"Contact made!": St Petersburg University chooses the best student social and communication projects
St Petersburg University has held a final round of the 17th International Student Contest of Communication Projects "Mass Media Perspective". The projects were presented by the participants from Russia and Belarus. Their projects were recognised as the best projects in the qualifying round.
Eleven teams reached the final round to fight for the victory. The participants were from the universities of St Petersburg, Moscow, Krasnoyarsk, Kursk, Brest, and Grodno. In total, there were 50 applications. On the first day of the contest, the participants publicly defended their projects. All projects focused on the topic of the contest "Contact made!". In 2022, students in the fields of PR, advertising and journalism were invited to submit projects aimed at solving the fundamental problems of communication. Among them were: understanding the purpose and nature of communication; making contact and maintaining it; information verification; emotional regulation; recognising manipulation; and receiving feedback.
In 2022, after a two-year break due to the pandemic, the contest "Mass Media Perspective" was held in-person. Participants who could not come to St Petersburg connected online.
The projects were evaluated by experts. Among them were: Iurii Vovk, Deputy Head of the Centre for Regional Management of the Leningrad Region, Chairman of the Jury; Marina Ivanova, a host of the "Useful Morning" show on the TV Channel 78; Marina Voskresenskaia, Professor in the Department of Theory of Journalism and Mass Communications at St Petersburg University; Anna Kuzmina, Associate Professor in the Department of Advertising at St Petersburg University; Nina Zhuravleva, Associate Professor in the Department of Public Relations in Politics and Public Administration at St Petersburg University; and Andrei Nosikov, Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Relations in Politics and Public Administration at St Petersburg University.
‘We all work in the field of communications. We either study or teach. We have gathered today at this iconic place, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at St Petersburg University, where professional "communicators" are prepared’, Iurii Vovk, Deputy Head of the Centre for Regional Management of the Leningrad Region, said at the opening ceremony. He also thanked the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at St Petersburg University and the organisers of the contest for the invitation. ‘Every day, the Centre for Regional Management of the Leningrad Region works with feedback from residents on social networks. The specifics of our work are directly related to the topic of this year’s contest.’
At the awards ceremony, Professor Anatoly Puyu, Director of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at St Petersburg University, said that the value of the contest lies in the fact that it is organised by students and for students.
Today, St Petersburg University is making a big step in the development of project-based education. This is important because in this way we reach real partners from corporations to charitable foundations. Students implement projects and get the opportunity to find a job in partner companies.
Professor Anatoly Puyu, Director of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at St Petersburg University
The winner of the contest was a team of students from Lomonosov Moscow State University. They presented a project ‘Media Law − Contact of Journalism and Law’. The team included Nikita Zhumanov; Anastasiia Sapozhnikova; Anna Vetrova; Valeriia Semchenko; Anastasiia Golubtsova; Anzhelika Aznavurian; Kristina Brekhova; Elena Vaniushina; Taisiia Vtorushina; Gleb Glazunov; Zakhar Dei; Ekaterina Gubaeva; and Violetta Shelkovnikova. The team presented the project that is already being implemented by academic staff and students at the Faculty of Journalism and the Faculty of Law at Lomonosov Moscow State University. The events in various formats, i.e. from conferences to recording podcasts, focus on the legal regulation of media and information security. They are aimed at increasing the legal knowledge of future specialists in media and the media literacy of law students.
The second place was taken by the students of Siberian Federal University. The team "Just We" included Mariia Tarasova; Irina Romanovskaia; Sofia Pushina; Nadezhda Charkina; Daria Rybakova; and Anfisa Rogozina. They presented a social project "A Friend Around". Its aim is to create conditions for social adaptation and support for young people who have experienced orphanhood. The idea is to create a website and an application where volunteers and patrons can become mentors for orphanage graduates to help them.
Daria Iaromich, a first-year student in the bachelor’s programme "Advertising and Public Relations" at St Petersburg University, came third. The focus of her project ‘Teens4teens − When Teenagers Write!’ is to create an open platform for novice writers, journalists, screenwriters, copywriters, and playwrights to train, support, and exchange experience in the format of communication with renowned specialists.
On the second day of the final round, there was a workshop "Empathium". The author and developer of game technology Elizaveta Loviagina helped the participants practice their skills of understanding themselves and others; managing their emotions; preserving emotional resources; and developing leadership qualities. The participants could demonstrate their communication and creative skills and an ability to work in a team.