Tuesday, May 31, 2005

The Times of St Xavier's

Today's TOI (Mumbai edition) has a very intriguing advertisement on pg 6 inviting ONLY ex-students of St Xavier's college to apply for a 'career in journalism'.

OK - historically, there have been many ex-Xavierites who've served Times well. (Now you also know WHY Malhar gets so much coverage from the paper year after year).

What I found amusing was the language used in the ad - obviously it was not written or proof read by any journalist. Here is the complete and unedited copy:

"We invite applications from the alma-mater of St Xavier's College only for career in Journalism (underlined) who could well be termed as architects of change in times to come, your ambition our aspiration... we will build together, irrespective of whether you are currently a journalist or not. Candidates with Economics, International studies, Philosophical & Spiritual studies would be preferred. Passion to hammer fat-free words that digest well with the masses fit the frame and that matters more for this role.

The position will groom you for roles of reporting, editing, who knows you may be guru of journalism in years to come... come xplore."


Can't help but wonder - why would philosophy majors be preferred over English/ History/ Sociology graduates.

And should Xavierites be flattered at being singled out thus, or...

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:00 PM

    BTW I wonder if anyone noticed the grammar in the ad...TOI throws puns everyday...if this ones come from a Xaviers-alumni I guess it was unintended .*winks

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  2. TOI Delhi had a similar advertisement for Delhi School of Economics grads.

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  3. Universality of readership is now an utopian dream due to proliferation of media choices. This seems to be an "input based" screening for a certain output. Just like people think page 3 society reflects urban india, we will have more of such follies of selective cognition.

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  4. There's a similar ad today in the paper; only this time around they are singling out students of Sophia's!

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  5. Anonymous12:49 PM

    And today, saw one aimed at JNU graduates !

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  6. It's good that fresh Arts grads - not MBAs or even BMM/ BMS - are targetted for recruitments though. Wonder how much they're being paid - anyone know?

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  7. hey well... isnt that rude! I mean here we are giving an arm and leg and these blokes get to go prancing???
    I do read Jam, and im intersted in freelancing. My email is angels.mili@gmail.com
    Waiting to hear from you.

    ReplyDelete

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