I arrived in Moscow on a cold and snowy February morning last week, and felt as if I was 43 years late getting here. But the wait was worth it.
You see, I ALMOST came to Russia when I was 13, in 1961. It was the beginning of Fidel Castro’s arrival in Cuba, and, as a child actor, I played a meaty secondary role in a film titled “The Young Rebel,” one of the first films made by the Cuban Cinematographic Institute under Castro. As the film prepared for its premiere, my parents were informed that I would have to fly to Moscow, to a film festival, for the celebrations.
That is all my father had to hear to secure a visa and a ticket for me to get on a Pan American Airways flight to Miami. The rest was, as we say, history.
So I arrived in Moscow not as a child actor, but as a veteran visual journalist, and, ironically, with an American passport and sponsored by the U.S. State Department on a special cultural mission as a specialist in visual journalism.
Of course, the Russian journalists to whom I told this story smiled, aware that the completion of a full circle in someone’s life always makes for good copy.
I was invited by two organizations — IREX and Eurasia Foundation. IREX is a nonprofit U.S. organization based in Washington, D.C., specializing in education, independent media, Internet development, and civil society programs in the United States, Europe, Eurasia, the Middle East and North Africa, and Asia. Its mission is to foster democracy in transitioning societies by strengthening educational, nongovernmental, and media organizations and training the next generation of leaders.
In Russia, IREX projects include the Russian Independent Print Media Program, which is supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development and works with newspapers across Russia as they improve their content and strengthen their business viability.
The Eurasia Foundation is a privately managed nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting programs that build democratic and free market institutions in the 12 New Independent States of the former Soviet Union. Programs aimed at development of viable and non-partisan independent media are among the core activities of the Foundation.
And, so, here I was, ready to do several things: 1. Participate in the first ever newspaper design contest in the Russian Federation. 2. Conduct master classes for journalists. 3. Lecture to journalism students at Moscow State University.
Newspaper Design Contest 2003:
Some conclusions after judging dozens of Russian newspapers entered in the contest:
- The state of visual journalism in Russia is still in its infancy. As we judges looked at the dozens of newspapers entered for evaluation, we soon realized that, although many designers attempt to offer visual surprises, the majority of newspapers have not embraced the concepts of WED (writing-editing-design).
- Many stories beg for a graphic or a pull out box with additional information.
- Photos and illustrations are used often as decoration, not to enhance the storytelling process, and seldom do they refer to the stories they accompany.
- Color, too, is used as a decorative tool, and not in a practical manner.
- The best-designed newspapers have adhered to a very formula-like format, and seldom break away to offer visual surprises.
- Like their counterparts in the U.S. and Europe in the early 1980s, Russian newspaper editors have not embraced visual journalism as an integral part of their newsroom operations; few newspapers have art directors or the equivalent, and where they exist, the role of the art director is still not clearly defined, or the skills of the art director are not used to their full potential. I spent considerable time discussing this important aspect of visual journalism.
- The concept of white space as punctuation on a page is not practiced. Elements tend to pile up on top of each other.
Yet, one sees moments of creativity: some designers play with illustrations, make them pop on the page; others attempt graphics. It is obvious that many challenges are still ahead, but all the journalists and designers I met are willing to take the next step, and to make their newspapers look and read better.
“We are making progress, a little at a time, and it is interesting to see that regional newspapers seem to be taking to the new concepts of adapting visual journalism strategies much faster than some of the larger dailies in Moscow. This newspaper design contest is only a beginning,” said Dmitri Surnin, a University of Missouri graduate, who directs media programs at the Eurasia Foundation, Moscow.
Russian newspapers credit IREX programs with helping them to begin thinking “visually” and introducing elements of modern design into their editorial processes. “There is still much work to be done, and IREX expects the teaching materials resulting from Newspaper Design 2003 will further these efforts as well as fostering a sense of community and professionalism among Russia’s newspaper designers,” according to Drusilla Menaker, an American journalist who directs the IREX program.
Bringing visual journalism to Russian newspapers is only one of the challenges facing the IREX and Eurasia staffers. Other issues that command equal importance are distribution and printing, which are virtual monopolies; and the advertising market, which is in its infancy.
“Many of these newspapers don’t know the first thing about selling advertising, it is all new to them,” Menaker said. “Journalists in the non-state media face legal and physical threats while working for meager pay in under-resourced news organizations. All kinds of pressures, from tax inspections to law suits, are brought on newspapers trying to provide an independent voice to their communities. Tremendous credit must be given to those Russian journalists, editors and media managers who nonetheless seek fresh ideas and better skills through training programs such as those offered by IREX’s media program.”
The Teaching of Visual Journalism at Moscow State University
A highlight of my visit was to give a Master Class to journalism students with an interest in newspaper design, and about 30 students and their professors showed up for the occasion.
The students were eager to learn more, and, surprisingly, the majority spoke fluent English. After my lecture, the students invited me to sit with them in their classroom, and showed me an edition of the student newspaper, Journalist, a four-page tabloid totally edited and designed by students. MSU’s School of Journalism enrolls almost 3,000 students.
I had a short meeting with Professor Yassen Zassoursky, who has served as Dean of the Faculty of Journalism at Moscow State University for over 40 years. He agreed on the importance of visual journalism in the curriculum, and said “we have made some inroads, but not enough yet.”
Magazine Design: Where Visual Journalism Truly Shines
As part of my visit, I also held a master class for magazine designers, and it was obvious that visual journalism is practiced well in the magazine world in Russia. Many magazines are local versions of Western magazines, such as Harper’s Bazaar, Condé Nast, Maxim, and Time Out, but, in each case, the level of professionalism among art directors, and their work, excels, and in many cases compares or is superior to what one sees in magazines in the rest of the world.
Perhaps newspaper designers will take a cue from their magazine counterparts and make visuals an integral part of what they do.
“I think it is essential that an editor communicate well with his art director,” said Ilya Tsentsiper, an editorial director at Afisha Publishers, one of Russia’s most forward-thinking magazine publishing houses.
Perhaps he will pass along this message to his newspaper editor counterparts.
And, oh, yes, although I did not arrive in Moscow as the “young rebel” of 1961, to some of the journalists and students in my class I still brought a bit of “revolution” — of the visual journalism kind.
Not bad, considering I arrived 43 years late.
