Career Counselling Session by Ms. Sravasti Datta

The Career Counselling Cell of Loreto College, Kolkata organised a talk on “What it Takes to be a Journalist and How to Adapt to a Changing Media Landscape” on March 14, 2024. The talk was delivered by Ms. Sravasti Datta, who has been a journalist with several print and digital newspapers and is currently an Editor at Citizen Matters. Ms. Datta began with the disclaimer that being a journalist is not as glamorous as it sounds and that it takes a lot of patience and dedication to cover a story and make it a report. She emphasised the importance of being a team player as a journalist, with each story involving the collaboration of several people, including the correspondent, the editor, and the photographer. She underscored how journalistic credibility requires the checking and cross-checking of facts to ensure that a story is authentic. It is also imperative to pursue a story to the end, even when it may be difficult to do so. Ms. Datta finally encouraged interested students to adapt and learn and be open to making mistakes and rectifying them. The talk was followed by an interactive session during which students referred to their experience of reading different newspapers and identifying political biases in different accounts of the same story. Ms. Datta was appreciative of the maturity displayed by the undergraduate students of the college.