An international office

One of the best things about working in a multinational team is – despite the occasional misunderstanding it causes – the linguistic diversity. We’re always learning new expressions and about how other cultures see things. Like when we were discussing the EYMD programme the other day and we realised that in each of our native languages we have the same idiom, but expressed differently. So while in English we say “to kill two birds with one stone”, Germans say “to kill two flies with one fly swat” (2 Fliegen mit einer Klappe schlagen), and in Romania it’s “to kill two rabbits with one shot” (“a împuşca doi iepuri dintr-o lovitură”). Trust the English version to be the least logical – who kills birds with stones? We were also discussing tabloids and the most important page in them: “page 1 girls” in Germany are the equivalent to what Anglophones call “page 3 girls”, and in Romania they’re all the way back on page 5.

There’s bound to be plenty more language comparisons – especially once we get our organizing team together and welcome another 40 or so European journalists into our community!

Coordination team in Strasbourg

We’ve spent the past few days here in the press room of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. It’s an exciting week – as it’s the first session for the newly elected parliament, which includes 370 new MEPs. No legislation is being voted on, but there’s still quite a buzz here in the press room – Monday marked the 30^th anniversary of direct European elections; and the election of the new Polish EP president, Jerzy Buzek (EPP), marks a milestone too, given that Poland only joined the EU 5 years ago.

So what are we doing here? Well, the EYMD are officially hosted by the European Parliament, and we (as part of the European Youth Press) are responsible for the organisational side. For this to work, we need close cooperation with MEPs and with Parliament staff, who we’ll be needing both to participate in workshops and discussions, but also to help communicate our event all throughout the EU. It’s important too that we’re really up to date with what’s going on in the Parliament between now and October – that we know what MEPs are working on, when we’ll be able to get hold of them – and that we establish as soon as possible who we want to work with. It’s also been a great chance to see the way things work from inside the press room and to begin working together in these busy, multilingual surroundings. And while we’re here, we’ve also managed to meet with the Council of Europe to discuss possible cooperation with them.

The new parliament has the potential to make for an interesting next term, with new political groups formed and an increased number of eurosceptic and nationalist members. 35% of MEPs are women, and members include 3 former Commissioners and 8 former prime ministers. This morning’s lively session reviewing the Czech presidency of the EU saw Nigel Farage of the highly eurosceptic UK Independence Party taking on Mr Barroso, seated just 2 seats away: “You don’t ever support the results of democratic processes, it’s all about power, it’s all about you and the institutions… I hope the Irish tell you all where to go!” Barroso’s only response was to point out that if Farage was allowed to display the British flag at his seat, then he’d do the same – and he happily displayed his own – conveniently available – EU flag. This afternoon, a joint press conference with EP president, Commission president and Swedish PM revealed more confusion than anything else about how things are going to proceed in the next six months until the treaty deadlock is cleared up. Interesting times…

Behind the scenes – an introduction

 

Our coordination team is finally all in the same country and we’re really excited to be getting stuck in. We’ve already spent a few weeks working from home, discussing ideas via Skype conference calls – across 3 time zones. As useful as online communication is, meeting up face-to-face on Monday has made things much easier. We’re currently in Strasbourg where we’re spending a few days in the European Parliament, but on Friday we’ll be back in Brussels and the EYMD office will buzzing once more.

Now that our team is fully operational here’s a quick introduction to the people you’ll be hearing a lot more from over the next few months. Jona from Germany and Anna from Northern Ireland (till mid-August) are Project Coordinators, responsible for overall coordination of the Media Days, from obtaining funding to relations with MEPs to publicising the event, and more. Denisa from Romania is Programme Coordinator, and also works on overall coordination, but is more specifically responsible for designing and supervising the programme. Between us we have loads of experience in journalism, new media, international event organisation, EU institutions and communications. Both Jona and Denisa were involved in last year’s EYMD organisation.

We can’t wait to see what ideas and initiatives emerge over the next few months – we’ll keep you posted!

Join the European Youth Media Days Team 2009

Creative? Energetic? Media-mad?
Ready to dive in? Join our Team on http://join.youthmediadays.eu !

From 14-16 October 2009, the European Parliament with the support of the European Youth Press will host the 3rd European Youth Media Days in Brussels.

More than 200 young journalists from across the European continent will gather at the European Parliament to produce print, online and audiovisual media, and to discuss European politics and journalism. This will be a unique opportunity for participants to interact and share experiences with young journalists of different backgrounds, to participate in workshops and panel discussions with experts – and to get an insider’s view of Brussels.

You can actively shape this event by joining our organisational team! We need up to 40 experienced young journalists, communications whizzes and organisational superbrains to facilitate workshops, communicate and promote the event, design the programme and organise and manage various parts of the event. Experience is a bonus, but above all, we want motivation and creativity!

This work experience offers an insight into the worlds of media and politics at a European level as well as a network of valuable contacts plus excellent experience for a future career in journalism or project management.

Apply for the team on: http://join.youthmediadays.eu/
Have a look at our Team Call on http://join.youthmediadays.eu/Apply_for_EYMD-Team.pdf

We are looking forward to seeing your ideas and building up a top-notch team for the European Youth Media Days 2009!

Twitter: http://twitter.com/EYMD
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/European-Youth-Media-Days/88701517827?ref=

Opening video of the final presentation

European journalism is possible!

The European Youth Media Days in Brussels have shown: European Journalism is possible!Here you will soon find the media outcomes of the event. See you next year or even before – somewhere in Europe…

Awarded journalists: It’s not easy to report on European issues

On Friday, the European Parliament awarded for the first time the European Parliament Prize for Journalism. 70 journalist, the winners on the national level, were invited to join the ceremony. With their articles, radio and TV reports, they all achieved outstanding contributions for a better understanding of the European Union, Hans-Gert Pöttering, President of the European Parliament, stated. According to him “the European Union needs a critical look from outside, therefore it is important that how the EU acts is beeing acompanied in a critical, but fair and objective way.”

According to the prize winning journalists, it is not the easy to excercise an objective journalism on European issues. Listen to the interviews below to get to know more. Read the rest of this entry »

Journalists in unsexy Europe – Discussion about politics and communication in the EU

The question how Europe should be communicated to citizens shows a clash between politicians and journalists. Is it the journalists’ task to communicate the EU? Read the rest of this entry »

A Full Address Book

At 5 p.m. a “round table debate” recorded by Radio Nantes took place in the Vox Box area. Six participants from the radio workshop “United We stand” met workshop participants from the four other media fields. They discussed about their experience at the EYMD so far, as well as their personal background, their plans and expectations for the next two days, as well as their opinion about the European Union.

 

A young journalist from Latvia explained how he had campaigned against Latvia joining the European Union. He felt that “the pressure of the government to join was so dominant, that there was no room for other opinions”. He pointed out that across and within the member states, there are those that profit, but also those that lose because of the European Union. “But now that we have joint, we have to make the most of it”, he added and he sounded a lot more enthusiastic when he talked about meeting other European journalists at the EYMD.

 

Everyone in the round agreed that having the possibility to work together with other young journalists from so many countries is above all “inspiring and giving hope”. The facilitator of the radio workshop André Feldhof had to think for a moment about what he will take home from the EYMD. “A full address book”, he concluded.

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A Light at the End of Corridor

To get to the print workshop “Fear your friends?” one simply has to take the walkway on the third floor to the Willy Brand House, walk to the back, take the elevator to the second floor, and walk to the very end of the corridor, where the rooms have no windows. If you expect to find a group of tired, unmotivated people dying to go outside and discover the streets of Brussels, you are wrong.

 

The participants of the workshop are as excited as the workshop facilitators. Everyone has already started working on one of the seven articles they want to produce. The topics are regionalism, discrimination, and fear between European countries and how to overcome them. Out of the seven posters full of ideas, they have chosen topics like homosexuality, or music and football as a means to overcome fear of others. The format will be a “mini indigo magazine”. Indigo is a European print magazine, issued in seven languages, and made by a team of over a hundred European volunteers. It is a perfect example of what European media could look like.

 

None of the participants had heard about Indigo before the workshop, but they are excited about what they have learned today. “We will make a mini version of an Indigo magazine and if the articles are good enough, they might even make it into the real Indigo”, explains one of the participants. The table is covered with lose papers, and several posters full of ideas decorate the walls. It looks like serious work – a creative chaos.

 

“We didn’t really have time for an introduction today, but we already had a drink together last night”, says workshop facilitator Irene Sacchi, the chief editor of the Italian Indigo. The work will go on until “at least nine o’ clock”. But no one really seems to mind.

 

More information about indigo you can find at www.indigomag.eu

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