There is this news all around. People in newspapers are losing jobs in large numbers since the COVID19 pandemic struck the nation. It was expected for quite some time. The rise of the digital media and convergence of multi-media in news signaled the decline of the high expensive print media news. And the pandemic, physical distancing norms and lockdown just made it the decline faster. And so is the fate of cinema which with closed multiplexes which may continue so till end of 2020, the theatre based analogous cinema has gone for a toss virtually. Alongside, the events industry has also taken a big hit as no gatherings are being allowed due to infectious nature of the virus.
These exactly have laid the path for New Media in the real sense to evolve.
From Print led news media of the last century, we had moved to a television led news media in India since 2000, with its apex being during the India Against Corruption movement and the rise of the new set of politicians today. But with the pandemic striking hard and for long, we are decidedly moving into web-led mobile-journalism led new form of news media, where web will break stories, television will follow up and keep debating on the same, and print will get into deeper details. Web will give the speed and the spread of news, television the talking points and visual impact, print the depth and details. We now need a new crop of multimedia journalists equally comfortable on the mobile, the camera and on the laptop.
Similarly for entertainment, the formats are becoming obsolete and web entertainment is coming of age to rule the roost, with stories from 10/20 minutes short stories, 40/50 minutes long featurettes and above 70 minutes feature films. Some eight films in Bollywood and at least six in Hollywood have been launched on OTT platforms since the lockdown. Television entertainment is also taking a new avatar with reinventing past stories, keeping newer content crisp and with lesser characters, and focusing on stories rather than actors, as in the new age films.
Radio is having a new birth, and news and fiction in radio shall be the newer content ahead, apart from musical entertainment which has already matured.
The other interesting part of media of tomorrow is the communication of brands and marketing which is moving on to the web too, with more branded content, longer acts rather than shorter ads, more e-events organized digitally, and press conferences going digital. The focus of brands and marketing today is more on core values, stakeholders’ interest and compassion rather than aggressive sales except for essentials.
The changed scenario hence needs New Age media professionals:
(A) Media technology professional adept on the web, with shoot and edit, with sound and graphics, with animation and gaming, with special and visual effects, and with virtual and augmented reality. Hence, Adamas University, for the first time in east and northeast India, has come out with BSc Media Technology for those who love technology and are not writing and research oriented much. The higher version of the same is MSc Media Technology.
(B) Media management professionals who can build and manage brands and reputation, strategize and execute events in the new normal, ensure media revenues, market films and television or web entertainment, and build online reputation and seamlessly integrate that with image on ground. All of these leading to sustainable branding and marketing. Hence, Adamas University, again for the first time in eastern and northeastern India, has come out with MBA Communication & Management and MBA Events & Entertainment Management.
(C) News media professionals who can integrate convergent of multi-media news content and work simultaneously for web, television, radio and print media, for whom the University has evolved a program titled MA in Convergent Journalism. At the Bachelors level, it is BA in Media & Communication, which also covers film, television, advertising, PR content.
(D) Also needed are the Entertainment media professionals who can be the creative minds behind entertainment initiatives, like television serials, cinema, branded films, music and radio entertainment, and can focus on research, writing, scripting, directing etc. For them is MA in Entertainment Media covering films, television and radio entertainment.
With these very well developed programs with clear purpose on learning outcomes and with full focus on hands-on training with multiple studios, Adamas University is charting a new path in the domain of creative education in this part of the country.
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