It is rare that a group of mass communication Masters program students, that too in northeast India, have three-day social media immersion experience. Twenty two first semester post graduate students of Educational Leadership and Mass Communication at Don Bosco University (DBU) started their new academic year with hands on social media exposure, 4-6 August.
The workshop conducted for the first time in the university besides marking the launch of the Mass Communication department, is also first of its kind masters level degree program in northeast India.
“It was in deed the best way to launch the Convergent Media and Technologies course, by getting students get immersed in the use of social media right at the start,” says Program Coordinator and Head of Mass communication Department Fr C.M. Paul.
Among the participants are students from neighbouring country Myanmar and far away countries of Maldives and Sudan.
“Initially we were very skeptical about our ability to learn audio and video editing in such a very short time,” says Pallottine father Jacob Malkias from nashik, aharashtra.
His companion Miss Aurelyne Kongriat from Shillong Meghalaya who was shooting her group members on her smart phone adds, “I never thought I could do near professional video shoot with my smart-phone.”
Beginning with basics of social media, like the creation of accounts in Blog, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, the students working in five groups uploaded photos and news items on to their newly constructed social media pages.
On the second day, after a brief introduction to audio editing skills on free and open source software Audacity by ADBU Registrar Dr Basil Koikara, students created 90-120 seconds audio segments and proudly gave demo presentations.
Third day, a die hard Open Source Software enthusiast Dr Koikara introduced the students to video editing skills on “KdenLive.”
Working on a project called, “Sights & Sounds of my place” students created 90–120 seconds video presentations with their smart phones show casing their native places and ambiance.