Abstract
The paper presents the experience of the media education project for journalism students at Sumy State University. The workshops dealt with different media categories (media agencies, media technologies, media languages, media audience, media representations) and necessary components of communicative competence (technical information competence, information competence, social information competence, technical media competence, media competence, social media competence). During October 2017 - January 2018, five workshops and seminars were held. For each activity, input and output survey was conducted to assess the extent to which the level of knowledge and skills of the participants on a particular topic increased, as well as how the participants evaluated the project. On average, 32 people took part in each workshop, 78% of them filled in the questionnaires (in total 140 input and 112 output questionnaires were analysed). The results showed that despite the high level of initial knowledge of the participants, the training course contributed to their understanding of certain media categories and other specific issues. The participants also pointed out the importance and relevance of the information for their professional activity. The survey of 29 regular project participants and 27 professional journalists working in the mass media of Sumy Region was conducted to assess the project effectiveness. The participants highly assessed their knowledge of media literacy. The students’ results were similar to those of professionals’ (in the assessment of knowledge acquired, understanding the notion of media literacy, determining the main tasks of media education and the most effective ways of acquiring media competences). However, the students evaluated their analytical skills lower and rarely applied them. Further workshops will be aimed at dealing with this issue. The analysis of survey results proves the efficiency of the combination of formal and non-formal teaching methods for journalism students. It is important both for the training participants and the universities as they have become more competitive and able to face the challenges of academic education nowadays. The experience described can be implemented by other academic institutions to improve the quality of journalism education in Ukraine.
Highlights
Nowadays, the implementation of media education is of high importance due to the rapid development of media technologies, widespread informatisation and mediatisation of diverse spheres of life
Hart that media education should deal with six key categories: media agencies, media categories, media technologies, media languages, media audience, media representations (p. 7)
Despite the fact that media literacy, shaped through media education, is nowadays viewed as an important attribute of every media user, it is of particular importance to future journalists
Summary
The implementation of media education is of high importance due to the rapid development of media technologies, widespread informatisation and mediatisation of diverse spheres of life. Since the middle of the XX century, the United States and Western European countries have been implementing formal and non-formal media education programmes They are designed to help students and adults acquire media and information literacy skills and, adapt to the modern information world, media culture and learn to interpret media content critically. It means that acquiring media competence is meaningful personally as well as socially This is especially important for Ukraine, the country that has been experiencing information influences and manipulations in the information space at least since 2010 It is important to adhere to the ethical principles and the high level of media competence for the specialists who are to create a high-quality media product The latter is impossible without critical thinking development, which “helps control the flow of incoming information, classify, categorise and generalise it, Yevtushenko, O.
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