Printer-friendly version

On february 6, 2012, a training “New Media and Civil Society” took place in Moscow. It was attended by 30 activists from NGOs in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. The training was held by Dmitry Makarov and Maria Gordeeva.

Unlike traditional, new media doesn't have a barrier between the author of the subject,  information and a recipient. The instantaneous distribution of information, drawing large attention to the topic, no censorship, influence, interactivity, the tendency of using new Internet resources ― all of the above are distinctive features of the modern media space, which all civil rights activists need to explore. Many bloggers can already compete with mass media in audience coverege.

The expert Igor Sazhin showed how his local organization in Republic of Komi uses the blogosphere and how it affects the decision making of local authorities. The representative of popular website “Grani.ru” Veniamin Dmitroshkin taught a master class on creating video concerning civil subjects and showed how to attract the attention of users.

Comments of the participants:
Violetta, Voronezh: “The training gave an opportunity not only to learn new methods of work in modern media, such as making videos, but also to pay more attention to the instruments that we already know but underestimated their importance in relation to our  work with civil society. For example, monitoring regional  forums which are still very popular.”

Daria, Kharkov: “It was a surprise to learn that all these media can be used to defend human rights; and even more surprise that governmental authorities read blogs of the activists. New information gives an incentive to think about new prospects in defending human rights.”

Nastya, Minsk: “It was very useful because it is deeply connected with practice. People talked about their experience, so it is clear what is better to use. I was also very glad that we had an opportunity to share our experience with each other. It would be great to add homework to the master class on creating video, so that we could practice, and the experts would comment on our work.”

The organizers of the event - Moscow Helsinki Group and International Youth Human Rights Movement - set a course to create permanent educational platform aimed at promotion of new technologies in NGOs activities.

Vadim Karastelev,
Moscow Helsinki Group