By Team Mangalorean Bangalore

• IIJNM students work for channel 4 on prestigious project

BANGALORE, February 2, 2010: "It was an experience to reckon with as it helped me to understand a wide variety of peoples’ views in the city on a single issue," said Bansi Mehta, a print student at IIJNM. Bansi was one of the 22 students of the Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media (IIJNM), Bangalore, who worked in collaboration with UK-based Channel 4 to produce a special programme on India.

The students had to find out what Bangaloreans think of certain topics in the news on a given day. These ranged from issues of the day to the hot sports topic of the day to the celebrity of the day. The results were then uploaded on Channel 4’s website.

"The students were really enthusiastic about the whole thing. Indeed it was a great opportunity for them to work with such a reputed channel like Channel 4. The programme was meant for the international audience, so it was a different kind of experience," said Surekha Deepak, IIJNM faculty who coordinated the project.

Channel 4, too, appreciated the work done by the students. "Your students’ work was greatly appreciated and I would like to thank you and all the students and staff at the Institute for your help and participation in this experiment of cooperation. While we we're time restricted by events in Haiti on how much made the TV bulletin your students work greatly aided our website," said Oliver King of Channel 4 news.

For the aspirant journalists, it was a great opportunity to showcase their talents before an international audience. "I enjoyed every moment of the job assigned by Channel 4 in interviewing people of Bangalore as part of India Winter season. Being a part of one of the leading TV News channel of the world, was a matter of pride," said Mrinmoy Bhowmick, a broadcast student.

However, for a few, the experience was challenging. "It was tough to find people and make them talk during the office hours. One of the worst experience was to ask students to talk on camera when they had exams to appear for," said Arnab Lal Seal, a student.

Some others, however, found the challenge exciting. They said that this would help them prepare for real-life situations. Chandan Singh, another broadcast student, said, "It was all about meeting strangers. At times I had to give them newspapers to read and they were willing to participate. The whole exercise of briefing, convincing, shooting was a fun-filled learning experience," he said.

This experience with Channel 4 was indeed a learning experience for the students, especially the print students of the institution who are usually accustomed to a monitor, mouse and page-making software. "As a print student, I was a bit wary of using a camera. In the first few shots I took, the faces were distorted and there was no audio. But, it was a steep learning curve and soon my vox pop captured people walking horizontally (rock climbing) and tall people (the state volleyball team)," said Parimal Vijay S.S, another print student.