In 2018, the SUSU Department of Journalism, Advertising and Public Relations became a participant of the EUfactcheck international journalism project.
Within the framework of the project, the pan-European platform EUfactcheck.eu was created to publish the results of fact-checking and to introduce a three-step fact-checking methodology, identical for journalistic schools in European universities, developed by the European Journalism Training Association (which SUSU is a member of). This has helped the Department of Journalism, Advertising and Public Relations to reach a qualitatively new level of project-based learning.
Master’s degree students at the Department of Journalism, Advertising and Public Relations of the SUSU Institute of Media, Social Sciences and Humanities (IMSSH), majoring in Transmedia Journalism continue to successfully publish new materials in English on the pan-European portal EUfactcheck.eu. For example, this academic year, Marina Nazarova's first fact-check “Mostly True: Belgium Tightens Measures, Imposes a Curfew and Closes Restaurants” has already been released, dedicated to the introduction of the quarantine measures in Belgium.
In addition, Master’s degree students learn about a new publication format called media research, which was proposed by the leaders of the Eurofactcheck project - representatives of the European Journalism Training Association. And such a study on the topic “What Russian Media Write about the Second Wave of COVID-19 in Europe”, in which the materials by the Russian media “Rossiyskaya Gazeta”, “Izvestia” and RIA “Novosti” are analyzed, has already been published.
In addition, students take part in a new format of work, which is designated as "International cooperation" ("Cross-national collaboration"). On this platform, one of the European universities, Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznan, Poznań), acts as a partner for SUSU.
“The goal of the project is to check the truth of news of international importance in two countries at once,” says the head of the Eurofactcheck project, Head of the Department of Journalism, Advertising and Public Relations, Doctor of Sciences (Philology) Liudmila Shesterkina. “This is a great opportunity for our students to gain experience interaction and communication with colleagues from Poland, learn how to work with the international agenda, view the news from different sides and from different angles, and form objective socially significant information."
The international format of cooperation is supervised by Anna Krasavina, Candidate of Sciences (Philology), Associate Professor of the Department of Journalism, Advertising and Public Relations of the SUSU Institute of Media, Social Sciences and Humanities, and Professor Jędrzej Skrzypczak, Head of the Department of Press Systems and Press Law of the Faculty of Political Sciences and Journalism of Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznań, Poland).
“Several meetings have already taken place via Zoom with Master’s degree students of Adam Mickiewicz University, with whom the Department cooperates in this project within the framework of “Eurofactcheck”,” says the curator of the Eurofactcheck project, Associate Professor of the Department of Journalism, Advertising and Public Relations Anna Krasavina. “The students got to know each other, and offered and discussed news for verification.”
The Eurofactcheck project continues to bring together journalism students and academics from over 20 European countries. Within the framework of the project, SUSU established cooperation with such EJTA members as the Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands; Thomas More University, Belgium; Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, Finland; Institute of Journalism at Paris-Dauphine University, France; Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece; Pompeu Fabra University, Spain; Linnaeus University, Sweden; and Utrecht University, the Netherlands.