KARACHI, May 20: The Department of Mass Communication, University of Karachi, is introducing a two-semester diploma course in development support communication in its evening programme from the new academic session, commencing in July.

The course will be open to all graduates in Science, Arts, Commerce and Home Economics.

Speaking at a press briefing on Monday, chairperson of the Mass Communication Department, Prof Shahida Kazi, said the course was aimed to provide training and education to all those involved in strategic media campaign on different social and development issues.

It would prove worthy for NGOs and media consultants working in the fields of health, education, human rights and population wlfare, enabling them to have a significant communication and feedback on different campaigns which are run from time to time, she added.

Prof Kazi mentioned that communication had been an art for long and personnel in government departments and NGOs surely needed specific training in this regard. Outlines and planing given by a section officer on literacy or population campaigns or other issues in the health and education sectors could not bring the desired results and ensure social acceptability, she pointed out.

She said the diploma course would get public response since different government and non-governmental organizations had already stressed the need for such courses, particularly for those who were already employed. “We hope that when the course is formally offered, the department will be able to get 20-25 admissions, otherwise we will have to defer the programme till next year,” she said, adding that the feasibility of the course, involving teachers from within the department and experts from outside, depended on self-financing.

The components of the one-year diploma course included introduction to development support communication, introduction to mass communication, mass media and society, analytical study of development contents in the media, seminar on relevant economic, political and social conditions in the country, communication strategies for development, research and literature review, field study and development reporting.

Accompanied by a teacher of the department, Sarwar Nasim, the chairperson further informed that in view of the problems of the applicants, the duration of the certificate course in Mass Communication was being reduced to one semester.

The programme was revived last year, but it was modified in order to keep intact the interest of the students, mostly professionals and in-service personnel, the duration of the course has been reduced, which would surely help resisting the drop-outs in the second semester, she added.

She said a fairly large number of graduates from the department held senior positions in print and electronic media, advertising, public relations and federal and provincial information departments across the county. However, 80 per cent of the department graduates went to the advertising field, she added in response to questions.

She said the department started its unique experiment to provide the much-needed text material in Urdu in 1989 and two to four specialised journals and books were published every year.

Prof Kazi said the launching of a short-circuit television operating one hour every day and a small radio station broadcasting for two hours a day was also included in the future plans.