Media has perhaps played the most powerful role in history, politics, economics & society. It is not limited being a tool of communication anymore. In our present day world, media- broadcast and print media in particular, are considered mainly to be entities that reflect the face of the society as it exists today. Since it has a vital role to play it’s our fundamental responsibility as academicians to equip students with its various forms like print, radio, television, cinema, internet etc. It is with the same understanding that university of Mumbai introduced Bachelor of Mass Media (BMM) in 2000- 2001.
Bachelor of Mass Media is a media based course, and at present is a sought after media program within the undergraduate student community. It provides the students with a perfect platform to showcase their projects, presentations and performances and simultaneously develop their talents, excelling themselves in their chosen arena of media outlets viz. Advertising or Journalism.
Mithibai College introduced BMM in the academic year 2012-2013, and although it is the initial year of the course, the students have made inroads by participating in various inter–collegiate events, highlighting their keen desire to create a presence amongst the decade old mass media under graduate fraternity.
- Prof. Sandesh Samant was invited as a guest lecturer to share his expertise on Social Reformers of Maharashtra with the FYBMM students on 1st Nov, 2018
- SYBMM students were taken on a field trip to Sanjay Gandhi National Park by Professor Freddy Singaraj on 25th of August 2018. Prof. Sandesh Samant (Ruia College) was the guest speaker who enlightened the students on different aspects Of Cultural Studies and the local tribe’s culture consumption and representations.
- A Photo Walk for the SYBMM students was organized on 26th and 27th September 2018 for the paper on Photography and Lights (Faculty in charge - Joshua Navalkar). The students met at CST walked up to Colaba and clicked pictures during the walk.
- On the 23rd of October 2018, a Model United Nations (MUN) Conference was organized for the students of FYBMM for the subject - World History (Prof. Freddy Singaraj). Through this concept, the students were exposed to the structure and diplomatic relationships at international platforms. The topic of the MUN was 'Human Rights Violations in the world'. Students representing different countries presented and debated their perspectives on Human Rights Violations.
- BMM department organized a Folk Art Festival for FYBMM students on various topics from their syllabus for the subject Fundamentals of Mass Communication. Prof. Sanjay Pal is the faculty for the subject.
CSR Activity- A street play titled 'Chunauti' was performed by the BMM students at Juhu beach and Carter Road Bandra on 7th October 2017.
- Visits to St Anthony’s Home for the aged (Bandra) and Assisi Bhavan (Goregaon) on 9th October 2017
- To spread awareness about The Blue Whale Challenge, a social outreach program ‘The Pink Whale Initiative’ was carried out.
- Students of FYBMM as part of their Sociology paper attended a screening of the movie ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’ at Cinepolis on 28th July 2017. They were accompanied by Prof. Zinat Aboli who teaches the subject. As part of curriculum, watching of the film and post film discussion enriched their learning process.
- On 31st July 2017, students of FYBMM participated in a social experiment on ‘Social Control’ in the college premises as part of their Sociology paper taught by Prof. Zinat Aboli.
- Students of FY, SY and TYBMM participated in Folk Art festival held on 13th September 2017 in Juhu Jagruti Hall. Students of FYBMM represented Various Folk Art from India and conveyed Impact of media on various sectors in form of a play for the subject Fundamentals of Mass Communication taught by Prof. Sanjay Pal.
- A “Model United Nations” conference was conducted by the FYBMM students on 19th September 2017 for the subject History taught by Prof. Freddy Singaraj. The activity was aimed to make students understand world leadership and diplomatic relations among different nations of the world.
- A screening of short films made by the students of SYBMM was held on 5th February 2018 for the subject Understanding Cinema taught by Prof. Zinat Aboli. The USP of this activity was that the films were shot on a mobile phone. Various genres like romance, thriller, comedy, horror etc. were chosen by the students.
- A workshop on writing RTI applications was organized by the department for FYBMM and FYBMS students. Mr Shailesh Gandhi, former Chief Information Officer was the speaker.
Students of the Mass Media Department attended a two-day Certified Course about Gender Sensitive Reporting organized by ‘Population First’ on the 26th and 27th of November, 2016. ‘Population First’ is a communication and advocacy initiative whose key objectives are to help eliminate the falling sex ratio in India’s population, sensitize the youth and media to gender issues and improve the quality of health and standard of life of India’s rural population with a special focus on women and youth.
On the 1st day of the workshop, students loved the session with Smriti Nevatia, who shared the importance of different kinds of genders and its representation on media platforms. Students learned tremendously from this session as it taught them new things like cis-gender, gender fixing and a lot more. Next, they had a session with Sameer Khan who taught how journalists make mistakes in their stories related to factual information and the importance of not disclosing identities in a rape story in media.
Then next day, students had Kamakshi Bhate who briefly explained about gender with reference to Media and Health. Students were then shown a documentary with Jeroo Mulla, who in general discussed about Media and Gender. Topics such as different kinds of genders, feminism, and sexual harassment at work place were addressed, and it helped students to know more about the kind of effectiveness it has.
After every segment students had a Q&A round with the speakers regarding their topic, along with performing different exercises and activities. The atmosphere was warm as the students around were also enthusiastic. Laadli, an initiative by Population First was also discussed throughout the workshop. The initiative gives awards to people, who submit their story, short film, documentaries etc.
Both the days of this session proved to be very helpful and informative for students. Population first organized this session as a means of helping media students by imparting knowledge that will further cater to their journalistic future.
Street Play on Demonetisation
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on 8 November, the biggest-ever demonetisation exercise India has ever seen by abruptly withdrawing Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes from public use in a bid to clamp down on black money, fake currency menace, terror funding and corruption.
The move led to a lot of chaos and panick among people and eventually created spread of false rumours among masses. It was necessary to help and make people understand the whole process of Demonetisation and how one should go about it.
Students performed a street play titled ‘Demonetisation’ on 3rd December at 9 am where they tried to educate people by spreading awareness and clear certain confusions and misconceptions about the entire Demonetisation issue. There were two teams made with 8 students performing and other two were directing the play. One team performed the play on Vile Parle station and the other team performed at the chawl near Mithibai College. Around 100 students volunteered to help in the process.
Later on a survey was taken by volunteers from nearby shopkeepers and they also asked the people the problems they were facing and if any solutions they could suggest. More than 100 people witnessed the street play at both the places. Students initiative helped masses to gain a clear perspective and directed them in a precise way.
Guest Lecture on Digital PR- 6th August, 2016:
The department of mass media organised a guest lecture on Digital PR for the second year students which was conducted by Mr. Gautam Sheth, Sports Lead, WordsWork Communications Consultant.
Being a part of the industry for a very long time, his experience was itself a great lesson for the students. Apart from the informative theoretical knowledge, he shared a lot of his stories and learnings which kept the students engaged. Since he has been from the journalism background, he effortlessly explained the students how and what can make a pitch more effective which was very beneficial to all. He made the session extremely relatable and humorous by combining the traditional theories with modern day examples, thus making it easy to understand and grasp.
Visit to the Old Age Homes- 7th August, 2016:
Students of ‘Paparazzi’ visited Cardinal Gracias Destitutes Home and Assisi Bhavan, two old age homes in the city and brightened the day of its’ residents. The day started with the students visiting the first old age home in the morning and another group of students visiting the latter towards evening. A mesmerizing singing performance delighted the audience, after which they were brought back to their childhood days with an entertaining round of Housie, followed by a great deal of joyous dancing on old tunes. Being Friendship Day, a wide smile was brought to their faces as students tied Friendship bands to each of them. Sugar free sweets and snacks were distributed amongst all.
Visit to the Orphanage- 14th August, 2016:
On the eve of Independence Day i.e., 14th August, nearly 150 children belonging to Sneha Sadan, an orphanage in Andheri East couldn’t hold their happiness as students of ‘Paparazzi’ gave out hundreds of books, clothes, and other stationery items. Their days were brightened as a number of games and activities were held in the spirit of celebrating Independence Day.
More than 15 students associated with Paparazzi visited Sneha Sadan around 4:30 pm, with their hands full of gifts and chocolates.
The event started off on a game where children were given a situation, and told to act in a contradictory manner. This was followed by an exciting round of KhoKho/Dodgeball/Football and the winners of both the activities were gifted chocolates or presents. Lastly, the event concluded on a patriotic note, when children were asked about that one thing they would like to do in celebration of India’s 70th Independence Day.
Guest Lecture on Television Copy Writing- 30th August, 2016:
The department of mass media organised a guest lecture for the third year students on Television Copy Writing by Mr. Vijay Iyer, the Creative Director of Publicis. He imparted a lot of knowledge right from the basics of copy writing to an in-depth discussion on the same. Amidst what was imparted, was whom to target, when to target and what mediums to use to reach the target audience, covering all that was essential.
The lecture was extremely interactive as the students yearned to learn more and absorb as much as they could. Having successfully led teams to create work that has created impact in the market and in juries, the students clarified all their queries, thus making it an enriching and informative lecture.
Department of Mass Media’s Festival, Paparazzi- 31st August, 1st & 2nd September, 2016:
Paparazzi is an inter-collegiate media festival organized by the Mass Media department of Mithibai College. Since its inception in 2013, Paparazzi is known to be amongst the most celebrated media festivals in Mumbai. With over 35 colleges participating every year, its footfall keeps increasing throughout the duration of three days.
It has increased its popularity by introducing unique themes consecutively. This year in Paparazzi 2016: The Battle of Genesis, the good and the villainous join hands to form one powerful entity. The festival was inaugurated by the Principal, Dr. Rajpal Shripat Hande and the guests for the inaugural were Sachin Kalbag, Resident Editor of ‘The Hindu’ and Lesle Lewis, the indie-pop sensation who brought Coke Studio in India.
The festival had a number of interesting events and renowned celebrities and artists were called to judge them. Singing being one of the flagship events, had judges like Kavita Sheth who sang ‘Iktara’, Shail Hada famous for singing in all Sanjay Leela Bhansali Movies, Pritesh Mehta and the SaReGaMaPa winner Yashita Sharma.
The USP of Paparazzi this year was the Mock Court event where a live court room was built for contingents to defend their cases with real proofs and evidences. The topics defended were unrestricted freedom of speech, legalizing prostitution, censorship in films, juvenile delinquency and ban on Pakistani players in IPL. Nikhil Mohan, the Vice President of Oglivy & Mather judged the TVC event, as Terribly Tiny Tales Co-founder Chintan Ruparel evaluated the short film one. The drama event ‘Phrase of life’ became one of the most highlighted event as the plays were based on Indian idioms. The judges were Shernaaz Patel along with actor Rajit Kapur and writer/director Aatish Kapadia. Dancers like Toby Fernandes, Alisha Singh and three members of the famous Hip-Hop dance group, Fictitious not only judged the dance event but gave a mind-blowing performance on stage that energized the audience. A glamourous fashion show was held in Bhaidas Auditorium where contingents flaunted the merger of their Superhumans with innovative designs and styles.
The closing ceremony, after Shreyas and Manjari danced with the audience, included the felicitation of Paparazzi’s team along with the award distribution ceremony. R.D National College secured the first position, with Jai Hind coming second and Usha Pravin Gandhi securing the third position in the festival.
Story telling Workshop- 9th July, 2016
Mr. Satyanshu Singh, a national award winning film maker, conducted an insightful seminar workshop on "Storytelling on Film: An Introduction to Screenwriting" for the second year students of Mass Media.
His works include writing poems and stories for Udaan (2010), lyrics for the song ‘Life yehMausambi-si’ in Ferrari Ki Sawaari (2011) and also made a Kashmiri short film named ‘Tamaash’ (The Puppet) which won awards at various film festivals across the globe.
As Cinema is an integral part of media, it encouraged all the students aspiring to enter the film industry. He not only taught the students the basics of cinema but also took them through the thrilling journey of movie making. His ideas and the zeal to deal with life left an irrevocable impact on the students along with his undying and relentless efforts that has motivated the students to never give up on their dreams.
Polaris, Wilson College’s Media Festival- 15th, 16th& 17th July, 2016:
Mass Media is one such course which is incomplete without festivals. With the freshers coming in, Wilson College’s festival, Polaris is the first media festival for the new academic year. The theme for Polaris was Desi Renaissance and the contingent name allotted to Mithibai was V. K. Murthy.
In the three days of the festival, more than 40 students from all the three batches participated.The Contingent Leader was Polaris 2016 was Shubham Jain (SY) and Assistant Contingent Leader NupurRathore (SY). Mithibai stood second in the ‘Photostory’ event at Polaris 2016. Polaris not only taught our freshers how a media festival is conducted but also but also gave them a chance to compete with media students all around Mumbai and explore their talent.
Career Counselling Session- 28th July, 2016:
A special guest lectureon career counselling was organized for the second and third year Mass Media students. Mr. Sumit Gandhi, a Harvard Business Scholar, who has interacted with over 5000 + students in India and abroad, conducted the interactive session.
Mr.Sumit Gandhiconducts sessions that inspire and help students clear their thought process on various career opportunities post their graduation based on his learning from General Electric (Leadership Program), Harvard Business School and Sounds of Silence Foundation.
- Nidhi Thakkar – 1st, Photography, Blitzkrieg, 2018
- Tejal Modak – 1st, Photography, Blitzkrieg, 2018
- Shreya Diwakar – 1st, Heard of Hertz (Radio), Blitzkrieg, 2018
- Raj Shrivastava – 1st, Heard of Hertz (Radio), Blitzkrieg, 2018
- Varun Sagar Chopra – 1st, Stop Motion Animation, Umang, 2018
- Jinnet Kothari – 1st, Stop Motion Animation, Umang, 2018
Digant Surti
- 3rd, Environmental Awareness Photography, Biochemistry Event, 2018
- 2nd, State Level Gujarati Story Writing Competition, (PMM – story Comp) 2017-18
Padmini Chundawat – 1st, Fashion Show, Umang, 2018
Smit Mehta
- 1st, Overall Contingent, Aahan, 2018
- 2nd, Overall Contingent, Umang, 2018
Gayatri Sathian –
- Selected for MAMI Young Critics Lab for film reviews
- Represented company Campaign India for a live session at the Facebook office with Piyush Pandey
- Published article in Esthesia Magazine
Dhriti Goenka
- Acted in a short film for JIO MAMI – Gajra
- Part of advertisement for Chhattisgarh Tourism
- Acted in various serials like Krishna, Savdhan India and Fearfiles
- Currently acting in Radha Krishna serial under Swastik Production
Pari Sheth
- Appointed Contingent Leader of NM college’s cultural festival - Umang 2017 (secured 3rd Position)
- Appointed Vice Chairperson of Kshitij 2017 - Mithibai’s official cultural festival.
- Interned at Ogilvy and Mather for a tenure of 2 month
Harshwardhan Shastri
- 2nd in Kiran for fashion show (KC College)
Vinit Wala
- Aahan 2018
- Advertisement event
- 3 podium
Padmini Chundawat
- 1st place in Umang fashion show
Mahima Seth
- 2nd prize in real estate event - Umang 2017
- Sub Hod security - Paparazzi 2017
- Contingent leader - Mood indigo 2017
- 1st prize in Just A Minute (JAM) - Aahan 2018
- Miss Aahan 2018
- 1st prize in literary arts marathon- Kiran 2017
- 2nd prize in marketing event - Kiran 2017
Digant Surti
- 2nd Prize at Pragati Mitra Mandal (Kandivali)'s Short Story Writing Competition.
- 1st Prize at Kshitij's Literary Event - Lavz-E-Intehaan(A Certificate, Goodie Bags)
- 1st Prize in Drama Event of Jai Hind College's Media Festival - Detour.
- Wrote a Gujarati Novel - 'Rampuri'
- Wrote a Gujarati Short Story Collection - 'Torne Bandhya Tara'
- 2nd Prize in Mono Acting at GLC's annual Fest - Zankaar.
- 3rd Prize in Ad Event at UPG's Aahan 2017.