THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOFT SKILLS OF STUDENTS IN THE BACHELOR OF JOURNALISM THROUGH MULTIMEDIA LONGREAD

Abstract

In the contemporary, rapidly changing world, nurturing students' soft skills remains a critical challenge for the professional education system. The future professional success of graduates hinges on the effective development of these skills. Soft skills were considered as universal practical, communication and management qualities of a person that allow them to effectively or best perform assigned tasks, ensuring the desired result. The research examines the soft skills of undergraduate journalism students in Armenia, including their attitudes and assessment of 10 outlined skills. These skills were derived from multiple international studies and interviews conducted with employers and personnel managers. The selection of soft skills was also carried out taking into account the peculiarities of the organization of media work in the conditions of modern information technologies. While preparing a professional task, a longread, we observed the impact of soft skills on students' attitudes through self-analysis, as well as the changes in their perceptions towards these skills. Multimedia extensive story (longread) is a journalistic product, the prerequisite for its creation is ideological and creative cooperation. It simultaneously involves the use of various journalistic materials (audiovisual and animation materials, photographs, graphs, maps, etc.) and genres that are harmoniously combined into one. The approach advocates the effectiveness of incorporating the development of soft skills into the higher education system through the integration of professional subjects and tasks, as it significantly boosts students' motivation. The significance of an individually tailored "road" program for the development of soft skills for each student was also emphasized, as it holds the potential to become a key factor in ensuring their future professional success.