Asian College of Journalism M.A Review By Jhalak Sharma

There are a lot of media schools in Delhi like Apeejay Institute of Mass Communication, IAAN School of Mass Communication, and NRAI School of Mass Communication to name a few. ACJ Chennai though is different and I had to get out of Delhi to understand the life and have some me time. Chennai was way too far and ACJ was ranking among the top schools and therefore it became my 1st choice and after having cleared the interview, I left my parents with no option but to allow me to go to Chennai. ACJ is quite different from other mass communication colleges as M.A. in journalism here is a three years course. I was surprised but then realized that one doesn’t need to be from the same background to study here as everything starts afresh here. So, first year was like a revision or an overview of what we will be studying and what all things are a part of journalism. ACJ may not be the best but it gave me all the exposure and did a world of good to me because that’s the way I wanted to learn and put things into exercise.

The academics here were mostly off-campus from the second year as we had no business in just reading books and understanding. To understand the knowhow of journalism, we were sent to ground and because we were from Delhi, we had an added advantage. When I was doing internship with Republic Channel, I was sent to their Delhi office as I was asked to complete my internship over there. The six months with a reputed news channel helped me understand how news are put into action and most importantly how to put the filters because one can’t be blunt in this business. So, academics here were different but I loved the way it was.

Faculties were superman because the core faculty were just a few and rest all came and gone as guest lectures were more conducive here because the best from the industry came and took the lectures. They just saw the topic and started explaining and then gave demo in the classes itself. Such interactive classes and fun filled group of students made learning fun. Since, I was from Delhi, I got extra attention and extra perks too from the faculties. Some were jealous while some stood with me but on faculties’ front, I never lacked any form of support.

Coming from Delhi, politics obviously enticed me more and therefore I was into politics front as all the projects and internship that I did were for political projects. I covered 2019 elections as they were just before our final exams and my work and everything was already seen by top brass on Republic TV. They had their head office in Mumbai and I wanted to be back in Delhi and therefore tried my hands at the other media houses but one thing that stayed with me were loyalties and therefore even though I had offer for Delhi from other media houses, I still chose to be stay with Republic TV for whom I am working till date.

One girl’s hostel was inside the campus and one right next to MRTS Station. The on-campus hostel was occupied by girls from Tamil Nadu so, we had to stay at Nest Inns Women’s Hostel which wasn’t as good as the campus hostel. We had our lunches at the college canteen as the hostellers who were staying at the Nest Inns Women’s hostel couldn’t go back, have their lunch and comeback. Our hostel had Wi-Fi facilities, laundry service, TV room and ample space to roam at the hostel premises for as long as we could. The hostel was claimed to be a litter free zone and this one rule along with curfew timings was strictly followed.

The infrastructure is a canon of how a media school should look like. Asian College of Journalism campus was no less than any media house office as we had a couple of studios, one print lab, one shooting area, and almost everything that a studio has. The best was the debate house as we were given topics of debate and many guests were invited and live debates used to take place there. The college had multiple canteens and playing area, so we had opportunity to unwind because that was the most important thing that we wanted to have apart from anything else.

Since I was into investigative journalism, I had to spend more hours off-campus than on-campus. Playing Volleyball at the campus was the best part and used to just for debate sessions because that was my forte coming from Delhi. Well, jokes apart, ACJ gave me a life that I always wished to live and therefore many students had different ideas about the college but I have come to my own at ACJ and therefore my views are quite strong that our country needs more colleges like ACJ.