Gundem Newspaper (English, 37)

An exclusive meeting and a series of lec-tures at Eastern Mediterranean University,by peace journalist professor StevenYoungblood from the Center for GlobalPeace at Park University in Parkville, Mis-souri in the US, could not have happenedat a more opportune time. ProfessorYoungblood’s fresh ideas may well find ahome here in Cyprus -- a country whosehistory is dominated by enmity between itsGreek and Turkish inhabitants, Dividedsince 1974 but whose inhabitants sharemany beliefs and traditions.

Indeed the people of the island have beenstruggling to arrive at concrete measures toestablish a long and lasting peace. Prof.Steven Youngblood in his advocacy ofpeace through peace journalism reiteratedthe importance of using the media as a toolfor resolving conflict peacefully. In an in-terview granted to Gundem Newspaper,Youngblood shares many insights on theperspective of peace journalism as a toolfor globalpeace.

What are your impressions on the par-

ticipation and attendance of students, on

your first peace journalism lecture at

Eastern Mediterranean University,

North Cyprus?

I thought it was really an excellent work-shop today, I really appreciated not just theattendance which was good, but I thoughtthat we got some really interesting andpointed questions. This indicated somehigh level of thinking on the students’ partand they really made me think about howpeace journalism might be applied here innorth Cyprus

What would you say peace journalism is

all about?

Well it is too complex to explain in a sen-tence or two but in a general way, PeaceJournalism is when reporters and editorsmake choices that can create an atmos-phere conducive to peace, so its about whatstories we tell, how we tell the stories, thelanguage we use, its about considering theconsequences of our reporting. So if wetell the stories in this way, what will hap-pen? Will it cause a riot; will it cause fur-ther prejudice against a particular group,what would be the result of that? So peacejournalism considers all of those factors.

In your opinion, what would you say are

the threats hindering peace journalism

in the world today?

I think certainly the commercial nature ofthe media makes peace journalism very

hard to practice. The mistaken idea thatpeace journalism is sanitizing thenews, somehow not telling interestingstories, I think is holding peace jour-nalism back. People are afraid of itbecause they think it won’t sell and I

think that’s incorrect, I think thatany good storytelling can sell;you can stay within the con-fine of peace journalism andtell compelling stories.

In a country like Cyprus, where there is

division and differences between the

north and the south, what is your advice

in order to enhance peace and unity

amongst the two sections?

I would not be so arrogant as to give ad-vice to Cypriots, they certainly knoweverything better than I do. I would justsay that as journalists anywhere report astory, they need to ask the question, whatdo my readers needs to get out of thisstory?, what information do they need? Sowhen you are reading a news paper innorthern Cyprus, what do northern Cypri-ots need to be truly informed about a situa-tion? So my take on that is I think youneed information from a variety of per-spectives, so I don’t think you could betruly informed in detail until you have thatvariety of perspective and I would hopethat the media here and the media every-where can do that.

We understand that one of the ethics of

journalism is to be objective and bal-

ance, so how does this objective differ

with peace journalism?

It does not, peace journalism retains objec-tivity, so as a peace journalist am notopenly advocating for peace, I’m merelygiving peace makers a voice, a proportionof voices along-side those who advocatefor violence, in terms of balance, balanceis a key tenet of peace journalism that weare giving voice to all parties and particu-larly voice to the voiceless, to those so callregular people, who are the most affectedby a crisis by a conflict.

What would you say to the claim that,

peace journalism is criticizing the jour-

nalism profession without giving a con-

crete solution, for instance we know

peace journalism is good but we cannott

cite any major news organization fully

practicing peace journalism?

Peace journalism is goodjournalism, so I don’t see it as an as-sault on journalism. I see it instead as aconfirmation of what we already knowabout what good journalism is – that itprovide context, that it is balanced, that itis objective, that it is based on facts andon reality and so on. Are there major newsorganizations that are committed to peacejournalism generally speaking? No – hereand there yes, but why aren’t there more? Ibelieve because of the commercial notionthat we talked about earlier that peace jour-nalism won’t sell and I disagree with thatnotion.

What’s the future of peace journalism?

Are there hopes for a greater impact in

the future?

I think the future of peace journalism startswith the students of today, so I don’t ex-pect to march into CNN headquarters,Reuter s headquarters, Agency FrancePress headquarters and clap my hand andsay ok we going to do peace journalismtoday. I don’t expect that to magically hap-pen, but what I do think can happen even-tually, is if we train enough young peopleas they move up the corporate ladder inthese agencies and with these big news or-ganizations that they can bring with themthese ideas, these notions of peace journal-ism, so its certainly not something that’sgoing to happen over night but I think thatas people see the value of peace journal-ism, I do think that its going to grow.

How are you enjoying the delights of

North Cyprus so far?

Wow, how could you not enjoy Cyprus,beautiful weather , wonderful food, thehospitality at Eastern Mediterranean Uni-versity has been excellent and I had a verygood time.

Issue: 37Faculty of Communication And Media Studies Student Newspaperhttp://gundem.emu.edu.tr

ENGLISH

February - March - April 2014

Dr. Youngblood: peace journalism advocate

Peace journalism: a major

step towards global peace?By Valery Njiaba

The Department of Political Scienceand International Relations at theEastern Mediterranean University(EMU) organized the second brownbag seminar of the spring semesteron Wednesday, the 19th of March2014. The seminar hosted the depart-ment faculty member Asst. Prof. Dr.Umut Bozkurt and she delivered apaper titled “AKP rule in the after-math of the Gezi protest: From ex-panded to limited hegemony”. Theaudience mostly included studentsand instructors of the Political Sci-ence and International Relations De-partment coupled with few studentsfrom other departments.The seminar started with the openingspeech of Prof. Dr. Ahmet Sözen, thechair of the Department of PoliticalScience and International Relations.Prof. Sözen introduced Dr. Bozkurtand he underlined that Dr. Bozkurt isone of the five members of the de-partment who will be presenting pa-pers at the International StudiesAssociation Annual Convention thefollowing week in Toronto, Canada.Dr. Bozkurt started her presentationwith emphasizing the fact that theAKP has managed to progressivelyincrease its votes since it first cameto power in 2002. By drawing onvarious polls and researches sheshowed how the party gained thesupport of various classes andgroups in the Turkish society includ-ing the Anatolian bourgeoisie as wellas housewives, farmers, blue collarworkers working in the private sec-tor and the unemployed. She alsoshowed how the party managed toattract the support of various groupsholding different political orienta-tions especially in the 2011 elec-tions, such as the TurkishNationalists, pro Atatürk Kemalist,social democrats, liberal democrats,nationalists, and Kurdish national-ists.In an effort to analyze this wide-spread support, she explained howshe decided to use the concept of“hegemony” conceptualized by theItalian political theorist AntonioGramsci. Gramsci’s concept of hege-

mony refers to the ways in which agoverning power wins consent to itsrule from its subjugates. Gramscidistinguishes expanded and limitedhegemony. According to Gramsci,expanded hegemony happens when ahegemonic group adopts the interestsof its subaltern in full and greatmasses of people spontaneously andactively gives their consent to thebloc. On the other hand, if a rulinggroup has to resort to coercion andrepression this means that it has notachieved an ‘expansive’ hegemony’and therefore its hegemony shall bedefined as limited hegemony.Dr. Bozkurt underlined that herpaper aims to explain two things: 1.What are the reasons behind thehegemony of the AKP? 2.What wasthe impact of the Gezi protests onthe AKP rule?She started with discussing the dy-namics behind the hegemony of theAKP. She underlined that the AKPadopts neoliberal policies and pop-ulist policies at the same time.AKP’s neoliberal policies becamemanifest in the gradual marketiza-tion of public services, privatization,and flexibilization of labour. TheAKP aimed to further the interests ofthe first generation (TÜSİAD) andthe second generation (MÜSİAD,TUSKON) bourgeoisie. AKP’s ne-oliberalism also became manifest inthe “urban transformation” projectsthat were carried out by the govern-ment where poor populations aredisplaced, public places, green areas,and historical sites are demolished.Despite implementing such neolib-eral policies, the party implementedpopulist policies with an aim to gainthe consent of these groups who areengaged in a continuous struggle tomake ends meet. AKP’s populismmanifested itself in the explosion ofsocial assistance programs. A keyfeature of the period in question isthat social assistance programs areincreasingly used as substitutes forwelfare state functions. Dr. Bozkurtalso underlined how the party refersto values widely supported in theTurkish society such as conser-vatism, Islamism and nationalism inorder to establish its hegemony.

In the second part of her presentationshe discussed the impact of the Geziprotests on the hegemony of theAKP. According to Dr. Bozkurt, anumber of developments in the after-math of the Gezi protests, some di-rectly related to protests, some not,led to a transformation in the hege-mony of the AKP. The main argu-ment of Dr. Bozkurt is that acombination of these events led tothe AKP’s expanded hegemonybeing replaced by a limited hege-mony which relies on coercion morethan consent. She discussed factorssuch as the loss of support the partyreceived from the US and the EU,the growing rift between theErdoğan camp and the influentialGülen movement, AKP’s antagoniz-ing TÜSİAD and pro-GülenTUSKON, Turkish economy’s frag-ile structure that relies on short termcapital inflows, Kurdish peaceprocess facing an impasse in the af-termath of the Gezi protests. Allthese factors, she underlined, alludedto the fact that the party does notenjoy an expanded hegemony anymore.

Dr. Bozkurt con-cluded by sayingthat even though theAKP is experiencinga hegemonic crisisthat manifests itselfin different ways,this does not amountto say that the partywill experience animmediate electoraldefeat. She under-lined how the AKPopted for a twofoldresponse in the faceof the rising threatcoming from its op-ponents: rallying itsbase it won overthrough neoliberalpopulism andthrough embracingconservatism, Is-lamism and nation-alism and crackingdown on the opposition. Eventhough this method is anti-democra-tic said Dr. Bozkurt, “this methodwill suffice for the party to hold onto power in the near future”.Dr. Bozkurt’s presentation was fol-

lowed by half an hour question andanswer session. The conference wasofficially closed by the chair of thedepartment Prof. Dr. Ahmet Sözenwho praised the students for the highturnout and Dr. Umut Bozkurt for aninsightful and elaborate presentation.

Every year on the 8th of March,we take time to recognize the in-justices against and advocate forthe rights of woman around theworld – whether economically,politically, culturally or socially.While the day is significant forWomen, we are all implicated inthe struggle for emancipationfrom injustice, whoever we are.March 8th is significant in thestruggle for equality and socialjustice for Women as it highlightsthe fact that the position ofWomen in the – even now in theearly 21st Century – is relegatedto the margins of social debate,despite the important role thatWomen play in society as a whole. Historically, March 8 signals theprotest by women garment work-ers in the clothing and textile fac-tories on March, 8 1857, as theyfought against inhumane workingconditions and low wages. Withthis history in mind, theCameroonian female students atEMU organized a conference inthe Blue Hall of the Faculty ofEconomics and Management. Be-cause this day is widely commem-orated in Cameroon, theCameroonian female studentsjoined their fellow Women backhome and internationally underthe theme “Active Participation inNational Integration”.

The day was characterize with anopen discussions chaired by Ms.Winnie Doh – a Doctoral studentin the Tourism and HospitalityManagement Faculty and also anadvocate for Women’s rights. Dis-cussions at the conference under-lined the fact that the role ofWomen cannot be limited solelyto becoming a good wife andmother but must also be expressedthrough self-values such as re-spect for each other, supportingeach other, and working together.Participants underlined the factthat Women needed to be accept-ing of each other and not be di-vided by petty distractions thatcome from the broader society.Important is the fact that because

the March 8, movement startedwith women fighting for moreequal opportunities and better lifechances, it becomes really impor-tant to consider the kind of educa-tion that young girls receive.Young women should enroll inprofessional career developmentprograms that furnish them withthe skills and courage needed inthe professional world so that theycan compete on an equal platformwith their male counterparts. Ini-tiatives like these are excellent op-portunities for students to applytheir critical thinking skills andchallenge preconceptions – it isespecially exciting when such ini-tiatives come from the studentsthemselves.

February - March - April 2014 Gündem

International Women’s Dayconference by Cameroonianfemale students

Cameroonian female students at EMU

By Valery Njiaba

Asst. Prof. Dr. Umut Bozkurt delivered a paper at the seminar

“AKP rule in the aftermath of the Gezi protests:from expanded to limited hegemony”By Neba Ridley

Gündem February - March - April 2014

Due to increasing demands in thefield of cyber security, there is aneed for not only fresh methods tocurb cybercrimes but also for freshintellectual engagement. Among anew generation of people who havebeen taking advantage of the growthof the IT industry to pursue careersin cyber security is Yusuph Kileo – aTanzanian cyber-security and digitalforensics expert. Kileo was a participant at the confer-ence held at EMU on March 14ththis year where he explained thatthere is still a lot to be done to im-prove the challenges facing nationsin this area. The conference was sup-ported by the International Telecom-

munication Union (ITU), the UnitedNations specialized agency for infor-mation and communication technolo-gies, and Wolfpack Information Riskand centered on an analysis of cur-rent Cybercrimes and NationalCyber security challenges along withan Overview of cyber security activi-ties in ITU.Cybercrime is on the rise not onlybecause there is an increased numberof ICT users, but also because peoplediscover what seems like “easymoney” through online theft. Someeven go further by hacking websitesand systems in order to access classi-fied information – or even just foramusement. There have been manycases of this type in the last year,

Craig Rosewarne, the SANS director(EMEA), and Wolfpack SystemRisk’s Managing Director, discussedthese issues during the conference.Martin Euchner (ITU Telecommuni-cation Standardization Bureau Advi-sor) highlighted the outstandingeffort to fight cybercrimes includingthe implementation of the Child On-line Protection (COP) project whosegoal is to keep children safe whilethey surf the internet. ITU has beenworking hard on uniting Nationsaround the fight against cybercrimeas they believe individual nationscannot fight alone. Euchner under-lined the fact that cybercrime has nogeographical border, no boundariesand tremendous destructive power.

Kileo called upon people to developan interest in the field of cyber secu-rity. Kileo offered the example of

how developed countries had begunbuilding cyber solders to fight Cyberwars.

Respect for human rights is a pri-mary yardstick for the categoriza-tion of any nation in the 21stCentury. The United States and itsallies criticize most “Second andThird World” countries for their“poor” human rights record. TwoAfrican Heads of Government arewanted by the International Crimi-nal Court (ICC) for crimes againsthumanity. However, the “globalpolice” have turned the proverbialblind eye to the allegations ofhuman rights violations takingplace in Israel/Palestine. As theperennial tension continues inPalestine or Israel (depending onwhose side you are on) Gundem’sFemi Onifade talks with two Pales-tinian students at Eastern Mediter-ranean University. They recounttheir experiences in Israeli prisonsand detention camps. Both of them(like

many others) were detained with-out official charges which amountsto abuse of their fundamentalhuman rights. They also share theirdeepest fears and greatest hopesfor their homeland.Omar Abuarqobis is an M. A. stu-dent of communication and mediastudies. He is a native of Hebron inthe occupied West Bank. He wasarrested and detained withoutcharges on September 14 2009.The reason for this could havebeen his critical writings on the Is-raeli occupation. “I was taken to Askalan detentionfacility and questioned for onemonth,” he recalled, “and afterthat, I was moved to Ofar prisonwhere I remained for another fivemonths without any charge beingbrought against me. I was thentransferred to Naqqab prison whereI stayed for about nine months. Fi-nally, I was released on December16, 2010”.While in Naqqab prison, he was“reunited” with his brother-in-lawwho was serving a fifteen-year jailterm for armed resistance. Hisolder brother later joined themthere after being considered a“threat” to Israeli national security.Prison life exposed him to a newworld. “There are governments ineach prison division in prison. We

had elections every fourmonths.” He reminisced.

Omar maximized hisstay in prison by

learning the He-brew language. Ididn’t want

them to breakme down psy-chologically,so I kept mybrain busy bystudying theirlanguage for

the period” he said.Omar fears that the struggle of thePalestinian people may not achievetheir ultimate objectives because ofdivisions and fighting within thesociety. “Unity is of great impor-tance. All Palestinians must cometogether irrespective of political af-filiation and present a commonfront to the international commu-nity in order to create a unifiedPalestinian state. I fear that thismay not be possible withoutunity”.However, he remained resolute inhis resolve to see the end of the Is-raeli occupation. “We believe thatthe Israeli occupation is temporary.The occupation did not happen inone day. So we believe that oneday we shall be a free and inde-pendent country and the Zionistsshall be chased out of our land.Omar believes that “both Hamasand Fatah should reach a compro-mise in their ideologies and de-mands in order to reach a commonground for the benefits of the peo-ple”.

Mohammad Abo Reesh

Mohammad Abo Reesh is anothernative of Hebron in West Bank. Heis also a graduate student. He wasarrested on March 20, 2008 andwas in jail for 14 months. He wasthen a first year student of journal-ism and media at the An-Najah Na-tional University in Nablus. Hewas detained under the accusationof being a threat to Israeli nationalsecurity. No official charge wasbrought against him. Mohammad recounts his road todetention: “They came to my hometo look for me, but I was not athome. They left a message askingme to come to a military camp. Ongetting the message, I left the uni-versity the following day and re-ported to the base in company ofmy father and brother. That was

the beginning of the fourteenmonths of my detention.”“I was in solitary confinement fortwo months and they interrogatedme many times with questionsabout every imaginable thing I haddone in my life and what I in-tended to do in the future. I stayedin prison for fourteen months be-cause they could not prove any-thing against me. If they had beenable to prove something, theywould have given me about four orfive years” he recalled. Interestingly, he had earlier beendetained at the age of fifteen forwandering into an Israeli militaryzone. “I was walking around in myvillage when I was arrested. Theyclaimed that I was trespassing intoa military zone. But there were nodemarcations around the place, so Icouldn’t have known. I was de-tained for a day and given a paperto go to court, but I never honoredthe invitation” he explained. He has also been detained by thePalestinian authorities five times.He narrated the origin of his manydetentions by the Palestinian Au-thorities thus, “The first time waswhen Al Jazeera aired a documen-tary indicting Mahmud Abbas ofcorruption. I had a discussion with

some of my schoolmates where Ivoiced my support for the docu-mentary by Al Jazeera. The spiesamong us reported to the authori-ties and I was arrested and de-tained for one month until mylawyer got me out. On another oc-casion, I was arrested because theycouldn’t find my friend who hadgraduated a semester earlier. Theyarrested thirteen of us and we weredetained for twenty days.”Mohammad is very optimisticabout the establishment of a fully-fledged and internationally ac-cepted Palestinian state. “I hopewe get our freedom and all of ourlands back. By our land, I meanthe whole of the land fromLebanon to the Red Sea. Nothingshort of this will work. As long asthe occupiers stay there will be nopeace. They either kill all of us orwe kill all of them. Perhaps we’llfind peace in death.”However, he admits that peacemay never return to their land be-cause of the many benefits whichsome third parties derive from thesituation. “My deepest fear is thatpeace is an illusion. There are gun-runners everywhere in the socalled developed world” he con-cludes.

Omar Abuarqobis is an M. A. student of communication and media studies.

Demands on the cyber security field are rapidly growing

Palestinian students recall their experiencesin Israeli prisons

The organizing team together with Craig Rosewarne visited EMU RectorProf.Dr.Abdullah Y.Öztoprak in his office

Gundem News

Mohammad Abo Reesh is another native of Hebron in West Bank.

By Femi Onifade

Greetings from visitingRussian students

Student’s activity in EMU

Once upon a time, in a small city ofa big country there were some reallygood students who hadn’t had anyreal adventures. Instead of adven-tures, heavy snow and harsh windsoppressed them. The unexpected callfrom dean's office changed every-thing: "Would you like to go toNorthern Cyprus? There will bejournalism courses if you do". Manywanted to go, but few were chosen.So the group of Mordovian studentscame to this wonderful resort city ofFamagusta. Now we want to sharewith you the impressions of thetraining we received here.

Anastasia Shumilova & Julia Dol-

gova: When you learned about

this opportunity, what did you ex-

pect?

Masha Khramova: I had expectedthat there would be students frommany different countries and that wewould participate in many lectureseach day. Actually, what happenedwas that professors worked onlywith our group of eight students andwe focused mostly on hands-on, reallife and practical classes – not manylectures.Olga Vlasova: I thought we wouldhave many lectures during our in-ternship and that I would learnsomething new about journalism. Ihadn’t expected that it would be sointeresting and exciting for me. NowI have so much information aboutphotojournalism.

Masha Kochetkova: Now, itdoesn`t matter, because here I amvery happy.Julia Fedorova: I thought that wewould be in lectures throughout ourinternship on campus. But here wecombine our classes with a rest.Natasha Paltina: I thought that wewould be in lectures every day andthat we would do homework.Tanya Kashtanova: I thought that wewould speak only in English andthat I wouldn`t understand anything.Anastasia Shumilova & Julia Dol-

gova: What do you think about theNothern Cyprus?Masha Khramova: I was veryhappy to be there in April: sun isshining and we can go swimmingand combine our classes with a rest.Olga Vlasova: Nothern Cyprus is avery beautiful place, there are a lotof interesting people, historicalplaces, it’s really interesting for me,there is sea, it’s a positive moment.Masha Kochetkova: I love Cyprusvery much. It has offered for memany different impressions. I likepeople, university and professors.Julia Fedorova: It’s paradise forme. I have seen palms and I havetaken many pictures of them. This isvery warm country with cordial rela-tions and people. There are manybeautiful places. I’ll have many im-pressions, memories for all my life.Natasha Paltina: Nothern Cyprushas made good impression. Thereare a lot of friendly people, espe-cially young guys.Tanya Kashtanova: The culture ofthis country is very interesting – es-

pecially the atmosphere and thebeautiful nature. People look at uslike we are different and I think thisis because our skin is so pale.Anastasia Shumilova & Julia Dol-

gova: What experience have you gotduring this internship?Masha Khramova: I have learnedmany new things about journalism:TV-studio, radio-studio, greenscreen studio, how to use them as aprofessional and so on. This is agood opportunity to compare Turk-ish and Russian TV.Olga Vlasova: I have had many in-teresting experiences. I think myEnglish is much better now. When Iwent to Cyprus, I was confused. Icouldn’t use English with people. Ithink, it’s a good plus for me. And ofcourse, I have new knowledge aboutjournalism, about media process andso on.Masha Kochetkova: I have a lot ofnew information about journalism. Iknow very interesting things aboutthe culture, the people and the Turk-ish language.Julia Fedorova: I have learnedthings I didn’t know at our univer-sity, for example how to shoot onthe district.Natasha Paltina: Lectures havebeen very interesting for me andhave increased my interest in my fu-ture job.rNow I have some experience ofcommunication with people of dif-ferent nationalities. Now I am notafraid of speaking English. I havelearned much about journalism,mass media etc.

EMU Communication Faculty hosted eight students from the Ogarev Mordovia State University in Russia, who visited EMU as part

of a two-week internship programme that covered a basic training on TV and radio production, news announcement for TV, news

writing and journalism, basic photography, brand management and creative advertisement. As part of the internship programme,

the students attended a two-day journalism workshop in Gundem. These are the interviews they conducted for Gundem.

Greetings from visitingRussian students

Our first experience of stayingin Northern Cyprus

February - March - April 2014 Gündem

By Anastasia Shumilova &Julia Dolgova

We are about two weeks inNorthern Cyprus. Now we havemany interesting and new infor-mation. We were in the TV andradio studios; we were also inthe green-screen room; weworked with professional cam-eras. We were very glad that wehad practical lessons. We are inthe redaction today. We decidedto interview Karina Pyrina. Shehelps Russian students at EMU.She was very glad to talk withus.

Hello Karina. We are from

Russia and we want to talk

with you about Russian stu-

dents here. Let’s start. How

many Russian students study

here?

Hello. We have 60-70 studentshere; because we have a lot ofexchange programs.

Is it difficult to adapt? How do

you help students?

Yes, it usually takes about 2weeks to adapt here.

Did you have any problems

when you came here?

No. My English was good andthat’s why I could to talk withpeople and I could understandteachers without any problems.But of course studying is noteasy. For example, teachers giveus a lot of information and it isalways difficult to remembernew things.

What kind of work do you

have with students?

To begin with, for new students Ihave a program. I give them newinformation about courses, aboutlectures and so on. I show themwhere the departments are. I tellthem what kind of social activi-ties are here.

Oh, it’s so interesting. What

kind of positive things do

Russian students have at this

university?

We have Spring Festival and In-ternational Night and dance per-formances; actually femalestudents are very busy – theyplay football, volleyball and alsobaseball.

Great! How can we find some

information about this univer-

sity?

There are special agencies, youcan Google us – and there is ourwebsite. You can also find onFacebook and other new socialmedia.

Do you like to work with Russ-

ian students? Are they differ-

ent from other students?

Yes, of course I enjoy workingwith them because they areRussian. It is so . . . I don’t know. . . It is so much fun workingwith students from Russia.

Thank you very much. We see

that there are a lot of interest-

ing things for Russian stu-

dents.

By Iulia Fedorova & Maria Kochetkova

Journalism is one of the most popu-lar and difficult profession nowa-days. Despite nervousness, hardwork, deadlines and extreme condi-tions no one journalist can refusetheir mission. Why must journalistsbe university graduates? How doesone remain in the profession followthe principle “Do no harm”? Howcan we navigate in the modern mediaworld? Professor Dr. Suleyman Irvan, theDean of the Faculty of Communica-

tion and Media Studies at EMUtalked about real journalism and theimportant qualities of reporters.

In Russia we have a lot of theory

and a little of practice. What can

you tell us about your system of

education?

We designed our curriculum. Ourcurriculum is based on 50% practiceand 50 % theory. It means that halftheory and half practice. So studentshave the opportunity and resources -for example cameras and so on-where they can practice theirprofession. They ask us to do some

practice. For example, writing pressrelease. I am teaching one coursenow called PR writing press release.I ask students to write press releasesas part of the practical component ofthe course.

People think that everyone can be

a reporter without a journalism

diploma. Do you agree with this?

Real journalists must have adiploma. A professional should knoweverything and be a many sided per-son. He has to be a good writer indifferent genres. We teach our stu-dent to be polite, truthful and ethical.

Our students know that before writ-ing they must look for answer andcheck facts.

Where do students work after gra-

duating from your department?

We have students from many differ-ent countries. Most of them find ajob in the academic areas that theyfocused on. Journalism students findjobs in newspapers, TV and cinemastudents find job in their areas. PRstudents find jobs in advertising andpublic relations. We have many fa-mous graduates. For example, OshanSabirli and Ali Fahrioğlu. They areeditors-in-chief of successful news-papers.

Is it hard to find a job?

The diploma represents what youhave done during your education. Ifyou teach yourself you will be in abetter position to find a job. Somestudents think that they just want thediploma. We say ok, of course onegoal is to get the diploma, but thinkmore broadly than that. You will finda job more easily if you prepareyourself for the world – not just toreceive the diploma. So we encour-age our students to think of their ca-pacity and ability to practice theirwork: How do you write articles?How do you take a picture? How doyou advertise? Students have to edu-cate and teach themselves with theirfuture in mind.

What do you think about students

who combine work and study?

It is so hard to work and study. If thejob is hard it is difficult to find timeto study. Nevertheless, we encourageworking students and even though itis difficult, with determination theymanage to reach their goals. On thebright side, when they graduatedthey already have a job.

What do you want to change in

your system of education?

We always try to improve our sys-tem. Update our teachers, students`knowledge and technical equipment.We want to see in our departmentmore students from different coun-tries. International education teachesstudents to understand culture andtraditions worldwide.

What do you know about Russian

journalism?

I know a famous Russian journalistAnna Politkovskaya who was killed.She was brave and a real profes-sional. If you want to be a good journalist, choose her as your rolemodel.

Please, tell 3 main qualities of per-

fect journalist.

Ok. I think, the first is truthfulness,the second is ethics and the last oneis being responsible for your writing.

Thank you for the interview.

Gündem February - March - April 2014

Eastern Mediterranean University, Faculty of

Communication and MediaStudies

Tel: 0392 630 16 42E-mail: [email protected]

Printed at EMU Printing House

PUBLISHEROn behalf of Eastern Mediterranean

University, Rector Prof.Dr. Abdullah Y. Öztoprak

COMMITTEE OF ADVISORSProf. Dr.Süleyman İrvan

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hanife AliefendioğluAssist. Prof. Dr. Pembe Behçetoğulları

Assist. Prof. Dr. Metin Ersoy

EDITORAyça Atay

ENGLISH SECTION EDITORAssoc. Prof. Dr. Mashoed Bailie

GRAPHIC DESIGNMehmet Tok

PHOTOGRAPHY EDITORMert Yusuf Özlük

STUDENT COORDINATORValery Njiaba

CONTRIBUTORSNeba Ridley

Femi OnifadeAnastasia Shumilova

Julia DolgovaIulia Federeova

Maria KochetkovaNatalia Paltina

Tatiana KashtanovaOlga Vlasova

Maria Hkramova

If you want to become a perfect

journalist you must study with the best!

About Russian students in the EMUWe are about two weeks in NorthernCyprus. Now we have many inter-esting and new information. Wewere in the TV and radio studios;we were also in the green-screenroom; we worked with professionalcameras. We were very glad that wehad practical lessons. We are in theredaction today. We decided to inter-view Karina Pyrina. She helps Russ-ian students at EMU. She was veryglad to talk with us.

Hello Karina. We are from Rus-

sia and we want to talk with you

about Russian students here. Let’s

start. How many Russian students

study here?

Hello. We have 60-70 studentshere; because we have a lot of ex-change programs.

Is it difficult to adapt? How do

you help students?

Yes, it usually takes about 2 weeksto adapt here.

Did you have any problems when

you came here?

No. My English was good and that’swhy I could to talk with people andI could understand teachers withoutany problems. But of course study-ing is not easy. For example, teach-ers give us a lot of information andit is always difficult to remembernew things.

What kind of work do you have

with students?

To begin with, for new students Ihave a program. I give them new in-formation about courses, about lec-tures and so on. I show them wherethe departments are. I tell them whatkind of social activities are here.

Oh, it’s so interesting. What kind

of positive things do Russian stu-

dents have at this university?

We have Spring Festival and Inter-national Night and dance perform-ances; actually female students arevery busy – they play football, vol-leyball and also baseball.

Great! How can we find some in-

formation about this university?

There are special agencies, you canGoogle us – and there is our web-site. You can also find on Facebookand other new social media.

Do you like to work with Russian

students? Are they different from

other students?

Yes, of course I enjoy working withthem because they are Russian. It isso . . . I don’t know . . . It is so muchfun working with students fromRussia.

Thank you very much. We see

that there are a lot of interesting

things for Russian students.

By Olga Vlasova &Maria Hkramova

Prof. Dr. Suleyman Irvan talked about real journalism and the important qualities of reporters.

Karina Pyrina helps Russian students at EMU.

By Natalia Paltina and Tatiana Kashtanova