IIMC to offer MA in health journalism, new media, communication governance

NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) is likely to start three full-time masters level degree courses from the next academic year, 2020-’21. These will be MA in health journalism, communication governance and new media.

In November 2018, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) had issued a Letter of Intent (LoI) to IIMC to grant it deemed-to-be university status. This bestowed upon the institute the power to grant MA degrees.

“The health sector has grown exponentially and there is demand for people to communicate developments in the sector,” said a senior faculty member, asking not to be named. The course on communication governance will cover the laws and policies in the field. “This course will involve a good amount of research on various public policies and their legality” said the teacher. The course on new media will look at the opportunities presented by the internet.

‘Emerging areas’

The institute will have a separate process for admission to the MA courses and initially, it will have an intake capacity of 20 students per course.

“We want to get into emerging areas of journalism which will give an edge to our students,” said a senior member of the faculty, asking not to be named. He added that the existing postgraduate diploma courses will continue and there is no plan to convert those into full-time degree courses. They, too, are two-year programmes.

The institute is among the oldest journalism schools in the country and functions under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It has six campuses across the country – New Delhi, Dhenkanal, Jammu, Kottayam, Amravati, and Aizawl. The University Grants Commission (UGC) had recommended IIMC for the change in status under the ‘De Novo’ category which includes institutions that focus on teaching and research in emerging areas of knowledge.

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