Sweden - day 6

It was a day of meeting people and talking to them about the differences between the two cultures, theirs and ours, hearing their questions, talking about media in india and a lot of interviews. We concentrated today mainly with the media programme and met loads of students of the same. Sebastian, Andreas and Matilda were three people we were the most with today. It was quite surprising for me to see the amount of facilities these students from media had. Two studios with excellent camera and lighting facilties, amazing computers with the up to date softwares for editing and all other computer related jobs and a very nice atmosphere to work with. Something which caught my attention was the amount of practical work these high school students in relation to media. They are handling those cameras nearly everyday, taking pictures for the school website which is very quick in putting up news about what’s been happening in the school, writing stories and taking interviews. It was completely amazing to see the level of development and the amount of facilities available here.

Its common in these two countries ( Norway and Sweden) to take up vocational programmes in the high school. Well the students I met today who were interviewing us and walking around with cameras and mics very comfortably were students of the second year of Media Programme. I caught some details of this programme. It’s a three years programme in high school. IN the first year, it’s a study of nearly everything, but in the second year, you can choose and begin specializing. And what can they specialize in this media programme – Television, Graphic Designing, Photography and Writing. So, its pretty much the same thing we might do in our Masters programme back home. So why did this all catch my attention. Well, being a Journalism student, it was interesting for me to know that facilities can make a lot of difference. Also, when I compared it back to my university, it was completely different. I don’t know how it is now (as I’ve been away for more than 6 months now) but atleast when I left, I remember those computers of the Media Lab, and they are not those great ones. Better equipments could help a lot, and that would be something I hope to talk about when I get back. Also something which is going on in my head is a college website. Well, we have the normal university website, but what about a students one? Well, when you have 3 classes studying Journalism as their majors, and 3 studying communications, why not give it a try?

These are thoughts which are pooling in now, I’m not sure how much of this will remain in my head when I get back, so wrote it here, so that I can remember when we are back in June in the loveliest place of all with the most amazing people, Bangalore. But for now, we are completely in love with this amazing place called Ystad and it is nothing, but beautiful.

Completely amazingly fantabulous!

Some images from Ystad (2 are edited).