The panel discussion on this issue at the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, IJPS, brought together those who teach theory and those who provide students with jobs and opportunities to develop in journalism. On the agenda was a discussion of the importance of internship in the educational process and new trends in the development of mass communication, which are needed to be told to students.
The discussion united the whole Ukraine – the head and teachers of the JMC Department of Lviv Polytechnic (Zoriana Haladzhun, Marianna Kitsa), heads of the Departments of Journalism at Oles Honchar Dnipro National University (Mariia Butyrina), Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University (Tetiana Monakhova) and Uzhhorod National University (Yurii Bidzil). Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Liubomyra Mandziuk also joined the event. Participants shared their experiences in the field of integration of educational and industrial internships into the study program of student journalists at the Department. Each university, as it turned out, developed a convenient model, so the meeting became a kind of platform for sharing experiences.
«When we say that everything is changing, the world is not standing still, we must understand that we need to adjust the study programs to new conditions. Modern journalism faces many challenges and the main one is that when preparing students, we must also participate in the formation of personality, a specialist who will be competent and able to analyze. However, the Department and the specialty are successful only when there are successful graduates who work in the acquired specialty, in our case – become quality journalists. The task of the Department is to give the student an understanding of the peculiarities of his profession, and let him implement journalism skills during internship directly in editorial offices, or with the help of teachers-practitioners at the classes», said Zoriana Haladzhun, Head of the Department of Journalism and Mass Media at Lviv Polytechnic.
Journalists-practitioners – the main producer of NTA TV channel Natalka Struk, the director of TRK «Pershyi Zakhidnyi» Olha Tsap, the head of «Lviv/Media» Iryna Potsyk and the host at «UA:Lviv» Andrii Ishchyk who took part in the event also expressed their opinions. All of them unanimously agreed that internship is important and necessary in the process of teaching students, the editorial offices are ready to take students and teach them in their own newsrooms at least throughout the year. Their opinion was also shared by the students of the JMC Department, Lviv Polytechnic, Iryna Marchuk and Yuliia Bobak.
According to the participants, there is no discussion on this topic – all journalists, both practitioners and theorists, understand the importance of working out the knowledge acquired at the University in a real editorial office. The Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Lviv Polytechnic, is ready for close cooperation with the regional media of Lviv on this issue.
