GLOBAL ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF TUMCJ AND MCJ DEPT ORGANISE WEBINAR

A one and a half hour webinar on Challenges and Opportunities for media students in the time of COVID 19 was organized by the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism of Tezpur University in collaboration with its Global Alumni Association on July 26. The webinar began with a welcome address by Sachin Gogoi, the President of the Global Alumni Association of the department who is presently working as the Editorial Lead, BBC News. He worked as the Media Chief Specialist for India in the U.S. Embassy, New Delhi and as a Reporter cum Sub-Editor at Indo-Asian News Service (IANS). In his introductory remarks, he highlighted the key objectives of the webinar and introduced the moderator for the session, Indrani Das. She is the Vice President of the Global Alumni Association of the department and a former faculty of Assam Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research. A woman of many talents; she is an actor, singer, writer, poet and a painter. She is also working as a Communication Skills and Personality Development coach. Indrani Das introduced the panelists for the session which consisted of Dr. Sanjeev Kumar, a Development Communication specialist, CSR and Management Consultant with experiences of working as a guest faculty at Indian Institute of Mass Communication and Xavier’s Institute of Communication; Nurul Islam Laskar who is the founder of North East India’s first Public Relations Agency, Cabsford PR, a Consulting Editor of The Sentinel and an Executive Editor of the Northeast Chronicle; Karma Paljor, an award winning Journalist and TV news anchor with CNN-NEWS 18 who is currently the Editor-in-Chief at EastMojo; and Agam Choudhury, Chief Revenue Officer at DigitaLabs, a global Digital Marketing Agency The panelists expressed concern about the present state of Journalism and how COVID-19 has deeply affected the industry. However, it was agreed upon that COVID-19 can’t be solely blamed for the sorry state of the media, today. Karma Paljor pointed out, “Journalists need to evolve more. They need to do in-depth research and ask more and more questions on behalf of the people, for the people but sadly journalists today have dismantled their own spine”. Dr. Sanjeev Kumar, on the other hand, said, “The pandemic has actually created new opportunities, especially in the Development sector so the media aspirants need to explore new ideas, learn, unlearn and relearn skills to adapt to the changing nature of the industry”. He says that the job seekers need to be responsive, emotionally intelligent and rise above the general level and focus on doing things differently, getting their voices heard and be curious enough to look and grab opportunities. Nurul Islam Laskar was very optimistic about the scene of Public Relations(PR) in the pandemic. He said, “Every person or organisation wants a good image so PR is a part of everyday life now. It is not going anywhere”. He advised the students and others to use this time to develop skills that would later help them pursue their dreams and add on to their achievements. He asked the participants to always be on the lookout for new opportunities. Agam Choudhury talked about the digital world and the crucial points to be kept in mind while creating anything in the digital world. “Think about the content you wish to create, what medium you would use to convey that content and be consistent with your efforts. Everybody’s first try is awful”, he said. He too advised the participants to use the lockdown period to build references, establish connections, polish skills and gather knowledge. The panel later answered various questions that the media students had put up as a part of their career concerns in the media industry. It was a holistic session where resourceful professionals of the media industry shared real life hacks and some basic principles that are never to be forgotten if anyone is to thrive in the media industry. The session ended with a vote of thanks by the Head of Department of Mass Communication and Journalism, Tezpur University, Dr. Joya Chakraborty.