On October 15th-16th of 2020, an International Science-to-practice Conference on Building of a Eurasian Bridge in Journalism Education will be held at South Ural State University. It is being organized by the European Journalism Training Association (EJTA-Belgium). Since 2016 SUSU has been an institutional member of the European Journalism Training Association, which units about 70 educational journalism centres in the leading universities from 30 European countries. For the first time in the EJTA’s history, the big-scale forum will be devoted to the exchanging the experience and ideas on journalism education on the Eurasian continent.
The Board of Directors of the European Journalism Training Association made a decision on expanding the Association to the scale of a Eurasian organisation by including representatives of journalism centres from China, Iran, India, Kazakhstan and other countries, and approved SUSU as the venue for holding the EJTA-2020 Science-to-practice Conference in this new Eurasian capacity.
“We can relate to this idea on uniting the European and the Asian journalism centres into one journalism training association,” notes SUSU Rector Aleksandr Shestakov. “After all, in its concept of international development, SUSU sees itself as a SMART university, which unites Europe and Asia. And we are confidently working on this. Students from Iraq, China, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan and other countries are studying at our university. Today, SUSU is one of the major multicultural universities in Russia, which is actively implementing innovative technologies into its scientific and educational process. We are a “smart” university, the strategy of development of which is based on digital transformation of the research-and-education activity. At the university’s unique media platform, which includes digital television and radio broadcasting, multimedia newsroom, virtual reality laboratory, and other world-class media, excellent conditions have been created for holding discussions on modern functions of journalism, and stimulating the international exchange of students and teachers.”
For three decades the institutional members of EJTA from Europe have been jointly working on improving journalism education, collaborating within the international exchange programs, as well as fulfilling joint teaching and research projects; and now the Asian schools of journalism will be joining this process.
“The forum will be held in the very heart of Russia, in a place where Europe meets Asia – at South Ural State University in the city of Chelyabinsk. The crucial goal of this conference is stimulation of the collaboration in the field of journalism education and secondary vocational education, as well as develop the professional approach to training journalists in Europe and Asia,” notes Nico Drok, President of the European Journalism Training Association (EJTA), Professor on Media and Civil Society at Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands. “The conference provides all the opportunities for becoming an EJTA member, establishing long-term partner relations, and organizing world-class breakthrough scientific research.”
The following relevant topics will be discussed at the conference: the changing function of journalism in the society; required knowledge and skills of a media specialist; attitude towards journalism; professional ethics of a journalist; international exchange; and liberty of journalism education.
Already now the conference’s website in Russian and English has started working. It holds information on the European Journalism Training Association, fields of its activity, and the terms of becoming an EJTA member, draft of the Conference Programme , and the list of speakers, who will deliver their presentations. On this website you can also find information on how to file and Application for participating in the conference, and how to fill out the Registration Form in the Registration section. For international participants, a special page has been created with the instructions on obtaining the invitation for entering the Russian Federation for the execution of visa. Moreover, for their convenience, the website provides the list of hotels in Chelyabinsk, where they can stay.
The Conference Programme will be presented at the World Journalism Education Congress to be held at Paris-Dauphine University in Paris, France, in July of 2019. The SUSU delegation headed by the Dean of the Faculty of Journalism of the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities, Doctor of Sciences (Philology), Professor Liudmila Shesterkina will take part in the round table on the Journalism Education in Russia in the Context of Development of Transmedia , and in other events of the congress.