Being guided by the goal of improving the quality of training of the new generation of journalists, the Faculty of Journalism of the SUSU Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities jointly with the Union of Journalists of the Chelyabinsk Region and supported by the Department of Press-service and Information for the Chelyabinsk Region Government, as well as by the EJTA (European Journalism Training Association), are holding a new international social study on Fact-checking and the Tasks of Modern Journalistic Education.
Among the participants of this international interactive social study are mass media specialists of various levels, graduates of faculties of journalism, academics and students from the universities of Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Uzbekistan. Russia is represented by South Ural State University, which has been an institutional member of the European Journalism Training Association since 2016.
According to Dean of the SUSU Faculty of Journalism, Doctor of Sciences (Philology) Liudmila Shesterkina “On one hand the object of the study is the level of understanding of such modern information phenomena as fake news, fact-checking and verification by the community of journalists, as well as the analysis of the reasons why untrustworthy information appears in mass media. On the other hand, we ask respondents to answer the questions directly related to organisation of journalistic education and training the future journalists for professional work in mass media. Such questions include: ‘Which part in the journalism students’ curriculum should be given to fact-checking and verification?’; ‘What knowledge and skills should be provided to students in the process of theoretical and practical fact-checking studies?’; ‘Which personal qualities should the fact-checking and verification programmes train in future journalists?’; and other issues. Using the results of the study, the academics of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication of the SUSU Faculty of Journalism of the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities are planning to write a series of scientific articles, as well as elaborate recommendations on improving the modern system of training specialists in journalism”.