Last week, November 1-2, our LCC Communication Department Chair, Dr. Michael Finch and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Journalism, Michael Ray Smith participated in the Novomedia Forum (Новомедіа Форум), hosted by Ruslan Kuharchuk in Kyiv, Ukraine. Dr. Michael Finch's presentation included brainstorming on overcoming the impulse to highlight skepticism in mainstream news to faithfully report news and capture the unique voice of a source. Dr. Michael Ray Smith provided strategies for the hard-to-get interview. To get a relevant quotation when it is warranted, a journalist does not have to make an appointment with an assistant but go straight to the source.

During the conference, Dr.Finch and Dr. Smith met with Meagan Kay Clark of Religion Unplugged, a news website; Yevhen Fedchenko, director of the Mohyla School of Journalism in Kyiv, Makarenko Olena of Eurmaidan news; and a number of journalists and would-be journalists including Yevgen Pashkovsky of Blyskavka Media.

"Ukraine is finding its voice of freedom and the press is the megaphone," said Smith. "Reporters are keenly aware that information traveling East and West must be fact-checked to avoid added to the background noise of inaccurate reports."

Photo credits: Новомедіа Форум (Novomedia Forum)