Report

The Department of English at the IIS University organized the seventh in the series of virtual Alumna-Interaction on November 23, 2020. For the same, Ms. Isha Bajpai from the batch of 2011 was invited and who is currently pursuing a career in the field of print journalism. She completed her higher education from the Indian Institute of Journalism & New Media, Bangalore. The topic of her talk was “Journalism as a Career”. She is in this field since the last eight years and, through her experience, gave her views on the present scenario of journalism, the process of news-making and how studying literature equipped her with the tools to excel in this chosen area of work.

She began her session by sharing how her interests in writing, being curious and love of literature helped in shaping her career. She continued by describing the areas that media and journalism colleges focus on- understanding the meaning of news and differentiating and comprehending various news medium. The difference between magazines, newspapers, channels and websites lies in their form and structure. She then went on to explaining the main part of her work,  that is how news is made. She made it very clear that the most important point to be kept in mind is that, “news story is something that is new" which means that while reporting, the thumb rule must be, no repetition and nothing that the readers are already aware of. She highlighted the importance of considering the reader’s reaction, that is to examine and balance each angle of a story from all perspectives. In every story, there are two sides, one that claims something, the other that defends it. To achieve a balance, there must be a neutral person or group who gives opinions outside the existing spectrum providing the reader’s point of view to the content a reporter is working on. There are some important points that every aspiring journalist must keep in mind. They are: be “thick skinned”, one must be curious,  overhearing others’ conversation is very important as well for it will helps to understand common people’s opinions and the significance to remain updated and connected. A story is thus created on the basis of how it is pursued. Every news platform provides news in an inverted pyramid form, that is, the most important news comes at the very top. With these bits of information regarding the field of Journalism, the Talk gave an insight into the world of news and newspapers.

The last part of the lecture emphasized on how a decision can be made to opt for journalism as a career option. As stated by the speaker, two questions must be contemplated upon while entering this line, viz. how much one is interested in news and how much one is interested in having an open, logical and analytical mind. With these questions answered, one will have the confidence and motivation to step into this profession. She also shared the importance of the news devoid of personal opinions and bias. With these words, the interactive session concluded with a question and answer round wherein the students had an opportunity to converse with her and clarify their doubts regarding this field.