What an awful train wreck. The Glasnost Defense Foundation (Moscow) together with the Center for Journalism Education (USA) is announcing enrollment for two training programs: investigative journalists and bloggers. II. The bloggers’ school program for training civic activists who want to make themselves heard professionally in the mass media space. Total number of participants: 12. Program length: 14 weeks. Format: part distance learning, part in-person. Applicants’ age is unrestricted. The curriculum includes online conferences featuring journalists and subject-matter experts A. Plutnik, D. Muratov, A. Venediktov, M. Gorbanevsky, L. Nikitinsky, A. Simonov, V. Korsunsky, and others. The program includes: - the specifics of contemporary journalism, - genres and language, - photography, audio recording, video theory and practice, - the internet and the law, - the blogosphere and reputational risks, and much more that will come in handy in a blogger’s life. Online classes in the evenings. 5 days a week. Program director: journalist and lawyer Grigory Pasko. Materials to be submitted for the competition: 1. a detailed biography (at least 2 pages); 2. a motivation letter; 3. information about your ability to participate: computer model, Skype, telephone. Of course, I have a great deal of respect for Grigory Pasko. But damn. How can he teach anyone to become a blogger? And the respected A. Plutnik, M. Gorbanevsky, L. Nikitinsky, A. Simonov, V. Korsunsky as well? Of these gentlemen, the only one I know—though not as a blogger—is A. Simonov.
Apparently he’s a blogger of the new generation. Really, the use of youth slang ("computer model") as well as the informal style ("and much more that will come in handy in a blogger’s life") gives the whole program away. I can just picture a class on the subject of "genres and language": Remember, kids! Your blog has to be cool! Your blog has to be awesome and fun. It absolutely has to have gimmicks and neat little tricks. That’s the key to success. Believe me, I’ve been in journalism for forty-seven years! I remember once at the Grushinsky Festival (a famous Russian bard music festival) we threw a party with some chicks. Man, that was wild. So you, too, have to become wild bloggers. I propose a new official slogan for this whole Union of Journalists crowd: "The Russian Union of Journalists: instead of retiring, we’ll teach you how to be trendy!!!" Yeah baby!