micigiri

Journalism colleges to include shoe-throwing in syllabus

| Balu | — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:39:24 +0000

Cross posted at chupchap

Embarrassed by the non-ability of journalists to hit a non-moving objects — on multiple occasions now — with a shoe, even from close ranges, International Journalists Assosication have decided to include shoe-throwing as part of the syllabus in all journalism courses. They will instruct all universities to make this change considering the crisis journalists around the world are going through.

Jason Pillai, Secretary of the Association blamed the situation on the lack of exciting stuff for media to report about. “At times journos are forced to pull off such stunts, because the world we live in, is not as exciting as it used to be. There is no Hitler, no more World wars, for god’s sake they even killed Saddam Hussain. The Bin Laden tapes don’t get as many TRPs as it used to –- Pakistan being an exception — and bomb blasts have become as common as price-rise in India. No one gives a damn about those things any longer.”

At this point chupchap was forced to remind him that he was going off the mark and that the actual issue was about this journo who missed the mark at such a short distance. Jason Pillai nodded his head and said that the new subject on Shoe-throwing will be 90% practical and 10% based on exams. “Journalists will receive training by the respective military – from Taliban for journos in NWFP Pakistan. By the need of the course they should be able to hit the ‘target’ from range of 50 yards.”

In the written exams they will have questions pertaining to the history of such practice and a five page essay of the founder of the trend among others.

He also said that the association will contact Oxford dictionary to change the spelling of shooed away to shoed away considering the relevance of the latter.

PS: Aw crap, looks like someone already thought about the idea before me! Grrr

Ex-MIC’ian appears on the Official Blog of St.Aloysius College, Mangalore

elvingiri — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:22:54 +0000

Face to Face with Samvartha: http://staloysiuscollege.wordpress.com/2009/03/18/face-to-face-with-samvartha/

An interview with Mr. B A Samvartha: http://staloysiuscollege.wordpress.com/2009/03/17/an-interview-with-ba-samvartha/

Attack on Democracy

elvingiri — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:36:42 +0000

Please read this. This is from the blog of the HOD of the Department of Communication/Journalism of St.Aloysius College, Mangalore.

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11 Mar. Activists of Bajrang Dal today threatened a journalist of The Hindu, giving him a life threat if he did not “side” with them.

This morning, Mr Samvartha -journalist with The Hindu- was travelling by bus to Mangalore. As he came to the Bunts Hostel, he saw massive decorations of Hindu Samajotsava -saffron flags. There was terrible traffic jam during office hours due to the bajrang dal tamasha. The bajrang dal activists stopped every bus and troubled them. Samvartha got down from the bus and tried inquiring about this (with the permission of his office). And then came the bajrang dal activists – they confronted him. They threatened him saying, if he wanted to live and work in Mangalore, he had to be WITH THEM. Else they would break his legs!

The newspaper has filed a complaint with the poilce.

This is intimidation and black mailing. Such unconstitutional and cowardly acts should stop. There has been a hate campaign against those who profess and live democratic/ constitutional values. Electorate must realise and punish such anti social/ anti-constitutional forces.

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Mr.Samvartha who has been mentioned in this blog is an ex-MIC’ian from the 2005-2007 MS Communication batch. He had a short stint at MIC as a lecturer and currently works as a journalist with The Hindu, Mangalore

Happy Holi

elvingiri — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 06:16:55 +0000

Team MIC’giri would like to wish all it’s readers a very happy holi. Have a great one and use only Organic Colours.

Team MIC’giri

Loyola Fest

elvingiri — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 03:19:06 +0000

Got this mail from some one. seems interesting. check it out.

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Loyola College Chennai presents, Reelive Awards 2009!!! We invite media students from around the country to compete with their contemporaries in getting their work recognized by each other as well as professionals from the industry. You are invited to submit entries in [b] the Video, Print and Audio Media (such as documentaries, short films, music videos, television commercials, public service advertisements, print advertisements, radio commercials, photo features)[/b] Entries should reach us by[u] March 10th, 2009.[/u] An expert panel of judges will shortlist the entries and the best entries will be awarded on [b]March 21st 2009[/b] with cash prizes! Interested students can scrap me their e-mail addresses, and I shall send the Rules and Regulations and the Registration form. To support us, join the community http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=58872554 Thank you. This message was sent to you by Anusha Booboo. To see Anusha’s profile click: http://www.orkut.co.in/Profile.aspx?uid=17402335165751409314&mt=1

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Kala Manch ka Tiatr

crabshell — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 12:10:07 +0000

Tiatr, in Konkani, means, theater.. Kala Manch wanted a new event that would involve MICians in theatrical art, so Tiatr was started.. The basic idea behind the event was to give new actors a stage, a platform and the jazz. Last semester was the first edition of Tiatr.. Participation was decent.. But the inauguration was kick-ass.. There were drums and a shankh.. MVK was asked to break a coconut to start the event.. You see, going back to our events.. MVK must ‘ve been happy by all this for sure!

Anyway, Tiatr comprised of:
-One Act Play
-Mad Ads
-Mime
-Mimicry
-Street Play

Now we shall come to the new edition of Tiatr that happened this semester.

The event didn’t have One Act play because Tiatr was scheduled for 4th March. This happened soon after A19 so time was too little for people to come up with One Act plays. Kala Manch didn’t get any participation calls. Sad huh? The MIC lazy-ness had caught on again..

Now what to do? No participation? The organizers start participating. The event is postponed for a day. Street Play had two teams showing up. The teams did a decent job though. I must tell you that this edition for Tiatr is also an audition for Utsav! Ummm well, whatever.. Now after this, mimicry had to happen.. That didn’t happen either.. Why? Yes, you guessed it.. MIC lazy-ness!

Then came day 2.. Mime didn’t have any participants because people didn’t know what mime is apparently.. So the organizers decided to show the people what mime is about.. The president Mister Jacob who has just risen from throat ki bimaari agreed to help the organizers.. Sweet boy, I say.. He made some dhik-chik sounds with his still painful throat.. The rest of the actors did a wow job as usual.. After this Mad Ads happened.. Non-stop non sense as always.. Full on fun! One out of the three teams backed out.. But the two teams did a good job anyway so cover up happened.. Our Kodali was the man-of-the-match according to me in this edition of Tiatr.. He participated in Street Play, Mime and Mad Ads.. He is becoming a super star I say!

Kala Manch is now international I must inform.. The president of Kala Manch is a Nepali boy called Prashit and the first lady of the club is Arya who is also from Nepal..

Pssst.. Another secret I shall share.. You know before the event, the Kala Manch banner was being painted in the lobby.. And there was a tiny paint stain on the floor.. A very big deal was made out of it by the new guy on the block.. What yaa! Whatever happened to the chilled out atmosphere of MIC! The new guy on the block was later seen laughing at the happy scenes in Mad Ads and Mime.. He openly appreciated Street Play too.. This is just FYI, implication is left to you..

Anyway, Tiatr is an event that shall happen every semester, so we ‘ll see how-it-goes next time..

For now, Kala Manch is busy with the upcoming productions.. One is called Blackadder, based on a popular British TV series by Rowan Atkinson.. The other is Scandal in Fairyland by Badal Sircar, a take on sensationalism in news through a fairytale story.. It all seems super exciting!

So Kala Manch is alive and kickin’!

-Ami

MIC’ians in Firang Land…

elvingiri — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 02:31:39 +0000

This post comes pretty late. Was in the hospital. So sorry about it.

News Update: The exchange students have left for their particular destinations. The Bremen students:Pavithra,Shweta,Sonali and Snehashish have already reached Bremen and are already uploading pics of their visit. I was going through Snehashish’s orkut album yest and man was I jealous. The place looks beautiful. But as rightly written by him, it’s easier to eat than cook. These people are cooking their own food over there. So it’s not a bed of roses for them.

The Australia prograame people have left. Just half of them though. Vineeth and Ram would be boarding the flight to Australia from Chennai tonight. So they should be reaching Australia tomorrow. They should be uploading their pics soon I suppose.

Rahul Babu Kodali is the new president for Yell. Congrats Rahul.

Madhura from BA first year participated in Revels in the classical singing category and won the first prize.

Amrita from MS second year participated in NIT-K’s Incident in the eastern dance category and won the third place.

MIC’ian gets mugged on the Udayvani Road

elvingiri — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:04:00 +0000

In an extremely sad incident, though painfully common, a first year BA student was robbed of her entire bag yesterday at around 9 a.m. on the Udayvani Road. Megha (name changed) was walking and just as she crossed Samudra, a bike with two men on it came and got hold of her bag. She refused to leave it and as a result, she was dragged along the road. She bruised her right hand completely. And what worsened the matter was that the authorities asked her about her attire (which was a pure Salwar Kameez) to check if she had ‘invited’ trouble. Students are not that happy with it and are going to lodge an official complaint with MU and MIC. Itr may be recalled that it was not the first time that this is happening on this road. Several incidents of similar nature have happened on that road. The problem is that there is a an ego clash between MU and the municipality. The Municipality is not letting MU touch that road as it is their road. Hope more girls are not ‘targetted’ in this lack of diplomacy. Hope things change fast.

Elvin Jacob

A courteous culture indeed…

bibinhio — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 08:36:27 +0000

“Many people ask, what is Indian culture? To me Indian culture is just all about – ‘courtesy!’ “

So said a very distinguished member (u know who) of the MIC cast, close to the end of a 1 and a half hour session of justifying the mangalore attacks… Yes, u read it right – JUSTIFYING the MANGALORE ATTACKS! And not that any one of my classmates said anything in front of him denouncing the attacks… One fine day he just woke up and decided to make us realise that those hideous attacks happened because the poor people from the ‘rural culture’ were affected because of the sudden industrialisation of the ‘urban culture’ and hence had no other choice but to retaliate in the manner that they did. Plus he also had to give us gyan about how pubs and night clubs in choice places in Europe (London and Paris) and US (WASHINGTON… anyone remembers any Indian UN correspondents based there?) had no girls at all when he went there! Well so much 4 believing that…

Indian culture is all about courtesy. Yes indeed! Mangalore prooves that. The Valentine’s Day incidents especially the ones in Ujjain and Jind, also proove this. For indeed, dragging people (and especially girls) around by their hair seems to be the current courtesy of the ‘changing Indian culture’. If, thanks to such illustrious faculty members, we are to learn that acts like Mangalore are what is right and what India is about then you can hardly blame the youth of today for not giving a damn to what their elders tell. They at least have that much of common-sense. I salute u my friends!

Another thing we at MIC have been learning recently is that a discussion means having such a rigid point of view that whatever the other group says you do not even consider changing your opinion. Phrases like ‘but u are not getting my point child‘ and ‘that is a very good point u make but…’ and so on have become as common place as hello and good morning. While in school and so on it used to be the students who wouldn’t change their minds and views, now it is the turn of the facukty to do the same. The students are much more open minded and willing to reconsider than our faculty (which happens to be the BEST in the country I heard recently!). And to think that we are to learn from them.

One final parting word…

MIC IS THE BEST

- BiBinhio

Freedom, Your Right.

elvingiri — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 08:27:42 +0000

Imagine a medical college, where students ( read future docs) are taught to treat patients but who have never seen a patient or the illness in real in their lifetimes. Now imagine an automotive engineering college where students (read future engineers) are taught to assemble and dismantle a car but who have never seen or travelled in one before. You must be thinking that institutions like these do not exist. And even if they exist, they are run by thieves and politicians (ooops!!!) But just wait before you make any such comments. We had a similar college in Manipal. We used to. Sadly it vanished in the year 2006. No one talked about it when it “shut down”.

Freedom, Your Right. Nice tagline. But as the saying goes “some of the best melodies in the world are still unheard”, some of the best things in the world are still undone. Article 19 was the first communication fest of the country which created ripples in the still stagnant field of communication that was still advertised as an “offbeat” career in career guidance books. There were a few who dared to take up this field but doing a mass communication course then was as rebellious as sending your kid for a three year DJ’ing course in Australia. But some dared to come up with a communication fest. I do not know what the fest contained but I certainly know they knowingly or unknowingly gave birth to a movement that would in years gain a cult status (by saying cult I mean that there were both positive and negative meanings to it over the years). Several people started swearing by it’s name too.

Now there is this times Article 19, the subject of this blog. Remember about the “imagine this” and “imagine thats” that was there at the starting of this post. Well the college that I am talking about was none other than MIC. The pre-2006 MIC was one where students were taught about newspapers, radio, tv, internet, films, advertising, marketing, event managment, etc but where no one really had anything but theoritical knowledge about it. Article 19 was one fest that incorporated every single thing of our curriculum and that we could gain practical knowledge of if we were a part of it. So the condition was that we had all the theoritical knowledge in the world but no practical knowledge. So we were as useful as doctors who had never seen a patient in our lives and engineers who had never used or even seen a mechanical object before.

After the first Article 19 in 1998, it did not happen. Somehow the fire died out. But as a phoenix rises from the ashes, Article 19 kicked back in 2006. We had three days of a fest. It had all the qualities of a pioneering event. After all, when the first Article 19 happened most of us were in school still asking our teachers,”May I go to the bathroom Misssss”! Still people were able to pull it off in style. Article 19 ‘07 was a two day event that got down some greats like TJS George who are renowned in the journalism world.It went international with an entry from Dubai.

This Article 19 is very different. It is truly the biggest ever Article 19 that has ever happened. With over 100 entries from US, Britain, UAE, Scotland, Phillipines, Egypt and India it is truly international in nature. We also have greats like Rahul Bose and Prahlad Kakkar coming down exclusively for Article 19. Rahul Bose is supporting us for PowerOff , an effort by us to create awareness among the people for saving electricity. Prahlad Kakkar is coming for an advertising workshop. Sandhya Ravishankar is going to talk about broadcast journalism while Sankalp Meshram will tell us about Magic of Syntax. A workshop on alternative media would be conducted by Third Thought Entertainment, an alternatie media group from Mumbai. MMSC has Kiruba Shankar, Nishindra Verma, Krishna Mariyanka and Girish Ranade who will talk about varied topics related to Media Managment. For more details on Article 19 (or to cross check the info!!) log onto www.article-19.com.

There is one more reason why this years Article 19 is very different from others. For the first time we have used all the medias possible . We have used press releases, radio scratches, news package (for visual medium) and online publicity. Hence, this years Article 19 has been the most comprehensive and the biggest that has ever happened. But lets not jinx it by already calling it a success. Or rather, I should not jinx it. So lets wait and watch how the event goes.

Disclaimer: The author is writing this post as an individual and not in any of the roles that he plays either inside or outside the institution. All his views expressed are his personal views purely.

By: Elvin Jacob