Interview By Yash Panchal

IIMM

Mr. Subhash Raj is the Director of IIMM from the last 15 years. He is a postgraduate in Mass Communication and has previously handled Ad agency.

Satisfying experience in the education industry

I have been a part of the education industry for the past 18 years, especially in the field of mass communication. For me, it is the best industry to be in because I enjoy working here. I think this field gives a person a of options. Mass communication is a very wide field, there are a of career options available in this field. You can be a journalist, electronic and print media journalist, radio jockey, in an advertising and PR agency, voice-over artist. Everybody gets an opportunity to serve the industry in some the other way. It gives you satisfaction. People who can write can be content writers, people who can speak well can be speakers, journalists.

Creativity and ability in Mass Communication

In mass communication, you need caliber more than leadership quality. Your potential and hard work matters. At some point, you need to be smart and use your brains, at some point you only need good communication as your weapon. Here, there are creative professionals, who rely on their skills and caliber. Leadership plays 25% role in this, the rest is your creativity and ability.

Challenges to deal with

One challenge that we have faced is related to the technology. These days, the environment is technology-driven. For example, the mojo (mobile journalism) - with this, a lot of camerapersons have reduced their openings. Styles of reporting have changed. People want to go to glamour journalism. Ultimately, our objective is that people should do good in the industry and their training has to be as per the latest technology going on in the market. We also require a lot of funds to remain up-to-date with the technological requirements. This is essential and also a challenge as it increases budgets and funding. But we make it a point to pull through this challenge.

An updated curriculum

Our faculty members come here for guest lectures. They suggest and we keep updating our curriculum to remain on pace with the industry. We are associated with active journalists and media persons.

Placements not an issue for IIMM

Being an old organization, and association with top players in the industry, placements have never been a challenge for us. We select a limited number of students every year as our intake, so placing them is not a trouble. Also, we offer specializations. In a class of 50, in the final year of their graduation, they are divided into specializations like journalism, advertising, production, direction. We screen the candidates before admission, so there is no direct admission with IIMM.

Availability for the students

USP of my institute is that all faculties, director, staff are easily available for the students.

There is no pomp and show involved in coming to see us

We are as approachable as expected. Every class has a class representative, through which we can be reached. Also, after every class, there is a discussion of about 10-15 mins, where students are open to discussing anything they want, with us.

Views on an ideal school environment

My ideal school environment is one which enables a lot of learning through practical aspects. The education should be technology-driven where new challenges are openly discussed and met with.

Top qualities that an aspiring candidate must possess

No specific qualities are required as such. One only needs to be very smart in any one segment of the curriculum and I believe they can easily excel. All the qualities may be molded in a positive way and be mastered to be the master of specific domains of mass communication.

Goal to give the best to the students

The only goal we follow is that we try to give the best to our students. Keeping them in pace with the industry and giving them the best technology possible to keep them up-to-date with the curriculum.

Suggestions for the youth

The youth of today is smart enough to decide what they want as a career. The only suggestion is to take good guidance and make use of your potential and focus on being the master of one rather than being the jack of all trades.