A newspaper produced by students

Recently, I was at the S.R. M. University campus in Kattangalathur. With the S.R.M. School of Journalism & Mass Communication having established itself there, students from the campus as well as from other S.R.M. campuses (Ramavaram and Modinagar) have now begun contributing to the campus newspaper, their own newsletter, called Spectrum. Students from various disciplines have been identified as correspondents and they now have the task of gathering and putting together information for the journal, which will appear once every fortnight.

Present at the launch of the paper was P. Sathyanarayanan, the Vice Chancellor, and S. Muthiah, honorary dean of the School of Journalism & Mass Communication, under whose guidance Venkat Pulapaka, head of the journalism department, and his team coordinated with students to produce the newspaper. Spectrum is not a lab journal; it is a sort of community newspaper and, if it takes off, could well be a worthwhile effort. The onus will be on the students to contribute enough material for 12-16 pages every fortnight. The faculty will help with final editing and page making, but then that is not much of a challenge for those who have been in the business for years.

Incidentally, the S.R.M. School of Journalism & Mass Communication, Kattangalathur, will offer a part-time postgraduate diploma course in journalism of nine months duration, at the S.R.M. Nightingale Matriculation Higher Secondary School in West Mambalam (68, Thambiah Road), Chennai. Classes are scheduled to commence from January 21, 2008, and will be from 6.30 pm to 8 pm, five days a week.

The course has been designed as a postgraduate course, open to graduates from any recognised university / institution recognised by the University Grants Commission. The objective is to equip aspiring journalists and writers with the latest knowledge in the fields of newspaper and magazine publishing as well as other media and to impart professional skills to enable them to pursue careers as full-time or part-time journalists.

The faculty, an eminent one with long experience in journalism and communication, is likely to include Muthiah, who is also well-known journalist and author; Pulapaka; S.R. Madhu, senior writer-editor who has worked with The Times of India and Span; Sam Rajappa, senior journalist at The Statesman, Chennai; Tim Murari and Shreekumar Varma, both well-known writers and authors; Vincent D’Souza, editor of Adyar Times and Mylapore Times; and, well, myself who will also double up as course coordinator.

For details, you can contact Shanthi at 9884133355.