel!

Tags: India, Teaching