Projects of Journal

The history of creating «Idei I Novatsii» («Ideas and Innovations») started with projects. Since 2013 when the first copy of the journal was published, a great number of projects have been accomplished. Upon completion of these projects, their results were published in the journal’s special issues. Some of these projects are still waiting for their turn and currently form the periodical’s portfolio.

Anyway, the history of their emergence is inextricably connected with the Chair of Journalism of Sebastopol Subsidiary of Lomonosov Moscow State University. The research project aimed at analyzing Crimean print media is one of the first and most significant for the relatively young Chair of Journalism of the newly created subsidiary.

Vladimir Melnikov, co-supervisor of the project says: «We started as a comparatively small group: only 3,5 salary shares for 5 people and a few professors from the Faculty of Journalism of Lomonosov Moscow State University. When there were five professors a year, it was already considered great luck as we were not the only ones, and the University could only afford to spend a limited amount of money on the subsidiary.

Actually, it was during the first days of working at the Chair of Journalism that the idea of monitoring the mass media of Sebastopol and Crimea in general emerged. It ought to be taken into account that back then the conditions and opportunities for professional activity were totally different from now. Not only universities and schools, but all educational institutions and mass media as well were pressurized by the process of ukrainization. Newspapers were mostly published in Russian, whereas radio and television used to allocate more time to programs in Ukrainian. Commercials and advertisements disseminated in Sebastopol and throughout Crimea were also in the Ukrainian language. In order to understand the state of affairs concerning the press, radio, television, and advertising on the peninsula it was necessary to keep the finger on the pulse of ongoing processes in this sphere. This is how the idea of teaching by projects emerged and subsequently proved to be successful. This research project was named «Crimea Information Space».

The participants of the project are all the staff of the Chair who saw the positive aspects of this form of organizing: the project supervisor, head of the Chair of Journalism (1997-2014) Ludmila A. Kokhanova and all the staff of organizing academic studies and contributed to its improvement to a large extent. Ludmila V. Valeeva, Associate Professor of the Chair, challenged herself with the complicated task of studying the language of mass media, its transformations in terms of the process of ukrainization of all the spheres of life. All these years she also managed to combine this job with working at Vernadsky Crimea University, currently Taurida Academy FGASU VO «Vernadsky Crimea Federal University».

Moreover, the young postgraduate student of MSU Verbitskaya Yu A. after successfully defending her thesis continued conducting her research at the Chair by studying the psychological aspects of journalism functioning. Together with V. I. Kapluck Yu A. Verbitskaya launched the project «Your Career in Journalism». They widely implemented coaching, in other words, facilitating the process of a commencing specialist’s entry in the profession and helping them make their first steps in the editorial office. It can also be termed as tutoring which was a suitable form of activity for the Chair’s small staff.

It goes without saying that the tool of teaching by projects as study of media space of Sebastopol and Crimea would be impossible as the form of raising professionals without the theoretical grounding of a selected topic. This mission was accomplished by the professors of Moscow State University who have been and still are with the subsidiary.

It would be unfair not to say a few words about other projects realized within the period of working. I will start by enumerating them:

  • Summer school «Parliamentary Journalism» (Crimea, Sebastopol, Crimean Supreme Council, Legislative Assemblies of Crimea and Sebastopol, the city halls of the region, etc.);
  • «Russia – Ukraine: Steps Towards» – the monitoring of Russian and Ukrainian mass media;
  • «Journalists and Scientists for the Health of Nations» (together with «Russian State Duma Parliamentary Club»);
  • Festival of media resources «Russian Language and Literature in Crimea and Balkan» (Varna, Bulgaria, the sister city of Sebastopol);
  • «Leaders of Information – Communication Environment of Crimea»;
  • «Leaders of Information, Scientific, and Business Spheres of the Crimean Region» (Public organizations of Crimea, Sebastopol, «Moscow Crimea» Foundation, «Sebastopol Council of Compatriots of Russia» and others);
  • TV-project «Is It Easy to be Young?» – youth subculture in mass media (a series of programs). Based on letters to «Pravda» («Truth») newspaper (Youth Desk of «Pravda», 1986) – a quarter of a century later – three generations – grandfathers – sons – grandchildren – (working with letters – fates of generations);
  • Dynasties. Serving the Motherland («the Senyavin family – 500 years of serving Russia»);
  • «Space Crimea» – presentation at the journalism forum «All Russia – 2014»;
  • «Russian Writers in Crumea» – TV and on – line project – a series of programs on local television;
  • «Contemporary Russia Seen with the Eyes of the Youth» – the analysis of periodicals of 85 Russian regions;
  • «The Tree Is Strong in Its Roots» – the journalistic project of family history commemorating the 70th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War;
  • International School «New Media» (Varna, Bulgaria).

This is only an incomplete list of research projects to realize which took years of dedicated work of members of the Chair, their colleagues and friends. This kind of approach, to a huge degree, enabled students to master a full range of fundamental knowledge and applied competences, and it also promoted creative thinking and innovative process. It is the complex of all these projects, skills, and competences that gave rise to the foundation of «Idei I Novatsii» («Ideas and InIovations») journal and formed the bases of its topics».

Projects of «Idei I Novatsii» («Ideas and Innovations») Journal (2013 – 2020)

In the past we used to have a wide variety of popular science magazines. And nowadays we hardly managed to save “Khimia v Shkole” (“Chemistry at School”) magazine because its financing had not been planned in the budget beforehand. It turned out that its financing was found unnecessary and the Department for Education did not make any expenses on it in terms of science popularization. Schoolchildren and students ought to be provided with an opportunity to get a profound knowledge of mathematics and natural sciences. The popularization of this process is also relevant, and this is the job of journalists.

Valery Lunin,
President of the Faculty of Chemistry, Moscow State University Lomonosov

The dialogue of generations is a way for young journalists to realize that without it there will be no trust in what we write, what programmes we make, and these days, also post on the Internet. It is probably the most important lesson that renowned journalists taught their young commencing colleagues in their interviews. But this is, of course, not the only lesson.

Young ambitions people equipped with brand new information technologies strive to create their own journalism by denying the principles of working by outdated standards. But, at the same time, there used to be a well-known journalist Anatoly Agranovsky who said, “Let’s think!” It means that the paramount mission of journalism the way he saw it was to arouse public thinking. It means that journalists ought to perform their duty: to cover reality objectively, to tell about what is going on in a fairly balanced reasonable way. They are not afraid of speaking in public and being responsible for their words, no matter what state-of-the-art gadgets and technologies they possess.

This is what the book “Dialogue between Generations of Journalists” is about. I do hope that this is only the first part of such a relevant and timely project which gave rise to a frank conversation about the job of a journalist and the place of everyone who chose it in the sphere of journalism 2017, No. 1 (7) Topic of the issue: Crimea Media Space: Yesterday and Today (PDF).

Vladimir Soloviev,
editor for 2017, No. 2 (Volume 8) Topic of the issue. Dialogue between Generations of Journalists (PDF)

The Black Sea Subsidiary of MSU – the way it used to be referred to in the first years of its existence – was supported by the citizens of Sebastopol and Crimea, with whom the Chair of Journalism was gradually trying to establish firm and close relations. Step by step there were fewer and fewer people who opposed the process of ukrainization. Secondary school was already controlled and supervised by the Ukrainian educational system. The hours spent on teaching the Russian language and Literature were reduced to the minimal possible level. Kievan authorities wanted Russian to be spoken only among family members. The Russian Language managed to retain its positions on the peninsula mainly due to mass media. Many of the representatives of these means of mass communication were on good terms with the staff of the Chair of Journalism as students, beginning with their first year, first had their internship in newspapers and magazines, on TV channels and radio stations and then many of them were employed by these media outlets.

Andrej Sobolev,
2017, No. 1 (Volume 7) Topic of the issue, Crimea Media Space: Yesterday and Today (PDF)

This research activity familiarized those who chose the Subsidiary of one of the country’s leading universities in Sebastopol with Russia, social life, mass media and their topics. We cannot ignore the fact that until March 2014 Crimea was part of the neighboring state – Ukraine which did not approve of the process of Russian culture dissemination. Students studied and analyzed the print media of 85 regions of Russia.

The results are presented in “Idei I Novatsii” (“Ideas and Innovations”) journal. Every article is one of the nominations: “Service Duty”, “Culture Pyramid”, “Youth and Politics”, and so on – 8 nominations all in all. Students managed to collect a unique database of Russian print media publications from 2013 to 2016 represented in the form of an additional reading book on a CD enclosed with the copy of the journal. This chrestomathy is also of great interest as it is a real confirmation of the fact that our environment, including the field of journalism, is technologically changing. Hence, it accounts for the necessity of teaching would – be journalists belonging to a digital generation in a totally different way. 2016, No. 1 (4) Topic of the issue: Medicine and Chemistry on the Way to Convergence (PDF).

Gennady Savinov,
2016, No. 2 (5) Topic of the issue: Modern Russia Seen with the Eyes of the Youth (PDF)