Lebanese TV presenter Grace Rayess meets Penza journalists and gives master class for PSU students

On the second day in Penza State University, the famous Lebanese journalist Grace Rayess visited the university history museum.

The guest noted that she was very interested in learning about the outstanding alumni and touring the exhibition.

“Zdravstvuyte! (Hello!) Kak dela? (How are you?)” Ms Rayess welcomed journalism students attended the master class. Even on the first day of her visit she expressed her intention to study Russian. It was the primary step of achieving her dream.

The guest delivered her report in the new lecture hall of the university e-library. The presentation was prepared in Russian. Ms Rayess specified that mass media both in Lebanon and in Russia performs the functions of the fourth power.

The communication was in the form of an open dialogue.

“If you speak about news, it is all about current events, not those happened a week ago,” the journalist stated and asked students about events covered in the media that interested students most. “Any journalist should start the day with news feeds,” she formulated the rule.

Speaking about Penza Ms Rayess emphasised that having seen the city, the journalist would never forget it. “Penza will be forever in my mind,” she explained.

“Any journalist has his personal take on events,” Ms Rayess stressed commenting basic principles of work. “The journalist always competes – against himself or against other journalists. This is the Golden Rule: be yourself. You can learn from others, adopt best practices, but you should create your own identity,” she added.

The students gave their own examples, expressed opinions and took part in the discussion.

In the afternoon Ms Rayess met with Penza journalists.

The meeting was attended by well-known journalists from Penza newspapers, television broadcasting companies and information agencies, they were Pavel Prokhorenkov, author and presenter of TV programmes on Channel Ekspress (Express), Mikhail Tikhomirov, commercial director of Channel Ekspress (Express), Pavel Shishkin, editor-in-chief in the newspaper “Penzenskaya pravda” (“Penza Truth”), Aleksandr Tuzov, head of information agency “Penza post”, Anatoly Bodrov, representative of the Agency for Information Policy and Mass Media of the Penza Region. The students from the Department of Journalism, V.G. Belinsky Institute of Teacher Education, also participated in the event.

The meeting addressed the issues related to the advancement of digital broadcasting both in Lebanon and in Russia and to the development of journalism in the whole. The participants also discussed the possibility of arranging internships for Russian students at Arts, Sciences and Technology University in Lebanon, where the guest lectures, and for Lebanese students at Penza State University in Russia.

“I enjoyed my being in Russia, in Penza and I appreciate your cordial welcome. I really liked your students. On returning to Beirut I am going to discuss the issue of organising internship of your students at our university with the university management. I hope that we will come to an agreement and send our journalist students to your university for interning. It is likely to become an interesting international project, beneficial for our universities. Interning abroad is valuable experience for students,” Grace Rayess stated.

“We are going to discuss this opportunity and promote our cooperation with Lebanon not only in the field of training medical students, but also journalists. As far as internship is concerned, this issue should be considered with regard to mutually beneficial cooperation,” Sergey Vasin, Vice-Rector for International Affairs, emphasised.

For photos please visit the official group in “VKontakte”.