What are the rules on writing a good article? How do you choose a hot topic to report on? Journalist Maxim Baluev of local newspaper Prestige answered these and many other questions on 21st December as part of a masterclass on the ‘Secrets of Successful Interviewing’. The class was organized for students at L.N. Tolstoy Secondary School №4 in the town of Stepnogorsk participating in the YRE programme and Litter Less Campaign.

At the invitation of the project’s school coordinators, Maxim Baluev led an interesting literacy project on journalism for the participants. The masterclass was not restricted to theory. Maxim also gave the event participants the opportunity to act as real journalists, having come up with a list of practical tasks (training). In these tasks the ‘young reporters’ composed intriguing headlines and lead paragraphs, annotated speeches and presented dramatization.

The open mike session, during which the participants were able to ask the journalist questions related to their own work, was particularly popular. From the reaction in the auditorium it was clear that the journalistic profession raises many questions and the participants were curious to find out more about those working in the industry.

Author: Aipkhan Nurlanov, L.N. Tolstoy Secondary School №4, Stepnogorsk