Media Academician, Journalist and Writer Pradeep Kumar Mathur

Experience As Media Trainer or Media Academician:

As a media trainer he has richly contributed to various academic programmes of the Institute. Besides giving his input in various short courses he has been involved with the following programmes.

• Post graduate Programme in English Journalism
• Post-graduate Programme in Radio and TV Journalism
• Post-graduate Programme in Hindi Journalism
• Post graduate Programme in Advertising & Public Relations
• Non-aligned News Agency Programme now renamed as Development Communication Courses
• India Information Service Programme.

In addition to this he has also made his contribution at other centres of media education. He has been an expert and visiting faculty at Delhi University. Nationality known for his contribution to media education he has served as a member of Research Degree Committee, Board of Studies and Selection Committees of more than 30 universities. Moreover, he has been invited as a visiting faculty, External examiner, subject expert or as a resource person to lead seminars at various universities and institutes.

Some of the prominent universities and centres of media education and communication centres with which Prof Mathur has been academically associated are as follows :

a. Central Universities BHU, Varanasi; Assam University, Silchar, Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University, Wardha; Allahabad University ,Allahabad, Dr H.S. Gaur University, Saugar. and Calcutta University, Kolkata

b. Prominent state universities: Kashi Vidyapeeth, Varanasi, CCS University, Meerut; Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra; Guru Jambeshwar University, Hisar; Mahrishi Dayaanand University, Rohtak; Lucknow University, Lucknow; Kashmir University, Srinagar; GGS Indraprastha University, University, New Delhi; Mangalore University, Mangalore; Rohilkhand University, Bareilly; Panjabi University, Patiala.

c. Prominent organizations/Institutes: Union Public Service Commission(UPSC), New Delhi; Officers Training Institute, Nainital; YMCA Centre for Mass Media, New Delhi; Kendriya Hindi Sansthan, Agra; State Institute of Rural Development, Nelokhari, Haryana; State Institute of Rural Development, Lucknow; Bankers’ Institute of Rural Development (BIRD), Lucknow and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

Experience as a Professional Journalist :

Pradeep K. Mathur has served as a working journalist/editor from 1966 to 1989 at Kanpur, Lucknow, Chandigarh, New Delhi and Varanasi in various newspapers and news magazines of standing. He has held almost every important position in newspapers from sub-editor. He has been Chief Sub, Deputy News Editor, Chief News Editor, Special Correspondent, Assistant Editor, Resident Editor, Acting Editor and Consulting Editor.

Some of the highlights of his journalistic career are:
 As the Resident Editor of the Varanasi edition of the Pioneer (1985-86) he built up a daily newspaper from scratch. He identified potential young men and women, trained them and in the process built a fine professional team.
 As acting editor of the Lucknow edition of The Pioneer (1985-86) he geared up the working of the paper and helped sustain its efforts to meet the challenge posed by the Times of India in Lucknow. He generated ideas and endeavored to put them into practice often in face of the resistance from complacent colleagues. He revamped the Sunday Magazine and the off-day edit page of the paper and set up a highly functional reference cell something the newspaper badly needed.
 Earlier, as the News Editor of National Herald, New Delhi (1980-81) he helped the revival of the paper in the post - Janata era. Many new features were introduced and the look of the paper was vastly improved when problems at the top undermined the professional effort being made lower down.

 Later, as a special correspondent (1981-84) he covered the two Houses of Parliament, important ministries, political parties and among other the state of UP which was most important for the paper which had an edition from Lucicnow too. He wrote a daily as well as a weekly column on Parliament.

 He also covered the seventh non-aligned summit, CHOGAM and the 12th World Energy Congress. He wrote a book "Non-aligned Movement: New Delhi and Beyond" which was released by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in February 1984. The book got good reviews in Indian as well as foreign journals.

 He also edited the international weekly of National Herald in the capacity of Assistant Editor, and wrote a weekly column on national and international scene.

 He covered Punjab University covered beyond university politics. In 1973 he covered the Chandigarh session of the Indian Science Congress. In 1976 he reported on Rohtak University and in 1977 he wrote four pieces on the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Simla, where he went at the invitation of its Director, Dr SC Dube.

 In 1968 he attended a Press Institute of India workshop for reporters in Lucknow and reported on it in the PIT house journal 'Vidura'.

 In 1979 he conducted a study of the press coverage of the parliamentary elections in three constituencies of Punjab. The study was sponsored by the Second Press Commission.

 In order to practice what he has been professing, he also organised a news syndicate and edited a country paper.  He has also been involved with the electronic media almost right from the start of his career as a journalist. In 1968 he was the first presenter and producer of the All India Radio's Yuv Vani programme for the youth in UP. He conducted this programme as well as other programmes for the Lucknow station of AIR.

 He wrote Commentary on parliamentary proceedings for All India Radio in the eighties when he worked as a Special Correspondent in New Delhi.

 He has been producing and presenting this week programme for the National Channel of All India Radio for quite some time.

 He has been associated with the External Service Division of All India Radio and has been producing scripts on them mainly on international affairs and economic matters.

 He has written for Doordarshan and Zee TV. For Doordarshan he has been writing commentaries on parliamentary proceedings. He has also conducted TV interviews and has also been interviewed on TV.

 Acted as a judge in Aap Ki Adalat.

 Did IGNOU Phone-In Programmes on Mass Communication.

As Book Writer

Followings are the upcoming books of Pradeep Kumar Mathur

a. In defence of journalism
b. My Tribune days
c. My life as a teacher

Know Who is Pradeep Kumar Mathur

Prof. Pradeep K. Mathur
Media academician, journalist and writer
Email : drpkmathur@gmail.com
Contact No. : +91-9810385757
Telephone No. : 0120-2691825

Present pre-occupations:

• Visiting Professor, International Media Institute, Gurgaon.
•  Editor, Media Map, a research journal on Mass Communication and society
• Editorial Advisor –Turning India, a monthly Hindi Magazine on current Affairs
•  Editorial Director, Peoples Syndicate, a news syndicate
• General Secretary, Centre 4 promotion of Alternative Institutions, an NGO
• Subject specialist on inspection panel of GSS Indraprastha University, New Delhi, to assess the suitability and capability of affiliated institutes to run academic programmes. The panel is headed by a former IAS officer of Delhi Govt.
• Jury member of the annual Akashwani Awards selection committee of All India Radio
• Guest expert and political analyst at TV news channel debates on current affairs.
• Member of the Governing Committee of jagannath Institute of Management Studies (JIMS), New Delhi. JIMS management runs two private universities and three-four big institutes of professional education in three states of Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi UT.
• Freelance writer and contributor to various journals and websites.

[ Formerly:

• Prof and Course Director Indian Institute of Mass Communication, JNU, New Delhi
• Director, School of Mass Communication, Jaipur National University, Jaipur
• Academic Advisor , VBS Poorvanchal University, Jaunpur (U.P.)
• Editor, Communicator, a quarterly research journal on mass Communicator;
• Resident Editor, The Pioneer (English Daily), Lucknow.
• Worked as a senior journalist in National Herald, New Delhi and The Tribune, Chandigarh

1. Personality Profile:

Prof. Pradeep K. Mathur belongs to the tribe of mediapersons who took to the profession in the firm belief and with the conviction that media has to be viewed basically as on input in development in the context of a developing country like India. First as a working journalist and editor for nearly 25 years and then as a media educator for the next 22 years he has actively tried to help focus on issues which will generate awareness and will be of vital importance to society. This social consciousness took him from the exciting field of political journalism in search of basic communication problems and strategies whose answer can lead to sensitize people about issues like environment, health, education, and cultural development. The quest keeps him going on.

2. Institution Building:

In whatever big or small positions Prof. Mathur served he tried to promote a culture of institution building.

In nutshell he:

• Launched the Varanasi edition of the Pioneer English daily in 1984. He recruited and trained the staff, evolved the style book of the newspaper, laid the guidelines for the staff and gave a modern format to the newspaper.
• Started the department of Publications in IIMC, New Delhi, re-launched the quarterly journal Communicator, revived the Hindi journal Sanchar Madhyam and brought the publications on digital mode.
• As a member of the expert committee contributed to the designing of the mass communication course of Delhi University.
• Set up the school of mass communication at the Jaipur National University, Jaipur. Drew the norms of the Ph.D. programme.
• Tried to reorient the department of mass communication of VBS University, Jaunpur.
• Has launched a thought journal Media Map with the idea of serving as a bridge between media education/research and media industry.

3. Leadership Roles:

Prof. Pradeep K. Mathur has exhibited his leadership qualities in giving thrust to various academic programmes during his stint in the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) and other institutions. He has been a major contributor in IIMC's efforts to promote harmony and understanding in northeast by media education. He has conducted several workshops and training programmes in various parts of the country including north eastern states.

Considering media students as potential change agents for society, Prof. Mathur has worked to broaden their dimensions of social consciousness. He has insisted on social development journalism, has sensitized them working of NGO’s has helped them in undertaking of the bottlenecks and potentialities in promoting social development media. He evolved a new syllabus with an integrated approach towards various sectors media education. The syllabus is used as a guide by most of the centers of media education in the country.

He set up the Department of Publications and gave a new look and purpose to its quarterly journals 'Communicator'. 'Communicator' as evolved to be the best brand of IIMC. He revived the 'Sanchar Madhyam', the quarterly publication in Hindi, which had suspended publication. He also launched a publication programme for production of media books in critical areas.

As a trainer for officers of the Indian Information Service, army personnel and officers of other services doing communication course, he has tried to sensitize the trainees about the role and importance of independent media and its position in our democratic polity. He has also prepared modules for the training of these officers and has also trained information officers at Administrative Training Institute, Nainital, and its several centers in the northeast.
Prof. Mathur has also been involved in the training of mid-career journalists from the developing countries. He has encouraged the participants to do project studies and also to understand India by developing people-to-people contacts. A veteran journalist, Prof. Mathur ran a syndicated column to emphasise the best values of journalism and generate an understanding about the true role of press. He has done books which seek to define broad parameters of the discipline of mass communication.

4. Experience as a Professional Journalist :

Pradeep K. Mathur has served as a working journalist/editor from 1966 to 1989 at Kanpur, Lucknow, Chandigarh, New Delhi and Varanasi in various newspapers and news magazines of standing. He has held almost every important position in newspapers from sub-editor. He has been Chief Sub, Deputy News Editor, Chief News Editor, Special Correspondent, Assistant Editor, Resident Editor, Acting Editor and Consulting Editor.

Some of the highlights of his journalistic career are:

• As the Resident Editor of the Varanasi edition of the Pioneer (1985-86) he built up a daily newspaper from scratch. He identified potential young men and women, trained them and in the process built a fine professional team.
• As acting editor of the Lucknow edition of The Pioneer (1985-86) he geared up the working of the paper and helped sustain its efforts to meet the challenge posed by the Times of India in Lucknow. He generated ideas and endeavored to put them into practice often in face of the resistance from complacent colleagues. He revamped the Sunday Magazine and the off-day edit page of the paper and set up a highly functional reference cell something the newspaper badly needed.
• Earlier, as the News Editor of National Herald, New Delhi (1980-81) he helped the revival of the paper in the post - Janata era. Many new features were introduced and the look of the paper was vastly improved when problems at the top undermined the professional effort being made lower down.
• Later, as a special correspondent (1981-84) he covered the two Houses of Parliament, important ministries, political parties and among other the state of UP which was most important for the paper which had an edition from Lucicnow too. He wrote a daily as well as a weekly column on Parliament. 
• He also covered the seventh non-aligned summit, CHOGAM and the 12th World Energy Congress. He wrote a book "Non-aligned Movement: New Delhi and Beyond" which was released by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in February 1984. The book got good reviews in Indian as well as foreign journals.
• He also edited the international weekly of National Herald in the capacity of Assistant Editor, and wrote a weekly column on national and international scene.
• He covered Punjab University covered beyond university politics. In 1973 he covered the Chandigarh session of the Indian Science Congress. In 1976 he reported on Rohtak University and in 1977 he wrote four pieces on the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Simla, where he went at the invitation of its Director, Dr SC Dube.
• In 1968 he attended a Press Institute of India workshop for reporters in Lucknow and reported on it in the PIT house journal 'Vidura'.
• In 1979 he conducted a study of the press coverage of the parliamentary elections in three constituencies of Punjab. The study was sponsored by the Second Press Commission.
• In order to practice what he has been professing, he also organised a news syndicate and edited a country paper.  He has also been involved with the electronic media almost right from the start of his career as a journalist. In 1968 he was the first presenter and producer of the All India Radio's Yuv Vani programme for the youth in UP. He conducted this programme as well as other programmes for the Lucknow station of AIR.
• He wrote Commentary on parliamentary proceedings for All India Radio in the eighties when he worked as a Special Correspondent in New Delhi.
• He has been producing and presenting this week programme for the National Channel of All India Radio for quite some time.
• He has been associated with the External Service Division of All India Radio and has been producing scripts on them mainly on international affairs and economic matters.
• He has written for Doordarshan and Zee TV. For Doordarshan he has been writing commentaries on parliamentary proceedings. He has also conducted TV interviews and has also been interviewed on TV.
• Acted as a judge in Aap Ki Adalat.
• Did IGNOU Phone-In Programmes on Mass Communication.

5. Experience As Media Trainer:

As a media trainer he has richly contributed to various academic programmes of the Institute. Besides giving his input in various short courses he has been involved with the following programmes.

• Post graduate Programme in English Journalism 
• Post-graduate Programme in Radio and TV Journalism 
• Post-graduate Programme in Hindi Journalism 
• Post graduate Programme in Advertising & Public Relations 
• Non-aligned News Agency Programme now renamed as Development Communication Courses 
• India Information Service Programme.
• In addition to this he has also made his contribution at other centres of media education. 
• He has been an expert and visiting faculty at Delhi University. 
• Nationality known for his contribution to media education he has served as a member of Research Degree Committee, Board of Studies and Selection Committees of more than 30 universities. 
• Moreover, he has been invited as a visiting faculty, External examiner, subject expert or as a resource person to lead seminars at various universities and institutes.
• Some of the prominent universities and centres of media education and communication centres with which Prof Mathur has been academically associated are as follows :

a. Central Universities BHU, Varanasi; Assam University, Silchar, Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University, Wardha; Allahabad University ,Allahabad, Dr H.S. Gaur University, Saugar. and Calcutta University, Kolkata

b. Prominent state universities: Kashi Vidyapeeth, Varanasi, CCS University, Meerut; Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra; Guru Jambeshwar University, Hisar; Mahrishi Dayaanand University, Rohtak; Lucknow University, Lucknow; Kashmir University, Srinagar; GGS Indraprastha University, University, New Delhi; Mangalore University, Mangalore; Rohilkhand University, Bareilly; Panjabi University, Patiala.

c. Prominent organizations/Institutes: Union Public Service Commission(UPSC), New Delhi; Officers Training Institute, Nainital; YMCA Centre for Mass Media, New Delhi; Kendriya Hindi Sansthan, Agra; State Institute of Rural Development, Nelokhari, Haryana; State Institute of Rural Development, Lucknow; Bankers’ Institute of Rural Development (BIRD), Lucknow and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

He has also been involved with the Distance Education programme in Mass Communication of the following universities:

• Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi.
• Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh.
• MG International Hindi University, Wardha.
• Kota University, Rajasthan.
• Guru Jambeshwar University, Hisar.

6. Publications And Research:

• He edited the two volume, Issues in Mass Communication, an IIMC Publication, with Dr JS Yadava
• He edited the Press council of India Publication Women and Media brought out by IIMC, New Delhi.
• He edited and produced two IIMC publications 'Serving Bosses Big and Small' written by IP Tewari and 'Another Age and Another Time' written by S Sahay
• In 1984, he along with a Hindi Journalist as co-author write a book 'Non-Aligned Movement: New Delhi and Beyond'. The book released by the reviewed in journals in India and abroad, which was carried by several newspapers. The column made good impact on readers as well as media community.
• As a journalist he has been writing on various issues in Hindi and English press and must have more than 2,500 big small published pieces to his credit.
• He ran a syndicated column on media issues for one year. A book on the pieces published in the column is under way.  A paper done by him, in collaboration with a colleague in the Illinois State University, USA, was accepted by the Selection Committee for the 11th Biennial Convention of the World Communication Association (WCA) held at the University of Yyvaskyla, Finland.
• As a trainer he has organized various project studies on a variety of subjects. Some of the studies have been quite interesting.

7. Interface With IT:

As a production journalist and editor Pradeep K. Mathur has been involved with the use of technology that goes into media operations. He is well versed with the basics of printing systems both hot metal and the computerized DTP.

• In IIMC he led the operations to install the new DTP system. All printing and publication work of IIMC I now done on the DTP system.
• He has been taking a keen interest in the new information technology and has been participating in seminars and discussions on the issues
• He is an Editorial Advisor to Infun TV, a Bangalore based TV production house specializing in programmes on Information Technology.
• He has, as Editor, brought out special issues of Communicator and Sanchar Madhyam on the subjects of Information Technology.

8. Extra Curricular:

• First as a journalist and then as a media teacher he has participated in various seminars. He has not only participated and presented but has also organized seminars on behalf of IIMC as well as an NGO by the name of the Centre for Promotion of Alternative Institutions (CPAI) whose Secretary he happens to be.
• He is a member of several professional and social organizations like India Federation of working Journalists, (FWJ), National Media Centre, Habitat Centre and Indian Society of Population Education, New Delhi.
• He has delivered lecture on problems of working class movement at the Chandigarh and Faridabad and Punjab National Bank and the New Bank of India training centres in Chandigarh.
• Working for The Pioneer in mid-eighties at Lucknow he helped the formation of the Editing Journalists Organisation (EJO), which sought to organize training facilities for in service journalists and raise their professional skills. He also served as the Chief Coordinator of a training course the EJO conducted in Lucknow in June 1986.

Coming books :
a. In defence of journalism
b. My Tribune days
c. My life as a teacher