Interfax manual officially included in library catalogs of 10 leading Russian universities and colleges
MOSCOW. Feb 20 (Interfax) - A manual on journalism, 'The Interfax Technology of Newsmaking. Style Guide', authored by the heads of Interfax news services has been officially included in the library catalogs of ten leading Russian universities and colleges.
The publication recommended by the Methods' Association for Classical University Education as a training aide was presented by Interfax to the libraries of the following educational institutions: Moscow State University named after M. V. Lomonosov, MGIMO, the Higher School of Economics, Kazan (Volga), Urals and Far Eastern Federal Universities, Voronezh and Kuban State Universities, the Institute of International Law and Economics named after A. S. Griboyedov (Moscow), and the Yaroslavl State Pedagogical University.
It is indicative that the popularity of the Interfax style guide has spilled beyond the boundaries of the Russian Federation as Yerevan State University (Armenia) became the eleventh educational institution at which the library officially "adopted" it.
"The first edition of our manual appeared at the beginning of 2011 in 2,000 copies and "sold out" in less than half a year. Such a successful beginning encouraged us to publish an additional edition in August 2011 that was ordered by major educational institutions of the country," said Yury Pogorely, one of the authors and Executive Director of the Financial-Economic Information Service of Interfax Group.
"Our publication is being actively introduced in the curricula of schools of journalism at the best Russian institutions of higher learning, where lectures are delivered and workshops held on its basis, some of them involving leading Interfax reporters and editors," he said adding that "in a short time 'The Interfax Technology of Newsmaking. Style Guide' won broad popularity becoming a bestseller not only among students but also in the professional community - among editors of the news media, lecturers at schools of journalism, and PR experts."
Pogorely said that in the medium term Interfax plans an enlarged edition of the manual. "I believe that we will get down to this task in approximately a year when some of our new genres and approaches to news coverage will be tested by time," he said.
So far Interfax is the only Russian media outlet to publish a manual based on its internal, actually observed standard of writing news that describes in detail the process of making, checking and publishing news reports supplemented by examples from the agency's newswires.
The standards of news reporting developed by Interfax in the late 1980s - early 1990s have become generally accepted by now. However, for the first time 'The Interfax Technology of Newsmaking. Style Guide' presents the details of the unique technology of making political and economic news at the agency to a broad circle of specialists.
Dean of the School of Journalism of Moscow State University Prof. Yelena Vartanova, Dr. Sc. (Philology), and head of the MGIMO chair of global information processes and resources of Andrei Korotkov, Dr. Sc. (Economics), acted as the reviewers of the manual.