Thursday 28 May 2015

Importance of Being Inspiring and Selfless Journalist

With the rise of alternative careers in today’s world, we see a lot of youngsters exploring new horizons and trying their hands at new things. Nowadays we see a lot of new comers opting for careers like designing or dancing, which until about a decade back was considered a hobby and not a full time career. One of the most promising career for today’s youth seems to be mass communication careers, with its risks, its demands and dynamic nature, we have a lot of young people opting for it and the thrills and danger it brings with it. Now, how exactly did his occupation become so popular, the answer lies in the number of inspiring and selfless journalist and reporters out there, who work their hearts out to bring to us pure unadulterated sensible news, one of them is our dear fiery Barkha Dutt, let us study a little about her.

Born to an Air India Official father and a journalist mother, Barkha Dutt had quite the perfect environment to grow. Right from her childhood she had a sense of what danger meant or what risk meant privy to her parent’s professions. After graduating from St. Stephens College in Delhi with an English literature degree, she went on to pursue a Master’s degree in mass communications from Jamia Milia Islamia. Thereafter she joined NDTV and started her journalism career here and then rose to head its English wing. Dutt gained prominence for her reportage of the Kargil War. Dutt has won many national and international awards, including the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour for her coverage of the tsunami that lashed India in 2004. She has twice been named on the list of 100 "Global Leaders of Tomorrow" compiled by the World Economic Forum In 2005.
If you too aspire to be someone like her and be an inspiration for many of your fellow citizens, give oil to your passion by joining any of the Top journalism colleges in India and keep the fire burning!


Tuesday 19 May 2015

India’s first four women journalists: The Lost gems of our country

The British Raj saw major dramatic transformation of the Indian society with the modernisation of the Indian Society for the better, With the English breakfast of bread and butter and the popularity of clothing like the trousers and blazers, India was starting to transform. On major positive change was the education of Women. Though only higher class women were educated first, slowly various option opened up for women, specially writing newsletters and articles. Let us look at India’s first four women journalists:

  • VIDYA MUNSHI
Widely considered as the first woman journalist in India, she worked for several newspapers and magazines, including, devoting ten years to Russy Karanjia‘s Blitz. At a time, when the communist party was still illegal in India, she joined the Communist Party of Great Britain. She broke major stories, that received national attention then, which included, a plot by two Canadian pilots who were trying to smuggle gold through the Sunderbans and the the Chinakuri mine disaster in Asansol.

  • HOMAI VYARAWALLA
Popularly known as ‘Dalda 13, Vyarawalla was India’s first woman photo journalist. Starting her career in the 1930’s, she photographed some of the most influential Indian politicians including, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mohammed Ali Jinnah and Indira Gandhi. She was responsible for capturing the almost all the historic moments during India’s in independence struggle.

  • PRATIMA PURI
In 1965, when Doordarshan started airing a 5 minute news bulletin, Pratima Puri became India’s first television news reader. She interviewed Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. She was truly an inspiration for the young women of her age.

  • DEVYANI CHAUBAL
She was the most popular women journalists to cover cinema in the country. Chaubal was best known for her fortnightly column, “Frankly Speaking”. She was the first woman to use ‘Hinglish,’ (using Hindi words in her otherwise English language columns) in her writing.

Now, with the best journalism graduate schools, and the best colleges for mass communication in india at your disposal, your aspirations to become one like them seems so much more easy to achieve. Don’t lose out on this opportunity and be the next popular women journalist!