J-Schools Closing: A Sign Of The Times, But What Is The Signal?

Yesterday, on July 22, the Indian Institute of Journalism & New Media (IIJNM) in Bangalore was to start its 2024-25 academic year, welcoming its 25th batch of students. But it was not to be, as the institute announced late last month that it was giving up and returning the fees to all applicants who had been selected.

IIJNM’s abrupt closure made news beyond publications that watch media matters, not because of the spread of its alumni nationally. Still, for the shockwaves it will send through the corridors of colleges and universities where journalism is being taught – and while admissions are on in many of those.

The significance of IIJNM is that it was the second after the Asian College (ACJ) to be founded to teach journalism beyond the clutches of the university system so that students passing out are trained and ready to be put to work in print, broadcast and electronic the day they are hired.

Although journalism training using practitioners rather than academics was pioneered by the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in Mumbai in the 1960s through branches in many parts of the country, it wasn’t until ACJ started in Bangalore in 1994 that this idea caught the imagination of employers.

That was because ACJ was founded by the Indian Express Group matriarch Saroj Goenka in memory of her late husband Bhagwandas and father-in-law Ramnath Goenka. as a training institution for the industry’s good. Their then editorial director T J S George who was charged with its execution, drew representatives from 20 dailies and created an institute with their inputs to make it feel like it was a collective project so much so that some provided teachers and all hired the students.

Since ACJ was run like a corporate social responsibility project of the Express Group which was already divided into the north and south halves, it faced funding difficulties. Then The Hindu, as one of the supporting establishments, adopted the project and took it to Chennai where it was given a different shape and form to grow into the ACJ it is today.

IIJNM was founded in Bangalore by a US-based NRI businessman Abraham George to fill the void that ACJ left behind in the year 2000, also with much idealism behind it. But it was one man’s dream and finance and after a few years, it was expected to break even. It did and its laboratories and studio facilities expanded. Costs mounted, and fees increased. When admissions kept falling, things began to get shaky and the management chose to cut its losses.

Now with only ACJ left standing, the question that has been asked around is: why is there a fall in the numbers of journalism students? The quick answer is, it is a reflection of the market where the jobs are fewer.

One can look at it from other perspectives too.

ACJ and IIJNM and some of the less famous institutions which struck root in other parts of the country, were meeting this demand for industry-ready recruits – who are taught skills that are needed at work rather than loads of theory with little applicability that’s given through the university system. The 2000s and 2010s saw rapid expansion of the TV and internet business and jobs for the well-trained were plentiful.

By the time it came to the 2020s, there was an industry correction – economics influenced by politics. The print was doddering. Television news (as compared to entertainment TV) channels were finding the going tough.

Internet journalism also kept being more talk and excitement, than a generator of real revenue. So there too jobs were not growing. Altogether, the demand was falling and therefore students were spending huge fees in these private institutions – many of them were charging Rs 5 lakhs and up to Rs 7 lakhs for a year’s course, which is double the spend doing a two-year master’s degree in media and communication from well-established universities and colleges.

This brings us to the issue of university degrees versus the professional diplomas that these highly fancied private institutions offer.

With this shrinking media job market, teaching itself came into demand. For a teaching job, every university and affiliated college demands a master’s degree (with other appendages like a NET or PhD). A master’s degree allows one to switch to other fields of study or research. Diplomas began to be seen as a disadvantage for job mobility in hard times.

This is one big factor that saw so many universities starting courses with journalism at bachelor’s and masters and drawing students. The increase in courses meant more teachers were hired. However, that also is now shrinking. There are colleges which are struggling to find students to sustain a class and keep the number of teachers it has on the rolls.

Big universities and colleges can cross-subsidise. For example, if journalism student numbers are low, they manage with the earnings from other subjects where there is demand. But stories of journalism teachers being retrenched and journalism courses being curtailed or closed are being heard in whispers.

Colleges are hesitant to speak about the fall in admissions. The main reason is the placement situation. Many or rather most of the media students were not going into jobs in media houses anyway. There was PR (public relations) which was an avenue. That is shrinking.

There is then content writing. For that one does not have to study anything expensive. You just need imagination and good language and people do not look for journalism-trained students for those jobs. There are then proofreading correcting and formatting employment in big companies. Those help you tide over while dreaming of better things.

What do we make of all this? What is the message of the closure of dedicated professional institutes? The answer is there is an oversupply in the market and many teaching shops have to close. Students can move into allied fields. Visual communication, event management and such jobs are now drawing students. What will journalism and media teachers do?

Amidst all this talk of gloom and doom, look at IIMC (Indian Institute of Media and Communication) which has been made a university this year, and is going to offer two MA courses – media business studies and strategic communication – starting next month. The Print, which is an online news publication, has just launched a digital journalism course. That saves cost by studying from home.

Print is not dying any time soon. Nor is TV journalism or web journalism. Just that the need is for fewer people. Which means the better ones survive, even by taking a lower pay.

Maybe it is all for the best.