Elective Courses

Electives form a vital component of the ACJ’s academic programme. Over the second and third terms, all students take three elective courses chosen from a wide variety of offerings. At the time of admission in July, all students are expected to submit to the Registrar a list of seven electives, in descending order of preference. Ideally, students will have two electives in one term and the remaining one in the other. Please note that students may not get all the electives of their choice. These courses, which may be conducted in the form of lectures, seminars, or workshops, are taught by adjunct or full-time faculty members who are experts in their fields and are drawn from both academia and the media. The electives provide students an opportunity to study some of the subject areas introduced earlier in greater depth and to learn certain specialised kinds of reporting.

The list of electives varies from year to year, and subjects may be added if there is sufficient student demand. The following electives are offered for the year 2013-2014.

Identities in a Plural Society Nalini Rajan, Professor, ACJ Nalini Rajan The idea of what constitutes an “Indian identity” is of crucial importance to working journalists. In a country of such bewildering diversity and pluralism, it is important to analyse the social construction of identities. The reporter should be sensitive to the specificity and particularity of individuals and groups while at the same time locating them in the mosaic of the Indian social polity. While reporting on caste and communal relations, the journalist must be alive to the sensitivities of her or his subject groups. This course is designed to give the student an understanding of the dynamics of a pluralistic society through the study of contemporary popular culture, media articles, and contributions by distinguished social scientists. The subject assumes special relevance in the context of the constitutional interpretation of secularism, culture, social and economic equality, and the nation state. Students explore the question of identity against the backdrop of the experience of other multicultural societies. Top

Critical International Issues V. Suryanarayan, Senior Professor and former Director of the Centre for South and South-East Asian Studies, University of Madras, K V Krishnaswamy, Former Deputy Editor, The Hindu KV Krishnaswamy V. Suryanarayan Critical International Issues is an elective course that aims to familiarise the students with the important international issues facing the global community. The course attempts to trace the path of International Relations (IR) as it has evolved over the past century, shaped by the two world wars and the Cold War. The broad themes which have dominated IR will be dealt in detail, such as the role of the United Nations, non-alignment, Intervention vs. Sovereignty, Terrorism and Security; bipolarity, unipolarity and multipolarity; and the nuclear issue, especially the nuclearisation of South Asia. This course will discuss important events in the Indian sub-continent, South-East Asia, China, Latin America and the African continent. Top

Leading Issues in Economics Venkatesh Athreya, Advisor, Gender and Food Security, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai Venkatesh Athreya The elective will provide an analytical and historical account of the development of the Indian economy since independence. The students will be introduced to the role of international institutions like the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation in the current context of globalization. The implications of India’s path of development for growth, poverty and employment in India will be discussed. Students will be introduced to some basic concepts and analytical approaches in macroeconomics. They will receive an exposure to policy debates over such issues as food security and the implications of fiscal deficits, primarily in the context of the Indian economy. Top

Health Reporting Jayalakshmi Shreedhar, Medical Doctor and Health Consultant Jayalakshmi Shreedhar This elective offers an overview of health journalism and trains students to make sense of research reports and clinical studies, examine the pros and cons of public and private health, discuss the coverage of outbreaks and epidemics, explore the recent promotion of ‘packaged’ healthcare and contextualize the rise of lifestyle diseases like heart disease, diabetes and cancer. At the same time, poverty-related diseases like malaria, malnutrition, TB, gastroenteritis, and occupational diseases will be covered, along with social issues related to organs’ trade, infanticide, sex selection and HIV/AIDS. The students will learn about the controversies surrounding patent protection and human protection, new developments in medical technology, patients’ rights and government health policies. In addition, there will be information on traditional medicine and on mental health. As part of the course work, there will be article reviews, group exercises, student presentations and written exams. Top

Covering Ecology and Environment Nityanand Jayaram, independent journalist and social activist Nityanand Jayaram Issues relating to ecology and the environment have received substantial, though not insightful, media coverage in the last decade. The coverage, by and large, has failed to make the linkage between environmental degradation and issues of justice. The effects of environmental degradation are portrayed as affecting all of humanity in a similar manner. However, an overwhelming body of evidence maintains that the poor, the marginalised and historically oppressed sections of society suffer a disproportionately high share of the ill-effects, while the well-off and politically powerful manage to not just fare better in the face of adverse environmental circumstances, but also benefit from the degradation. Writing on environment and ecology requires an ability to make sense of social and natural sciences, in addition to the conventional journalistic skills of identifying sources and interviewing. In covering science, the ability to discern fact from conjecture becomes crucial. The role of industry and commerce (corporations), through their control of media and scientific institutions, needs to be understood if one is to tackle the myth that all “science” is science and that “science” is objective. The course will also touch upon some of the critical environmental issues. More importantly, though, it will help students pitch environmental stories and identify environmental angles to mainstream stories. This course will heavily emphasise “environmental justice” (Who gains? Who loses?) as a framework to understand environmental problems, their causes and effects. The course aims to develop research and analytical skills. This elective will be a combination of lecture sessions, field trips, interactive sessions, research projects and role-play exercises. Top

Covering Gender S. Anandhi, Associate Professor, Madras Institute of Development Studies S. Anandhi Students studying to work in the media are engaged in the business of looking and reporting, seeing and understanding. But one rarely looks and sees innocently. There are ways of seeing which we have inherited from the past and which define vision itself. The gender lens is primary in this context — it frames and naturalises inequality, deprivation, violence, and injustice. The course argues therefore that gender — as a way of seeing, living and understanding — has to be both unlearnt and re-Iearned, in the interests of equality and justice. To do this, the learner has to implicate herself in what she wishes to analyse, put herself in the middle of her subject of study. This does not mean that the classroom turns into a confessional, but it does mean that the everyday we take for granted be stood on its head and examined critically. The course demonstrates how we may do this, both conceptually and practically. It begins with an examination of the circumstances in which gender emerged as a category of analysis. It suggests that gender relationships are historically contingent and goes on to demonstrate why and how we might want to deploy gender as a critical category. The units that follow examine critically those personal, social and public sites where gender routinely ‘happens’: family, kinship, community, work, sexuality, art, and culture. The last set of units is titled ‘Issues in Focus’. This section looks at contemporary concerns using the gender lens: caste and community, political power, poverty, and survival.. Top

Photojournalism D. Krishnan, Photo Editor, The Hindu D. Krishnan A course on basic photography and an understanding of light is given to all the students in the first trimester. This enables the students to get a working knowledge of professional photographic equipment. Explanation of photographic terms like shutter speeds, aperture, film speeds etc are taken up with practical examples. The elective builds on that foundation. Sessions in shooting VVIP visits, covering functions, use of the flash as a creative tool, are taken up in the elective classes. The elective also deals with writing captions for photos. Students have to submit two photo features on topics given to them. The work includes street and candid photography. Lectures and slide shows by professional press and commercial photographers supplement the course. Classes on basic Photoshop and photo transmission are included in the elective. Top

The World of Cinema Krishnan Hariharan, film director and scholar Krishnan Hariharan There is no doubt that cinema has had a profound influence on the shaping of the concept of the ‘world’. In this course, students will get an understanding of the history of cinema, the various technical aspects of the medium, different aesthetic approaches that have been taken in interrogating the subject, and the way viewers all over the world have responded to this unique form of art and entertainment. They will be introduced to the works of a few acclaimed masters from the world of cinema. Cinema has had a great influence on the shaping of national identities, on ideas of law and justice, on values centring on race and gender, and on the shaping of popular culture. Students will learn to look at such aspects as the text of a film, the technological aspects of the medium, how entertainment cinema is delivered to the viewer through the iconic presence of the ‘Actor’, and how the text and the medium get renegotiated by the actor’s presence and reach the audience. The course will pay special attention to Indian cinema, its unique origins, the development of its popular melodramatic form replete with songs and a large dose of family ‘values’ and ‘conflicts’, and the impact of regional cable and satellite television channels on cinema. Have mass television and the consumerisation of cinema through videocassettes, VCDs and DVDs altered our perceptions? Top

Politics and Ideology Arvind Sivaramakrishnan, Senior Deputy Editor, The Hindu Arvind Sivaramakrishnan All political actions, policies, and laws embody some ideas about society, politics, and the good, as well as of human nature and human action, and therefore of what is right and fitting for human beings. This holds even if the political actors concerned have no interest in or no knowledge of political theory or political philosophy. This course will introduce about a dozen major political theories and ideologies and will use examples of political actions and events, so that we can identify the ideological commitments involved and analyse the ways in which specific actions, events, and policies express ideological commitments. The aim is for us to develop an enhanced sense of the issues involved in any one topic or controversy, so that we can ask better-informed questions of the participants and analyse the issues more acutely. The participants and policymakers may include politicians, party officials, civil servants, public and private sector organizations and managers, pressure groups, and other bodies. Most of our examples will be drawn from South Asia, but we shall refer to other countries and systems at suitable points as well. Wherever possible we shall use supporting material from the mass media. Top

Science Reporting Subbiah Arunachalam, Distinguished fellow (Centre for Internet Society, Bangalore) Subbiah Arunachalam We are living in a world increasingly shaped by science and technology. People need to be aware of scientific advances as well as their implications. A good deal of public knowledge about science is acquired from the mass media. The reporting and coverage of science in the print, broadcast and online media become a vital part of contemporary journalism. The purpose of this elective is to train students to cover scientific and technological developments and make a clear, accurate and compelling story for a reader who may not be familiar with science. Students will learn to write not only cutting-edge research, but also about funding and policy. We will read examples of the best science writing today in newspapers, magazines and books for the general reader. We will discuss the science that informs these stories. We will try to understand the techniques these reporters and writers use to communicate abstract ideas and to make complex issues comprehensible. We will also look at some not-so-good science writing. The science beat in journalism is extremely varied. Students get to study and write on issues of local significance such as drought, desalination or the fate of our ground water. They will deal with new frontiers in science as in gene therapy, stem cell research, black holes and the future of the universe. The range of topics helps students learn the challenges and excitement of making science accessible through a journalism of precision and liveliness. Top

Urban Studies A. Srivathsan, Deputy Edior, The Hindu A. Srivathsan The urban turn we are going through is increasing the importance of cities in our life. The sheer size, number and spatial convergence of activities puts cities as the engines of growth and makes them epicenters of cultural production. For the same reasons, they also become the sites of contestation. Some view cities and their growth as parasitic and anti-rural. Others think India no more mainly lives in villages, but in cities as well. An understanding of what forces shape urban life and development has become compulsory to cover cities. This course will offer an overview of urban development in India. It will focus on city planning, real estate markets, city laws and culture of cities. Issues of infrastructure investment, private partnership in city development and role of civil society in city affairs will be discussed. The rural-urban divide and urban poverty would be one of the key concerns of this course. A special section on the cultural and political landscape will explore mapping tools to gain new insights into city life. The course will draw on select writings on urban development and also include representations of city life in popular literature, including films, as its resource. Top

Sports Writing Nirmal Shekar, Sports Editor, The Hindu & Editor, Sportstar Nirmal Shekar There is a great demand for good sports writing in India. In addition to theoretical issues concerning the nature of sport and its function in society, this course leans heavily on practical work. A good sports writer has to be, above all, a good writer. While knowledge of particular sports and games is essential, it is not sufficient to ensure high quality sports journalism. The exercises teach the do’s and don’ts of good sports writing. Students learn how to read a game, profile famous and little known players, and write on mainstream and marginal sports. They learn interviewing skills through class work and practicals, develop the visual sense to select and crop action-pictures, and prepare material for publication. Sports appreciation is also part of the course. What do they know of sport who only sport know? The course lays emphasis on context, and on both depth and breadth in good sports coverage. The course also considers the market for sports writing — what story to do, and where to place it. It introduces students to the special requirements of sports reporting for various media. Students read outstanding sports writers, including‘non-specialists’ who have written with passion on the sport they love: C.L.R. James, Mike Marqusee, Norman Mailer, and Joyce Carol Oates, among others. Top

Business Reporting TCA Srinivasa-Raghavan, Editorial Advisor to the CEO, Kasturi & Sons and Aarati Krishnan,Chief of Bureau Research, Deputy Editor, The Hindu – Business Line Aarati Krishnan TCA Srinivasa Raghavan Mushrooming sources for business news and the wide availability of information has made business journalism an extremely competitive and skill-intensive profession in recent years. Today’s business journalist is expected to not just report events and developments in the world of business, but also to provide interpretation, analysis and contextual information that makes the information useful to the businessman. The Business module on companies, markets and finance is designed to equip students with these fundamental business reporting skills. Designed to provide even students with a non-finance background with the required foundation on these subjects, the course is designed to familiarize students with the essentials of microeconomics and macroeconomics. It will also acquaint them with the key drivers across different sectors of the Indian economy and with what makes or breaks the cost structure and profitability of firms. Students will also be familiarized with developments in the corporate sector over the last decade with insights on trends and variations in output and profits across sectors and the policy developments that affect them. The course introduces students to the functioning of the stock market, how firms are valued, drivers of bull and bear markets, asset classes such as equity, debt and alternative assets, apart from stock market regulation, investor protection, and capital market reform in recent years. Students learn to analyse issues raised by attempted or ongoing reform across key sectors such as banking and insurance and discuss the problems of regulating a liberalized financial sector. Students also gain a basic understanding of recent global capital market developments and the various international stock market indices like the Dow Jones Industrial, S&P 500, FTSE, Nikkei, and Hang Seng. This will be done with the backdrop of economic theory. This will enable them to report on complex business and economic phenomena in a simple and comprehensible manner. The Business Reporting Elective is complemented by a specialised module offered by Mint Top

Covering Arts and Culture Sadanand Menon, journalist and cultural critic Sadanand Menon The course develops the context for reading arts and culture not as a soft package to be tucked into a conventional weekend journalistic format, but as central to the very comprehension of how a society functions. It focuses on the specificity and diversity of the arts and culture context in India and Asia. It introduces students to the value of empirical and analytical tools for studying the arts and culture. The course ranges over the fine and plastic arts, books and literature, visual and electronic arts, performing arts, cinema and mass entertainment, popular expression, craft and design. Several critical issues are addressed, including issues relating to pre-colonial foundations of cultural principles, the makings of a national cultural policy, the tension between state patronage and private funding, and how the arts are housed. Through a brief history and also a contemporary appraisal, students are introduced to the art of reporting the arts — a critique of reviewing. The course offers opportunities to visit artistic and cultural events, to meet and converse with artists, and to generate an all round sensibility in this complex area through lectures, debates, discussions, seminars, and actual coverage. Top

Making Sense of Politics A S Panneerselvan, Executive Director, Panos South Asian & Readers’ Editor, The Hindu A S Panneerselvan The party politics of India is a brilliant polyphony. It is not like the cola-choice of the United States and other major western democracies, where the choice is binary between Republicans Vs Democrats or Conservatives Vs Labour or Christian Democrats Vs Social Democrats. Indian political reality is truly multi-party in its construct. It has multiple representational characters as well as many intrinsic democratic deficits within like lack of inner party democracy and entrenched glass ceilings. The centrality of politics keeps democratic heritage on track and does not permit the army or the judiciary or the executive to trample on the supreme will of the people. Comprehension of the current politics is central to understanding the dynamics of our own growth and developmental models. The course will explain the broad trajectories of three political strands of modern India: the nationalist, the Left and the reformist. It will explain the salient feature of four phases that define Indian politics: the postindependence euphoria that lasts till the split in Indian National Congress (1947-1969), the distortions and subversions of the institutions between 1969 and 1977, the period of flux between 1977 and 1991, and the contemporary phase of post-Mandal, post-Babri Masjid desecration, post-liberalisation coalition era (1991 to the present). It will elaborate on the delicate division of powers between the Union and the States that provide the federal balance. It will focus on how the finer elements of an asymmetric devolution that is inherent in the Constitution to address the political aspirations of the people from different regions, for example Article 370 which confers a special status on Jammu and Kashmir, are undermined by the desire to have an explicitly powerful centre. The course will help students to understand the functioning of the democratic institutions like parliament, state assemblies and local bodies and their relationship with the other arms like the executive and the judiciary. By explaining the existing checks and balances framework, the course will enable young journalists to understand the success and the failures of our political class. Top

Theatre and Performance Padma. V Theatre Person and Faculty, Department of English, Stella Maris College Padma Venkataraman The course combines practical exposure to the training of theatre, the basic components of theatre and the theoretical concepts of theatre making and practice around the world. The thrust of the course would be to unpack the matrix of aesthetics, politics and performance. It would also posit the emerging trends in inter-culturalism and multiculturalism in the context of globalization, commodification and homogenization. Finally, it would focus on cultural nationalism and the way it appropriates the performative codes prevalent over centuries. Body politics and spatiality would be the realms in which performativity would be elaborated. The linkages with gender, caste, religion and class would be studied. Alternate ways of looking at evolving ‘glocal’ paradigms would form the primary objective of the study. The students are expected to bring to the course their own exposure and responses to the cultural context of their specific region and context. Top

Covering Archaeology T.S. Subramanian, Associate Edior, Frontline T.S. Subramanian The elective course will emphasise that archaeology does not mean excavation of artefacts alone but includes decipherment of scripts such as the Indus, the Asokan-Brahmi, the Tamil-Brahmi, the Pallava Grantha, the Tamil Vattellutu, the Sumerian script, sculptures, carvings, pre-historic rock art in caves, murals in temples and palaces, copper-plate charters, exquisite bronzes and so on. (Despite attempts by scholars from different parts of the world, the Indus script has not been deciphered so far). The course will deal with how archaeologists identify a particular site for excavation, what are the indications available on the surface of a site, how they excavate a site, how they analyse it stratigraphically, how they date the artefacts if they find them and so on. The course will deal with the discovery of stone tools used by hunter-gatherers, dated to several lakh years before the present, the paleolithic tools, the neolithic tools, dolmens, cairn circles, menhirs belonging to the Megalithic Age, how the Indus sites were discovered, the history of the Indus civilisation, how vast it was, why it collapsed and attempts at deciphering the Indus script. There will be focus on Jainism, Buddhism, how the Jaina and the Buddhist sites were excavated in India, the spread of Buddhism to Sri Lanka, Burma and other countries, the artefacts including the Yakshi and Yaksha artefacts belonging to Jainism, the Asokan period, the Nagarjunakonda and the Amaravathi sites, the Pallava age (Mamallapuram), the Chola dynasty, the Pandian and the Chera rulers, the Satavahanas and so on. There will be classes on Angkor Wat and the Hindu temples in Laos and Vietnam.   Top

Human Rights and the Postcolonial: Pathways in Literature Akhila Ramnarayan, Scholar   Akhila Ramnarayan Colonization and indigenous struggles for sovereignty and autonomy in postcolonial states are key historical phenomena that have generated human rights abuses and propelled social protest about these abuses. How do writers from different cultures around the world represent human rights questions and concerns in their works? This course introduces key topics and questions in human rights and postcolonial studies, highlighting the substantive intersections between human rights and the postcolonial, in theory and creative practice. We will examine colonial and postcolonial writings as part of human rights and social justice narratives, past and present. Course themes will include environmental justice, intersections between race and human rights violations, gender, colonization, and postcoloniality. Top

Reading (and writing about) Cinema Baradwaj Rangan, Film Critic and Deputy Editor, The Hindu Baradwaj Rangan This is a class that aims to encourage students to bring to bear on their cinema viewing a unique perspective. Therefore, this will necessarily be a class about watching cinema, which is not the same as leaning back in your chair and stuffing your mouth with popcorn. Each class, the first fifteen minutes or so of a film will be screened, and this will be followed by an interactive session where students will come up and say what they “saw” (i.e. how they interpreted this segment with respect to staging, acting, or any other aspect which catches their unique eye). We will then discuss how to incorporate this unique perspective into “writing” about cinema. At the end of the course, a film will be screened and students will be asked to write an essay on how they “saw” the film. Top

Child Rights — in association with UNICEF — Shreya Ramnath, Research Associate, ACJ Shreya Ramnath The elective aims to introduce students to the concept of child rights, expose and sensitise them to the broad range of issues affecting children in South Asia, with a specific emphasis on India, and help them understand how to report on children’s issues responsibly and sensitively. The course will introduce child rights in a larger human rights context, explore the notion of the child as a potential individual with rights, and examine some of the barriers to the realisation of these rights. It will also explore the various dimensions of child rights issues plaguing children and the exploitation and deprivation children face. With emphasis on both ground realities as well as policy angles, the elective will examine in detail some of the pressing problems in society today, including child labour, unequal and gendered access to adequate education and health care, rising malnutrition, violence and exploitation, and female foeticide and infanticide. Media coverage tends to focus on the sensational, is often replete with stereotypes, and ignores the array of real problems affecting the young the world over. More importantly, issues are reported with little regard for confidentiality. The elective will emphasise reportage with a human rights approach, and discuss the guidelines for sensitive reporting by professional journalists, as well as the need for accurate representation of children in the media. Top

Magazine Journalism Tim Holmes, Senior Lecturer, Cardiff School of Journalism, Cardiff University Tim Holmes Magazines are a distinct media form that demand specific skills, abilities and knowledge from the journalists who create them. This course will start by giving students an understanding of the political economy of the global magazine industry, in print and digital formats, with specific reference to the Indian market. The main thrust of the elective, however, will challenge students to devise and develop a new magazine concept. Starting with a bare idea, each student will learn how to research and present a supporting business plan before starting to create content to suit the magazine’s readership. Workshops on writing news and features will help to reinforce good practice before students venture out to find and bring back real stories for their title. Then it will be time to establish a suitable design style and turn words and pictures into actual pages. At the end of the course each student will have a new magazine concept, a business rationale to support it and a set of sample pages that demonstrate both style and substance. Top

Music and Freedom Gowri Ramnarayan, Musician, Playwright and Journalist Gowri Ramnarayan This elective foregrounds music as a live and contemporary art form, not in museumised isolation, but as part of living, breathing material culture in the Indian subcontinent. The focus is on classical Carnatic music, whose capital Chennai affords excellent opportunities for live listening and interaction with practitioners. Other genres from classical Hindustani music to folk forms, fusion music and film music will also be explored in their context, and as vital features of the diverse sociocultural milieu of India’s regions. Whether in classical, folk or film music, poetry is a crucial component of all music in India. Lyrics anchor moods which are melodised and nuanced through voice and instrument. The bhakti movement has contributed so overwhelmingly to Indian music; the work of poets in every language (Andal, Appar, Basavanna, Jayadeva, Kabir, Sur, Tulsi, Mirabai, Namdev, Tukaram, Tyagaraja… Rabindranath Tagore) becomes essential to understanding the development of raga and the concept of mood-based improvisation in music. Exploring bhakti also enables drawing connections between sculpture, painting, dance and music. While India centre-stages vocal music, instruments from clay pots to strings tied to a dried gourd, are vital to different musical cultures in the subcontinent. Studying these instruments can become an exciting journey across linguistic and socio-cultural specificities, promoting an understanding of eco-political and environmental issues as well. Music appreciation cannot be taught through lectures. So this elective will combine lectures with demonstrations, interactive sessions, research projects, listening to and viewing audio/video clips, and attending live concerts.   Top

Creative and Critical writing Vikram Kapoor,Writer and Professor Vikram Kapoor The creative and critical writing elective uses a mixture of classroom lecture, in-class writing, workshops and production of work to familiarise the students with the nuts and bolts of prose writing. Over the course of the elective, we will discuss the cornerstones of writing memorable prose, such as using autobiography to create fiction, choosing the right point of view from which to tell the story, creating a memorable character, coming up with a beguiling plot, drawing a setting, framing affecting dialogue, finding the right language for the story, and, finally, editing and revising a rough manuscript into a polished finished piece. The emphasis will be on writing as a reader, and reading as a writer. Other than doing various writing exercises, the students will also produce one short story of 1000 words and a critical commentary of 500 words. By the end of the elective, students should be well-versed in the nuts and bolts of prose fiction, and have learnt story-telling techniques that they can use to create fiction as well as narrative nonfiction. www.vikramkapur.com   Top

Journalism for Development B. Jayashree, Media and Development Communication Professional B. Jayashree In an environment where communities in India and across the world are exhibiting, sometimes very vocally, an enhanced consciousness of social and development issues, the media has a larger responsibility in deepening the understanding and space to development concerns. The “Journalism for Development” course aims to equip students with skills required to facilitate positive social change, from picking to packaging a story. The course includes orientation to basic research to pick an issue, and grasp its intensity, understanding the need for sensitivity to and awareness of socio-cultural settings, being perceptive of vulnerability, exclusion, and similar key issues. Through visits, discussions and participatory methodologies, it also aims to build capacity to delve indepth into a story while grasping the larger picture. It will include discussion on methods of packaging, writing and presentation of development stories to ensure greater connect with readers and audience. The course aims to include a preparation to the reality of dealing with reportage and coverage of trauma – disaster, conflict, destruction and disease – and lives affected by these, with appropriate terminologies, images and ethical approaches along with efforts to facilitate positive change and development. The students will also work on a key development issue of their choice, in an intensive campaign mode with participatory methods and audienceengagement techniques, appropriate media mix and intensity, to try and put together the story that makes a difference, to facilitate social change.   Top

Investigative Journalism Techniques Nikhil Kanekal, Journalist and Lawyer Nikhil Kanekal This course is intended to teach students how to report and present investigative news stories and features. Student journalists will be taught how to dig for information, analyze data, and flesh out the investigative edge in stories.The class will also learn about and discuss topics such as corruption, public accountability, terrorism, unethical business practices, environmental hazards, public health and conflicts of interest that key people face in their private or public lives. The course will include hard interviewing techniques, learning to piece together documentary and digital evidence, and explanatory ways of writing or producing a complicated story – since most investigative stories are intricate webs of information. By examining a few investigative stories as case studies, the class shall attempt to take students through the process of forming a hypothesis, collecting evidence and then presenting it in a cogent, lucid narrative. The course will be kept platform-neutral as best as possible – students from print, broadcast or digital media can take it – and teaching material will range from book readings, films, seminars on investigative journalism and guest lectures from investigative journalists in the field. Top