Workshop for local editors and media experts with American journalist, lecturer and media entrepreneur Dan Gillmor was the first event within the framework of his visit to Armenia.
Gillmor was impressed by the meeting with media representatives since he witnessed their great desire to provide fair and quality news, as well as the great number of questions voiced by them about the future of journalism.
“I think that some of the workshop participants were skeptical of my answers, but I do not expect that everyone should unconditionally accept what I say,” says Dan Gillmor.
Dan Gillmor, professor of practice at the Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication visited Armenia at the invitation of Journalists For the Future NGO with the financial support of the U.S. Department of State Public Affairs Section.
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Between October 7 and 12, in addition to a meeting with the heads of media outlets, Gillmor participated in the presentation event of the Armenian version of Mediactive authored by him, as well as made several public speeches at the educational and technological institutions in Yerevan and Gyumri.
During the workshop for local editors Gillmor tried to represent general trends and issues of journalism in a time when everybody can be a content creator.
Workshop for local editors and media experts with American journalist, lecturer and media entrepreneur Dan Gillmor was the first event within the framework of his visit to Armenia.
Gillmor was impressed by the meeting with media representatives since he witnessed their great desire to provide fair and quality news, as well as the great number of questions voiced by them about the future of journalism.
“I think that some of the workshop participants were skeptical of my answers, but I do not expect that everyone should unconditionally accept what I say,” says Dan Gillmor.
Dan Gillmor, professor of practice at the Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication visited Armenia at the invitation of Journalists For the Future NGO with the financial support of the U.S. Department of State Public Affairs Section.
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Between October 7 and 12, in addition to a meeting with the heads of media outlets, Gillmor participated in the presentation event of the Armenian version of Mediactive authored by him, as well as made several public speeches at the educational and technological institutions in Yerevan and Gyumri.
During the workshop for local editors Gillmor tried to represent general trends and issues of journalism in a time when everybody can be a content creator.
“We have to encourage people who were just consumers of information in the past, so that they become our partners to receive and disseminate better information,” Gillmor advised editors and added, “I think that in this process we can maximally use the technologies that have democratized the media in different ways.”
The workshop participants were impressed by the meeting with Gillmor and noted that it was a good opportunity to learn about the international trends and issues faced by the media sector.
According to Karen Harutyunyan, chief editor of Civilnet.am, the Armenian media outlets sometimes are confined to their problems and do not see the global developments. Thus, such meetings are important to remember that journalism is in constant change.
“20 years ago journalism was something, 10 years ago – quite another. Today the form and methods, as well as the means of communicating information are rapidly changing. In this regard, the media, particularly online platforms, should be prepared to face these changes,” says Harutyunyan.
After Gillmor’s speech, the Civilnet editor became even more convinced that we cannot allow censorship. In his opinion, if a site produces some bad news, it should be countered with high-quality stories and information rather than stopped.
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Liana Sayadyan, deputy editor of Hetq.am, was interested in this workshop, since she was quite familiar with Gillmor’s books and ideas.
“In fact, all of the trends we are witnessing, the problems we are facing in the process of production and consumption of online media, were talked about during the workshop. It became clear that issues we concern about exist in other countries, too, and voiced also by the American media and the public.”
Sayadyan says it is noteworthy that there were not complete and clear answers and recipes to this or that issue, as, according to Gillmor, it is not effective to seek specific answers when everything is evolving at lightning speed and every day new forms of journalism and new platforms of competition are emerging.
“Each media outlet and society must independently find the best option or the golden mean. Dan Gilmore’s position, that is, the restriction of the use and consumption of information in digital age will cause far worse consequences than the effects of plagiarism, is understandable and acceptable to me.”
The deputy editor of Hetq was happy to hear that their editorial, too, applies the best trends of international practices. “I realized that Hetq applies all the new trends in producing information, in involving the audience to this process, in using new ways and opportunities to provide and visually depict information.”
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Nikolay Torosyan, editor at PanArmenian.net, also expressed his enthusiasm regarding the experience exchange with media expert Dan Gillmor. He expressed regret that some tips are difficult to apply in Armenia because of the limited technical and financial capacity.
Torosyan says that the biggest problem in Armenian journalism from the viewpoint of both readers and the media remains demarcation between the quality and the tabloid press. “We need to think about how to differentiate false theories, how the reader can understand what the real journalism is and what the false one is. This is a big problem, which still needs to be thought about and understood.”
Ashot Melikyan, chairman of Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression, appreciated the significance of similar meetings.
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“The process of translation of popular textbooks, their presentation among the media community and hosting the authors in Armenia was started by different media organizations several years ago and, in fact, is continued by the Journalists For the Future organization now. It’s a very important mission,” says Melikyan.
According to him, the exchange of experience and communication with professionals like Gillmor are important, especially, in terms of rapid development of new media.
“Thanks to such kind of discussions, Armenian media experts try to find solutions to media issues. Consideration of international and, especially, US experience is quite instructive. We do not exclude to find optimal solutions through discussions with these experts.”
After the workshop with local editors on October 7, presentation of the Armenian version of Mediactive by Dan Gillmor was held. The event was attended by representatives of Armenian media outlets and NGOs, media experts, employees of the US Embassy in Armenia and other guests.
Photos by Sona Simonyan
Source: Journalists For the Future NGO