A communication project “Atomic gastronomic tour” by students from Voronezh State University won the Grand Prix of the school of atomic communications MediaSkills. The offline stage of the competition was held at the Atom pavilion of the Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy as a part of the exhibition and forum “Russia”. The aim of the project was to break common stereotypes about atomic energy.
The project suggested by VSU students involves cooperation between Voronezh restaurants and farmers from Novovoronezh, which houses the Novovoronezh nuclear power plant, as well as collaboration with the Voronezh eco-community, and promotion of themed festivals, the sustainable consumption principle, and the “green” agenda. The members of the school of atomic communications and a jury of experts, including communication managers at Rosatom and nuclear power plants and representatives of academia and mass media, determined the winners of the competition.
The participants of the school were journalism, media, and PR students from eight Russian universities: Don State Technical University, the Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don State University of Economics (Rostov-on-Don), the Ural Federal University (Ekaterinburg), St. Petersburg State University (Saint-Petersburg), Voronezh State University (Voronezh), the Russian University of Economics, and the Higher School of Economics (Moscow).
“While working on the projects, students demonstrated a high level of knowledge and professional skills. They came up with a large number of interesting and promising ideas, which we will definitely seek to implement. The participants will be offered internships and, hopefully, jobs at Rosatom. During the school, journalism and media students learned about the nuclear industry. I think this knowledge will help them in their future careers”, said Andrey Timonov, head of the Communications Department at Rosatom.
The project “School of atomic communications MediaSkills” was organised by the Electric Power Division of Rosatom with the support of Atomic Energy Information Centres and a media group “Business i tochka”. The objective of the project is to provide the nuclear industry with communication experts and develop new ideas that could help to solve one of the most urgent economic problems, that is staff shortages.
As a result, student teams presented seven communication projects dedicated to energy consumption, raising awareness of the atomic agenda, and promotion of the “peaceful” atom. The school involved a series of master classes by the best speakers in the media environment.
The projects were awarded prizes in seven categories. The “Atomic gastronomic tour” project by students from VSU was the winner in the “New approach” nomination. The team from Plekhanov Russian Economic University won the “Creativity” competition, and the team from St. Petersburg State University was the prize-winner in the “Scale” category. The team from the Higher School of Economics was the best in the “Digital-approach” category, the team from the Ural Federal University won the “Just out of interest” nomination, and the team from the Southern Federal University won the “Realism” category. The team “PROMedia laboratory” from three Rostov-on-Don universities (the Southern Federal University, Don State Technical University, and the Rostov-on-Don State University of Economics) was awarded for “Practicability”.
The school of atomic communication was held in a mixed format. During the online stage, the students conducted their investigations and collected material for their projects. During the offline stage, they studied at the Atom pavilion of the Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy and presented their projects. The next stage is going to be regional. The students are to complete their internships at information agencies and nuclear power plants.
“The project does not end with the offline stage. The next part in the regional stage, where the participants of the school will complete their internships at leading information agencies in their regions. We suffer a lack of good journalists. There are plenty of great projects, but no people to implement them. Our country is developing, we have more industries, more investments, more plans, and it’s vital that we talk about it. The aim of the school of atomic communications is to teach young journalists to write about specific industries and companies. Rosatom was the first company to realise this and now we are helping universities, the mass media, and the business community to train creative teams of journalists and media experts of the next generation”, said Lyudmila Borscheva, director general of the media group “Business i tochka”.
“Naturally, VSU students were aware of the fact that there is a nuclear power plant in the region, but they had not studied the topic so thoroughly before. Now they know everything from the location of power units to the history of nuclear bombs to the best scientists working in the field. It is a good experience in terms of self-studying. Probably, not all of them are going to dedicate their work to the topic. But I believe that all of them will always do fact checking and present their audience with accurate information”, said Irina Chervakova, lecturer at the Department of Electronic Media and Speech Communication and head of marketing and PR at the regional committee of families of soldiers.
The coaches at the school of atomic communications were university lecturers and communication experts from Rosatom, including from regional nuclear power plants.
“The school of atomic communications MediaSkills gave students an opportunity to learn about the topic they would have never learned about themselves. The speakers of the school talked about various aspects of the industry and described it from various angles. Students are encouraged to ask for their professional advice further on. The nuclear industry might seem a difficult topic, but it is one that can be dived into. Our students have a fresh outlook. They ask a lot of questions, and what is even more important, they are not afraid to do so. This is how, through practice, they can learn to be good journalists specialising in a particular topic. Our school of atomic communication will help them to do so”, said Evgeniya Shishova, a communication expert at Novovoronezh nuclear power station.
