The Grand Event in the field of mass communications: a 3-day  International Novomedia Forum  has been hosted by the capital of Ukraine, Kiev, from 18 to 20 November 2011. 

More than 300 media professionals from Ukraine, Russia, Moldova, Belarus, Poland, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Norway, Germany and Finland had gathered in Kiev. Several tons of light and sound, screens and 16-foot banners, video shooting with seven cameras, live shows, seminars, presentations, talk shows and competitions – all this subordinated to one particular mission. The main idea was to build a constructive dialogue between secular and Christian journalists, and discuss how we can preserve Eternal Values in the era of new media.

Forum "Novomedia" was held in the Cinema House

Each day of the forum was loaded with lectures and master classes ran by authoritative experts in their field. Participants were able to choose the stream and topic suitable to their interests and needs in order to contribute to their professional development.

Friday

First day of the forum has delivered a number of seminars relating to PR-technologies and political journalism, master classes in directing and creating video clips as well as lectures specifically organised for church press centres.

Yaroslav Trofimov, Marketer from Odessa

In the evening of the same day, participants had gathered at the Great Hall to observe Novomedia Vision Evening, in which the mission of the forum was articulated by Ruslan Kukharchuk, the head of Novomedia Association. Ruslan described various modern-day tendencies in the world of mass media when it comes to coverage of Christian topics. He offered examples of CNN, Fox News, The Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph in order to illustrate the way Christian topics are currently covered in TV primetime and on front pages. In conclusion of his presentation he said:

“At the  International Novomedia Forum  we are putting forward our best endeavours to build the platform for discussions and dialogue between Christian and secular journalists. We are gathering in order to discuss and decide how we can integrate and combine eternal values and new media. There is no question of whether we need it. The question is how to do it.”

Ruslan Kukharchuk, head of the organizing committee of the Forum

Saturday 

Second day of the forum was busiest and most eventful. Two dozen thematic sessions were dedicated to learning how to produce successful publications, develop investigative journalism and blogs, and create interactive TV and reality shows. In addition, there was a monograph regarding Protestant media in Ukraine and also some humorous lectures offering stories about diverse experiments of journalistic “career changing” transformations and confrontations of social networking Google+ vs. Facebook, how these technologies conquest users of the Internet and so forth.

TV presenter Sergei Demidovich and producer Leonid Bratanchuk

Vladislav Golovin, the editor of the magazine Forbes Ukraine, had conducted a lecture on the information policy of the Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox Churches. He also offered an interesting overview of Orthodox periodicals Thomas, Otrok and Neskuchniy Sad. At the end of his lecture, Vladislav voiced his conclusion:

“Unfortunately, there is no one national Christian newspaper, which would not only praise one church.”

Vladislav Golovin, editor of "Forbs Ukraine" magazine

Novomedia Student Club enjoyed a special part in the program. Students of journalist departments from various Ukrainian cities had submitted their assignments on the following topic: “Diversity of religious life in my region.” Students who managed to achieve best three submissions received cash awards. Also, two professional journalists, Alexey Kutepov (1+1) and broadcaster Andrey Makarenko (Channel 5), came to communicate with students.

Alexander Evsyukov (Bog.TV) and Andrey Makarenko, (TV reporter, Channel 5)

Alex Kutepov, a journalist (1+1 Channel)

Earlier in the day, another group of participants at the Minor Hall of Cinema House summarised the results of the contest called “Love is ...”. Among 11 best producers the judges decided to choose Nadezhda Pavlyuchik as a winner. Nadezhda, from Minsk, Belarus, produced a short film called Love is Attention.

 Nadezhda Pavlyuchik, winner of the social video "Love is ..."

Nicholas Syrokvash and Alexandra Adamenko, presenters from TV channel Ukraine hosting TV show Critical Point, conducted a master class on the same day.

Nicholas Syrokvasha  and  Alexandra Adamenko, hosts of  TV-show "Critical Point"  in TV Channel “Ukraine”.

Talk show New Media and Eternal Values was the most important event of the forum. The main speakers of the show were recognised experts in the field of print media and television: Elena Skachko, Chief Editor of Edinstvenaya; Andrey Makarenko, TV reporter from Channel 5; Andrey Yukhimenko, Deputy Editor of the newspaper Kommersant Ukraina; and Alex Kutepov, journalist from 1+1 TV Channel.  The speakers carried out constructive discussions on how to coalesce the eternal values and the mass media. The discussions led to the unanimous conclusion: ignoring religious interests of the audience is a mark of lack of professionalism in the media. We should have an open discussion about Christian values in the secular media, but such discussion should be of high quality and possess interesting and accurate information. Only in this case, the audience will read, watch and listen it.

Deputy Editor of the newspaper "Kommersant Ukraina" Andrey Yukhimenko

Helen Skachko, Chief Editor of Ukrainian magazine "Edinstvenaya"

The vibrant programme of the second day of the forum was concluded by the Novomedia entertainment show. The spectators observed big screens displaying informal clips of hectic preparations for the first day of the forum. Guests enjoyed a range of beautiful performances from singers Roman Vashchuk, Inna Arakelyan, duet Twice Born, and a fragment of the play The Dream from show-ballet Narnia. Alexey Hrus, the host of the show, helped the audience to relax after the busy day.

Sunday

Third day of the forum commenced with morning worship. This day’s guests of the forum were Steve Weber, president of association Emmanuel; Dr. Arne Fjeldstad, CEO of The Media Project; and Igor Nikitin, the president of the TBN Television.

The CEO of The Media Project Dr. Arne Fjeldstad

From left to right: An Editor of the programm "Love and the City" Julia Dzhusupova, producer and the host of the program Alexander Dzhusupov, president of the TBN Television Igor Nikitin,  and Director Anna Ermakovich.

In the afternoon, there was a talk show The Church – The Media: Is There Contact?  Participants of the show debated on the topic of cooperation between the church and the secular media, and whether the secular media provides interesting religious subject matters as well as how to establish dialogue with mass media.

“The church has to be not only open, but also alive. It means that it has to report not only its successes, but have an open discussion about its problems. People want to know what the church is going through. It is important to admit mistakes whilst not crossing the appropriate line,” said Mikhail Cherenkov, the vice-president of The Spiritual Revival who participated at the forum’s talk shows.

“Methods, which are used by the church in an attempt to portray itself to the world, often do not correspond to the patterns of the media. The church has much to say, and therefore, it should employ up to date methods of communication,” highlighted Rostislav Semikov, Chairman of the Alliance of Christian Professionals who also took part in the show.

On the same day, the participants considered various case studies on the topics of how to write stylistically flawless texts and how to promote the idea of traditional family in the media. The discussion had also touched upon trusted marketing and rules of the polygraph design.

Conclusions

The outcome of the large-scale event was summarised at the closing ceremony of The International Forum Novomedia on Sunday. The organisers expressed their gratitude to all partners, sponsors and friends of the Forum, as well as to the group of the organizing committee, which made the event happen.

Participants in the ceremony had also a chance to win gifts. The lucky ones were decided through a simple lottery. But those chosen could not receive their gifts without an extra action, which involved voicing some parts from well-known movies or doing entertaining contests on ingenuity as well as showing their artistic skills. The Super Prize of the event – Amazon Kindle – was taken home by Irina Maksimenko, a participant from the city of Khmelnitskiy.

International Novomedia Forum had connected Christian and secular media workers, church representatives from different Christian denominations, editors from a variety of media-print, online and TV, delegates from ten countries and participants with a range of levels of knowledge and experience. There were students and well-known journalists. All this does not leave any doubt about the fact that the long-awaited representational discussion has taken place. The issue of coalescing of eternal values and the new media acquires a broad professional resonance.

Speakers at the forum included eminent experts:

Alexander Adamenko, host of Critical Point on Ukraine Channel; Maxim Balaklitsky, an editor of the online newspaper The Way; Peter Bevza, artist and designer; Olga Bidnenko, editor of the TV show The Most Intelligent; Leonid Bratanchuk, producer of the TV project Battle for the Vacancy, studio director Lepta TV; Adrian Bukovina, head of charitable foundation The Family; Maxim Butchenko, editor of the online newspaper All News; Oleg Gavrish, special correspondent of the newspaper Kommersant Ukraine; Valentine Gershanenko, director of TV programs Club of the Superbook, Trance World Radio Emmanuel; Sergei Demidovich, author and host of the TV show Two Portfolio and Another Perspective; Alexander Dzhusupov, creative producer of the TV channel First City (Donetsk); Julia Dzhusupova, Editor of TV  projects such as Love and the City and Chisto Hit; Victor Eliseev, director of Quattro Media; Natalia Zhilinkova, account manager of Mainstream Communication & Consulting; Tatyana Ivanova, producer of TWR  Emmanuel; Natalia Karavaeva, director of marketing and advertising Fit Curves; Alexey Kutepov, author of the resonance television journalistic investigative; Vladimir Marushchenko, member of the Ukrainian Parliament; Helen Mokrenchuk, director of the Informational Agency AlfaPRESS; Andrey Mukhin, founder of ArtAwaken movement, director; Gennady Novikov, the chief editor of the Christian newspaper Conversation and magazine An Angel; Andreas Patts, a spokesman of the media holding Top Secret in Western Europe and the chief editor of the International Christian Newspaper; Vlad Savitsky, programmer, project manager of the Shvets Group company; Dennis Semeniuk, head of the  Internet department of Novomedia Association, and  the main  Hosting company TutHost; Vladislav Sila, the designer, the head of the advertising agency Media Suite; Dmitry Bruise, author of Fraudulent Experiments of the Honest Journalist; Helen Skachko, editor in chief of the women’s magazine Edinstvenaya; Artem Skoropadsky, correspondent of the newspaper Kommersant Ukraine; Nicholas Syrokvash, host of Critical Point on channel Ukraine; Yaroslav Trofimov, main Director of Inspire Metamarketing company; Vladimir Fedoschuk, General director of High-Tech House, Smart Home; Vadim Chernets, an expert of the laboratory Sarafannoe Radio; Paul Cherniavsky, PHP-programmer, of the company Market-Guide in Ukraine; Anatoliy Shary, the author of the resonance for Investigative Journalism (From-Ua.com, Observer), Andrey Yukhimenko, deputy editor of the newspaper Kommersant Ukraina; etc.

Oleg Gavrish and Artem Skoropadsky, journalists from "Kommersant Ukraine" publication were also the speakers of the Novomedia Forum.