Students, PhD students and lecturers of the Faculty FPSC of Sumy State University participated in the large-scale project MeDiAPLUR, implemented by the public organization "Human Rights Foundation" with funding from the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The purpose of the human rights program is to develop a dialogue for the young generation, to promote knowledge of blogging, media literacy, and to involve young people in solving socially important problems. The organizers of the project in Sumy region were GO «Kalynove Hrono» and SumDU.
The final roundtable of MeDiAPLUR was held on December 13 at the Department of Psychology, Politology and Socio-Cultural Technologies of SumDU. Representatives of public organizations, scientists and students were invited to participate. During the meeting, the organizers reported on the work of the project activists over the past year, and discussed the prospects for the next year program. Back in July, an open lecture by Mark Boitner, a professor at Paderborn University (Universität Paderborn), was held at the Faculty FPSC at SumDU.
The German scientist spoke about the prospects and challenges of blogging in the digital age and the mechanism of teaching blogging as a training course.
- A large number of people wishing to join the program, heated discussions and no less passionate eyes confirmed the necessity of the project and the importance of developing didactic material in the field of blogging. Now we need to think and work fruitfully on the concept that we have planned, - says the director of the public organization "Human Rights Foundation" Yevhen Fomin.
The second stage of the project implementation was three summer blogging schools, which were attended by students, postgraduate students and lecturers of higher educational institutions of Kropyvnytskyi, Odessa and Sumy. At the end of the four-day training, participants had to create their own blogs, as well as conduct several training sessions and blog cafes.
- The active phase of work in Sumy region began in September, when two-day trainings on blogging and advocacy were held, - said Yuliia Koval, the project participant, the postgraduate student of the Department of Journalism and Philology at the final round table. - During this time we managed to discuss with young people not only blogging as a social phenomenon, but also the possibilities of its influence on the social situation of the region. Therefore, a series of activities were carried out by the project activists, namely trainings and blog-cafes where topics were raised: blogging as a tool of media advocacy and public advocacy: 8 steps towards social change and more. Project participants also blogged on their own, both via text and video.
Gender equality, dissatisfaction with the system, bureaucracy and bribery have become the hottest topics for the texts, - says Anna Borysova, project coordinator in Sumy region. - Video blogs are about the problems of garbage management, adoption and trafficking.
On December 3-4, the final MeDiAPLUR Forum was held in Kyiv, where the most active participants from the three regions shared their experiences and presented the results of the project.
The amateur group of students and postgraduate students of #the_best_faculty_in_the_galaxy "Backstage of Life" presented their video blogs at the final forum.
- I did not even expect to get such results. - Mark Boitner shared his impressions. - Very satisfied with your work. The video is really professionally shot, edited. You have creative thinking, because you are presenting your own vision of the problem from an interesting perspective. Frankly, you are learning from us and we are from you.
Therefore, MeDiAPLUR has become an opportunity for the Faculty FPSC members to engage in extremely useful social activities and a source of inspiration. All active bloggers of the project say that the completion of this year's program is not a reason to stop, but just a new step in their personal and professional development.
Kateryna Shestak, student of the group ZhT-61
