Jammu and Kashmir: IUST's Journalism Department organises National Seminar on 'COVID and Communication'

On this occasion, special invited lectures were held for the students of Journalism and Mass Communication to orient them towards better career and professional goals.

Vice Chancellor, Prof Mushtaq A. Siddiqi who was the Chief Guest on this occasion contextualized need for suitable crisis communication with medical science during the times of corona.

“The vaccine has a silver lining during this pandemic but not the final hope and all we need is proper and accurate communication as has happened in case of HIV etc,” Prof. Siddiqi said.

Terming the virus a ‘disruption’ of sorts he highlighted how disruptive technologies had contributed earlier also and how a scientific temperament and protocols were still required to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

In his special lecture on the topic ‘COVID impact on media and communication and their careers’ Pro Vice- Chancellor, Adamas University Prof. Ujjwal K. Chowdhury discussed future of all media formats and career avenues, and “corona times called for a break from myopic vision or fixation and out of box solutions were needed.”

“During COVID, newspapers were badly hit and their circulation went down drastically, which has still not stabilized increasing the printing, distributing costs and even led to over 11000 job cuts in India”, he said.

While delivering his special lecture on ‘Practical PR during COVID: Purpose, Skills and Tips’, VicePresident –Content Marketing at Adfactors PR, Aditya Chatterjee presented case studies from various leading PR campaigns of brands like Godrej, Mahindra, Johnson and Johnson etc. to help students understand the theoretical and practical concepts.

Dean School of Humanities and Social Sciences and leading economist Prof A S Bhat also addressed the gathering and analyzed the impact of pandemic on the economy.

Earlier in her welcome address, HoD Department of Journalism and Mass Communication Dr Ruheela Hassan shared her observations about this ‘Infodemic’ and how misinformation and disinformation about the pandemic during the initial stages led to some deaths. While submitting the seminar report, Seminar Coordinator and Senior Assistant Prof DJMC, Dr Monisa Qadiri expressed her contentment over the seminar and called on students to focus on the skills and training that would enable them to be relevant to the industry in future.