Course name: Post-Graduate Diploma in Journalism
Duration: Eleven months

Common Curriculum for English and Hindi course

Reporting

This course covers what is news, the different kinds of news stories, role of the reporter, where to find sources, the importance of accuracy, attribution, balance and fairness, verification of facts and sources, covering meetings, speeches and news conferences, taking notes, the use of press releases and announcements, interviewing techniques and the basics of covering a beat.

Students will learn how to construct a news story; write a lead; study the importance of clarity and brevity in writing; the use of quotations and writing on deadline. They will learn to write for print, web and radio. Once they have mastered the basics of writing, they will progress to interpretive stories, features, profiles and investigative stories.

Editing

In this course students will learn to edit news reports for print and new media. They will learn how to select the right words; locate gaps in news reports and strengthen copy, judge news reports and decide display, and write eye-grabbing headlines.

Page and Web Design

This course will prepare students to make newspaper pages using QuarkXpress. They will also learn the principles of print and web design, basics of typography, page layouts, use of colour and the latest techniques in navigation.

Students will work with Adobe Photoshop, Flash, Final Cut Pro, QuarkXpress and other applications currently being used in the media.

Investigative and Computer-Assisted Reporting

In this course students will learn the techniques of mining data and identifying news points from statistical information put out by governments and corporations. They will also learn techniques of turning numbers into human interest reports.

Podcasts
In this course, students will learn to develop, edit and publish audio files using software like Audacity.

Multimedia
This course will teach students to tell a story using text, photographs, audio and video files. Students will be required to visualize and develop multimedia stories for publishing on the net.

Ethics
Journalists frequently must ask themselves, “What is the right thing to do?” The answer is not always easy, and it’s not always the same. Students will learn what journalism’s ethical standards are, and how to make ethical decisions in dozens of different scenarios.

Advanced Reporting
Ten specialized journalism modules will be organized during the course of the year on the following subjects:

Business Reporting                            Health Reporting
Environmental Reporting                   Education Reporting
Arts Reporting                                      Defense Reporting
Science Reporting                              Covering Law and the Courts
Political Journalism                            Sports Reporting       

Right to Information Project

The students will be taught how to obtain information by filing a query under the Right to Information Act. They will then query government agencies and obtain information to prepare a project report of publishable quality.

Guest Speaker Programmes

A series of subject specialists will deliver lectures on their areas of expertise to develop the students’ knowledge and worldview in a real-world context.

Student-Led Sessions

Students will work in teams to identify media issues, research background content and lead discussions. The goal of such activities will be to build confidence, develop analytical skills and foster team spirit.

Extra training for Hindi Course students
Translation

The Hindi course students will be given extensive practice in translating news reports from English to Hindi. This will be in addition to writing and editing news reports in Hindi.