In an effort to make its students aware of nature and challenges in sports journalism, the Department of Mass Communication of St. Xavier’s University, Kolkata (SXUK) hosted a special lecture for its postgraduate students by an eminent journalist on September 15, 2023 in the university campus.

Mr. Amitabha Das Sharma, presently serving as the Senior Assistant Editor with The Hindu, Bureau Office, Kolkata was the guest speaker. The topic was ‘Nature and Challenges in Sports Journalism’.

Mr. Sharma in his delightful lecture shared a lot of information on how sports department in print media and audiovisual media organisations functions; how the reporters build up contact with sports personalities, coaches, sponsors; how do they manage to get information in advance about the preparation of the team, game-plans, etc.

He said, “You have to build up your contact deliberately. You must have unending energy to move around to get more relevant information.” He also asked students to remain careful of maintaining objectivity while reporting.

“You may be fan of a particular football or cricket team. But you cannot show your fandom through your reporting. It must be unbiased and informative,” he added.

Mr. Sharma also advised students to learn uses of camera professionally as media houses presently prefer to recruit those who possess multitasking qualities. “Engage yourself in learning all new technological innovations so that you can apply them in your professional career,” he added.

He also praised SXUK for starting sports journalism as a specialization course in its postgraduate programme in Mass Communication. “Very few universities offer sports journalism in India though it is one of the important areas in journalism. I believe SXUK will be able to train its students professionally,” he added.

The special lecture session witnessed the presence of postgraduate students of Department of Mass Communication, a few students from the postgraduate section of Department of English and from final semester undergraduate section of Department of Mass Communication.

The programme concluded with an interactive session. All the faculty members of the department were present.

Somak Sen