Orlyonok opens five workshops for young journalists’ forum

The national Content. Rodina forum for journalists aged 14 to 16 opened at Russia’s Orlyonok children’s centre on October 10. Participants will work in five workshops covering video, photography, video podcasts, writing and artificial intelligence.

The teenagers work for youth newspapers, multimedia publications, radio programmes, television studios and creative associations. Natalya Tyurina of Rossiya Segodnya said the programme brings together 100 young media leaders.

The centre organised the forum with support from Russia’s Education Ministry and in partnership with Rossiya Segodnya, ON Media and YUNPRESS. Orlyonok director Aleksandr Dzheus said it is the centre’s first forum of this kind. Participants will create stories about Russian regions, their people, achievements and natural environments.

ON Media acting director general Dmitry Smirnov said the company’s specialists will run a workshop on educational video podcasts. The projects are intended to introduce teenagers to different formats and responsibility towards their audiences.

Photo editor Anna Markelova will lead the artificial intelligence workshop. Teams will research historical sources and develop an idea before creating images, scenes and short videos. A particular task will be distinguishing historically grounded reconstructions from material invented by an AI system.

Other planned work includes written stories, social media videos and photography projects. Each AI workshop team will produce a visual account of the past and present it as a media project.

The forum will finish with a festival of the best work. Organisers plan to publish projects in a dedicated RIA Novosti section, on ON Media platforms and through the Laboratory of Innovative Patriotic Journalism.