Feeling the Newsroom
Early in the course, students spent extended familiarization trips to newsrooms of different media houses. Print (attending the editorial meeting of the Mumbai Mirror), television (CNN-IBN-Lokmat), web (Rediff.com) and radio (Big FM). They were given guided presentations on how newsrooms and programming takes place, by senior journalists and programming heads.
Policing the city
In order to understand how the police work, students spent a day at different police stations across Mumbai. They followed the daily routine in a police station to understand how the police function, which included such activities as participating in a naka bandi, understanding how complaints are registered and also under what circumstances the police force works.
Researching, reporting and writing a book
As part of the course, the students work on a book, which is then published. Students research and write the book and is part of a reporting exercise, which sees their work fructifying in a book that in its production quality matches the best that is available anywhere.
The first batch were responsible for 26/11: Eighteen -- a book on the 18 men in uniform who were martyred. The book was released by Union Home Minister, Mr P Chidambaram. The Marathi translation of the book, 26/11: Athra was brought in 2010.
The present batch of students are working on another book, which will be released soon.
Conflict Zone Visit
Student travel to a conflict zone. Both in 2010 and 2011, the students went to Vidarbha on a 10-day tour. The tour, which was undertaken under the guidance of senior journalist Vivek Deshpande was designed to familiarize students with conflict situations -- man and animal, man and man, state and non-state, and also subnational conflict. The visit covered over 2500 km and four districts (Nagpur, Chandrapur, Gadhchiroli and Wardha). The important places visited included Tadoba, Chandrapur, Somnath, Gadhchiroli, Hemalkasa, Menda Lekha, Shodhgram, Sewagram and Nagpur. The reportage from these and more can be seen at Citizens Report.
