12
January 2021

Irina Shurygina about the art of editing

Irina Shurygina spoke about peculiarities of training media editor and features of profession
Irina Lvovna Shurygina, Associate Professor, Candidate of Philological Sciences, Head of Department "Publishing and Bibliology" of Institute of Publishing and Journalism of Moscow Polytechnic University spoke to the publishing house "Journalist" about the features of vocational training of a media editor.

"There is no abbreviation "Media" in the name of our department, but we train specialists for media. We teach in the field of "Publishing" educational program: bachelor's and master's degree. There are two bachelor's degree programs. One, "Publishing", is aimed at training specialists in the book publishing industry. The second educational program is aimed at training those who will work in various media editorial offices: print, electronic and online periodicals. The name of this profile is "Newspaper and Magazine Publishing Industry."

Unlike department of Journalism, we focus on planning and interaction in the editorial team. We consider how the selection of topics goes and who is engaged in this in the editorial office, how the media content is edited and prepared for release. This includes design, all information systems and platforms on which periodical publishers operate in modern conditions. We pay attention to editing periodicals and content promoting in the context of convergence, which allows publishers to create book applications, TV shows, and radio programs based on print media. This direction enjoys increased attention among our students, as the media market is interesting by the nature of work and payment. Our basic courses are taught by specialists, and many of them have experience in the periodical field of publishing.

We teach students how to work with the text of the media. We have a discipline "Technology of the editorial and publishing process", the program of which considers all stages of editorial preparation of the publication. There is also a special discipline "Publishing Project Management", where students develop business plans, concepts, and form a team. In addition, within framework of the disciplines of "Editing Newspapers" and "Editing journals" we define typological features of a newspaper or magazine, consider what types of Newspapers and magazines exist, their thematic structure, what it depends on and what it is based on. The master's degree pays much attention to organizational and marketing aspects, publishing strategies, because without strategic planning the existence of any media today is simply doomed.

News journalism ceases to be interesting, it becomes the same everywhere. Rewriting does not provide an opportunity to view information from different angles. Everything is presented from the same angle. For example, you have the magazine "Journalist", and I have "Problems of Printing", we give information about the book fair. We have to have different texts, different presentation, and rewriting does not allow us to do this. It's very convenient to work this way. You can make a huge number of texts in a day, but this discourages the reader's interest, because their content is the same. In the 90s "MK" lived off paradoxical headlines. I heard that they used to pay $ 100 for each new headline to the text. It doesn't work now, because that's how everyone works today. In my opinion, rewriting leads to depersonalization. The editor should look at the text through the eyes of the reader.

Now the students are completely different. If earlier we taught ourselves, looked for the necessary information, and it took a lot of time, now they get any information in one click. Do you remember how the main character of the comedy "The Minor" Mitrofanushka said: "Why should I study geography when I have a coachman?" Why should they learn something today, when there are Yandex and Google, where everything is actually done for them. They are informed, but they are not taught to process this information in school. As a result, they come to us very knowledgeable, but not able to use their knowledge properly. Our task is to teach how to form a student's request for information; teach to analyze the material and apply the knowledge gained in practice.

An editor is a person who turns an author's work into an edition and paves the way from author to reader. The trouble is when the editor basically rewrites a bad text for the author. I always say that there is no need to waste time on it. If you see that the text is not suitable, be honest about it. If a person wants to work - help and prompt him/her. After all, that's what the job of an editor."

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