Workshops for students: Teaching-Leaning

 

VISUAL GRAMMAR AND VISUAL CULTURE

By Anushree Mukherjee

An online guest lecture was organized by the Department of Journalism, LSR on 5 October, 2021 on the topic - ‘Visual Grammar and Visual Culture’.

The lecture was delivered by Mr. Manoj Raut, who has over 20 years of professional experience and expertise in the broadcast media industry. He has worked with NDTV for almost two decades as a Senior Cameraperson. He is well-known for his contributions to video journalism and reporting, video editing, as well as content creation for documentary films. He has also trained, mentored and groomed many students as a Trainer at the NDTV Media School.

The lecture began with Mr. Raut explaining the meaning of a shot, the significance of shots and the primary factors that play a role in setting up the perfect shot. The students shared their understanding of various camera angles and the types of frames that are used in the broadcast industry. This was followed by an interesting montage of images from popular movies and television shows that depicted various types of camera movements and types of shots such as long shot, close-up shot and medium shot. A short segment also focused on camera movement and dynamic shots within a video. The students learnt how various shots are combined with suitable effects and appropriate background music to enhance the story-telling process.

The lecture was received with admiration by the students and they also found the content very relevant and easy to understand. The event concluded with the faculty and the students thanking Mr. Raut for his valuable time and inputs.

 

PRIVATE BROADCASTING IN INDIA

By Anushree Mukherjee

The Department of Journalism, LSR organized an online guest lecture on 18 October, 2021 on the topic - ‘Private Broadcasting in India’.

The lecture was delivered by Dr. Ambrish Saxena, presently working as the Academic Head at the prestigious institutions - ZIMA and ZICA.  He joined journalism as a full-timer in 1979 and has served in some of the widely circulated Hindi and English dailies; to name the most prominent of them - The Pioneer and Aaj - in various capacities. In electronic media, Dr. Saxena has worked as a correspondent for the first TV Hindi news magazine ‘PARAKH’, produced by the veteran Vinod Dua. He has been an avid academician, having previously worked for the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi, and Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies.

The lecture commenced with Dr. Saxena elucidating the comprehensive history of broadcasting in India, with reference to nature of ownership and media programming. The private broadcasting sector may be characterized by terms such as deregulation, privatization, commercialization, and inflow of foreign investment. The students engaged in the lecture by providing their insights and knowledge related to the establishment of Akashvani, AIR and Vividh Bharti. There was a detailed discussion regarding the transition from public to private broadcasting – delving into topics such as the Broadcasting Code approved by the Fourth Asian Broadcasting Conference in 1962, the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act of 1995 and its subsequent amendment, and the current discourse about Direct-to-Home (DTH) services in India and its impact on the Indian audience.

The lecture was immensely informative and relevant for the students as aspiring journalists. The event concluded with the faculty and the students thanking Dr. Ambrish Saxena for his valuable time and inputs.

EDITING FOR PHOTOGRAPHY

By Anushree Mukherjee

An online guest lecture was organized by the Department of Journalism, LSR on Friday, 29th October, 2021 on the topic - ‘Editing for Photography’.

The lecture was delivered by Mr. Firoz Ahmed Khan, currently working as the UI/UX Designer at Ikontel Solutions Pvt. Limited. He has worked for many tech companies in India, and has expertise in designing interfaces and experiences for products in various domains. He is also skilled in research, wire-framing, prototyping, and testing for graphic design, photography and videography.

Mr. Khan delivered a detailed and step-by-step guide for the popular editing software - Adobe Lightroom. Adobe Lightroom (officially Adobe Photoshop Lightroom) is a creative image organization and image manipulation software developed by Adobe Inc. as part of the Creative Cloud subscription family. Mr. Khan focused on all its prominent features such as importing, saving, viewing, organizing, tagging, editing, and sharing large numbers of digital images.

The skill-based webinar was extremely enlightening and helpful for the students. Many students who attended the lecture are aspiring photographers, videographers and film-makers. The students felt that this lecture would definitely help them in their professional endeavours. The event concluded with the faculty and the students presenting the vote of thanks to Mr. Firoz Ahmed Khan for his valuable time and inputs.

SCRIPT WRITING FOR BEGINNERS

By Pranjali Pandey and Anushree Mukherjee

An online workshop was organised by the Department of Journalism, LSR on 18 November, 2021 on the topic- ‘Script Writing for Beginners’.

The workshop was delivered by Mr. Prashant Pandey, who has been in the film industry for over 13 years and is widely known for his talent in identifying and building commercially viable film projects from scratch. He also runs a small production company called Perpetual Pictures which spots and incubates great Indian stories. He is popular for contributing to numerous critically acclaimed films - Sarkar Raj (2008), Rakta Charitra and most recently, Poorna. He also had worked as a journalist for ANI-REUTERS, and later as a Reality Director with Zee TV Talent Hunt Show - Saregamapa.

The workshop began with Mr. Pandey telling us about his journey from being an English literature student in Hansraj College, DU, to starting his career with a director like Ram Gopal Verma. He followed up with a theoretical explanation of script-writing and screenplay. He emphasized on the importance of meaning-making through one’s writing journey. He also enunciated how a script is divided into differentiated parts (such as Act 1, Act 2 and Act 3 for a movie) and what each part conveys and contributes to the screenplay. The students understood how character-setting, using both the character’s personality and external surroundings, is a necessary component of introducing a story to the audience. He advised that giving opinions to the character helps to make them relatable for the audience; hence, this makes it possible for the viewer to engage with the storyline. The session also explored a lot of nuances of story-telling, such as the importance of two different shots being combined together to build meaning, also known as the concept of turning ‘mundane into meaningful’. Mr. Pandey also answered students’ doubts on the meaning of brand placement in a movie, the difficulty of finishing a short film, and the difference between writing a fictional film and a feature film.

The workshop was really helpful for students wanting to pursue a career in the script-writing industry and taught them something new in the field of journalism. The event concluded with the students thanking Mr. Prashant Pandey for his valuable time and enlightening words.

SOUND CULTURE

By Pranjali Pandey and Anushree Mukherjee

A series of online guest lectures were organised by the Department of Journalism, LSR from October 2021 to November, 2021 for the second year students on the topic - ‘Sound Culture: Concepts and Design’.

The lectures were delivered by Gagan Gera who is presently working as a Senior Producer at the Department of Mass Communication, Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi. He is also associated with All India Radio - News Services Division (NSD) in the Hindi News Room (HNR) as an Editorial Assistant since December 2007. He has also worked as the Production Supervisor in the Department of Multimedia and Mass Communication, Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi.

Mr. Gera acquainted the students with the basics of ‘sound’ and its properties such as wavelength, amplitude, and more. There were also several discussions on the different types of sound - natural and ambient. He briefed the students about the use and types of microphones used in the broadcast industry. He explained how different kinds of microphones are used to produce different types of sounds using several examples. The students were made aware of the concept of sound design, mixing sounds and the role they play in the build-up of the final product. The students also learnt about the equipment used in the sound design industry and what functions are performed by each equipment. Along with this, he also engaged the students in a detailed discussion about Electronic Field Production and Electronic News Gathering.

All the sessions were immensely enlightening and interactive. Students presented several doubts and queries which were expertly solved by Mr. Gera. The event ended with the faculty and students thanking Gagan Gera for his valuable time and input.

Basics of Social Media Marketing

Disclaimer: The note(s) given below is/are a compilation of information taken from various sources. The references to the sources are provided at the end. The views expressed in the note(s) are those of the concerned student(s)/intern(s). The blogger or the compiler will not be responsible in any manner whatsoever regarding the authenticity of the information provided in the note(s).

These notes are being compiled to help the students for educational purposes during Covid-19 pandemic.

"Don't use social media to impress people; use it to impact people."

- Dave Willis, Author and Speaker

Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms to connect with your audience to build your brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic. This involves publishing great content on your social media profiles, listening to and engaging your followers, analyzing your results, and running social media advertisements.

The major social media platforms (at the moment) are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, and Snapchat.

Social Media Marketing Guide Definitions

• Content: Content is whatever you post on social media. It can be a Facebook status update, a video on Instagram, a Tweet, and so on. 

• Context: Gary Vaynerchuk said, “Content is king, but context is God.” For instance, you might have a great joke, but if you place it somewhere inside a 3,000-word blog post, very few people are likely to see it. On Twitter, however, that same joke as a tweet might crush it. So make your content context engaging and interesting.

• Hashtags: By now one probably knows that hashtags are a very common tool that people use to add meta information on almost all social media channels. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest all use hashtags to let one describe the topic of one's content or mark it as part of current trends.

• Shares: Shares are the currency of the social media world. When people engage and interact with one’s content, that’s good. But when they share it, that is the time to celebrate. A great social media tool to measure shares and the overall impact of content. The more shares, the more people love your content. Shares are the best form of engagement that people can have.

• Engagement: This is a general term referring to how people interact with the content that one produces. It can be a like, a reaction, a comment, or a share. All of these are good, but the shares are where it’s at.

Core Pillars of Social Media Marketing

• Strategy

A sound social media marketing strategy is the backbone of your social media presence. Without a strategy, you’re wasting time, unlikely to achieve your goals, and will most likely struggle to reach your target audience.

Plan and Publish

Social media is a powerful tool, but you can’t just go out there and start publishing content without a plan behind it.

When you’re planning content make sure that you:

• Know your audience: You need to know the demographic of your audience in order to connect with them.

• Focus on quality: The quality of content is just as important as the quantity.

• Consider your brand: Keeping in line with your brand values is crucial.

• Listening and Engagement
• Plan your content and above all, actually engage with your audience. Your feedback might not always be positive; but, if you don’t make changes, neither will the tone of your responses. 

Analytics

The success of any social media marketing campaign depends on analytics for tracking and collecting data. Without this information, you can’t:

• understand user behavior
• refine your strategy
• find which platform works best for your brand
• discover the best times to post
• analyze your competitors

 Advertising

The three main types of social media advertising are:

1. Organic: Content that picks up views naturally and you don’t pay for.
2. Paid: Content that an organization sponsors and therefore costs money to post.
3. Earned: Content that has been given freely in the form of shares, likes, and comments

Different Types of Social Media Marketing

Aside from the likes of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, social media marketing takes many different forms, such as:

• content marketing/content creating
• advertising/sponsorship
• influencer marketing
• social media management/community management
• paid media
• building your following
• contributing to forums
• Reviews
• Advertising

1. Facebook: Facebook is the biggest social media platform. It offers marketers some of the robust most data and the most precisely targeted ads. Facebook Ads walks you through the process, so even the newest social media marketers may be able to succeed on the platform.
2. Instagram: Instagram is and was always about pictures, and its video function is pretty popular too. Out of all of the big networks, Instagram has the highest engagement rate. You can also release short or long-form videos and share Instagram stories. Both formats do well for brands. Tools like In Video can help you create and edit professional videos that increase engagement and reach more people.
3. YouTube: This social network has changed the way we consume video since it has made it easy (streaming is super fast) and free, and it gives us a way to express our opinions instantly (thanks to comments).Almost 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube every single day.  Pro tip: Use other social media channels to drive your followers to YouTube by giving excerpts, snippets, and previews of your videos. The little, bite-sized teasers will spark curiosity and make people want to see the whole thing.
4. LinkedIn: LinkedIn’s growth never exploded as much as Facebook’s, but they’ve been around for 18 years and have grown to over 774+ million members. On LinkedIn, it’s all about being professional. The casual writing style that’s used on some blogs doesn’t work as well on LinkedIn. People are there for one thing only: business.
5. Reddit: Reddit’s slogan claims that they are the “front page of the Internet,” and they aren’t very far off. With 1.5 billion visits from May 2019 to May 2020, Reddit might just live up to its description.
6. Snapchat: Snapchat has 293 million daily active users. While the majority of those are women (about 61 percent), men on the platform have one thing in common: they’re young. In fact, 69 percent of teens use Snapchat.
7. Pinterest: Pinterest is the number one social media platform for marketers who want to target women. 60 percent of their monthly active users are female.You can think of Pinterest as a giant digital scrapbook. Due to the nature of the pinboards, Pinterest is also one of the only platforms where images look best when you display them vertically. Keep in mind that your pics need special formatting to look good on Pinterest.
8. Quora: Quora is unique from other social media platforms as it’s strictly based on the questions and answers. Now, you might think “People ask questions and get answers on Facebook and Twitter all the time. Why use Quora?”

There are two reasons: -

1. The answers on other sites are sometimes not answers at all, personal stories, and, far too often, just plain mean.
2. People on Quora can establish authority without having to explain their qualifications over and over.

For instance, on Facebook, someone in a cat group may ask how to fix a mistake they made while cutting their own hair. While some folks may give kind, helpful responses, chances are they’ll also get a lot of rude answers about their “poor decision-making skills.”

Tips to Grow and Engage your Audience on Social Media

• Social Media Marketing In 5 Minutes | What Is Social Media Marketing? [For Beginners].
• How to Start Social Media Marketing (4 ESSENTIAL Tips for Beginners).
• What Is Social Media Marketing? (And Why Does It Matter?!).

A sound social media marketing strategy is the backbone of your social media presence. Without a strategy, you’re wasting time, unlikely to achieve your goals, and will most likely struggle to reach your target audience.

• creating a social media strategy with a concrete goal in mind know why you are posting on social media and what you want to achieve by doing so
• choosing the right social media channels for your company or industry 
• experimenting with different content types such as live video or GIFs
• keeping track of current trends in your industry and adapting your marketing strategy accordingly, but don’t copy what other companies are doing; great advertising campaigns integrate something new! 
• holding contests and inviting user-generated content 
• sharing useful content, starting conversations and writing actionable content to inspire people to click through, read more, or even download your free brochure or mobile app. 

Links To Some Important Videos:

https://youtu.be/I2pwcAVonKI
https://youtu.be/-tdFvJLw2UQ
https://youtu.be/489yr8CnyTw

References:

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/social-media-quotes
https://neilpatel.com/what-is-social-media-marketing/

Compiled and Edited by

Priyanshi Bhardwaj
Batch of 2023
B.A. (Hons.) Journalism
Lady Shri Ram College for Women, New Delhi