Review by Prof. C K Sardana
|
HANDBOOK OF PRINT JOURNALISM by Prof. Kiran
Thakur,
Publisher :
Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism and Communication,
Bhopal
Pages 393. Price Rs.375
|
Notwithstanding the hullabaloo as to whether Electronic Media,
especially the New Media --
also called Social Media -- is going to stall any
further progress in Print Media, the fact is that Indian Newspaper industry has
shown phenomenal growth on all counts. While large number of newspapers in the
West has been either closed down or suffered decline in readership, circulation
figure of most Indian newspapers has continued to grow. Indian newspapers have
added new additions, supplements, pullouts and publications. They are using the
latest technology to produce black and white and color publications.
 |
| Prof Kiran Thakur |
Our newspaper industry is among the best in the world. Unfortunately, students of print journalism
have been depending on books by foreign writers who obviously wrote with
their experience in their respective countries. In the last few years, however,
a number of books have been written by Indian professionals -- both
practitioners and academicians. All this has been a disjointed effort.
Makhanlal Chaturvedi University, an exclusive university for
Journalism and Communication set up at Bhopal, came out with the concept of
consolidating various nuances in journalism and communication in 2010. Under
this well thought-out program, the University has brought out quality
text books on Media-related subjects in conformity with the
syllabuses in its own courses as also elsewhere in India and abroad, besides other
publications. The University has thus carved a niche for itself through quality
education, research, publications and organizing even international events.
The book by Prof. Kiran Thakur, a veteran
journalist-turned journalism teacher and a media researcher, is among a dozen
text books already published by the University.
Prof. Brij Kishore Kuthiala, University's Vice Chancellor says
in the Preface 'authors of these (text) books have provided the
readers Bhartiya (Indian) perspectives on modern communication and journalism.'
This is exactly what is required at the present juncture.
The book is addressed to students and teachers of
Print Journalism. It is not just a Handbook but an encyclopedia. It contains
detailed information about the nitty-gritty of newspapers - what we call in
engineering language: from concept to commissioning. It has chapters on
newspaper reporting, editing, page design, sources of news, production of web
editions. There are also chapters on theories and models of communication
because of their importance for journalism students aspiring to be
journalists.
Some other noteworthy features of the book are a
comprehensive glossary, lists of websites of Indian newspapers, code of ethics
adopted by The Hindu besides other relevant web links. The readers will surely
find the book useful to understand the complexity of the fascinating
field of print journalism.
MCU should be complimented for conceiving this idea of
text books, commissioning right persons and getting more than dozen
volumes written and published. These are in English. There is a huge Hindi
heartland covering UP, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Haryana, MP
and Chhatisgarh. The University should organize Hindi editions of these
text books as a solid and lasting contribution to the teaching of
journalism all over the country. (casardana@gmail.com)
