By Tiruhi Tonoyan
During the Armenian stage of the project Media Dialogue for Pluralism and Understanding we listened to a keynote speech by Ani Kocharyan. She is the director of the Media Training Studio in Gyumri and the assistant director of the regional TV channel Tsayg TV.
She talked about the studio, its activity, the TV channel and media education for the youth. The studio was founded in 2015 in Gyumri. Its aim is to train qualified personnel for the media sphere. She came up with the the idea of establishing a media training studio, because she thinks only studying in a university is not enough to become a journalist. In her opinion there should be a place, where students do not only learn theory but also have the opportunity to put into practice what they have learned.
In the beginning the courses were held only for teenagers, but there were suggestions to organize trainings for children too, so the program got extended. The first two to three months their students learn about journalism theoretically, then they start practicing in Tsayg TV. After finishing the courses, Tsayg TV together with the Media Training Center helps the best students to find a job.
She also added, that because of the new coronavirus unfortunately the media studio cannot continue its activity completely. Now the courses are held only for teenagers. “If it is possible to study online at schools, then our work is impossible to do online”, she said. Children should see how the journalists work, what tools and methods they use and of course they should work together with them. It is hard to organize during the pandemic for the safety of the children.
