About a hundred young specialists were trained at the course Multinational Russia through the Eyes of Peacemakers in the Interethnic Journalism School.
Only the lazy ones do not criticize journalists for how most of them give coverage of the interethnic relations in this multinational country: they are said to tirelessly aggravate national tension! At the same time, not a single higher education institution in Russia trains would-be professionals of the mass media in a competent approach to such a complex and subtle sphere as covering the life and relationship of 193 peoples of Russia. Finally, the most conscious experts undertook to rectify the situation.
If you want to be a demanded journalist, get to know the culture and customs of the peoples living in your country. Graduates of the course Multinational Russia through the Eyes of Peacemakers at the Interethnic Journalism School realized it again at the final conference that was started in Moscow and finished in the Mari El Republic.
Several years ago all the journalism faculties of Russia assured the students that true professionals in the modern world must be all-round experts. Now the situation has changed: the diminution in the market makes it a great advantage for a journalist to have a specialization. Interethnic expertise turns to be one of the most advantageous one in the multinational state like the Russian Federation.
The fact was emphasized by Elena Vartanova, the dean of the Journalist Faculty of the Lomonosov Moscow State University. She expressed a hope that thanks to ethnojournalism the print media, which has been steadily losing its popularity in the recent years, will manage to keep afloat and strive. Interethnic subject may become a guiding star for the regional mass media, according to the dean.
Only the best graduates of the course Multinational Russia through the Eyes of Peacemakers were selected to take part in the visiting conference from Moscow to the Volga region. Each of the nine regions involved in the project of the Guild of Interethnic Journalism (carried out with the support of the presidential grant through the National Charity Fund) was represented by two strongest students and their teachers, who are expert journalists from the leading regional mass media. Unfortunately, financial situation could not provide such a trip for all the graduates. Nonetheless, all the curators are unanimous about the fact that ethnic subject is not only important but also very interesting for future professionals! After all the national variety of this country is its true wealth, though the Russians tend to miss realizing it. One of the reasons for it is that the regions of Russia are far from each other and out of easy reach.
Members of the conference visited the Moscow Jewish Museum, got acquainted with dynamically developing Joshkar-Ola, visited the Mari Youth Meeting and even witnessed the All-Mari prayer in a sacred grove!
The mass media project Road Map presented at the conference can be used as a manual at the special course in interethnic journalism, the necessity of which is more and more spoken about by both professional journalists and professors of higher education institutions