The joint project of the Association “Novomedia” and Ukrainian Universities “The religious literacy of secular media” continues to grow very fast. This time the meeting with the future media workers was held at the National University of Oles ‘Gonchar in Dnipropetrovsk.  

On the 22nd of December, Ruslan Kuharchuk, president of “Novomedia”, and Andrey Makarenko, who is a news leader on Channel 5 and a member of the Association held a special discussion for students in the journalism department. There were more than 70 students who gathered to listen to the speakers and the three topics offered at the meeting. 

 The first and main topic was: “The coverage of religious themes in secular media.” Ruslan Kuharchuk described the main problems in this area of activity. He gave interesting examples of facts of manipulation in television plots. One of them is the material about the rehabilitation center that successfully treats drug addicted people and in a video tried to hide that the center belonged to the Christian community. For example, when editing the video, they colored in the Christian symbols. Another tendency was appealing to religious topics only on main holidays or previous scandals. Besides this, the president of “Novomedia” talked with the students about civil journalism. 

In turn, Andrey Makarenko directed everyone how to get to the central channel and how to affectively work there. In his speech, he began by saying, “I’ll only tell you, so don’t’ tell anyone else.” And this intrigued everyone especially the girls that were present there to listen very carefully to the topic. 

Here are some impressions:

“I visited the event “Novomedia” with pleasure. So my main wish: I want more! I thank the speakers for the inspiration and truly effective advices. Because of this training, I realized again that journalism – is mine. And you have to fight for it” (Mila Moroz, second-year student).

“Thanks for the meaningful and useful information. I was really important information that touched some issues on which are not talked about in lecture much. The speakers inspired us to strive for new heights and professional work in the media” (Dana Lysenko, fourth year student).

The management and faculty warmly greeted the guests and spoke with them. During the break, Dean and Professor Vladimir Demchenko thanked the speakers and at the end had the chance to willingly exchange contact information for future partnership. 

Press center