Students of the Media Centre of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia Visited RCMG
А press tour for the students of the Media Centre of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia was held at the Research Centre for Medical Genetics on August 26, 2022. It was attended by students of the Russian State University for the Humanities, National Research University MPEI, the Russian University of Chemical Technology named after D.I. Mendeleev, Moscow Architectural Institute - MARKHI, Russian Economic University named after. G.V. Plekhanov, Moscow Polytechnic University. All of them plan to engage in journalism in the future and have already been developing student media.
It is very important for future journalists to be able to work with a lot of information, to check facts, to find out primary sources and to choose truly competent specialists for comments. Therefore, the media centre of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia regularly organizes press tours to subordinate institutions. Students get acquainted with their achievements, get experience in scientific journalism - one of the most demanded today.
«It is essential to follow the development of genetics, understand new technologies and understand their value for the journalists who plan to work in the field of science and healthcare. News from the world of genetics is growing and basic knowledge in this field is essential for journalists. The attitude of the society to new genetic technologies, which are more and more part of our life, depends on their work,» - said Vera Izhevskaya, professor, deputy director for scientific work at RCMG. She delivered a welcoming speech to the students, spoke about the close connection between basic scientific research and medical practice at RCMG, and stressed the importance of correct media coverage of the activities of geneticists.
Mikhail Skoblov, Head of the functional genomics laboratory, Svetlana Smirnikhina, Head of the genome editing laboratory, Natalia Veiko, leading researcher of the molecular biology laboratory, Holder of an Advanced Doctorate in Biological Sciences, as well as young scientists Arina Anuchina, Vladimir Shigin, Petr Sparber gave also their reports to students. They told about the achievements of their laboratories, explained their work to students in an intelligible form.
The separate part of the press tour was devoted to the pilot project of RCMG on advanced neonatal screening for spinal muscular atrophy and primary immunodeficiency. Andrey Marakhonov, PhB, senior researcher of the laboratory of genetic epidemiology, explained the importance of the project for the development of the entire healthcare system, and also told about the research that is carried out at RCMG. As a part of a tour to the laboratory, students were shown equipment that is used for screening and confirming diagnostics, were explained the features of all stages of diagnostics.
«The specialists of RCMG pay great attention to work with journalists and educational activities. As a result of the press tour, students of the media centre of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia prepared a number of materials for the student media, which show the great interest of future journalists in medical genetics. Media centre materials also demonstrate that students already possess the most important skills for journalists: to highlight the most interesting information for their audience among its large amount, quickly dive into the topic, ask correct clarifying questions and to state what is heard from experts without distortion. We hope to continue collaboration with the media centre of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Russia and are ready to offer new thematic press tours,» - said Yulia Mushtakova, press secretary of RCMG.
The media centre was created by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation to implement the programme of student mass media support within the framework of the «Year of Science and Technology». The media centre consists of more than 600 representatives of youth mass media and student mass media from 214 Russian universities from 70 regions of the Russian Federation, including young journalists, bloggers and students who are interested in creativity and media in general. For 2022, activists of the youth media centre have already participated in more than 30 large-scale international and All-Russian events, working at a site as a part of the existing press centres, covering the topics of science, education and youth environment (SPIEF, EEF etc.).