Media Institutions: Limited Resources
By DIL BAHADUR BASNET
Media colleges and training centers in Nepal are found to be running with inadequate resources of almost all kinds. Fascinatingly, the authorities of the renowned media institutions like Nepal Press Institute (NPI), Kathmandu University (KU), Nepal Manawiki Campus (NMC), Kantipur City College (KCC), College of Journalism and Mass Communication (CJMC), Shepherd College of Media Technology (SCMT), and Nobel Academy Higher Secondary School (NAHSS) hold more or less the same opinion at this juncture.
Dhruba Hari Adhikary, former chairperson of NPI observes, “Media organizations are so rapidly increasing that the training institutes are unable to meet their highly professional demand. The massive scale of training institutes can only fulfill the required workforce. Otherwise, it’s an idea to bring optimum efficiency in limited media institutes like the NPI, being run with limited resources.”
“We have been operating our training center with restricted resources irrespective of foreign donations for the last decade. We are entirely dependent on fee collected from trainees to manage the minimum resources (e.g. about 400 media books, all leading daily and weekly newspapers/magazines, overhead projector etc.) for six-month training. We don’t even have multimedia facility,” says Shree Ram Singh Basnet, executive director and one of the founders of Media Point at Banasthali.
A media expert Lal Deusa Rai, who has gained a three decade long experience, opines, “Lack of resources is the symbol of developing countries. Unlike media institutions in developed countries having their own sufficient and up-to-date studios/labs and better publications, media institutions in Nepal have to manage with few and out-of-date resources.” On behalf of the NMC, he made it clear how it was difficult for his students to become internees at broadcasting and electronic media houses. He stressed that the concerned committee’s failure in implementing the strategy to address the drawbacks has prevented the media institutions from becoming independent. Accordingly, the NMC is seeking a license to run FM studio by itself.
Chairperson of Press Council Nepal Rajendra Dahal would like to draw the attention of state and media houses with a different outlook regarding the affordability for media education in Nepal unlike in the advanced countries. “Since a trained manpower is needed, state and private media houses need to invest in media education, which will ultimately help them and effectively establish press as the fourth state. Unless timely attention is paid, media is sure to undergo deplorable circumstances. Though the NPI is the foremost media training institute, the last batch has gone untrained due to dependence on foreign aid,” he remarked.
“We are providing maximum level of theoretical knowledge to students/trainees,” informed Tapanath Shukla, media expert, at the Ministry of Information & Communication. Also a resource person at various media institutions, he related, “During a welcome and farewell party recently organized at the SCMT, I advised Mohan Singh from Image Channel, Ram Saran Karki from Radio Nepal, and Madan Kumar Sharma from NTV to offer unused equipment to media colleges and training centers in need, and they have duly expressed their commitment to do so.”
Here is a genuine scenario of media teachers/instructors as depicted by Ram Krishna Regmi, chief, Department of Mass Communication and Journalism, KCC. From his perspective, they are mainly experienced journalists without relevant degree, experts with understanding of journalism, and media educators and practitioners.
Undoubtedly, new generation of students are finding glamour in media studies, being a multidisciplinary subject. But the undeniable fact is that several media institutions have somehow ended up with the same type of instructors (many unprofessional and irresponsible), technological infrastructures (dated labs/studios, multimedia, computers), printed and electronic materials (disproportional books, CDs), internship programs in media houses (editors of highly encouraging, and utmost discouraging nature), activities (unhealthy class environment, more theoretical instead of practical classes, mismanagement of existing resources, feeble networking between students/trainees and teachers/trainers, high fees) and so on. Needless to say, these are unproductive and distracting features.
All the three constituent campuses (NMC, Mahendra Multiple Campus -Dharan, Prithvi Narayan Campus - Pokhara) of Tribhuvan University (TU), 21 campuses affiliated with TU, three colleges (KCC, CJMC, SCMT) affiliated with Purbanchal University, 79 higher secondary schools running media studies till date, and other emerging institutions likely to launch the same would better escape from the unforeseen disasters by bringing radical revolution in media resources.
(Basnet is an internee)
