With the screening of the knowledge and value-packed video titled, “We cannot not communicate”, the second semester students of the Salesian College of Higher Education, Dimapur, were introduced to the three-day long journalism course held at its college campus from May 3 to 5.
The journalistic journey was led by Fr. Jonas Kerketta, coordinator of mass media in the Salesian Province of Dimapur and editor of Dimapur Links.
On the first day, the students were made to understand the importance of print journalism as well as to trace the long history of newspaper journalism.
Elements and characteristics of news as well as the categories of news reports were dealt with on the second day.
The input session on successful scripting of the first paragraph of the news report-lead, was examined by the students with copies of newspapers in their hand. On the third day the animator insisted on the idea of ‘learning by doing’. Six sample ‘newspapers’– Dimapur Currents, Morning Dew, Cow’s Ambulance and The Evergreen Express were created by the six groups into which the participants were divided.
In the concluding session the animator highlighted the fact that political parties who were complacent and did not publicize their good works sufficiently, paid the price of disastrous defeats in elections. On the other hand, their opponents made aggressive use of the media to highlight the failures of the previous regimes and made much hype of their own future achievements. The gullible electorates believed them and voted them to power. Thus the adage “Publish or perish” still holds good, he added.
Fr. Jonas further encouraged the participants to begin their journalistic sojourn by contributing news, views and articles to their own institutional newsletters and journals and then venture out as freelance journalists writing to public newspapers and journals.
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