School for future masters students “Is journalism a science?”

The purpose of the school for applicants was to intensify the volume of scientific research conducted by students, undergraduates and young scientists of Russian and foreign universities, to develop basic and applied researches that promote the integration of higher education and science and to present Master’s programs of the Faculty, including programs in foreign languages.

About 100 bachelor students of Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia and universities-partners visited the event.

The school was opened by deputy dean of the Faculty of Philology, associate professor Roman Savastenko.

In his welcoming speech, he noted the growing interest of young people in the processes taking place today in the media space and also stressed the need for regular scientific and practical meetings of scientists, students and practitioners in the framework of School’s activity.

According to the program of School, leading Russian and foreign scientists had analyzed the development of Russian and foreign journalism in the context of the increasing influence of the media and global communication mechanisms on the political, social and economic situation in society.

The program of School “Is journalism a science?” was informative and consisted of special master-classes created especially for School’s program.

On the first day of School, leading Russian scientists and practitioners organized master-classes and lectures for students. A lecture named “Information warfare as an integral part of modern Russian media reality” was conducted by the PhD in political science, professor of the Moscow State University, a member of the Scientific Council of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, one of the leading Russian political scientists Andrey Manoilo. In his scientific report, he highlighted that nowadays the informational wars have become one of the most significant problems of international relations. Informational wars are one of the most important factors of foreign policy. Speaking about local conflicts, for instance, they are successfully combined with armed aggression, but anyway, they are not covered with prohibitions and restrictions of international law.

The work of School was continued by a TV journalist, the host of the Morning show of Channel One, Roman Budnikov, who gave a master class “Features of work in the live regime”.

Budnikov noted that the present kind of work was considered to be the most stressful one: a journalist should always control the situation, keep a clear stylistic direction of the show without changing its subject.

A social activist, video blogger, the editor-in-chief of the online magazine PolitRussia.com and expert of the Internet Development Institute Ruslan Ostashko delivered a lecture dedicated to the impact of social networks on the informational space.
The topic of his report turned out to be actual and caused many questions and comments from students and practicing journalists.

In opinion of Ostashko, social networks are able to perform several functions at once, which are not considered to be important at first sight: but along with the distribution of targeted advertising in social networks, the individual’s preferences are being tracked and his opinion is shaped. Social networks provide an opportunity not only to observe, but also to actively influence on a person: for example, correct his position on various issues, change attitudes and form beliefs.

Yevgeny Sazonov, deputy editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Komsomolskaya Pravda” completed the first day of School with his report “Komsomolskaya Pravda as an example of a modern multimedia editorial”. The journalist noticed that “Komsomolskaya Pravda” became one of the leaders in the market of daily newspapers in Russia mostly thanks to good marketing. At the end of his speech, Sazonov invited students to cooperate with one of the most famous newspapers in Russia.

The second day of School “Is journalism a science?” was devoted to general presentation of the Master’s programs of the Faculty of Philology, and special attention was paid to the program “Modern International Journalism”, corresponding to the profile of the school.

The Master’s program of the Department of Theory and History of Journalism was presented by PhD in Philological Sciences, associate professor Valentin Matvienko.

During the meeting with the students, the speaker noted that RUDN University had a multi-disciplinary structure of faculties and specialties with about 190 specializations, and this feature is typical for the world leading classical universities.
Also students got acquainted with the features of implementing the Master’s programs, dates of commencement and completion of admission, the cost of program, professors who organized and implemented the educational process and main disciplines.

The second part of the second day of School included lectures by leading professors.

The lecture “Representation of the image of a woman on the pages of Soviet journals in the “thaw” period of the USSR” was presented by Valeria Berezina, teacher of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications of the Perm State National Research University.

PhD in Historical Sciences, associate professor of the Department of Regional Management and National Policy, associate professor of the Department of Advertising and Public Relations of the Branch of MGIMO University in Odintsovo Petr Menshikov gave a report titled “Actual Aspects of Information Policy of Russia in the New Political Conditions”.

Lecture “Manipulation of consciousness in advertising. Discourse and Stylistics” was read by Sergey Moshkin, Senior Lecturer of the Department of Philology, Novosibirsk State Technical University.

The third day of the School was devoted to the work of student sections and a presentation by special guest of the School, professor of the Center for Higher Studies of Information and Communication at the University of Sorbonne (France) Vitaly Buduchev, who read a lecture on the circulation of information in Russian and French media spaces through the prism of editorial identity.

The main areas of work (sections) of the School were:

• Citizen journalism and journalistic education in Russia. Journalism of the Russian regions. The evolution of the Russian language in modern media texts.
• Informational state policy of Russia and the post-Soviet countries. Informational confrontation between Russia and Western countries.
• Function features of the media markets of Russia and foreign countries. Advertising industry.
• From web 2.0 to web 3.0, or a new concept of presenting and receiving information. Ethical problems of modern media.

Each participant was able to take part in the professional discussion and express own position, exchange views on topical issues within the scope of the school.

All students received the certificates of participation at the closing ceremony of the School on the 20th of April, 2019.