MACommunication Journalism Semester I to IV_1 Syllabus Mumbai University

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AC
Item No.
University of Mumbai




Revised Syllabus for the
M.A.( Communication & Journalism)
Semester I to IV

(As Per CBCS
With effect from the academic year 2016-17 for
Semester I to IV)






REVISED SYLLABUS INCLUDING SCHEME OF COURSES, SCHEME OF EXAMINATION, MEDIUM OF
INSTRUCTION FOR THE MASTER OF ARTS (COMMUNICATION AND JOURNALISM).

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FEE STRUCTURE:
Tuition Fees (per semester) - Rs 20,000
Examination Fees (per semester) – Rs 1,000
Project Exa mination Fees (to be paid in the second year only) – Rs 1,000
Computer Lab Fees (per semester) – Rs 2,000
Library Fees (per semester) – Rs 1,000

PREAMBLE

1. Basic concepts

Credits: A course that is taught for 4 hours a week for a period of 15 weeks will carry six
credits.
Course credits : To qualify in a given course, a student will have to acquire six credits in the
course. Out of these, four credits are central teaching component and two credits are for the
self-study component. The self -study component will consist of academic tasks outside the
classroom that will be assigned by the teacher from time to time. The self -study component
assigned in this manner will be related to or an extension of but not in lieu of the prescribed
syllabus. The self -study component will be given a weightage of 33% in the evaluation of the
student. In case of courses with practical component/ field- work components, four credits are
for theory course a nd two credits shall be practical component/filed- work component.
A student who acquires a minimum of 100 credits over four semesters will be declared eligible
for the award of the M.A. degree.
Courses : There shall be five types of courses: (i) Core Course; (ii) Elective Course; (iii)
Interdisciplinary/Cross -disciplinary Courses; (iv) Audit Courses; (v) Project -based Courses;
(vi) Ability Enhancement Courses
(i) Core Course : Core courses are courses that impart instruction in the basic non-
specialize d aspects of a discipline that constitute the minimum basic competency in that
discipline, regardless of any specialization that the learner might choose in the future. Core -
Courses shall be offered by the parent department. Core courses shall be for six c redits.
Minimum 50% courses of the MA programme over four semesters must be core courses.
(ii) Elective Courses : Elective courses shall be courses offered by the parent department
that impart instructions in specialized/advanced/supportive aspects of the relevant discipline.
Each department shall offer a pool of such courses from which a student can choose. Elective
Courses shall be for six credits. The syllabus for each elective course will have a preamble clearly stating the course and the learner objec tives for the elective, along with the pre -
requisites if any and a detailed list of references.
(iii) Interdisciplinary/Cross Disciplinary Courses (I/C courses) : I/C courses shall be
offered by parent department and departments other that parent department. One ‘course basket’ shall be created for the same. Each MA program has to offer a minimum of two courses and maximum of four courses in the basket. Every I/C course shall be for six credits.
A student may opt for an I/C course offered by his/her parent department.
(iv) Audit Courses: Students can audit a course from the parent department as well as from
other departments in addition to the core, elective and I/C courses that are mandatory, with
the prior permission of the head/s of the relevant departm ent/s. Such a student will have to
apply in writing at most a week after the relevant course has commenced. For the audit
course, a student shall attend lectures of the audited course. The student cannot appear for

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the semester -end examination for the au dited course. However, the student shall appear for
the internal examination/assessment. The audit course appears on the mark -sheet only when
the student passes the internal assessment with minimum 50% marks, failing to which, the
student cannot claim the audit for that course. The internal marks shall not be displayed on
final mark -sheet. The internal marks shall not be used for the credit computation. A student is
permitted to audit maximum four courses in the MA program.
(v) Ability Enhancement Course: The ability enhancement courses are skills based course.
The ability enhancement courses are to be offered at fourth semester.
(vi) Project based courses: Project based courses shall consist of a dissertation. Each
dissertation course will carry 10 credi ts. Every learner shall choose one project based course.
2. Rules for programmes not having a practical component
2.1 Four core courses shall be offered in semesters 1 and 2 each.
2.2 Five elective courses shall be offered in the third semester. No other c ourses will be
offered in the third semester.
2.3 The fourth semester shall consist of one ability enhancement course, one
interdisciplinary/cross disciplinary courses (I/C courses) and one project based course.
2.4 Each department will offer at least o ne I/C course during semester 4. The learner can
choose any one course from this basket, including the course offered by his/her parent
department. The preamble to this course will clearly specify the prerequisites for this course.
2.5 A learner will have to apply to the relevant department in writing no later than two weeks
after the commencement of the fourth semester for taking the I/C course offered by that
department.
2.6 A learner can relinquish an I/C course chosen by him/her no later than two wee ks after
the commencement of the fourth semester by applying to the Head of the Department whose I/C course the student wishes to opt for. The application will have to be endorsed by the head
of the Department whose I/C course the student has relinquished and the Head of the parent
department.
2.7 The Head of the Department offering a specific I/C course will convey the marks of the
internal examination obtained by students taking the course to the Head of the parent department before the commencement of t he end semester examination of the parent
department.
3. Dissertation courses
3.1 Dissertation based courses will be offered in the fourth semester. Every learner will have
to choose one dissertation course, which will be for twelve credits. The project based course
will be in the form of a dissertation based on a live project or a research assignment related to
the specific discipline of the parent department.
3.2 Every Teacher from every department will announce four to five broad topics at the beginning of the second semester, reflecting degree of relevance and rigor suitable to a post
graduate programme, along with an indicative reading list. These will be screened by the Board of Studies in the subject and a final list of approved topics along with a reading list will be displayed in the first week of the third semester.
3.3 T he student will submit a list of his/her three most preferred topics in the order of
preference by the fifth week of the third semester to the Head of the parent department.
3.4 Each Department will constitute a dissertation committee consisting of the Head of the Department (Chairperson) and two other teachers from the department. The purpose of this
committee is to oversee the functioning of the dissertation component in the department.

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3.5 All Masters Degree holders with NET/SET (in Communication/Journalism/Film Studies/
Public Relations/Electronic Media/Television Studies) from University of Mumbai, all PhD
scholars and recognized post graduate teachers in the Department of Communication and
Journalism will be guides for the dissertation component.
3.6 The dissertation committee will allocate students to guides in order of the average of
marks obtained in semesters 1 and 2.
3.7 If it is felt necessary, the dissertation committee can assign a co- guide to a student,
depending upon specific disciplinary needs.
The student will make a preliminary presentation in the seventh week of the fourth semester. The presentation will be attended by the guide and a committee consisting of two other
teachers from the department. The committee will make necessary sugges tions to improve
the dissertation.
3.8 The student will make a final presentation in the 10
th to the 12th week of semester four.
The presentation will be evaluated by the same committee that evaluated the preliminary
presentation. The criteria for evaluati on will be as follows:
i) 10 marks for the quality of presentation
ii) 15 marks for answers to questions
3.9 The marks given by the three members of the evaluation committee will be averaged in
each head and the total marks decided by totaling the averages under the three heads.
3.10 The student will submit a bound hard copy of the dissertation to the Department by the
end of the fourth semester, along with a soft copy on a CD/DVD.
3.11 The final dissertation will have a word limit of 8000- 10000 words and will be typed in one
and a half spacing on one side of the paper.
3.12 The final dissertation will be evaluated out of 50 marks by the guide, 50 marks by any
other teacher in the D epartment and 100 marks by an external examiner by way of viva voce.
3.13 The dissertation will be given a grade point as per the following scheme:
Marks Grade Points Letter Grade
0-9 0.5 F
10-19 1.5 F
20-29 2.5 F
30-39 3.5 F
40-44 4.2 C
45-54 5.0 B
55-59 5.7 B+
60-69 6.5 A
70-74 7.2 A+
75-100 8.7 O

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3.14 A student who gets a letter grade F in the course will be deemed to have failed in the
course.
3.15 A student who feels aggrieved by the grading received will have the option of applying to
the project committee for re- evaluation of the dissertation within a period of one week after
the declaration of the result. If the dissertation committee feels that the claim is justified, it
shall appoint a fresh examiner who will submit his/her evaluation in a week’s time. If the
marks by the re- evaluating examiner exceed the marks of the original examiner by a margin
of 10% or more, the latter set of marks wil l be considered final.
3.16 The student who has got a letter grade F in the dissertation will have the option of
resubmitting a revised version within 2 months from the date of declaration of the result. If a
student fails this time too, he/she will not get any more chances and will be ineligible to be
awarded the MA degree.
3.17 If a student is unable to submit his/her dissertation in the stipulated time or fails to make
the presentations at the appointed time, he/she will be deemed to have failed the c ourse and
will have the option of submitting within 2 months from the date of declaration of the result. If
a student fails this time too, he/she will not get any more chances and will be ineligible to be
awarded the MA degree.
3.18 The schedule for prelim inary presentation, final presentation and dissertation submission
will be displayed in the first week of the fourth semester.
3.19 Ethical Standards regarding Dealing with Human Participants:
Students should refrain from acts which he or she knows, or under the circumstances has
reason to know, spoil the academic integrity of the academic program. Violations of academic
integrity include, and not limited to: plagiarism; violation of the rights and welfare of human
participants in research and practice; c heating, knowingly furnishing false information;
misconduct as a member of department or college, and harm to self and others.

4. Evaluation of non- project courses
4.1 The examinations shall be of two kinds:
(i) Internal Assessment
(ii) Semester End E xamination.

4.2 The learner who obtains less than 40 % of the aggregate marks of the relevant
examination in that course either in the internal assessment or in the end –semester
examination will be awarded the letter grade F in that course. The Medium of Instruction will
be English.
4.3 Internal Assessment: The internal assessment shall be for 40 marks. Two internal
assessment examinations shall be scheduled for a course. The internal examination is to be
conducted by the course teacher. The schedule f or the internal assessment is announced
within two weeks of the commencement of the semester. Of the two exams one will be in the
form of a written test involving theory and the other will be in the form of extension work or
assignment or term work. The an swer- sheets for internal examination shall be masked before
evaluation. The evaluated answer -sheets and marks shall be shown to the students on the
date announced in advance.
4.4 The existing rules for moderation of answer sheets will be followed in the ca se of internal
examinations in core courses.
4.5 Semester -End Examination: The semester end examination shall be for 60 marks.

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4.6 If a student is absent from the internal or end semester examination in any course
including the dissertation course, he/she will get a grade point of 0 and a letter grade of F.
4.7 If a student fails in the internal examination of a core or elective course, he/she will have
to appear for the internal examination of the course when the course is offered again.
4.8 If a student fails in the end- semester examination of a core or elective course, he/she may
reappear for the same examination when it is held again in the following semester. A student
can appear at the most three times, including the original attempt. If a student obtains a letter
grade F in all the three attempts, he/ she will have to seek fresh admission to the MA programme.
4.9 If a stud ent obtains the letter grade F in any course in a given semester, the letter grade F
will continue to be shown in the grade card for that semester even when the student passes
the course subsequently in another semester.
4.10 If a student obtains minimum 40% marks in the internal assessment and fails to obtain
minimum 40% percent marks in the end- semester examination of any course in any of the
semester, the marks of the internal examination shall be carried forward.
4.11 The letter grade and the grade poi nt for the course will be computed as per 3.13
4.12 In any semester, the students GPA will be calculated as follows:

where
= credits for that course offered in that
semester and
= grade point obtained in that course offered in that semester.
Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA m) at the end of semester m is calculated as follows:
, where,
is the credits for the ith course offered in semester j
and
is the grade point obtained in the ith course in semester j. There shall be no rounding
of GPA and CGPA.

4.13 The semester wise GPA and CGPA shall be printed on the grade card of the student
along with table in 3.13
4.14 The final semester grade card shall also have the aggregate percentage marks scored by the student in all the courses in which the student has obtained the relevant credits.
4.15 The rules for gracing: the existing ordinance f or gracing shall continue to be used.
4.16 The rules for ATKT will be as per University norms.
5. Rules for MA programes with practical component/field work components are as
follows:
5.1 Four core courses shall be offered in semesters 1 and 2 each.

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5.2. Five elective courses shall be offered in the third semester. No other courses will be
offered in the third semester.
5.3. The fourth semester shall consist of one ability enhancement course (6 credits), one
interdisciplinary/cross disciplinary course (6 credits) and one project based course (10
credits).
5.4. The semester having Practical Component / Field Work Component shall be given four
teaching hours per week per theory (core/elective) course. Each core/elective course shall
have 4 credits in such semester.
5.5. There shall be 2 credits Practical Components/ Field Work Component per theory course (core/elective) in a semester one to three. The credits for practical and theory courses are
obtained separately.
5.6. There shall be 8 credits Practical Component/ Field Work Component in semester one
and two. There shall be 10 credits Practical Component/ Field Work Component in semester
three. There shall be no practical/field work component in semester four. The practical/field work component shall be elective in semester three.
6. Evaluation of non- project courses and practical component /field work component
for courses having practical/field work component.
6.1: The examinations shall be of two kinds:
(i) Internal Assessment = 40 marks comprising of a class test and
practical/field/extension component
(ii) Semester End Examination = 60 marks
6.2 The learner who obtains less than 40 % of the aggregate marks of the relevant
examination (16/40 for Internal and 24/60 for Semester End) in that course either in the
internal assessment or in the end –semester examination will be awarded the letter grade F in
that course.
6.3 Internal Assessment for theory courses: The internal assessment shall be for 40 marks.
Two internal assessment examinations shall be scheduled for a course. The internal
examination is to be conducted by the course teacher. The schedule for the internal
assessment is announced within two weeks of the commencement of the semester. Of the
two exams one will be in the form of a written test involving theory and the other will be in the
form of extension work or assignment or term w ork. The answer -sheets for internal
examination shall be masked before evaluation. The evaluated answer -sheets and marks
shall be shown to the students on the date announced in advance.
6.4 Internal Assessment for practical component/ field work component. The evaluated
practical/field work submission material and marks shall be shown to the students on the date
announced in advance.
6.5 The existing rules for moderation of answer sheets will be followed in the case of internal examinations in core courses excluding practical component/ field work component.
6.6: Semester -End Examination: The semester end examination shall be for 60 marks for
theory courses (core /elective) and for practical component/field work component. The semester –end examination for practical component/ filed work component shall be conducted
separately.
6.7: If a student is absent from the internal or end semester examination in any course
including the project course and practical/field- work component, he/she will get a grade point
of 0 and a letter grade of F.

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6.8: If a student fails in the internal examination of a core or elective course, or practical/field
work component, he/she will have to appear for the internal examination of the course if and
when the course is offered agai n.
6.9: If a student fails in the end- semester examination of a core or elective course or
practical/filed work component, he/she may reappear for the same examination when it is
held again in the following semester. A student can appear at the most three times, including
the original attempt. If a student obtains a letter grade F in all the three attempts, he/ she will
have to seek fresh admission to the MA programme.
6.10. If a student obtains the letter grade F in any course in a given semester includi ng
practical/filed work component, the letter grade F will continue to be shown in the grade card
for that semester even when the student passes the course subsequently in another
semester.
6.11. If a student obtains minimum 40% marks in the internal asses sment and fails to obtain
minimum 40% percent marks in the end- semester examination of any course in any of the
semester, the marks of the internal examination shall be carried forward.
6.12: The letter grade and the grade point for the course will be com puted as in 3.13.
6.13: In any semester, the students GPA will be calculated as follows:

where
= credits for that course offered in that
semester and
= grade point obtained in that course offered in that semester.
Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA m) at the ned of semester m is calculated as follows:
, where,
is the credits for the ith course offered in semester j
and
is the grade point obtained in the ith course in semester j. There shall be no rounding
of GPA and CGPA.

6.14. The semester wise GPA and CGPA shall be printed on the grade card of the student
along with table 3.13

6.15. The final semester grade card shall also have the aggregate percentage marks scored
by the student in all the courses including practical/filed work component in which the student
has obtained the relevant credits.
6.16. In c ase, if it is required to scale the internal assessment marks and end- semester
examination marks to 400 marks per semester and 1600 marks for entire MA course, then internal assessment marks, end- semester examination marks and total marks shall be
multiplied by factor 0.8.
6.17: The rules for gracing: the existing ordinance for gracing shall continue to be used.

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7. SCHEME OF COURSES

Semester I

Course
Code Name of Course
A. Core Courses Term work
Teaching
and
Extension Credits
PACJ101 Communication Theory 3960 6
PACJ102 Media Economics 3960 6
PACJ103 Reporting and Editing 3960 6
PACJ104 Media Criticism 3960 6
Total 39240 24


Semester II

Course
Code Name of Course
A. Core Courses Term work
Teaching
and
Extension Credits
PACJ20 5 Introduction to Television
Studies 3960 6
PACJ20 6 Introduction to Film Studies 3960 6
PACJ20 7 Introduction to Media
Research 3960 6
PACJ2 08 Ethics, Constitution and Media
Laws 3960 6
Total 39240 3924

Semester –III

Course
Code Name of Course
A. Core Courses Term work
Teaching
and
Extension Credits
PACJ3 09 Introduction to Media
Production 3960 6
PACJ31 0 Advanced Media Research 3960 6


B. Interdisciplinary/Cross
Disciplinary Courses (I/C
courses)
PAPR101 Public Relations Theory and
Practice 3960 6
PACJ31 1 New Media 3960 6
Total 39240 3924
SEMESTER –IV


A. Interdisciplinary/Cross
Disciplinary Courses (I/C
courses) Teaching
and
Extension Credits
PACJ412 Media Research Analytical
Skills 3960 6

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PACJ 413 Media and Culture 3960 6
PACJ414 B. Dissertation 39120 3912
Total 39240 3924