A digital exam in creative presentation in journalism has successfully completed at the Department of Journalism, Advertising and Public Relations of the Institute of Media, Social Sciences and Humanities. Due to the quarantine conditions related to the spread of COVID 19, the entrance creativity competition has been held in a remote format and under the new conditions for the first time.
This year, the creativity competition in the field of Journalism has undergone significant changes. Due to quarantine measures, instead of the usual tests (writing an essay, work on camera or at a radio microphone, creating an information note and interviewing), the future journalists have been experimentally offered a completely new format for passing the creativity exam: the creation of their own journalistic material in the digital space in the genre of selfie reporting, which is one of the creative and very popular genres of modern journalism.
“The Department of Journalism, Advertising and Public Relations of the Institute of Media, Social Sciences and Humanities is the only one in our country that has decided to undertake such an experiment, that is to check the input professional data of the future journalists in a fully digital format,” said Liudmila Shesterkina, Doctor of Sciences (Philology), Head of the Department of Journalism, Advertising and Public Relations. “And since we are a part of the university of digital transformations (which SUSU is at present), and we have experience in creating a student SUSU-TV Television and Radio Company in the digital space, we have developed a rather bold provision on the creativity competition in 2020, which includes a video self-presentation of the applicant in combination with the author's selfie-report on a specific topic. A special creative approach in demonstrating the professional potential and social character, erudition, range of interests, as well as serious technological skills of working in the digital space have been demanded from the applicants. And the most important is that we have seen this with our own eyes. The applicants have sent us their works done at a very good level."
For the successful implementation of the creativity exam, applicants were offered a list of topics for one of which they had to do the examination paper, as well as all the conditions for holding the competition, technical requirements for selfie reporting, and criteria for evaluating journalistic works. The examination commission, consisting of the teaching staff of the Department of Journalism, Advertising and Public Relations of the Institute, as well as the staff of the SUSU-TV Television and Radio Company, assessed the compositional integrity and literacy of the presentation of the reported text, the logic of shooting and editing, the sound design of the report, and an individual creative approach, and knowledge and skills of using computer technologies.
“This year, at the creativity competition, which has been held for the first time in a remote format and in a form of a digital task for the first time as well, we have checked about 100 works. I would like to emphasize that our applicants have shown an excellent understanding of the essence of the journalistic profession as a socially responsible activity and have been able to tell about their choice in a convincing way. Among the most popular topics of selfie reports there were: “The Fate of My Family in the Fate of My Country (on the occasion of the 75th Anniversary of the Great Victory)”, “The Event of the Day”, and “Sound Mind in a Sound Body”. The video reports on the topics “A Farewell to School”, “I Am Here to Help”, “In the Role of Sherlock Holmes”, and others were very interesting,” notes Arina Marfitsyna, who is a person responsible for holding of the creativity exam in the field of Journalism, and Head of the 360-Degree Multimedia Newsroom.
On the whole, the results of the creativity competition can be called successful. The average score for the creativity test in journalism is 98 points, and 43 applicants received a maximum score of 100. Among them there were graduates of the “Media Generation” University Journalism Club for Applicants.
“We are very glad that the students who studied in our club have shown themselves as real professionals at the creativity competition, and we have trained them for this,” says Natalia Tuchkova, Head of the “Media Generation” University Journalism Club for Applicants, and editor-in-chief of the SUSU-TV Television and Radio Company. “We are particularly happy that they come to study at our university and we will continue our training and professional development with them. We are confident that it is at the Department of Journalism, Advertising and Public Relations of the Institute of Media, Social Sciences and Humanities, in our SUSU-TV Television and Radio Company and other media platforms of the university, that they will obtain all the necessary knowledge and skills, and in a few years each one of them will become a media specialist of the highest level.”