While talking about West Bengal, many would cite an early 20th century quote by Indian freedom fighter Gopal Krishna Gokhale: "What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow." Indeed, people from West Bengal have always enjoyed their reputation as India's Intellectuals. They appreciate arts and literature more than anyone does and welcome new talent with open hands. Perhaps, that is the reason why Kolkata - the capital of West Bengal - is often referred as a 'city of furious creative energy.' A wholly owned subsidiary of ABP, one of the largest and most diversified media conglomerates in India, Calcutta Media Institute inherits the creative spirit of the city and offers quality education and training in the growing field of Media, Communication, and Advertising.
"There are many professional programs for the content creators in media, but there is a dearth of professionals who are trained to deal with monetizing or marketing this content.Therefore, we have designed a Post Graduate Diploma programs in Media Management with specialization in Broadcast Media and Integrated Marketing Communication. The course is today approved by the University of Calcutta." says Amitabha Datta, Director, Calcutta Media Institute (CMI). Established in 2010, CMI in the forthcoming academic year (2017-18) intends to offer a third specialization to their flagship Media Management course - Digital Marketing & Media Management. This post graduate diploma program is conducted in association with Indian Institute of Social Welfare & Business Management (IISWBM), India's oldest management school.
Every year, CMI selects a small group of 20-25 students per specialization from hundreds of candidates who apply, the numbers are intentionally kept small as this enables the HOD's to pay individual attention and mentor each student individually. Both HODs (IMC & BM) have over 20 years of industry experience and provide each student with an opportunity to experiment with their creativity and acquire professional skills for pursuing a career in marketing, media, and communications.
They believe in 'focusing on actual industry experience,' which improves the credibility and market preparedness of an individual. As a student,can adapt his/her expertise on one field of interest they get motivated for moving ahead. Industry stalwarts take active participation when it comes to the content delivery of the programs. The method of teaching of these courses includes lectures by faculties who are regular academicians and guest faculties all of who are practicing industry professionals with commendable experience. Special classes by visiting faculties, quiz, open sessions, exposure to various production processes by visiting the relevant centers and projects are part of the learning experience at CMI.
"This time we have introduced a new face to the internship program which would allow students to intern for the organization before they join the same," declares Datta. This process includes the placement drive to occur at first in between the two semesters and the selected students then intern in their respective organization. "This process is intended to enable the students to understand the system of the respective organization beforehand and allows the organization in turn to train them so that they can work effectively and efficiently from day one," explains Datta. Students from CMI are today working for renowned organizations such as Madison, Vodafone, JWT, DDB Mudra, Star Network, ABP, ZEE, ABP News, Indian Express and many more.
In a brief period of six years, CMI has already achieved and set new goals for their journey towards imparting quality education in Marketing for Media content. Having associated with IISWBM, IAMAI, Advertising Club; CMIs intent is that people get quality education that will benefit large number of students and working professionals who aspire to become media, communication, and well-rounded marketing professionals. To meet the growing need and aspiration of the young work force, CMI run courses in Digital Marketing aimed at the current working professionals and entrepreneurs, for those inclined to the film and video industry it has introduced two short term courses on Video Editing and Videography. It also runs an evening Advertising course for those creatively inclined. Classes for these courses are taken by practicing professionals in the advertising fraternity. One of CMI's most popular programs are the ones on improving communication skills and effective communication, these 7-day evening courses are very popular and have been attended by cricket commentators to lawyers and doctors.
"The communication world is very dynamic; and rapid technology developments also affect the Media and Entertainment industry. So it is imperative that Advertising, Media, Communication and Marketing professionals of the future should be equipped to handle these changes. We promise to keep pace and help future generations understand and hopefully predict changes that will govern marketing and brand decisions," concludes Datta.
Amitabha Datta, Director
Datta has over three decades of experience with ABP Group and earlier to that a brief time with Bata. He was the first Business Head of Telegraph Newspaper, responsible for the business of ABP Group's dailies as a President. CMI was started in 2010 promoted by ABP Pvt. Ltd with Datta and a few members setting up the new doorway to the industry.
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