The scientific and practical conference of the European Journalism Training Association (EJTA) called Journalism Education without Limits wrapped up at Lomonosov MSU (Moscow). In it participated teachers and researchers of mass media from universities in the USA, France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Russia, and many other European countries.
South Ural State University, which is an institutional member of EJTA, was represented at the conference by Doctor of Philology, Professor, Dean of the SUSU Faculty of Journalism, and Head of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication Lyudmila Shesterkina and Head of the Internet Broadcasting Division of the Office of Marketing and Strategic Communications Management, Olga Vazhenina. They took active part in discussions on journalism training in the broad, global context, taking into account the unique national professional, social, ideological, cultural, and economical factors which affect the education of future journalists.
Russian and international researchers were especially interested in the presentation made by Lyudmila Shesterkina entitled “New professional borders of journalism, or what to teach student journalists”. Lyudmila Petrovna presented the results of a large sociological research project held among employers, regional media specialists, teachers, and students of the SUSU Faculty of Journalism. The results of this research excited the interest of colleagues from Russia, Uzbekistan, and Belgium.
As Lyudmila Shesterkina noted, “Together with the representatives of the EJTA we discussed the prospects of the Association completing new research on the topic ‘Role, values, and qualifications of journalists in the era of digital technologies. How teachers of journalism see the future of the profession in the transition period.’ Teachers from the SUSU Faculty of Journalism would take part in this international research project directly alongside representatives of more than sixty European centers of journalism education. And this will seriously broaden the scale of work at the SUSU Faculty of Journalism and advance it on the international level.”
In addition, as a result of talks with Professor Nico Drok, EJTA President, very important agreements were made on extending the boarders of the European Journalism Training Association to that of a Eurasian organization by including representatives of journalism centers from China, Iran, India, and other countries. To unite Europe and Asia, the members of the EJTA chose SUSU as the 2020 location for holding the European Association of Journalism Training scientific conference as a Eurasian venture.
These prospects play a huge role in the integration of South Ural State University into the international research community and the realization of SUSU’s participation in the 5-100 Russian Academic Excellence Project.
