Publications

The lab paper - The Fourth Estate in English and Jalakam in Malayalam - that the students are required to produce on their own every week without fail, is the main vehicle for their training at MASCOM. It includes all areas of newspaper work: collecting information, putting it together in the form of news stories, taking photographs needed for these stories, editing the stories and the photographs, writing headlines and laying out pages. For the lab paper, students take turns to be the Editor, Sub-editors and Reporters week after week, which provides them a medium to put into practice what they are taught in the classroom. Several hundred copies of this paper are printed and distributed to important persons and establishments. The publication of the paper begins each week with an editorial conference where the Editor justifies his or her selection of stories offered by the reporters. In the week following publication, there is a rigorous critique of it by the faculty. The production begins with dummy issues towards the end of the first trimester and the first regular issue is published from the beginning of the second trimester.

Special Issue

At the end of the course, the students bring out a four-page Special Convocation Issue in colour.

Special edition produced by students

Productions

The lab bulletin - MASCOM News - is produced by students twice a week. It trains the students at MASCOM to be ready for broadcast jobs. It includes all areas of reporting for a news channel: collecting information, putting it together in the form of news stories, taking visuals needed for these stories, editing the stories, anchoring and producing the bulletin. For this bulletin the students take turns to become reporters, anchors, editors, producers etc week after week, which provides them a medium to put into practice what they are taught in the classroom. The bulletins are critiqued by the faculty.
Besides the news bulletin students also put together studio programmes and documentary films.

Videos

Take a look at the programmes produced in our youtube channel.

MASCOM Day

Towards the end of the course, the students plan and participate in MASCOM Day. The highlight of the day is an exhibition that they hold, showcasing to visitors all the editions of the lab papers they produced and the best photographs they took during the year as well as the front pages of important newspapers from around the world. During the exhibition, students surprise visitors with the quick editions of The Fourth Estate that they produce carrying instant interviews with them.

The broadcast students give a feel of a working newsroom to the visitors and the technology behind. On MASCOM Day every year, the students also screen a short film made by them.


Field Trips

MASCOM students undertake field trips arranged by the institute to hone their skills in reporting and developing news/features.