The VIII Gender Media School has finished its work in Kyiv. Teachers of the specialty “Journalism”  from different regions of Ukraine are invited to participate in it. The Department of Journalism and Philology of the Faculty of  FPSC SSU was represented by associate professors Olena Sushkova, Inna Sypchenko, Inna Gavrilyuk and assistant lecturer Yulia Koval.

The event was organized and conducted by the Volyn Press Club in partnership with the Gender Center of the Volyn Region, the Independent Public Network of Press Clubs of Ukraine with the support of the “Media Program”in Ukraine (Internews).

"Armed" with gender knowledge and filled with emotions – this is how you can describe three days of training.

So the first day. It was thing that laid the understanding of what was said later.

What is “gender”, “sex”, “gender equality”… The head of the “Gender Center of Volyn” Oksana Yarosh told all this to the participants. Then they talked about gender stereotypes and sexism, their varieties, manifestations, influences, as well as ways to prevent and counteract. Speaker – Natalia Tarasenko, expert, gender trainer, head of the “Paritet” (Zhytomyr). The discussion of the use of gender stereotypes in advertising has become especially lively in this aspect.

The second day. It can be called the most saturated.

Human rights and discrimination, how to counteract media discrimination, what correct vocabulary to use and what should be the gender-sensitive content of the Ukrainian media – said human rights activist, coach, chairman of the “Аxis” (Vinnytsia) Svitlana Dubyna.

This day also raised the ambiguous question about femininities in the media, in particular, what to focus on, using this layer of vocabulary, how to use it correctly. The speaker is the coordinator of the Volyn Press Club Bohdanа Stelmakh. She also presented a study on the gender sensitivity of regional media. Unfortunately, the Sumy media do not show the best results in terms of gender sensitivity and the use of femininities.

This aspect became a logical continuation of the panel discussion on national and regional mechanisms for the introduction of gender equality in Ukraine, the introduction of gender disciplines in the educational process, and so on. The speaker and moderator of the thematic module is Oksana Yarosh, the head of the “Gender Center of Volyn”.

The third day. He made me think and change my mind about many things.

Marta Chumalo, Deputy Head of the Center for Women’s Perspectives (Lviv), and I talked about gender-based domestic violence, the peculiarities of this problem, the necessary basic models for overcoming it, and the journalist’s work with victims of violence.

So should journalism be gender sensitive? The participants of the VIII Gender Media School found the answer to this question: it is necessary. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) states: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and must act in relation to each other in a spirit of brotherhood”.

Journalism of  SSU, as an educational program, will target future media outlets to broadcast this postulate.