A group of lecturers and students of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication of South Ural State University went to the Aristotle University (Thessaloniki, Greece) to the International Summer Academy of Mass Media in order to continue their study on the course entitled “Fact-checking and information verification”. In the frameworks of project-based learning, this discipline has been studied by Master’s students majoring in Journalism, who took active participation in the Eurofactcheck International journalistic project of the European Journalism Training Association. Now, the International Summer Academy of Mass Media presents a programme on studying new fact-checking tendencies in media and journalism.
“Despite the fact that the project of the Greek Academy is comparatively recent, it brought together all leading trends of the world’s journalism. The programme covers a wide range of important-for-journalism topics which are to be presented by professors and mass media practitioners from around the world,” notes Candidate of Sciences (History), Associate Professor at the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Olga Kharitonova.
Implementation of the Summer Academy of Mass Media’s programme in Greece is carried out featuring the following participants:
- Deutsche Welle Akademie (Bonn, Germany) – the leading German organisation working on the issues of international development of mass media;
- University of Zagreb (Zagreb, Croatia);
- Beijing Foreign Studies University (Beijing, China);
- Center for Media and Information Literacy at Temple University (Philadelphia, USA);
- Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (Suzhou, China);
- Media Literacy Institute (Athens, Greece);
- Proof organization (New York, USA) – a nonprofit organization, the goals of which are based on visual storytelling and protection of human rights;
- National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Athens, Greece);
- University of Novi Sad (Novi Sad, Serbia).
“I learned about the programme back in March, at the Communication Leader international science and education forum. There we were told about a chance to go to the Summer Academy of Mass Media in Greece,” says Aleksandr Nesmeyanov, a first-year student of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication majoring in Advertising and Public Relations. “I think, first of all, this is a professional and life experience, acquisition of new knowledge, getting familiar with another country and culture, communication with people from all over the world. SUSU’s Faculty of Journalism provides unique opportunities for our development in the global educational and informational space.”
Aside from acquiring new knowledge in the sphere of information verification, attendees of the course will get familiar with the latest scientific inventions and research in such spheres as mobile journalism, visual information presentation, new formats of storytelling, ethical standards in mass media, as well as learn about prospective directions of the world journalism’s development.
For the reference
The Aristotle University (Thessaloniki) is the largest academic institution in Greece which includes 41 Faculties and a School and offers all kinds of education from Bachelor’s to Doctor’s degrees. It was founded in 1925. The University is named after the great philosopher Aristotle, and the emblem of the University depicts St. Dmitry Solunsky, who is the guardian of Thessaloniki.