Avenues of Employment: Trending Careers in Mass Communication

The world is experiencing unprecedented 24x7 engagements of mass media to fight against COVID-19 outbreak. Media has been playing an unmatched role for providing real-time information to the masses about this outbreak from around the world in our fingertips (smart digital devices). Our communication warriors are using all innovative tools and techniques to inform the home insiders and corona warriors who are relentlessly working at different quarantine centers in India and other countries. 

Let’s understand the mass communication in brief:                                                                        Communication Professor DeFleur and Dennis (1993) has defined the mass communication, “It is a process in which professional communicators use media to disseminate messages widely, rapidly and continuously to arouse intended meanings in large and diverse audience in an attempt to influence them in a variety of ways”. In this definition, the focus is on message dissemination to a large audience, through various channels, to accomplish some type of goal. This definition focuses on academic and practical as to mass media that one can accomplished through learning, practice, and exposure which the National Institute of Mass Communication and Journalism (NIMCJ) has been doing since inception. The academic pedagogy dealt with theory and practical exposure when students enroll for the Post-Graduate, Undergraduate and other vocational programs.

Trends of mass media:

Earlier Print was the mechanical media and electronic is electrical based media where are consider traditional media alongside community media like folk dance and drama which still being used to sensitize the masses.

Now, technology has been playing a dominant role to transmit, interpret and receive information. We have seen technology is the driving force behind the three biggest trends: first is digital news, social media, and mobile communication which now has also sub-merged the print, TV, and Radio. Advertising, public relations, corporate communications, feature films and short films, documentary, music & podcast, visual design, and animation are also beside the very lucrative career options that have grown widely and accepted professionally across all the industry sections.

Required skills to get into mass media are:

1.      Reading and analyzing current events that are happened and happening around the local and global surroundings.

2.      Desire to learn and get exposure of new tools and techniques.

3.      Crafting, drafting and interpreting message(s) using industry-driven software.

4.      Using innovative research tools and techniques.

5.      Having good command over language(s).

Stay reading with us for some more understanding about the other mass media tool….

Contributed by Dr. Shashikant Bhagat, Faculty, National Institute of Mass Communication and Journalism (NIMCJ), Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.