http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/article3815176.ece
How OU’s Journalism Dept. came into being
It was an American, DeForest O’Dell, who founded the department about 60 years ago
It was the summer of 1954. Looking out of my living room
window, opening on Barkatpura chaman, I found a rundown bus stop north
of the chaman and offload a foreigner into a heavy downpour. At once I
ran to him with an umbrella and brought him in.
“I
am O’Dell. DeForest O’Dell from America. I am here to set up a
department of journalism at Osmania University,” quaffing an inviting
cup of coffee our guest told my father. “What, a department to turn out
journalists?” It sounded strange at that time.
We thought journalists
are born, not made. We learnt that journalists like Kotamraju Rama Rao,
M. Chalapati Rau, Khasa Subba Rao, C. Y. Chintamani, Kunduri Iswara Dutt
did not go to a journalism school.
Journalism was
then considered a mission and not a profession. Independent India felt
the need to train young men and women in the craft and practice of
journalism and also introduce them to its principles and values to meet
the needs of the rapidly expanding newspaper readership and industry. P.
P. Singh founded the School of Journalism in Lahore in 1941 and shifted
it to Chandigarh after India became free. Then followed the Hislop
College of Nagpur, a private institution, which introduced a course in
journalism in 1952.
The credit for laying a strong
foundation for journalism education in the country went to Osmania
University. It got in touch with American Universities and academicians
for help in setting up a separate department of journalism. O’Dell, a
veteran newsman and journalism educator from the US was entrusted with
the task.
Man of many parts
Born in Atlanta
on January 1, 1898, he was actively involved with the campus newspaper
and yearbook at Butler University from where he graduated in 1921. He
went on to head its journalism department. He earned a Master’s degree
and Ph. D. from Columbia University in New York City. During his college
years, O’Dell worked for various newspapers in Indiana and New York. He
had worked as a copy boy and reporter on The Indianapolis News and The Indianapolis Times. He later became city editor of The Crawfordsville Review.
Besides
writing for various New York newspapers, he served as a copy editor at
Associated Press in New York City for a long time. He also taught and
headed journalism departments at six colleges and universities in the
US.
Dr. O’Dell came to India in 1954 as the
founder-head of the department. He started with the introduction of
diploma and certificate courses mainly benefitting reporters and
sub-editors working in various English and language newspapers in
Hyderabad. Osmania was the first University in the country to introduce
such a course.
From the very first year the department ran a journal The Osmania Courier founded and edited by my brother Krishnamoorty who enrolled for the first batch of 1954-55. The Courier
served as a laboratory newspaper serving the campus community. A
month-long internship in a major newspaper in New Delhi, Bombay or
Madras was integral to the course and gave the students a lot of
exposure as well as avenues for employment.
The
Journalism department was the envy of others in the University as it
boasted of a rich collection of copies of foreign newspapers like The Daily Mirror, The Daily Telegraph, (Manchester), Guardian,
etc, thousands of books gifted mostly by the World Literacy Inc. and a
good number of brand new portable typewriters (dream possession of any
reporter of the times) and cameras.
Dr O’Dell stayed
on as head of the department until 1956 to ensure that the department
stood on a strong foundation and returned to Butler University. He died
in Indianapolis on June 19, 1958. The OU Department of Journalism grew
from strength to strength over the past 60 years adding courses at
post-graduate and master’s level (BCJ and MCJ), M. Phil and Ph. D.
(The writer belongs to the 1970-71 batch of BJ and
1980-81 batch of MCJ)
Keywords: Journalism Dept, OU
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