Where is the First Draft?

Team WatchDogs 12:12 A.M. 23rd November, 2023

Jindal School of Journalism and Communication’s official publication, First Draft, has been dormant for the past three years.

The article highlights the absence of a running publication – something that we believe is essential at a journalism school. It provides a space for aspiring journalists to practice the profession in a safe environment that comes with the supervision of the faculty.

Upon its launch in August 2020, the Instagram handle @firstdraft_jsjc declared the publication to be a crucible, part of the Editing in Practice course taught at the school. With the first post put up on August 7th, 2020, the website was announced to be live.

The publication has accounts on two social media platforms, Instagram and X (Formerly Twitter). Both accounts remain dormant, with the last post on Instagram dated 29/11/20 and the last post on X dated 11/11/20.

The link provided does not redirect you to the website. Aside from the fact that no new work has been put out by the team for the past three years, the work that had been done- the archives, too remains inaccessible due to the lack of a working link.

Both the social media accounts are followed by Professor Dean Kishalay Bhattacharjee, Academic Dean, Prof. Ishan Mukherjee, and the web magazine’s faculty coordinator, Prof. Uttaran Das Gupta.

The First Draft X account has 38 followers including journalists Saba Naqvi, Joydeep Gupta, and Subhomoy Bhattacharjee.

A small school publication being followed and read by renowned journalists in the industry does not only come from building a strong readership but also the faculty’s acknowledgment of the publication.

The last article announcement was posted on the First Draft Instagram handle on November 29th, 2021. It was written by Jahnavi Maurya and was based on the Guatemalan Horror movie, La Llorona.

JSJC’s official Instagram handle acknowledged the article and the magazine by putting up a post on November 19th, 2020. The caption stated, “We present to you the latest write-up published on the ‘First Draft’- the official magazine of JSJC, headed by Prof. Uttaran Das Gupta. It features creative pieces, book reviews, movie reviews, as well as audio-visual content on issues of contemporary relevance. It also covers the events and ongoings of our JGU life.” It has been three years, and the reader base has not had a chance to read another piece of work.

In the four months prior to the announcement, First Draft went on to cover more than the said spaces. From Economy to Gender; Campus Life to employment, the web magazine was consistent with its efforts. Challenging subjects like apoliticism, patriarchy, hate crime, and unemployment were not out of the picture.

An article published on September 25th, 2020, was titled ‘Who Runs the World? PATRIARCHY.’ Written by Jahnavi Maurya and Jasmine Singh (both graduated in 2021), the article looked into how it feels to be a working woman in a male-dominated world, especially as a journalist in a time when the main goal is getting more views than others and all ethics are forgotten. The interviews for the story most probably came from Prof. Kajori Sen, former NDTV journalist, Prof. Saba Naqvi, former political editor of Outlook India, and independent journalist Faye D’Souza- they were tagged in the announcement post, we stand helpless to confirm though.

‘Half of India’s population is under 25, but students in mainstream politics are still a minority’, read the headline posted on Instagram on September 23rd, 2020. The blurb discussed the presence of young political leaders who in fact got into politics long after it was still new for them to vote. “Many students in India end up in mainstream politics like Tejaswi Yadav, the current leader of the opposition in the Bihar Legislative Assembly. But that’s usually long after they have ceased to be students.”

The article was written by Bhavya Vemulapalli, Vaibhav Sharma, and Stuti Kohli (all graduated in 2021) and encouraged readers to dive into the opinion section of the web magazine to let the team know of the same.

To offer trivia, First Draft also had a humor section; Instagram handle: @fd_humour.

JSJC focuses on data journalism as an emerging area of journalism practice and a crucial format to help understand current socio-economic phenomenon; First Draft stood by the same and did relevant stories along the line when functioning.

In the edition of the web magazine published on September 21st, 2020, the lede story by Sidhant Koshi (graduated in 2021) opened with a bar graph on display, titled “Students who applied to UK Universities (in Thousands)”. The blurb on the Instagram handle does not discuss the article in detail and only hints at a 'Trial and Error Method.’

On September 22nd, 2020, an article written by Priyam Sharma (graduated in 2021) on British Universities taking a hit and Indian Universities likely to benefit from the same was published.

The web magazine had performed active journalism to cover important subjects on campus even when the students didn’t have direct access to it; the virtual inauguration of the 10th school on the JGU campus- The Jindal School of Psychology and Counselling was one of the events reported on by the First Draft Team.

As mentioned earlier, the web magazine had been able to tap into a plethora of spaces in the four months of functioning. The number of articles published on COVID-19 alone could constitute a First Draft COVID edition. We have made one just for the sake of it.

The web magazine was quick to recognize a structure within the campus that stood by democracy and chose not to leave it out of reportage. “Every decision taken by the administration that affects the student body directly is taken in negotiation with the student councils’, observes”, read the blurb of ‘JGU’s Democracy and Its Discontents’- an article published on October 3rd, 2020.

It’s interesting to note that the Instagram caption called the article “a very important read”, and further urged the readers to “Like. Share. Repost.”, while no other article announcement asked for the same.

Now that we are talking democracy, hope you checked out the cartoon at the start of the article.

Shaardhool Shreenath’s ‘Common Room to Digital Dialogue: JSJC Students Strike out on Their Own’, published on September 13, 2020 – talked about the importance of a student-run publication at a journalism school. The Instagram caption read, “Some are writing about cinema, others about social issues, while yet others are exploring podcasts and videos. Student-run publications are at the core of every journalism school, right? Here are some of our very own!”. What a misery, Shaardhool, the link doesn’t exist anymore.

While the editorial board has been completing its tenures for the past two years and due process has been followed to appoint new members, the concerned faculty has more or less stayed the same.

When we approached Prof. Uttaran Das Gupta for a comment on First Draft’s dormancy, he warmly replied he had no comments to make.

The current editorial board members including third-year journalism students Tarini Vyas, and Indrani Nandy, are not directly associated with the publication’s social media handles. However, the said members have reached out to the student body through Outlook on behalf of the First Draft Team.

As per our sources, the current editorial board has been putting in consistent efforts to create content. However, nothing has been published yet due to the faculty’s meticulous approach towards the vision of the publication and thereby the school.

Team WatchDogs contacted Ayush Chakraborty, Senior Editor at Monograph magazine to understand the incentive behind running a student-led publication. Ayush and the team started the Calcutta-based magazine- dedicated to the Arts, on August 26th, 2020- the same month he joined JSJC. The magazine continues to publish with a print subscription plan for Rs. 1000 a year.

Ayush was a part of the first batch that came in after the launch of First Draft. It’s safe to assume that the publication got utilized as an outreach product for at least his batch. However, throughout his college years on and off campus, First Draft remained dormant.

On being asked about the importance of a student-run publication at a journalism school, Ayush said, “When you're starting something on your own, when there is absolutely no incentive, no one's going to say anything to you if it goes wrong or you know that it doesn't really matter what the end product is because no one's going to hold you accountable for it. Even with those things in mind, when you start making a publication of your own, it brings a sort of, you know, teamwork. You understand how a team works because it's coming from somewhere, a place that's very genuine, right?”

Talking about why he thinks it’s all still worth it, he said, “You are doing everything, knowing that there is no incentive to this. It's just because we want to. It's just because there is a space for it. That's all it takes. And that's all it takes to actually keep on going with the hope that you can actually have a voice and the voice can count in the larger landscape of media.” As Ayush worked on Monograph he learned skills like teamwork, layout, and monetization while being exposed to the same college resources.

Ayush hopes to take the Monograph where something like The Caravan Magazine stands today.

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NOTE:

• On a different note, Team WatchDog was surprised at how resonant our only interviewee’s comments were to our project. We assure the readers that the team kept the discussion narrowed to the importance of a publication at a journalism school.

We have written this article for our blog, WatchDogs, which stands to keep a check on the way things are functioning in JSJC.

Our first article, an opinion piece on the President of the school draws our point very well despite the poor methodology. We wrote the said article not just as students who run a student-led publication but as active voters who watched the concerned elected leader’s political career grow.

Similar to how the student council represents the student body, the work of the official publication of JSJC, First Draft, does the same. There is no work on the table right now.

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Song: Ek School Banana Hai

Artists: Amit Trivedi, Gaurika Rai, Keshav Rai, Firoza

Film: Chillar Party (2011)

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