(ANS – Guwahati) – Starting its seventh academic year, Assam Don Bosco University, (ADBU) launched, on July 31, a new postgraduate degree program, a Masters in Mass Communication. The first batch of 12 students includes eight men and four women.

Two other new postgraduate degree programs launched this year include a Masters in Philosophy and Physics. “It is amazing that this path-breaking new course has been received enthusiastically by students who want to delve into social media as their professional option,” says the Vice-Chancellor of ADBU, commenting on the overwhelming response for the program which received 17 applicants not only from India but also Myanmar and Sudan.

Christened as an MA degree in Convergent Media and Technologies, the course, the first of its kind offered in India, has attracted students not only from Assam and neighbouring Meghalaya, but also from distant states like Rajasthan, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra.

The Additional Chief Secretary, the Principal Secretary of  the Finance and Tourism Departments and Principal Resident Commissioner of Assam, Mr H.S. Das, after addressing the inauguration of the academic year 2014-15 at the university’s School of Technology and Social Sciences campus at Azara, took time to inaugurate the new classroom for Convergent Media studies.

“We are offering brand new programs to reach out to a wide section of eager students in northeast India, in new areas of study like philosophy, science, and availing ourselves of cutting-edge social media through convergent media and technologies,” says Vice-Chancellor Dr Stephen Mavely, offering the rationale for the new courses.

The postgraduate degree program takes students through hands-on exercises in news reporting for social media, public relation exercises, advertising gimmicks, and media research while trying their hand at bringing a video production from script to screen.

“The new media platforms – Blog, Twitter, YouTube, Podcast, Facebook and other social media networks are so varied, pervasive, influential and fast-changing that it is a continuous challenge to keep pace with the latest trends in media-related industries,” said the Head of the Mass Communication department, Fr C.M. Paul, during the three-hour-long solemn ceremony.

Soon after the inauguration, the students had a two day joint induction program together with the department of Educational Leadership in the newly furnished class room.

Published 04/08/2014