The PG Department of Journalism and Mass Communication of the University of Mysore will soon have its own premises on the Manasagangotri campus.
This was stated byVice-Chancellor G. Hemantha Kumar here on Thursday during the centenary celebrations of the doyen of journalism education Nadig Krishna Murthy who was instrumental in establishing the PG department at the varsity.
The Vice-Chancellor said it is a strange and happy coincidence that the golden jubilee of the department and the centenary year of Prof. Nadig Krishna Murthy were being celebrated in the same year. The new premises will be inaugurated in due course and will also be befitting tribute to the pioneers of media and journalism education.
All these decades the department was functioning from the Humanities Block but the Vice-Chancellor said being a specialised subject and field, it should have its own premises. The new facility will give a fillip to the field of journalism education introduced by Prof. Nadig Krishna Murthy.
The Vice-Chancellor also said that the PhD thesis of Prof. Nadig Krishna Murthy on History of Indian Journalism will be published by the varsity. Speaking on the efforts put by Nadig Krishna Murthy to start the course, he said it was nothing short of a revolution in those days when there was a general perception that journalism cannot be taught and journalists are born and not made. Despite repeated setbacks, Prof.Nadig Krishna Murthy persisted with his efforts which finally culminated in the establishment of the PG department in Journalism in 1971, according to Prof. Hemantha Kumar.
The centenary celebration event was jointly organised by the University of Mysore, Karnataka Madhyama Academy and Mysuru District Journalists Association. The daughters of Nadig Krishna Murthy, Kripa and Vijayalakshmi, were felicitated on the occasion.
K.V. Nagaraj, former Pro Vice-Chancellor, Assam University, and one of the students of Nadig Krishna Murthy, recalled his teacher’s efforts in establishing the journalism department and the changes that have taken place in the field. Prof. Nagaraj said despite journalism being a specialised subject it was yet to be recognised as a professional course by the University Grants Commission.
He also cautioned at the modern-day trends in the field including citizens’ journalism and said there was no way of authenticating and verifying the content or holding individuals accountable. A journalist should be socially responsible but corporatisation of media has resulted in dilution of social values and responsibilities while the emphasis on visual element and video was leading to textual illiteracy, he added.
