Jaipur, May 20: Media journal ‘Communication Today’ has brought out two special issues on the 100 years of media education in India. In its silver jubilee year, the media journal published from Jaipur has published research-based article charting the development of media education in a centenary.
Journal’s editor Prof Sanjeev Bhanawat said the January-March and April-June issues of Communication Today include critical articles on media education in the country in around 500 pages.
The special issues have articles from all states and union territories where media education is being imparted through central and state universities, private and deemed universities and institutions.
The articles detail the beginning and development of media education in each state and union territory, and have discussed the contribution of media educators and professionals.
“The need for media education at university level was felt almost a hundred years ago,” said Prof Bhanawat. “It is believed that the first formal media course began at Adyar University in Chennai in 1920 in the Faculty of Arts by the efforts of Dr Annie Besant,” he added.
However, according to Prof G Ravindra of Central University of Tamil Nadu, the first media course started in National College of Commerce, National University, Chennai, in 1917.
After that, senior journalist Raham Ali Al Hashmi started a diploma programme at Aligarh Muslim University in Uttar Pradesh. He even wrote the first book on journalism in the Indian sub continent, titled ‘Fan-e-Sahafat’. But these efforts did not sustain for long.
Prof PP Singh began a journalism programme in Punjab University, Lahore, in 1941 in a more organized manner. The post-graduate programme admitted 40 students in each batch. After Partition, its camp office shifted to Delhi in 1947.
Prof Singh had studied journalism in the US and the UK. The programme ran from Delhi for some time and then shifted to Punjab University, Chandigarh in 1962.
Prof Bhanawat said in its 25 years of publication, Communication Today has brought out special issues on ‘Covid-19 and Media’; ‘Interplay between Electronic and Print Media’; ‘Wither Journalism and PR Education’; ‘Human Rights and Media’ and ‘Code of Conduct for Media Practitioners’.
Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University in Wardha and Agriculture University in Ludhiana have done research projects on Communication Today. The journal got the Golden Award in ‘External Magazine’ category by Public Relations Council of India in its international conference organized in Chandigarh in 2011.
