School of Broadcasting and Communication M.A Review By Aditya Jaiswal

Firstly, SBC Mumbai doesn’t have the communication program as there are just specializations that they teach and they are PR & Broadcasting. The main things that we were taught here were how to do pre-selling of a movie or a song, how editing of an audio is done, and how to make a mountain from a mole is all that we were taught at SBC. Well, one should remember that admissions at SBC are not at all easy. The college has its own entrance but one advantage was that there were no centres and you can give the exams from your desk at home. After the online test, few are shortlisted and called for PI. Well again PI is not necessarily at the campus as they are ready to do it over a video call because just few basic questions were asked and the next day, if one gets selected they get the mail. All I know is 1000s of students apply for the course and the seats are 450. So, I don’t know whether it was just a random exercise or they actually meant it but one has to go through such processes.

In terms of academics SBC is no bullshit zone. Here classes are taken only by the professionals who made us learn how to use the equipments which I never saw before. Also, we were allowed to borrow equipment and use all the world class facilities that the college has at any point in time. Also, there were too many subjects and students were free to take the classes they thought will benefit them. So, the compulsion of classes was not mandatory as one just has to focus on the things, they believe are the best. Journalism was my preferred stream and therefore even though I did my previous internship and studies related to content in journalism, I switched to be a part of real journalism and therefore we were sent on grounds and here we worked with the reporters of NDTV, and Zee News on ground zero as a part of our internship.

The professors who taught us maybe working in local media houses but they had loads and loads of experience to teach us what journalism is. The same goes for the students who were doing Advertising and PR. Since, the professionals were our faculty, they took us to ground zero and showed us how news are covered or how stories are made and then how are they broadcasted. So, from end to end, we were taught everything from our professors. A journalist’s entry in the work begins from the ground and can go all the way to become an editor in chief and we all were motivated to work hard and achieve the highest of highs in journalism by our professors.

Well, internships are placements here because in the name of placements there were nothing like the rounds of interviews and all. While studying we all have made connections with local and national level media houses and we could approach them directly. In media business relations matter a lot and if one shares good camaraderie with the people they work under during internships, jobs are guaranteed but if they don’t then struggle for jobs as many of my batchmates are doing freelancing or covering stories and selling it some agencies.

Well SBC doesn’t have a hostel as the college itself has accommodated itself in a single building, so for hostels one has to search on own. Outsiders come and stay at nearby PGs and flats as Andheri has lot of colleges nearby as Bhavan's College was close to our campus. So, one can find accommodation easily but from college end there’s no hostel facilities.

The best part about SBC is that because we were always given projects so the building remained opened 24*7. Students just had to show their I-Card and can enter the building. Like for us, we have stayed whole night at the college library for documentation process. The ones who had their expertise in editions videos and sounds used the production labs that had sound recording, and video editing tools to prepare the videos. Well, one floor was dedicated for shooting as the editing labs was the biggest lab of the campus and that is where all the shoots took place. The auditorium was amazing as it wasn’t just huge but had all the latest facilities like top lightings, shooting cameras, and audio equipment to get any event conducted smoothly over there. Finally, there was a small lounge or a relax room for us to have some time off after spending a long day on ground zero.

Well, the campus life was amazing as we were taken on trips regularly because media people need break and we were taught all the attributes of that. From Goa to Pahalgam, we have been to all the places as a part of college trips. Among events, UTSAV was organized twice in a year as there were too many talented people out there at SBC.