ACJ Alumni Association formed

The ACJ Alumni Association, an association of the alumni of the Asian College of Journalism, has started its journey.

At its inaugural meeting held at the MS Subbulakshmi Auditorium in the ACJ campus on Saturday, the following were elected the first set of office bearers:

Harsha Subramaniam (President), Vrinda Malik Sharma (Vice President), Renjtih Ramanujam (Secretary), Aditya Balaji (Treasurer) Revati Krishna and Anirudh Madhav (joint secretaries) and Manasa R and Nitin Narain (committee members), Dr. Nalini Rajan, Dean, ACJ and K.N. Arun, senior faculty ACJ, were nominated as ex-officio members of the committee.

Sashi Kumar, Chairman, Media Development Foundation and Asian College of Journalism, in his capacity as the Patron of the Association also nominated Aminul Islam of Dhaka, Bangladesh as member of the committee to represent South Asian Foundation (SAF) scholars.

The objectives of the ACJ Alumni Association include enabling networking among the alumni for academic and professional advancement, supporting ACJ in academics, infrastructure and industry partnerships, and, assisting ACJ students through grants, scholarships and placement opportunities.

N Ram, director, The Hindu Group of publications, and Trustee of the Media Development Foundation (MDF) which administers ACJ, highlighted the important role that the alumni association could play at a time when media and freedom of expression had come under increasing pressure across the globe.

India, in particular, faced multiple challenges with the nation slipping precariously down in the global media freedom index.

The inauguration of the association was followed by a lively discussion among the alumni on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) in journalism.

The speakers pointed out that the emergence of new technologies had always had a serious impact on the media industry.

The response of the media and journalists to the emergence of AI had so far been mixed with the optimism on one side being countered by the fear of loss of creativity and human element in journalistic activity.