The Ukrainian Catholic University is going to launch a master in journalism course in 2011. Taras DOBKO, Ph.D., the university’s first vice-rector, told The Day about the way journalists will be taught and what the curriculum will be based on.
There are several universities in Ukraine that offer a master’s degree in journalism. Does the curriculum offered at the Ukrainian Catholic University differ in any way from the already existing ones? What will you focus on when training journalists?
“From the very outset, the Ukrainian Catholic University set itself the goal of drawing up a curriculum that will not only differ from the others but also help train graduates capable of influencing the situation in a certain field.
“There are three decisive components in our project: the master’s degree, the concentration of talents — highly skilled faculty and motivated students, and the logistical basis. As for the idea, we are trying to achieve a certain balance between idealism and pragmatism. It is important for us that our graduates be clearly aware that the media is not only a tool in the hands of its owner, they must value their service to society. Journalists are responsible for the quality of our life and our democracy. At the same time, we can see the media radically changing all over the world. The information space is increasingly highlighting the death of news and decline of print journalism. The media market is undergoing major changes.
“All these things need to be dealt with and reflected upon; modern-day education should respond to new challenges, form new models of journalism, and teach would-be journalists not only to adapt to changes but also to be able to shape new patterns of media work. Besides, we have organized the course in such a way that our master’s degree curriculum could be of use for bachelors in not only journalism but also in philosophy, history, economics, etc. This means the Ukrainian Catholic University is trying to meet a market demand for specialists who know how to write profound analytical materials and conduct a high-quality investigative journalism: people who will not just be transmitting expert opinions on the economy, medicine, and politics, but, have a basic education in some of these fields, and present them skillfully. Of no lesser importance for us is the general intellectual level of our course graduates. A wise man once said that journalists write the first rough copy of history. Therefore they ought to have a broad view of the world, see and understand the interrelation of social processes. As for pragmatic points, we are striving to train journalists who are versatile and competitive on the labor market. While participating in the master’s degree course, students will try themselves out as print media, television, radio, and new media journalists. We are planning to organize summer and winter schools and invite experts for this purpose, so that this project could find worthy partners and be interesting for various media sectors inside and outside Ukraine, bringing students into a real-life journalistic process.”
Your master’s degree program is largely aimed at familiarizing graduates with global media models, all the while taking into consideration the challenges they may face. But Ukraine’s social processes are extremely complicated, not least due to the totalitarian legacy. Did you take this into account when drawing up the curriculum?
“Unfortunately, the model of any program depends on the people who implement it. It is difficult for Ukrainian universities to invite specialists of international repute. For example, Edward Lucas from the British journal The Economist has agreed to teach in this course, but we are still negotiating with other people. The program will only be successful if we have many people like Mr. Lucas. We also want students to study specific examples of how mass media can overcome the post-totalitarian syndrome. The university already runs an eight-month school of media management, which functions as a test program of sorts. Students often meet with a mass media owners or managers from Poland or Ukraine. They share the experience of media organization and management, while students compare the two countries. Naturally, we will be taking into account the specific problems of our somewhat devalued society.
“What makes our situation even more difficult is that we live in a postmodern and post-Soviet, not only post-totalitarian, society. So it is important that course graduates will be bearers of humanitarian values. At the same time, I would like to turn our problems from an obstacle to development into an object of analysis.”
You work a lot with foreign experts. What about Ukrainian journalists?
“We have already worked with the journalist Vakhtang Kipiani, and we hope that Yulia Mostova of Zerkalo tyzhnia and [Radio Liberty’s] Vilalii Portnikov will accept our invitations to participate in the master’s degree program. Maybe, Larysa Ivshyna will agree to cooperate, although we have not yet made an official request: we are impressed with Den’s initiatives and, moreover, I have been closely watching the progress of Den’s summer school of journalism.”
After laying a good groundwork and inviting experts, it is no less important to select worthy students. There have already been complaints this year about unfair entrance exams for journalists. How are you going to organize the selection process? What do you consider decisive in evaluating the applicants?
“We are going to launch our project in January 2011. As we received the license confirmation from the Ministry of Education on July 15, we are unable to carry out a serious selection before September. It is important for us that the applicants represent the whole country, not only Ukraine’s western regions. So we need time to promote, and access the interested public in Kharkiv, Odesa, etc. As for the selection itself, it will be based on four types of assignments. Firstly, we want to admit people who already have elementary experience of working in the media. Hence there will be a written test in the major subject. We will provide assistance to applicants in selecting this topic. We will also assess the applicant’s media contribution. It is sometimes difficult to be fair here, but we will conduct interviews to find out whether this contribution really comes from the applicant, and try to understand their social viewpoints and guidelines. The last exam is a foreign language test. We consider it a rule that, having finished this course, graduates must know the English language. To tell the truth, the complexity level of this exam is still open to question. In addition, we are trying to form an examination board comprising not only university experts, but also media representatives.”
