Three days of non-stop discussions, film screenings, workshops, portfolio reviews and exhibitions made for and made about journalism – EVN Report conducted the first-ever Media Festival.
On May 27-29, 2022, EVN Report brought together local and international reporters, editors, photographers and filmmakers to address the role of media in Armenia and beyond.
Collecting experiences of journalists working for foreign The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Moscow Times, LRT, etc. and local Hetq, Mediamax, Civilnet, etc., the festival became a platform to explore a wide range of issues from various perspectives. During the panel discussions, panelists elaborated on topics from war reporting to political narratives.
The prominent part of the visual segment of the festival echoed the 2020 Artsakh War. “Post-War Truths” exhibition by 4 PLUS collected the works of six photographers capturing the aftermath of the war, and “Da(i)mages” installation by Karen Mirzoyan exposed the actual, physical destruction that comes along with the war.
Speaking about another installation, “1988-2022: History in Motion,” that gathered news coverage of the past 30 years of Armenian history, Maria Titizian, the EVN Report editor-in-chief and AUA lecturer, recalled why a journalist’s duty of capturing historical events and transforming them into narratives is so important. “We try to put things in context to understand the forces and factors that are shaping our society,” she said. The festival itself defined the context of the current condition and development of journalism in Armenia. “With the Editors Panel, we [the participants] realized that we have to communicate more often, we have to collaborate more often,” said Titizian. “We share similar challenges as independent media – funding, competing against media that’s owned by political parties or powerful people for their own political agendas. How do we get our stories out? How do we compete with social media, algorithms?”
Though, at its core, the festival targeted students, young journalists, the public and the Armenian community “to see how journalism works; the work involved in becoming a journalist,” said Titizian. Over the course of the festival, hundreds of young people, including AUA students volunteering, got involved in the discussions, interacting with the panelists and participating in workshops. “I really enjoyed the first hall of the festival that was dedicated to the war and protests,” shared Yeva Asatryan, EC rising Junior, one of the volunteers on the festival. “It was done so tastefully and left an interesting aftertaste in my mind.”
EVN Report’s Media Festival lets young people interested in journalism dive deep into the processes involved in journalistic storytelling. It also served as a spark for experienced journalists “to return to the basics,” said Titizian. It reminded them of the importance of “understanding [the media’s] power, using it in a positive way to help, encourage institutions to grow, to make the government accountable.”
“Why did we become journalists?” Titizian expressed. “To tell stories, to inform, to educate, to inspire people.”
