Use of social media in teaching journalism

1. Archana Kumari, Assistant Professor, Department of
Mass communication and New Media, Central University
of Jammu, Jammu – 180011, J & K, India,
E-mail: archanaiimc@gmail.com
Sadaf Bushra, Assistant Professor, Department of
Convergent Journalism, Central University of Kashmir,
Academic Block, Nowgam Byepass, Srinagar – 190015, J
& K, India.
E-mail: sadaf.bushra@cukashmir.ac.in

2.  The recent emergence of social media worldwide is being noticed in every sphere
of life in India including education. The growing and ever increasing position of
Social media tools such as Face book, Twitter, Orkut, Blogs, Google docs has the
capacity to enhance education to a great extent especially media education
(Tiryakioglu, and Erzurum, 2011). Also the adaptability and familiarity of today’s
generation with applications such as Face book, Twitter, You Tube and Wikipedia
is quite visible. This is why many academicians believe that online media tools can
be used for ‘serious student centered learning’ (Goodyear and Ellis, 2008 as cited
in Selwyn, 2011). Amidst this technological transformation and growing tech-
savvy young population of India, the educational institutions are expected to catch
up with this world of social media applications and social media users. Since
‘social media’ itself contains media within it, so media schools in India are
expected to adopt it first for teaching purposes, sometimes as a subject and
sometimes as tool or teaching aide. This paper tries to find out, what is the modus
operandi of rationally chosen ten media schools of India in teaching journalism by
using social media and how much capable they are in doing so. The research tools
used for this study are: Personal interviews and Questionnaire.
 Keywords: Face book, Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia, Social media

3.  Though uses of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in education
primarily in adult education just started in 21st century, teaching New Media or
using new media in teaching journalism was out of sight till that time. Two
innovative projects attempted to use IT for imparting basic literacy skills, which
were – Commonwealth of Learning Literacy Project(1999-2002) and The Computer
Based Rural Literacy Project (2000) (Patel, 2002). But still there were no traces of
uses of New Media in teaching journalism.
 In a personal communication through mail, Priya Rajsekhar, who teaches New
Media Journalism in Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), Chennai, says,
“I understand it is very nascent. I do not have documents but can say with some
degree of confidence that ACJ should be one of the very few colleges in the
country that offer a comprehensive New Media Journalism program. ”
 Similar views were expressed by Mark Austin, concerned faculty of Indian Institute
of Journalism and New Media (IIJNM). He says:
“To the best of my knowledge, IIJNM was the first journalism school to offer a
course on new media when it opened 14 years ago.”
 Though it is hard to find which institute was first to offer a course in New Media; it
is more difficult to find out which one among them started using first social media
in teaching journalism. Such uses are very recent experiments in today’s media
education in India.

4.  In the backdrop of above mentioned scenario,
our study examines the following research
questions:
 Which social media are being used for teaching
journalism in selected top most institutes?
 In what way these institutes use social media as
part of teaching journalism? What is their modus
operandi?
 How the concerned faculty evaluates teaching
through social media in comparison to traditional
teaching?

5.  This study uses both the tools of questionnaire and personal interviews
to collect relevant data. First the top media schools have been selected
by consulting the ratings of www.htcampus.com, www.livemint.com,
http://indiatoday.intoday.in and www.thehindu.com. According to the
list of top ten media schools of India, given by these web sites, it was
checked whether New Media or Online Media was a part of their syllabi
or not. Only then there would be clear possibility to use social media as
part of journalism education. This is also important to note that though
in many of the media schools, New Media was part of the syllabus, but
they did not use social media in teaching process, so in spite of
contacting them, relevant informations could not be extracted. Apart
from top five institutions, Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC),
New Delhi, Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), Chennai, A.J. Kidwai MCRC,
Jamia Milia Islamia, Delhi, Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media,
Bangalore, and Indraprastha College for Women, Delhi University, five
regional universities were taken as sample to maintain appropriate
representation. It has following two advantages:

6.  A comparative study of the facilities available
in top media institutions and in that of
regional but old and traditional universities,
for teaching journalism and uses of social
media can be done.
 How advance the regional and traditional
universities are in teaching New Media in
Journalism education, in comparison to the
top graded media institutions can be gauged.

7.  Questionnaires were mailed to 15 of those media schools, which were
not only top in the list but also used social media in teaching journalism.
But only ten of them responded. The concerned faculty was contacted by
using the details given on websites of the respective media schools and
in some cases by using personal contacts. A list of media institutes
where questionnaires were sent and we got responses is given below:
 Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), New Delhi
 Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), Chennai
 A.J. Kidwai (AJK) MCRC, Jamia Milia Islamia, Delhi
 Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media (IIJNM), Bangalore
 Indraprastha College for Women (IP College), Delhi university(DU), Delhi
 Indraprastha University (IP), Delhi
 Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Aligarh
 University of Madras, Chennai.
 Kashmir University (KU), Srinagar, J&K.
 Islamic University of Science and Technology (IUST), Awantipora, J&K.

8.  The questionnaire is predominantly open-ended descriptive type asking
the concerned faculty in detail their choice of social media for teaching
and why that choice. Also questions stress upon the modus operandi of
using social media in their respective media schools and how is the
response of students towards such use. We tried to check, whether these
media schools provide appropriate facilities for using social media in
teaching. If such uses are being practiced, then what is the process of
assessments, have been tried to find out. Since the teachers have their
exposure in teaching through traditional medium also, it is imperative to
know their evaluation of teaching through social media in comparison to
traditional medium.
 Since there is a scarcity of literature or secondary sources on this
particular subject, the views of the concerned faculty members through
personal communication have also been incorporated freely in the
introduction and in subsequent sections as primary sources.

9. Name of the Institute Course/courses related to
social media
Social networking sites used Why
IIMC Cyber Journalism and New
Media
Face book, Google Groups, Google
Hangout, YouTube, Team Viewer
Face book is used by almost every internet user today.
Google Groups are useful for group task and assignments.
Google Hangout is good for conferencing and collaborative
learning.
ACJ New Media Journalism Google Plus, Twitter, Face book Good proof of concept, strong fundamentals, being used by
major media houses.
AJK JMI Online Journalism Face book, Twitter, Wordpress, Blogger,
Delicious, Storify, Youtube, Soundcloud,
Vimeo, Talkshoe, Fusion, Open Heat Map,
Flickr, Picassa, Linkedln, Many Eyes
Students are taught application of each of these social media
tools because each has its own unique purpose in providing
professional guidelines.
IIJNM Reporting and Writing for
Multimedia; Advanced
Reporting and Writing for
Multimedia
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Linkedln Most widely used and most useful social media websites.
IP College, DU Bachelors’ in Journalism &
Mass Communication
Facebook, Youtube, Edu2.0, Wiziq Demand of the future.
IP University Online Journalism/ New Media Facebook, Twitter, Youtube Useful sites and essential part of course.
University of Madras Online Media Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Google Maps Integral part of course and useful tool for news reporting
IUST New Media and Online
Journalism
Facebook, Twitter and Youtube Widely used sites, User friendly
KU Online Journalism Facebook Most popular

10. Name of the
Institute
Uses of social media in teaching Name of the
Institute
Uses of social media in teaching
IIMC Generally, social media is used
extensively for assignments, online
sessions, sharing of resource materials
and notices.
AMU Collect views and knowledge
used by others, sharing
knowledge.
ACJ In order to be responsive to the changes
in the industry, stay updated on latest
developments in using social media and
impart those skills to the students
IP University These sites and their elements are
taught for reference and as subject
of the course offered
AJK JMI Group discussion, for notification,
resource development and sharing
knowledge
University of
Madras
To train students in reporting for
social media, researching news,
generating story ideas, fact
checking and verification
IIJNM Find stories on social media, Find
sources, crowd sourcing, How to Tweet
IUST Marketing, Advertising,
Discussions
IP College,
DU
Sharing informations and knowledge KU Sharing study material, discussion

11. Name of the
Institute
Response of
students
Name of the
Institute
Response of
students
IIMC Very encouraging AMU Very popular
ACJ Popular among
students
IP University Very positive
AJK JMI Excellent University of
Madras
Well skilled on
such sites
IIJNM Highly positive KU Positive
IP College, DU Overwhelming IUST Average

12. Name of the
Institute
Facilities Name of the
Institute
Facilities
IIMC Computer lab with internet
connection and the campus is
WiFi connected
AMU Well equipped computer
multimedia lab with high speed
internet connectivity
ACJ Students have smart phones
and institute provides
broadband and wireless
broadband facilities
IP University Internet facilities in computer
lab
AJK JMI Multimedia news lab with
broadband connection and lab
assistants to help the students
University of
Madras
Internet facilities in
department’s multi-media lab as
well as common computer lab
IIJNM Computers KU Internet services with WiFi
IP College,
DU
Computer lab with WiFi IUST Poor

13. Name of the
Institute
Whether assessment is done
through social media
If yes, what is the method?
IIMC Yes There are different free tools available online for assessment. Periodical
quizzes and other test are done. Message Boards are also a good way of
communicating.
ACJ Only for certain specific
exercises
Effective use of certain tool to gather/ verify information or conduct a poll
AJK JMI Depends on requirement Feedback on various assignments, declaration of internal marks
IIJNM In some specific assignments Through real-time practice “tweeting” assignments in which students must
cover a breaking event in “tweets” of no more than 140 characters and email
to Moodle (content management software).
IP College, DU In most of assignments Mostly through common assignments and through online presentations and
interactions
AMU No Not Applicable
IP University No Not Applicable
University of
Madras
Yes Based on student’s contribution to social media – news reports posts and
online projects
KU No Not Applicable
IUST No Not Applicable

14. Name of the institute If there is online specialization
in a particular media stream
If yes, which are they
IIMC No Not Applicable
ACJ Yes Print, Radio and TV
AJK JMI No Not Applicable
IIJNM Yes Multimedia, Print and Broadcast. All
the three streams produce news
content that is disseminated online
IP College, DU Not at the moment, but it is in
pipeline
If it is launched, it will be in
electronic media
AMU Not presently, but it is in pipeline Not Applicable
IP University No Not Applicable
University of Madras Yes Print, broadcast and mobile
journalism
KU No Not Applicable
IUST No Not Applicable

15. Name of the Institute Traditional medium Social media
IIMC No comment Flexible, cost effective, can offer best available resources to
any part of the world
ACJ Still relevant Makes sharing , demonstrating and accessing information a
lot easier
AJK JMI Resource sharing and resource discussion
space are way beyond traditional teaching
Complementary method of traditional teaching, inspire
discussions, sharing resources, highly interactive
IIJNM Traditional teaching methods should
incorporate and utilize the facilities offered
by social media
Traditional teaching methods should incorporate and utilize
the facilities offered by social media
IP College, DU No comment Engages students in creative ways, inspire discussions,
opens up even shy students
AMU No comment Motivating and participatory
IP University Traditional teaching can be blend with
modern tools at very low cost
More interactive, makes teaching interesting and
informative, works as good resource and reference source.
University of Madras Teaching predominantly through regular
class lectures and field work
Platform for journalism practice
KU More personalized, dependent on classroom
settings
More interactive, not confined to classrooms
IUST Still practiced well Not a good idea for Kashmir

16.  According to the responses gathered from the concerned faculty of sample
institutes and universities, it is evident that they are in favour of making
present course pattern of journalism and mass communication more
interesting by providing the students sufficient exposure to the widely used
social media so that they can acquaint themselves with the nature of work in
an convergence oriented changing media industry.
 Besides, to meet the ever growing challenges of media industry, well
equipped media lab and necessary infrastructure in journalism departments
must be provided as it affects the efficiency of the students. Though, some
private institutes and universities in metropolitan cities are having all the
basic facilities needed to meet the challenges of growing media, the
universities in remote areas like IUST in Awantipora, lack such facilities. The
Indian government is paying attention to such disparity and that’s why Indian
Institute of Mass Communication has recently opened its satellite branches in
Jammu, Aizawl, Amaravati, Dhenknal and Kotttayam with all basic resources.
 During this research, it is found that many private and government
universities having a course on New Media, are only providing theoretical
knowledge to the students and do not aware them professionally on practical
aspect of it. This partial knowledge is not fruitful to the students as the
journalism field is less theoretical and more practical. So such partial
knowledge would cause lack of efficiency among the students and ultimately

17.  Also, lack of expertise has been found among faculty members.
Most of the faculty members who teach New Media or Online Media
in various institutes and universities are either visiting faculty or
contract faculty. Very few permanent faculty members are teaching
this particular subject, which indicates that those teachers who are
academically qualified as per UGC norms are lacking professional
expertise and those who are professionally and technically expert
are lacking academic qualification for being a permanent faculty
member in any university. This dilemma needs urgent address in
Indian context.
 There should be a well-defined, full-fledged course-curriculum
based on software/web journalism, technical writing, functions and
uses of internet, web designing, social media and its uses and other
supporting areas in all Universities apart from the private institutes,
which are already offering such curricula. This will help the students
to get practical training in all aspects of new media before going to
the field.
 If media education has to grow in India to the international level, it

18.  Our research is limited to the purposive sample
of ten rationally selected media institutes and
universities, but it could not include few other
important samples due to their non-response.
 Since uses of social media in teaching journalism
is a nascent trend in media education in India, so
it was very difficult to collect informations about
its inception and growth in India, however we
tried to throw some light on this section by some
personal communication with concerned faculty.