M. Venkaiah Naidu, Minister for Information & Broadcasting has said that the process of making IIMC into a university was under way and once IIMC becomes a university, it would have a platform to start many innovative programs that would aim at providing wider perspective and inter-disciplinary approach to media education. It would also provide the institute with requisite resources to meet the growing demand of manpower in the industry and academia. Shri Naidu stated this here today at 49th convocation ceremony of Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi.Speaking on the occasion, Shri Naidu urged the graduating students to stay away from sensationalism. He said that presenting the facts as they existed without any color and biases would enable then to become truthful communicators. He urged them to preserve our old age values and culture while reporting and should use Information to fight social evils such as corruption, poverty and illiteracy.
While referring to the corrupt practice of paid news, the Minister urged them to not succumb to such unethical pressures and they should maintain high standards of journalism as true soldiers of fourth estate.Emphasizing on increasing role of social & digital media in communication domain, Shri Naidu said that Social media has changed the way the communication flows. Millions of people across cultures and geographies are interacting in real time turning the world virtually into a ‘Global Village’. He further added that digital media had brought in immense opportunities and challenges because the information was shared in real time which generated instant feedback and response. Social media provided an important platform for information dissemination for the active young netizens, who were restless and expected quick solutions. Today communication is not one way but has become interactive. People per se were not taking things at face value anymore.
They were questioning, analyzing and responding on issues that they had been passive about in the past and were demanding transparency, accountability and redressal of their grievances from the highest echelons of government and industry.Speaking about the changing profiles of Media Consumers, Shri Naidu said that Indian languages had made a major impact on internet and mobile based technologies which is a significant paradigm shift and has rightly received the attention of policy makers while thinking about Skill India in media industry. Adding further, the Minister said that media strategists and planners need to keep in mind the importance of regional media while planning campaigns to reach out to a disparate set of audiences. He also mentioned that Government’s Digital India initiative has propelled the New Media to grow by leaps and bounds in areas such as animation, VFX, gaming and digital advertising apart from social networking and internet.
IIMC has the distinction of being universally recognized as a Centre of excellence in the field of journalism, media and mass communication teaching, training and research. IIMC in the last six years has opened four branches in various parts of the country such as at Aizawl in Mizoram, Jammu in J&K, Amravati in Maharashtra and Kottayam in Kerala. 341 students were conferred PG Diplomas at this Convocation which included students from six Centres of IIMC. The students were conferred diplomas in many courses which included 144 students in English Journalism, 60 students in Hindi Journalism, 72 students in Advertising & Public Relations, 44 students in Radio & TV journalism and 8 students in Urdu Journalism. Catering to online students, IIMC has decided to start online courses and a training programme on community radio in addition to many other short term courses.