An international autumn school DIREPA "Analysis of the Media Discourse on the Representation of Europe's Historical Past in Online Media" took place from 19 to 21 November 2018 at Penza State University. The project is financially supported by the German-French Institute and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany.

On the first day of the training, Hedwig Wagner, a Professor at the European University Flensburg (Germany), presented a project that was realized in collaboration with the European University of Flensburg and the University of Cergy-Pontoise (France). In addition, students and teachers of the PSU learnt the media area of Russia and Germany (the lectures were held by the Head of the Department of Journalism Ekaterina Reva and Professor Hedwig Wagner).

On November 20th and 21st workshops with Prof. Wagner took place. 60 students of the Faculty of History, Foreign Languages and Literature with a focus on foreign languages and journalism learnt the analysis of the media discourse in the European Science School (lectured by Prof. Wagner) and in the Russian School of Science (the lecture was presented by the Head of the Department of Foreign Languages and Methods of Teaching Foreign Languages Ekaterina Aleshina). Tatiana Glotova, an associate professor of the Department of Automated Engineering, gave participants the opportunity to use various computer programs, applications and online services for searching and processing information. Tatiana Razuvaeva, the Head of the Department of Language Training and International Examinations, showed in practice the possibilities of working with the LexiCo, a computer program to perform a lexical-graphic analysis of texts, as well as the possibilities of working with the Hyphe online application for creating and editing a media corpus in the internet area. All participants of the workshop received participation certificates.

During the visit, Professor Wagner met with the Vice Rector for International Affairs Sergei Vasin. At the meeting, they agreed to continue the cooperation between universities within the existing European consortium LEMEL.

Prof. Wagner also met with the students of the TV studio in the Department of Journalism. The boys interviewed the German professor and discussed the future of television and the press in Russia and Germany.

The next meeting of DIREPA project participants is planned for July 2019 and should take place in Bucharest, Romania.