In your point of view, how do journalists feel about innovations, science, research and development? Is this topic meaningful for them?

As for the way journalists perceive science and innovations, one can say that there is an approach, shared by practically all, even top-level, non-scientific publications, covering what happens in science: “Please, tell us in plain language what it is that you do”. As for “Expert South”, we are primarily interested in the institutional structure of the innovative activity. We touch upon technological processes to a lesser extent, partly because we have people with background in economics and humanities in our office and no “techies”. Therefore, we primarily deal with the innovative structure in the region and position ourselves in the Russian South as a middleman bringing together the interests of business and authorities, as well as business and society. We believe that our task is to reconcile the interests of key social actors, within the innovation process and beyond. And here I primarily refer to business and authorities.

In your point of view, what is the main challenge in innovation promotion?

This is an acute problem, but it is not limited to journalism and is present in the whole of society. Our society formed a habit of burying ideas. For instance, all worthy ideas that are generated by authorities are immediately interpreted by society as yet another pretext for fund-raising. An ordinary article can provoke the storm of negative comments about budget money siphoned off, and the topic of innovation and modernization fits well within this trend. This perception is generated by people who do not want to make sense of what is really going on. And there are very few people in the press who are willing to understand how the real-life innovation process unfolds.

Why do most regional media know nothing about the innovation process and fail to understand it?

Even worse, they do not know and do not want to know. This is due to the fact that our society thinks that there is something wrong about our country and that our government does god-knows-what. What can be done then? I believe that participants of the innovation process (government, universities, business, non-profit organizations etc.) ought to understand who in the mass media they need and arrange relevant training programs at least for them. I happen to know a lot of journalists and I see that our press has a good potential and this action may bring about positive results.

In my point of view, at the initial stage the most efficient strategy would be to identify journalists and publications with which the region wants to cooperate and launch an educational campaign for them, telling them what the innovations are, why they are useful and why one should write about them. One should pay attention to the business media, i.e. press that is business-oriented and reflects the interests of the business community.

Can the mass media participate in positioning the region at the national level?

In fact, a brand, a recognizable name of the city or region (recognizable at different levels: district, country, economic macroregion, or world as a whole) is, of course, a matter of policy. Therefore, all interested actors ought to streamline their relations with authorities, as it is their task. Efforts required to position the region provide a forum for the business and authorities to hold discussions, in the course of which all their antagonisms will be highlighted. This is a field of very productive interaction, which would very hard and tough in the beginning, but will bring about positive results in the long run.

The topic of investment attraction to the Russian regions started to be seen from the new perspective after the financial crisis that had intensified competition for investment, as investors chose those who positioned themselves in a more advantageous manner. The mass media consider this topic interesting, especially if the region competes with its neighbors. Therefore, it is easier to attract journalists to the topic of investment than to that of innovation. However, investment is, in its turn, part of the innovation process.

What are the requirements imposed by innovative development on journalism as a profession?

Journalists ought to understand the logic of the innovation process as a whole. The key question is: what perception does a person, who has nothing to do with science and innovation, hold about those issues? A journalist imagines it as follows: “researchers sit in the lab, invent something and then try to somehow introduce it into practice” or “there are people in the lab, they write grant applications, grants are awarded, they write reports, and the output is not that important”. Thus, the process of research and innovation gets fragmented. And in order to attract attention of the mass media, it should be restructured and holistic picture of the innovative activities in the region needs to be created.