Australian “mojo” (mobile journalist, journalist with a mobile phone) Ivo Burum, together with his Norwegian colleague Geir Terje Ruud, spent a week teaching Ukrainian colleagues how to use only one smartphone to edit a full-fledged television story on the spot. The workshops were held at the Centers of Journalist Solidarity of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) in Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, and in Kyiv on November 21.
The participants in the workshop (education that helps gain knowledge and immediately apply it in practice) were professional journalists, teachers of journalism faculties of Ukrainian higher education institutions and student journalists.
“Ukrainian journalism is developing very well. But Ukrainian colleagues need new knowledge of modern technologies. We explain that the mobile phone is a new stage, it is digital journalism, which allows Ukrainian journalism to develop further,” convinced a media trainer from Australia, Ivo Burum.
During the workshop, Mr. Burum and Mr. Ruud helped its participants master one of the mobile applications for video editing in the field. After that, the journalists completed a practical task and edited stories during the training.
“It is very important to be able to make videos that can tell the audience important stories about today’s brave Ukraine. The perception of these events by citizens of other countries and their governments, which help Ukrainians to protect the Motherland, depends on how quickly and qualitatively journalists will tell the world about what is happening in our country,” said Sergiy Tomilenko, the President of the NUJU, welcoming the participants in the workshop.
Sergiy Tomilenko emphasized that modern Ukraine, like the whole world, lives in the conditions of instant dissemination of information, and therefore it is important that the audience receives truthful messages in a timely manner.
The work of the foreign trainers was accompanied by a professional translator, but many of the training participants were glad to have the opportunity to communicate with native English speakers and improve their conversational skills.
According to the results of the training, four participants received equipment for filming with a mobile phone. The decision of who will become the winner was made by the listeners themselves. The first place was won by young television journalist Nazar Hryhorenko.
“In fact, I am very glad that it turned out this way, because every work must justify itself. This year, I am graduating from the university, where I study television journalism, and I have been working as a journalist for a year already. I am very glad that what I do is not in vain, and I get something out of it. And today’s victory is a confirmation that I chose the right direction. It is in this direction that we need to develop and move forward,” said the winner in a comment for the NUJU.
Anzhelika Dosenko, a teacher at Borys Hrinchenko University of Kyiv, called her impressions of the workshop “extremely positive.”
“This is a great workshop, and I am sure that such applied technologies are needed today by Ukrainians: practicing journalists, students and researchers. We are very glad that we managed to get to this workshop. Thanks to the organizers!” added Anzhelika Kostyantynivna.
Ukrinform journalist Vitalii Holod really wanted to attend such a workshop.
“About a year ago, I signed up for such an event in Kherson, but it was canceled due to Covid-19 restrictions. Since then, I have been looking for such an opportunity, and when I got to know that it would be held here in Kyiv, I signed up a month in advance. I have been working in journalism for a long time, and I often attend different events. I am a journalist who writes, but I often witness moments that it is a pity to lose, and I would like to save on video. So, I also shoot videos, but I didn’t have the ability to edit. That’s why I really wanted to learn, because such knowledge allows you to bring not only text material with photos, but also video from the event.”
“I really like mobile photography, and that’s why I came here. I want to improve my skills in shooting, video editing and creating stories, because this is very important in the current conditions, when everything is changing, and you don’t have time to film the reality that changes quickly. So, what we learned at the workshop is a much-needed skill. With the help of a mobile phone, which is always in our pocket, we, journalists, can create full-fledged video stories,” says student Viktoriya Zayika.
“Nowadays, everything is happening so dynamically that the classic means of television production do not always keep up with events, and therefore it is very important to learn how to make high-quality content, which is called from the wheels, so that your media is timely,” believes workshop participant Iolanta Filenko.
In total, more than 100 media workers took part in workshops on mobile journalism in Ukraine. The training was organized by the network of Journalist Solidarity Centers of the NUJU with the assistance of the Journalism Institute of Norway, Burum Media, Ruud and Co, and with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway. The implementation of this series of high-level trainings in close cooperation with the Journalists Union of Norway was coordinated by Lina Kushch, the First Secretary of the NUJU.
