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Students in the 2nd year of the journalism specialization had the opportunity to meet and discuss with Vasile Botnaru about the Moldovan media, the challenges they may encounter as journalists, as well as some advice and recommendations from the experience the known journalist has gained in more than 20 years.
Vasile Botnaru has started the activity talking about the increased popularity of the tabloid press in Moldova, as well as in other countries, such as Romania or Russia.
“We are all “attractive” to the producers of food, electronic devices or media content. Based on us, the companies want to make profit, which is normal, but this fact has to make us more vigilant. Many media institutions, from the wish of gaining a higher rating, make compromises regarding the quality of the journalistic content and use sensational aspects, which attract a large public. Unfortunately, these institutions gain the highest profit from advertising”.
The journalist has also talked about the fate of many media institutions of serving several political interests, because, next to the financial profit that they bring, these institutions represent, as some consider, a manipulation tool of gaining more voters. Many times, these institutions have the most tempting job offers for journalists, in terms of remuneration. Still, V. Botnaru advised the young journalists to keep always a firmly and objective position, as there will always be independent media institutions as well, willing to hire professionals.
The students were actively involved in the discussions, asking questions, such as: “What is more important for a journalist: the writing talent or the quality of being bold and daring?, to which V. Botnaru answered that the main attributes of a good journalist are: curiosity, perseverance, discipline and the quality of being organized. “Our job is in fact to take the information from one source and to deliver it to the public, in a clear and understandable way”, added the journalist.
At the end of the lesson, the participants mentioned that they could learn many interesting things.
“It has been a productive and useful lesson. This kind of activities should be organized more often. It is always interesting to learn more from the experience of professional journalists”, said Dmitrii Dașcu, student in the 2nd year.
His colleague, Inga Cazacu, stated: ”these lessons are useful, because it is much more efficient to learn from someone with whom you can talk face to face, than reading from manuals”.
Maria Dulcevscaia highlighted: ”from this lesson I managed to learn many useful things. We don’t have to believe everything media say and we must attentively check the received information. Also, today I learned about more media sources that can be trusted.”
The media literacy lesson at the Slavonic University in Chisinau took place as part of the project “Promoting media literacy among Moldovan citizens”, implemented by the IJC between March 2014 and April 2015 with the financial support of the US Embassy in Moldova.
