Times School Of Journalism launched

The Times School of Journalism (TSJ), Mumbai, was inaugurated on Monday.
The first batch has 27 students handpicked after a stringent process involving a written examination and interviews . This is a one-year certificate course that concentrates largely on print but also allows for specialization in broadcast (TV and radio) and internet journalism.Six months of classroom theory and practicals will be followed by internship in the Times of India's group media. Most of the students are likely to be absorbed into the group's publications and other media-a major factor in the overwhelming number of applications received for admission.
The inauguration was a businesslike affair, shorn of ceremony and getting down to brass tacks in the form of a three-day orientation. Students were welcomed by Gautam Adhikari, dean of the TSJ which is already operative in Delhi, and Bhaskar Das, executive director, BCCL.
Both provided an insight into the new dynamics of media as well as the unique Times Group approach. The students engaged them in an exacting discussion, endorsing the high standard of the selection process.
Jaideep Bose, executive editor of The Times of India, led the orientation proper with a free-ranging talk on the dramatic changes in the approach to journalism and its intersection with different drivers of change, from urbanization to human emotion, from law to technology, and from politics to entertainment . He emphasized the fundamental question: What is the value addition you can provide to the reader? Rajrishi Singhal and Bodhisattva Ganguli filled the students in on the business-and challenges-of editing The Economic Times and widening its reach without sacrificing its raison d'����tre .
Other group heads will continue this process, each lecture discussion followed by a visit to that section of the Times Group. The ambit of the orientation programme includes all the group's print publications as well as the magazines of World Wide Media, and Times Now & Radio Mirchi.
The batch will get its initial exposure to the whole range of the group's new media activities now located in the exclusive Times Tower at Kamala Mills, Lower Parel.