MICA to offer specialization in New Media

With digital communication increasingly becoming order of the day, Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad (MICA) has started a specialization in Digital Communications Management for its flagship 2-year Post Graduate Diploma in Management Communications (PGDM-C) from this academic session.

According to the institute, the new course in Digital Communication will be the part of the current academic year, but will be applicable to the students once they reach the second year of their PGDM(C).
The new course was announced during the inauguration of the new academic session on July 1, 2013.

The Digital Communications Management will be the fifth new specialization offered to the students from this academic year. The earlier four specializations were Brand Management, Advertising Management, Media Management and Marketing Research.

Speaking on the new course, Dr. Nagesh Rao, President & Director, MICA said, The decision to establish MICA was pioneering as there was no communication management school when MICA was conceptualized.
The decision to introduce an academic vertical in the domain of digital communications is equally innovative and pioneering.

In the last few years, communication technology has revolutionized the media through which we communicate. Rapid penetration of internet has resulted in exponential growth of social media usage and proliferation of the online market. With the traditional media losing its hold and new media gaining prominence, digital education has become need of the hour, he said.

The institute said that it conducted an extensive survey on the available academic literature and had a series of discussion with industry experts before launching the new course. The problem with this domain is that the knowledge in this area has yet to be codified into books. When we decided to launch an academic vertical in this domain, we knew we will have to define the boundary of the domain. Therefore, literature review and consultation with experts was necessary, Dr. Rao said.

Dr. Rajneesh Krishna, Chairperson, Curriculum Committee, further explained that the courses which have been included are of two types first are foundational core, which will be taught to all the students (such as Digital Marketing, Digital Transformation Framework, Information and User Experience Design). The second type of courses would be the electives which will help the students to design their career paths in this particular domain (such as Search Marketing, Social Local and Mobile Marketing, Integrated Content Management, Online Display/Video Advertising, KPI of Digital Channels). Elective courses would include not only those course that focus on career building but also look at the basic lifestyle and consumption changes that digital revolution has brought in. Examples of such unique courses are Consumer Insight through Data Integration, Online Ethics and Morality and Digital Citizenship.

The institute has a total intake of 180 students for PGDM (C). The total fee for two years programme including tuition fee, residential charges (Boarding and Lodging) etc is around Rs 12,00,000.