OREANDA-NEWS. December 24, 2012. Volgograd State Technical University (VolgSTU) and Citi today announce the launch of a long-term social project – the Citi Media Laboratory at the Citi Financial Education Center. The main objective of the laboratory is to develop competencies among university students and business journalists and all others who are interested in using multimedia opportunities to create quality content. Competently compiled and delivered informational materials in print, audio or video will facilitate the development of the media environment and business community of the city as well as improve the general financial and economic literacy of the population.

The learning opportunities available at the media laboratory will be unique in their very practical orientation. Participants of the program will create their own media projects on themes concerning socioeconomic and financial topics. A media project competition will be held in April 2013. The authors of the best creative works will receive prizes.

Journalists along with journalism students are the primary target audience of the project, and they will be able to to regularly attend master classes and seminars led by representatives of local business, experienced journalists, community leaders and other opinion leaders.

Editors, columnists, reporters and technical specialists from leading Volgograd media have been recruited to teach creative disciplines and skills related to content creation. Partners of the project include the editorial staff of the Komsomolskaya Pravda and Yuzhny Delovoi Vestnik newspapers and the internet resources Vysota 102 and Volga-Market. The facilities of these organizations will be used to provide program participants with an opportunity to acquire practical skills and prepare their own media projects. The director of the laboratory is Leonid Barkov, one of the most experienced professional journalists in Volgograd.

The class schedule for students and master classes and seminars for journalists will be available university’s website as well as on the program’s page on the social network VKontakte and other online resources to be announced later. Questions regarding the center’s schedule, lesson themes and project participation can be addressed to the organizing committee by telephone (+7 (8442) 23 90 48, +7 (8442) 24 40 66) or e-mail (media-finance@rambler.ru).

The organizing committee of the Citi Media Laboratory is open to cooperation proposals from representatives of the financial and business community and public organizations interested in taking part in the work of the laboratory. The laboratory provides a platform for such experts to share their perspectives with working or future journalists – telling about business cases, organizing excursions at their facilities or providing information on the creation of media content.

“The media laboratory is intended to teach young specialists who seek to find their place in the information society to use modern universal instruments for the creation of media projects. Students will acquire various skills – from learning to identify a topic and development unique content to the know-how to create one’s own media resource and subsequently develop it. We hope that the lessons will be useful for experienced journalists as well,” noted Professor Larisa Shakhovskaya, curator of the project on behalf of VolgSTU.

The creation of the media laboratory in Volgograd reflects a key global trend in the development of media education. The first phase of the realization of the project is planned for January-May 2013.