Robert Baitemirov, first-year Master’s student, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, the Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas
“Kerosin” student magazine
Winner in the category “Best Interview”, article “The Way to a Dream”
I have never set myself a goal of developing student media, it happened on its own accord. At school, I wrote small pieces for a local newspaper, and as a student, I did not immediately go to Kerosin’s editorial office, but at some point, I decided to try being an author. I did not even think about getting paid, to be honest, because trying to convey my idea in a text is a hobby to me. Sometimes you cannot express your thoughts eloquently in a dialogue, the words just don’t come out right, but they always do when you are sitting at home in front of your computer. It would be impossible to work without any incentives, of course, but why should everything rest solely on money and awards? An idea is always at the heart of everything, and if people like it, they want to implement and develop it and everything comes their way. I liked the idea behind Kerosin, so I joined its team. I study Mechanical Engineering. Even though this field has nothing to do with journalism, I still devote my free time to writing on many topics, discussed in the student society. One of them was the topic I’ve won with: the problem of students in science. I believe media centers at universities are an integral part of educational process, especially in large universities like mine, but they also to a greater extent help students from the humanities departments. That is not to say that hard scientists cannot create great articles: sometimes they possess extraordinary literary skills and their works are very popular (for example, I recommend everyone to read the memoirs of the Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union N. Kuznetsov).
Our target audience at Kerosin is the students of our university, as most of our articles are devoted to their activities, hopes and aspirations but we are also thinking about going to the interuniversity level. The most important thing is that there are people who will continue developing our project and will, perhaps, reach a new level. Now we have something to be proud of, as our VK audience alone exceeds one thousand people and once we were the first in Yandex search query. Obviously, we have some difficulties. We used to produce a printed version of our magazine once, but we had to stop, because you need a lot of money to produce a high-quality product (not only the articles themselves, but also design, proofreading and much more). It’s true that enthusiasm only brings you that far; not everyone of our published authors is ready to work little money and this causes many problems. However, all of them can be solved with a good approach to the matter.
Alexandra Dyakova, second-year Master’s student, Institute of Philology and Journalism, Saratov State University
“SGUschenka” Student Magazine
Winner in the category “The Best Article”, article “The Mind Palace”
This year I became the editor-in-chief of “SGUchenka” student magazine. It was a long way from being just a correspondent and a digital editor. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism, and now I’m working on my Master’s thesis on total journalism in the Media and Communication Management Systems department. I am interested in scientific media and I want to become as good as “Theories&Practices”, “Schrödinger’s Cat”, “Cherdak” and “N+1”. I like looking for my next interviewee, communicating with scientists and understanding their world. Hard scientists really do think differently and it fascinates me. The editorial staff of our magazine is open for everyone: students from every department come to us. Our task is to show them that it’s not only journalists who can find themselves in the field of media. For example, we have many excellent photographers, illustrators, designers and authors from the technical or natural sciences departments. Our goal is to show how cool and interesting it is to learn, to do science, to be able to communicate with professionals every day and learn from their experience. “SGUschenka” is almost seven years. Over these years, we have achieved a lot in many different spheres including competitions. Not without vanity, I can say that we’ve done all we could at the university level; now we want to raise the bar and become a popular-science magazine and present the achievements of science and our university in an engaging way. Student media is a great opportunity to practice, test yourself and determine your interests before entering the field of “big” journalism. Additionally, this work brings together many interesting people and your connections can come in handy in many an unexpected situation. By the way, journalism hones the skill of finding the people you need to perfection, sometimes you even feel like an FBI agent. Moreover, with a job like that you can travel around the country and the world and attend cool events and forums. Writing about what you like is a dream come true. However, we also face many difficulties. That “openness” of the editorial board can turn into a “staff turnover”. Our authors are not paid, but we have other good incentives; we have concert tickets, give opportunities for travelling around Russia, host media schools and workshops, provide a platform for practice and help to create a portfolio. Therefore, only the most motivated, bright and hardworking students remain. The university protects us from such trivial and tedious problems as renting an office, lack of equipment, printing house problems and financial issues. This does not mean, however, we are completely relaxed; we need to prove ourselves and exceed expectations. Student media is all about teamwork. If the team has active members, everything will work out. It is important not to take it too lightly. It is a very good start, but there comes a time when you need to move on. And your project should keep going without you.
Elena Krivitskaya, second-year Master’s student, Institute of Philology and Journalism, Saratov State University
“SGUschenka” student magazine
Winner in the category “Best social network media account” – “SGUschenka”
If you want to keep the editorial staff but cannot provide for their salary, you have to reward them with something else. Our authors work for free but have their own perks. The “SGUschenka” has a lot of advantages and an infinite number of possibilities. University and city events, tickets to concerts and performances, unique projects, trips to festivals and competitions, a platform for creating a portfolio and forming professional skills of a journalist, photographer, editor, illustrator, designer.
Student media is a hobby first and ideal testing ground for self-development second. That is why media centers in universities are now an integral part of the educational process. We are not only studying, but also creating a good image of our university. Our work and capabilities are like a star for a hotel, it is one of the reasons why SSU is healthy and prestigious. We tell about talented students, their hobbies, scientific projects, sports victories. We write about professors, showing that these people do not just conduct lectures and exams. We are talking about their innovative projects, leading laboratories, successful scientists.
The coolest thing about SSU is that it’s not just the media, it’s a special community. Everyone can come and test themselves and you do not have to be a journalist for that. Although students of the Institute of Philology and Journalism form the backbone of the editorial staff, there are also many students from other departments. Some write articles for our community, some write authors’ columns, some are engaged in photo-production, some find the music, others write articles for the magazine. We have our own team of illustrators, photoshoppers, designers. Our interviewees come to us and some of them join the team, others only come to our events or for the latest copy of “SGUschenka” and tell us about their lives.
To make everything work, we create a friendly atmosphere. No one will work under pressure or just because they should. In fact, in our open space, no one owes anything to anyone. You cannot shout at the authors or force them to do anything. You can ask, help and be grateful. One of the main unwritten rules of “SGUschenka” is thanking each other. This is really a magic word, which has an amazing effect on many people. When you become part of the team, when your work is not taken for granted, but appreciated and praised, you want to do it again. And this is valued not only by our authors, but also by interviewees and readers.
Irina Kochergina, second-year Bachelor’s student, “Design and technologies of electronic means”, National Research University of Electronic Technology
“Inversia” newspaper
Winner in the category “Best Video”, video “What helps both sailors and videographers?”
I'm an engineer, but I have always loved journalism. It seems to me that I didn't even have a choice; I had to join our TV and then the newspaper. At our university, the media is very developed, so I consider it an excellent experience. I think, for many, it is an opportunity to learn how to express your (and sometimes not your) ideas and convey them to others. For me, it has become something really important; I see myself in journalism. This sometimes happens, and our university, although it does not have a journalism department, is no exception. Media helps to solve many problems, present the information simply, so that everyone knows the essence of the changes. It also entertains. It's nice to know that there is a newspaper or a TV channel in your university. Our target audience are students, but professors, employees and applicants also read us. We try to take it into account in every issue.
The majority of our problems are connected with motivation and meeting the deadlines. When money is out of the question, there is often a risk that this job will stop being important. Everyone has to study, some go to work, there is also private life and much more.
Nikita Lopatin, second-year Bachelor’s student, Journalism department, the Humanities Institute of Novosibirsk State University
NSU.LIFE
Winner in the category “The best video report”, video “In short, don’t skip classes! Genetics”
A year ago, among other students, I was selected for practice at the department of video production of NSU.LIFE. As soon as we started, we had to come up with a project. Our project has four parts, one of which (“In short, don’t skip classes!”) is mine. The idea behind it is to show that there are no boring subjects. The other three parts are: “In short, that’s how it was” that tells about university life, “Connect” about sports competitions and “Well Done” that often includes interviews with universities representatives that are interesting to the general public. Today I won with an issue from my part of the project. For a semester, I visited different departments and tried to find something unusual. Usually, one student only goes to lectures of one specific department, while I had an opportunity to listen to lectures in different fields. For example, my first issue was about anatomy. When we launched the project, I immediately realized that it would live, because I was interested in doing it. Working on a release is a good challenge: can you work in extreme conditions? Your time is very limited and you have to create an engaging plot, be able to set the script aside. You need student media for this, because here you can practice, learn, try your most delusional ideas and graduate with a clear understanding of what you have, what you want to do and how you will do it.
I have always been attracted to video production, that’s why I opted for journalism. I like both printed publications and radio, but I was always crazy about the video and how it is created. This job is an opportunity to do what I wanted. The NSU.LIFE editorial team is a team of professionals, where students can learn different aspects of media production. We ourselves shoot, create graphics, edit and do many other things.
It is hard to work and study but when you study to be a journalist it makes no sense to memorize notes. It is impossible to become a theoretical journalist, so I put practice first from the very first year. I have to sacrifice free time and study time but I know for sure that I will need these skills in the future. When you understand it, life becomes easier. I am very grateful to my project team, we are very close and we have changed a lot during our time together. When we started we knew almost nothing and now everyone has an idea about every stage of video production.
Alexander Zlobin, post-graduate of Institute of Cytology and Genetics, employee of the Computational Transcriptomic and Evolutionary Bioinformatics Lab, NSU
NSU Radio “Cactus”
Winner in the category “Best radio interview”, “Evening tea” programme
Creating student media is worthwhile, because it is a platform for self-growth. I have always loved talking to professionals in any field, be it space or breeding domestic foxes. Radio is my opportunity to invite people from campus to come and talk about something they are good at. I can say why radio is an integral part of the university. Since it requires less effort than, for example, video, not only for us, but for guests, it opens up a lot of opportunities. When a person is not bothered by the way they look on camera and how they dress, but can simply come and talk – that is cool! In addition, this format is very convenient for news or morning podcasts (like, for example, our “Bird Twitter”).
Our listeners are NSU students as well as the teaching staff, the administration and only then the campus and Novosibirsk residents. We face mostly technical difficulties; sometimes the broadcast gets interrupted, but it is very rare, and sometimes our interviewees cancel at the last possible moment. In general, our team is very friendly and everyone is ready to help everyone. We do not set ourselves the task of growing the audience. Of course, there are broadcasts on hot topics, when we collect a lot of views and many new subscribers, for example, our broadcast on Tretyakov NSU lecture this spring. We are slowly growing, doing our job. The main thing is that we like it, and the audience feels it.
Georgy Valuisky, fourth-year Bachelor’s student, Translation and Translation Studies, Belgorod National Research University
BNRU radio “BELyuGUs” (“White Goose”)
Winner in the category “Best radio program”, “Chemistry of the senses” program
In my case, the job at the student media started with an offer to a friend who called me on the radio. I agreed and did a couple of podcasts that were interesting to me. Radio was a chance to release the energy that I could not show to everybody. On the radio, you can fool around, play with your voice, make fun of the fact that you are in the studio, like “raise your hands ... oh, yes, I cannot see you”. This brings out the healthy craziness in you. I also got to ScienceMedia-2018 by accident. Our boss offered me to send my last podcast to the contest, which I did, not really hoping for much.
A media studio is an attempt to become part of the information field of the whole world, an opportunity to tell the students and professors about what you like and find like-minded people. Initially our radio was created as a platform for journalists but then people from other departments started to join in. Our VK community has 894 active followers. At first I was depressed by the fact that there are not many people listening to us. It seemed to me that my podcasts were interesting, but they were not listened to much. We try to battle this. For example, our boss Alina Voskoboynikova wants to switch to a 24-hour broadcasting system. Perhaps that is what we need to grow the audience. Our task is the same as for everyone, to become a link between the world around us and the world of the university, to combine professors and students into one community. Trying yourself in student media is essential. Nothing terrible will happen, if it does not work out, any result, even negative, is already valuable in itself. There was even a quote about it in Iron Man 3: “Failure is the fog from which we all glimpse triumph”.
Stanislav Blindovsky, second-year Bachelor’s student, Radio engineering department, National Research University of Electronic Technology
“Inversia” newspaper
Winner in the category “Best infographics”, ÖTCHISLENIE infographics
My university is notable for being one of the small number of research universities that not only teach students, but also help them develop. We do a lot of research, but when we try to find something to write about it turns out that a lot of what we do is for the military and is therefore classified. Nevertheless, we often write popular-scientific articles about NRUET or its partner companies (we have a special economic one for them). In total we issue 5000 copies, 2000 of which are distributed outside the university. We write mostly about students and for students, although there is an opinion (which we reject wholeheartedly) that the newspaper should target the university staff. The newspaper has been running since 2001 and is purely a student initiative. It will stay like that because our authors enjoy writing to a friendly audience and only our editors and designers are paid. Naturally, sometimes the absence of salaries leads to a lack of motivation, inability to meet the deadlines and some articles are cancelled. A year or two ago we started a VK community “Inversia Live” with not only articles, but also original content like reports and Instagram posts. I edit the community posts and also fulfil the sacred duty of drawing pictures or memes and sometimes I write posts and create news. I did not get into the newspaper entirely on purpose; annually “Inversia” organises the School of Journalism, where large media professionals teach students how to write. Every participant is invited to the newspaper. Since I am very active and do everything that I can (draw, code video games, do journalism, create websites, participate in student organizations), I decided to stay. Initially I came for writing but then started doing illustrations and realized that I am good at it. I started working with graphica at the age of twelve and I had this skill all through university but considered it unimportant. It turned out that I can finally apply it now. That is how ÖTCHISLENIE was born; in fact, my first and so far most successful work for the newspaper. I continue looking for interesting activities, but design and graphics have already become my favourites.
Translated by Pavel Vorobyev
