Journalism Course in WCC: An Overview

The B.A English Department of Women’s Christian College offers a Core Elective Journalism course for final year students, to introduce them to the world of journalism and to highlight the role of media in society. The course helps in increasing students' awareness of current issues and trains them in reporting, writing, and editing. The syllabus covers the concepts of journalism, thereby helping students to undertake assignments such as writing reports, features, and conducting interviews.

The campus newspaper, Rivett, is published during the semester with inputs from students doing this course. The students are assigned the task of fetching advertisements to sponsor the paper. They are actively involved in reporting, writing, illustrating, editing and marketing the newspaper. By taking up reporting and editing tasks, they get hands-on experience in Journalism, under the guidance of their professor.

Students are required to complete one month of compulsory internship in the final semester, broadening their exposure to practical learning. They take up work with newspapers, magazines, channels, etc. This helps them to fine-tune skills taught in college.

Meghana Elsa Thomas, a former pupil of WCC says, “The journalism course which was offered by the college helped me to decide my career option. It helped in refining my writing skills and taught me to produce unbiased work through extensive research and ethical means. My post-graduate studies have been greatly influenced by the basics that I learned in WCC. We learned the value and importance of teamwork as we worked together to publish the campus newspaper. Moreover, it stays as a memory to cherish.”

Ruth Miriam Varghese, another former student adds, “Journalism classes allowed for a space to engage in discussions regarding the issues and topics trending nationally and internationally, which enhanced our knowledge as well as our perspectives.”

Journalism and journalists are invaluable to our democracy. They play an important role in providing people with information, moulding their opinions and also helping them make the right decisions based on given information. Journalism succeeds when media houses work with integrity and are independent of any political and private institutions, thereby not indulging in favouritism or bias. Being taught such important aspects of journalism, we strive to work towards becoming responsible journalists with a passion to transform the world for the better.

Editors: Sona Sunny, Evita Vincy