April 2001

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Students study media in Moscow

Group learns about Russian media, politics at top university

Ten students from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication spent five days studying at the Moscow State Institute for International Relations, or MGIMO, during spring break in March.

From March 11 to March 17, students took a rare opportunity for a free trip to Moscow and to a visit to a school that some UNC-CH professors call the best university in the new Russia. This is the second UNC-CH trip to MGIMO, but it was the first for the School.

Robert Stevenson, Kenan professor, led the group, which consisted of junior Brian Bedsworth; seniors Christine Van Cott, Mike Klein, Tomas Murawski, Laura Stoehr and Regina Willis; master's students Rusty Haynes and Rebecca Morphis; doctoral students Jesus Meza and Richard Landesberg.

Stevenson said the School chose these students from a field of more than 70 applicants based on their interest in international studies, advanced foreign-language study (though not necessarily Russian), and experience with foreign travel or study abroad.

The students stayed at MGIMO's campus, on Moscow's outskirts, and attended English-language lectures from the school's faculty about Russian politics, international relations and the state of the Russian media. The group also visited the office of the Interfax news group, Russian TV and a new commercial newspaper called Komarsant.

MGIMO was the exclusive training center for journalists and the Foreign Service during the Soviet era, and Stevenson said it was heavily involved with the KGB, the Soviet intelligence agency.

Today MGIMO is a semiprivate university with a focus on journalism, political science and a strong language program, said David Pike, a professor of German at UNC-CH who started the program three years ago after traveling to MGIMO to research the Soviet occupation of East Germany.

Last spring, a group of students from the political science department made the trip, and Stevenson said next year's trip probably would be from the School of Library Science.

Pike said he chose the School of Journalism and Mass Communication for this year's trip because of the involvement of some faculty members and the initiative of Dean Richard Cole.

"Dean Cole is the single biggest booster of this program," Pike said. Also, he said, MGIMO's faculty is very eager to have a relationship with the School. Andrei Silantiev, dean of the MGIMO journalism program, visited the School for a week last fall, and several of the School's faculty members, including Professor Chuck Stone and Cole, have visited and lectured at MGIMO.

Although the University pledged money to run the program as an experiment for three years, Pike said he is looking for funding outside of UNC-CH. He said he hopes UNC-CH/MGIMO will become an official exchange program for faculty and students.

"I would put the question to you, 'What relationship with a country is more important?'" Pike said, adding that this kind of contact between Russia and the United States is important for students to experience a great culture and to promote strong post-cold war relations.

Pike said this kind of program could become a fairly inexpensive full-semester program, but he likes the fact that students have the opportunity to travel for free.

"How often do students get freebies like this?" he said.

Isaac Groves is a junior in the news-editorial sequence.