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Focus On Books by Professor Sunanda Mahendra:
Model curricula for journalism education
 It was indeed a pleasure and a lasting experience to have
participated in the three-day seminar held in Hyderabad in India
sponsored by the University of Hyderabad in association with the UNESCO
as a joint project in order to launch and make a South Asian
consultation on adaptation of UNESCO model curricula for journalism
education.
The document published and distributed among all the participants
carried a long title that goes as follows: Model curricula for
journalism education for developing countries and emerging democracies
(UNESCO series on journalism education 2007).
The participants were mainly requested to make their views known for
the others in order to ascertain the value of the document as a working
curricula for the Asian region with the subject area of journalism
and/or mass communication.
The consensus of opinion aired showed that the document was well
received by most participants as a resourceful work plan document for
the teaching purposes, as it had underlined some of the main cross
cultural elements that had been discussed over the years in the
particular region.
Journalism education
Then the groups shared and discussed the views emerging from the very
document and pointed out that some subject areas could be further
developed and received or adapted to suit their indigenous purposes.
In this direction one of the main points in discussion was that very
title given to the document should be either broadened or left as it is
and whether to call the subject area as mass communication or to leave
it as 'journalism education'.
This was a high point of discussion. Those who held the view that the
title be left as journalism education also showed that the area known
traditionally as journalism is gradually broadening its horizons in
keeping steps with the most modern developments of the electronic media
such as broadcasting television and the use of the internet and other
means of news and information gathering.
The reader of this document in the form of a book comes to grips with
various segments like the introduction to the curricula and how it came
to be prepared. The background details of the course outlines that exist
and the type of new formats of the course description anticipated by the
UNESCO specialists are carefully presented.
The intention of bringing out this kind of book is stated as a series
of communication discourses over the years and the nature of the news
agencies and the impact of the same on the subject of journalism which
had grown rapidly over the years here had been an increased emphasis on
the teaching of the subject of journalism at various levels.
The subjects linked such as the freedom of expression and the nature
of the existing patterns of censorships that have to be changed from
time to time became one of the interesting areas in the discussion.
In the background to this compilation, it is stated that in December
2005, UNESCO convened a meeting of journalism educators to Paris to
consider the broad outlines to a curriculum in the study of journalism
that would be suitable for use in developing countries and emerging
democracies.
The initial response, it is stated, was for the request for the
guidance from UNESCO member states seeking to establish journalism
programs within their educational systems.
This was only a starting point and the effect had been a continuous
flux of activities and the result is the outcome of this document in
discussion. The document underlines some of the salient factors that
should be taken seriously by the practicing journalists as well as
teachers of the subject at all levels of education in journalism.
Journalism schools
The following factors are significant: First, the statement of
concept that the professional skills of journalism involve methods of
knowing and thinking as well as recording and representing (7pp) is
important. This presumably is a notable factor that is neglected by many
a journalist.
Then comes a second suggestion that journalism schools should develop
partnerships with local news media (8pp). What are the barriers that lay
in this direction is a question that should be raised by the developers
of the curricula.
Third, the compilers believe that a number of basic skills and
capacities which could be declared as competencies cannot be assumed
when students begin their undergraduate studies in journalism (9pp).
The suggestions that the reader encounters revolve basically around
some of the goals that are laid down for the study of the subject
journalism as a full fledged subject which may also involve the skills
in not only writing and reading, but also in the technological aspects
such as the use of computer and other allied techniques on the part of
the practicing journalists for better career guidance. This is just not
a technological skill but also is supplemented with investigative skills
and analysis skills.
As such the concept is also linked to another aspect denoted as
'critical thinking' where the student will have the chance of
independently thinking as to what and how he or she should exercise the
subject matter at various levels in order to use work in the arts and
the sciences would not simply provide a general background to
professional courses but would also include a disciplinary
specialisation (9pp).
The book gives details as to how this could be commenced by drafting
various types of 'skills development programs' for the students who so
like to offer journalism at the school level to the post graduate
courses at the university level of education.
This factor underlines the significance of the knowledge in such
fields as history, geography, language, religion, and creative
activities such as the writing and the appreciation of narratives such
as short stories novels and poems.
The classroom becomes a place that invigorates and sets a laboratory
of activities for the student for various kinds of experiments in the
field of humanities and social sciences bringing about a change in the
conventional kind of outlook traditionally inherited. The document also
takes a broader look at the issues pertaining to the subject of ethics,
law and censorship.
Wide coverage
A wide coverage is given to the understanding of the media and
society where knowledge comes via such aspects as the written word,
sound and the visual and the kind of workshops needed by the student.
This is drafted in the form of experiments giving emphasis to local
sources.
Then comes the segment which involves journalism research which
underlines aspects of the ability to comprehend, analyse synthesise and
evaluate unfamiliar material quickly (30pp).
This segment too involves the ability to take down notes in the
quickest possible manner and gather, understand and select information
for the selected media through interviews and from investigative
techniques.
In this manner the book is a resourceful guidance to teachers and
students of journalism, a term that has come to stay, but tend to change
in keeping with the needs of a particular society.
The contents of the book could be utilised either as innovative
material or as guidelines which could be adapted or translated to suit
an existing curricula.
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