CENTRE FOR JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION UNDER VIDYA-BHAVANA

The Centre for Journalism and Mass Communication (CJMC) came into being in April 29, 2000, with a PG Diploma Course in Journalism and Mass Communication under Visva-Bharati, testifying to the vision of the founder of this University, the greatest communicator of this world ever. Tagore's interest in media and communication is well known, the Poet being a Communicator par Excellence himself.

The Centre started developing communicators of tomorrow and fine-tuning them for connecting with the world community. In 2003-04, the landmark year of the Centre, a full-fledged two-year MA course was introduced, which was intended to keep up with the present global trends in the art and science of communication.

The PG degree curriculum is different here with thrust on all the media tools, ranging from print to electronic, from broadcasting to narrowcasting, from the very beginning. Initiation to the practicalities of communication is early, so that the absorption is complete. Students undertake visual, radio and newspaper projects in the first two semesters of study. In the fourth semester, every student completes a dissertation. It is one of the very few media learning institutions, which has its training publication (lab journal), “Visva-Bharati Chronicle”. This is a tabloid publication, which is ‘of’ the students and ‘by’ the students but ‘for’ the entire community. It gives the budding communicators a real taste of the practical field of journalism. Students also prepare visual and audio news capsules, full-fledged films, web projects under the guidance of the experts from the respective fields. They prepare short films chronicling work related to development communication, with emphasis on rural India.