ITANAGAR, 12 Jun: A 17-member delegation from the mass communication department of the Arunachal Pradesh University (APU), Pasighat, currently on a four-day media exposure tour to Aizawl in Mizoram, met the state’s Minister of State for Information & Public Relations, B Lalchhanzova, at his office in the civil secretariat in Aizawl on Thursday.
The meeting was attended by prominent media and government representatives, including the president and members of the Mizoram Journalists Association, the director of information & public relations, and representatives of the Press Information Bureau, among others.
The minister lauded the APU mass communication department for choosing Mizoram as the destination for the exposure tour, terming it a “meaningful and appropriate choice.”
Addressing the students, Lalchhanzova emphasised the importance of solidarity and collective purpose among the youths of the Northeast. “The youths of the Northeast have immense potential, and we must channelise and harness it together,” he said, urging students and institutions across the region to work in unison for the expedited growth and welfare of the Northeast.
He stressed that all states of the region must strive towards a common and shared future.
Specifically addressing the mass communication students from Arunachal, the minister encouraged them to leverage their professional skills in writing, filmmaking, photography, and documentary production to tell the stories of their home state to the world. “There is a vast audience out there, eager to discover the identity, culture, and geography of Arunachal Pradesh. You can bring a completely new flavour for the world to consume,” he said, pointing to the enormous yet largely untapped storytelling potential of the state’s pristine landscapes, tribal heritage, and indigenous cultures.
He urged the students to dream big, think creatively, and use the power of the media as a bridge between Arunachal and the global audience. He also wished the delegation the very best in their academic and professional journeys.
Informing about the academic intent of the tour, APU Mass Communication HoD (i/c) Dr Prem Taba said the visit is conceived as a bridge between classroom learning and professional reality, and is part of a broader initiative by the APU’s mass communication department to equip its students with firsthand exposure to the media landscape of the Northeast – a region rich in diversity, complexity, and storytelling potential.
The media exposure tour, organised as part of the academic and professional development activities for the second semester students of the MA mass communication programme, is led by faculty escorts, Dr Taba, and Dr Kombong Darang. Fifteen postgraduate students are participating in the tour.
Earlier, the delegation visited several prominent media institutions in Aizawl. They toured LPS, Mizoram’s most popular cable television network, and gained insights into regional broadcast operations, and visited the offices of Vanglaini, the highest-circulated Mizo-language newspaper, where they were exposed to the workings of a leading vernacular print media establishment. The delegation also visited All India Radio, Aizawl, one of the oldest and most trusted public broadcasters in the region.
On the academic front, the delegation visited the Northeastern regional campus of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Aizawl, and the department of mass communication, Mizoram University, where they interacted with students, research scholars, and faculty members on course structures, curriculum design, pedagogical approaches, and professional practices – an exchange that offered valuable comparative perspectives to the APU students.
