Vipula P C and Biju Dharmapalan
Over the last decade, the Indian media landscape has undergone drastic changes. There has been a paradigm shift in the reading habits of middle-aged people in our country from traditional print to online media. The integration of animation, gaming, robotics, Artificial intelligence (AI), VR, and robotics has revolutionised the media industry, creating new avenues for storytelling and audience engagement. The traditional media houses, both print and electronic, are finding it difficult to sustain due to the onslaught of online media. Online media, primarily social media platforms, have emerged as the people’s voice. Anyone can be a journalist and a publisher.
The widespread impact of social media, independent journalists, and influencers has fundamentally transformed contemporary society, revolutionising communication, information consumption, and cultural dynamics. Digitalisation has transformed how content is created and consumed, blurring the lines between truth/reality and fiction and raising new ethical challenges for media professionals. AI can now generate news stories, while deep fake technology can manipulate images, eventually spreading fake news massively. While these innovations open up exciting career prospects, they emphasise the need for a new media education system that caters to the needs of the present-day media platforms.
Depending solely on the traditional media education system won’t suffice to the needs of present-day journalism. Conventional media education generally prioritises outdated journalism models, such as print and broadcast, which may not adequately equip students for the digital-first landscape they will encounter. Contemporary audiences now engage with news through many channels, encompassing social media, podcasts, and newsletters. Education in journalism should equip students with the skills to generate material for a wide range of venues. Journalism instructors must continually revise curricula to guarantee that students get pertinent information and skills. There is a need to integrate conventional journalistic competencies like reporting, writing, and ethics with digital skills such as multimedia production, data journalism, social media management, search engine optimisation (SEO) and programming skills. By acquiring proficiency in programming languages such as Python, HTML, and JavaScript, journalism students can augment their reporting skills, explore novel narratives through data analysis, and provide information in captivating and interactive formats.
The proliferation of fake news has made fact-checking an essential part of modern journalism. The demand for approaching all information with a critical eye and rigorously verifying facts before publishing and sharing content is a crucial talent. Yet, most educational programs in India have not made this a priority. The educators should equip students to build sustainable media houses. In light of the diminishing traditional income methods in journalism, such as print advertising, it becomes imperative to comprehend emerging business models, including subscriptions, crowdsourcing, and native advertising. Journalism education needs to adjust to instruct these developing models. The students should be taught blockchain technology that can transform journalism by enhancing transparency, security, and authenticity. Blockchain technology can also make it possible to create smart contracts. Smart contracts might automate payments to freelancers upon the successful publication of their work or based on the number of views or engagements their content obtains.
As a result of the global nature of digital media, journalists are required to work across language barriers and understand how to communicate across cultural boundaries. Reforming journalism education aims to provide upcoming journalists with the necessary skills to effectively negotiate an increasingly intricate and rapidly evolving media landscape. By emphasising critical thinking, multimedia proficiency, and an understanding of global issues, educational reforms aim to prepare students for the dynamic demands of modern journalism. This will ensure that our budding journalists can effectively engage audiences, uphold journalistic integrity, and contribute meaningfully to society in an increasingly interconnected world.
(Prof. Vipula P C is a professor at Garden City University and Dr Biju Dharmapalan is the Dean at GCU and adjunct faculty at NIAS)
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