NICO - Journalism student bags honours at National Seminar

Disha Gloria Prabhu, a first year Post Graduate student of Mass Communication and Journalism, Nitte University became the only student from Mangalore to present a seminar paper at MEDIACON-2013, the National Conference on Media Ethics and Social Responsibility at St. Joseph’s College, Bangalore, held November 2013. Her paper ‘Ethics go to Work: Media Percepts vs. Media Practice’ was widely appreciated by the academic community drawn from the top journalism schools of the country. Over 22 members, predominantly professors, were shortlisted to present papers at this national conference. “It was a wonderful learning experience and an honour to have presented my research paper at a national seminar. I thank, Prof.Rakesh Katarey, Head of the Dept. of MC&J for guiding me in every way possible to conduct the research,” said Ms.Prabhu. The paper was based on extensive interviews with nearly 20 Journalists drawn from five news organizations in the city. It is a study of how policy and socialization processes within organizations influences news and thereby public opinion. The study is based on the classic work ‘Social Control in the Newsroom’ by Dr. Warren Breed, an eminent sociologist from the University of Columbia. “All the editors of the leading newspapers that were subject of the study were incredibly supportive. I also thank all the respondents who patiently sat through the lengthy interviews and provided insights into my area of study,” said Ms.Prabhu. Through this study, Ms. Prabhu was able to validate the influence of editorial policies on professionalism and ethical practices in India “We found that when a reporter is faced with issues involving ethics, policies of the organization play a very important role in what the reporter ultimately decides to do.” The study made it evident that policies are self-regulating. It raises serious questions about the controls that take us beyond the question of compliance of journalists and practice of ethics in journalism Many journals across the country have approached Ms. Prabhu offering to publish her paper. Apart from Ms. Prabhu’s work, Ms.Jincy Abraham’s paper on advertising was also shortlisted for presentation at the national conference. However, due to indifferent health, she could not make it to the seminar.

Media students bag I prize in debate
Mangalore: A team comprising Nayana S. Pillai and Kevin Matthew Thomas, both, students of Nitte University’s Mass Communication & Journalism Programes has won the first prize in debating at the ANANDOTSAVA’14 inter-collegiate competition. The two U.G students were amongst the 800 participants drawn from 25 colleges across the state. Over 26 events were held at this festival. Besides citations, the students were awarded a cash prize of Rs 1000. The chairman and co-ordinator of the festival thanked Nitte’s MC&J department for sending “a very talented team of students” “we are proud of the fact that we won the first prize given the quality of competition from engineering and non-engineering colleges of the state,” said Ms. Nayana.