Social Media Day, Maastricht

The social media day initiative

An initiative of social media news blog Mashable, Social Media Day on 30 June, 2010 was an attempt to gather social media fans and users in cities around the world on the same day.

“Social media has changed our lives. It has not only changed the way we communicate, but the way we connect with one another, consume our news, conduct our work, organize our lives, and much more. It’s a revolution worth celebrating,” Mashable wrote on its blog.

The Social Media Day in Maastricht was one of 600 meetups that took place in 93 countries.

Organised by the European Journalism Centre (EJC), the event gave Maastricht residents a platform to talk about the impact social media on their lives and what role they play in a city like Maastricht, especially in the light of Maastricht’s bid to become the European Cultural Capital in 2018.

Planning is everything

The Maastricht Social Media Day 2010 organising team consisted of a few members of the EJC (staff members Eszter Pakozdi, Emma Brewin, Veronica Krupova,Brook DuBois and cameramen Ivan Picart and Remko Nijsten), along with two independent social media users (Mitchell Lee and Monika Saraca).

The event was planned as an international, informal and social evening, consisting of a series of themed presentations/workshops and a final overall group discussion, all held in English.

The promotion effort was done via social sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Couchsurfing and immediately gave encouraging results.

Through Facebook alone, 37 people confirmed their participation, with 49 indicating that they ‘might attend’. This example is a clear demonstration of how fast messages travel through social media channels.

Due to the high level of interest, the initial location (Jules and You office) had to be changed to a more spacious one (the Cafe de Twee Heeren conference room upstairs).

In the end however, it appeared that in spite of their information-spreading capabilities, social media platforms are not necessarily reliable channels: only 16 of those Facebookers showed up. Nine participants joined the event through personal invitations.

Six speakers were invited to provide the audience with a general overview of the emergence and the impact of social media in our society, highlighting the connections between social media and business, social media and activism, and social media and participatory journalism.

After a short introduction, the evening began with the presentation of Nicolaas Pereboom from Crossmint, explaining the origins and development of social media. Then Klaus Röhrig from Amnesty International explained how activist organisations can utilise social media. Our third speaker, Irene Senden, gave a presentation about the business social platform, LinkedIn. Speaking from a more local perspective, Sofia Tussis and Seraina Soldner of Maas Media introduced the concept of participatory journalism.

Lei Meisen from VIA 2018, who was to introduce Maastricht’s Cultural Capital concept, informing the audience about the city’s goals and ways of reaching them,  regrettably cancelled his presentation, due to unforeseen circumstances.

Meisen’s absence left the audience wondering about Maastricht’s Cultural Capital concept, all the more since the VIA 2018 website provides no information to the largely English-speaking international community in Maastricht.

Tinkering with participation


Three workshops followed the presentations.

The workshop led by Klaus from the Amnesty International Maastricht Student group looked at how social media can be used to mobilise people and small organisations. Participants were asked to reflect on how student groups can contribute to support Maastricht’s bid for 2018. Lack of integration of foreign students within the city of Maastricht, due in part to the language barrier, was identified as an important obstacle. A possible solution could be the creation of more multilingual cultural programmes to encourage bottom-up/grassroots cultural initiatives in the city. International student groups such as Amnesty International Maastricht Student mainly consist of foreign students who say that they are not involved in activities run in Dutch.

In their workshop about participatory journalism, Sofia and Seraina from Maas Media, a student initiative aiming at encouraging individuals participation in journalism, highlighted the role that media platforms can play in helping Maastricht become a more thriving cultural city, by “collecting existing initiatives across the region and pooling them under a virtual umbrella”. They also emphasised “the need for media to act as a catalyst and to create events where participants can contribute to make local life richer” and “the necessity to keep close to local stories”. The main goal of participatory journalism as they see it is to help spread opinions (ie. blogging) in a community in order to enhance cohesion within a community and to encourage the will to organise and attend cultural events.

The goal of the LinkedIn workshop was to investigate whether LinkedIn could be used to help Maastricht’s 2018 bid. Once again, the language barrier was identified as a main obstacle for the international community, since the discussion on the VIA 2018 group on LinkedIn is carried out in Dutch.  Since translation is not an option on the website, participants concluded that social media such as LinkedIn can only be a helpful tool to support Maastricht’s bid if the dialogue takes place in more languages. Participants also suggested that by excluding non-Dutch speakers Maastricht loses a large number of potential supporters. It was noted that most Dutch people have an excellent command of English, and, more importantly, seem to be happy to use English in their communication via social channels (eg. many links and messages on Facebook are posted in English by Dutch people).

Social media: for integration?

The final group discussion brought everyone back together for a deeper conclusion.

After giving a general overview on the negative and positive aspects of social media platforms and discussing privacy issues on Facebook and best practices on Twitter, the organisers invited the audience to suggest ideas to help Maastricht’s Cultural Capital bid.

Lack of local integration among the large number of international students and foreign residents working for locally based international organisations such as the EJC, as well as language barriers, were flagged as key concerns.

Participants were keen to share their opinions and comment on the fact that the VIA 2018 website, which is responsible for Maastricht’s bid, is not easily understandable for the international community because it is not available in English. Foreign residents are generally oblivious to explanations about the work being done to support Maastricht’s bid and how the city intends to reach its goal.
The main suggestion was again to offer an English page of the website next to pages in Dutch, French and German.

It was also noted that the Maastricht VIA 2018 groups on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have few participants and activity at the moment. This could be improved by generating discussions and suggesting cultural events in English in order to attract and involve the international community. The introduction of more social events in English would attract international students and lead to more culture-related social media posts, tweets, and so on.

One of the participants, Amanda Potter, later blogged about the event (her post, Social Media & Maastricht’s Bid for Cultural Capital 2018), further encouraging the discussion on the topic and even involving Lei Meisen from VIA 2018.

The organisers of Maastricht Social Media Day hope that the event will result in an ongoing ‘discussion board’ and stimulate the local community to attend or organise follow-up meetings.

Posted on July 10, 2010 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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Prezi: Europe, the Media and the Financial Crisis

Howard Hudson’s presentation at the EPP/CoR Summer University for local and regional media, 2-3 June 2010, Brussels

Posted on June 1, 2010 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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Saviano to open Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Geneva

Italian journalist and best-selling author Roberto Saviano will open the 6th Global Investigative Journalism Conference (GIJC) in Geneva on Thursday 22 April, the organisers announced on Tuesday. Saviano, who has been living under police protection for more than four years, will deliver the opening keynote at 9:00 am.

Saviano is an Italian investigative journalist who has written and published extensively on the Camorra, a Neapolitan organised crime ring deeply entrenched in Italian business and politics. After he published his best-seller Gomorrah in 2008, he was threatened by several Neapolitan ‘godfathers’. The Italian government subsequently granted him police protection.

The GIJC organisers have said the conference will go ahead despite the disruption to air traffic in much of northwest Europe. Besides Saviano, other keynote speakers include Seymour Hersh, Stephen Engelberg of Propublica, Spanish prosecutor Baltazar Garzon, and Iraqi journalist Montazer al Zaïdi, who spent time in jail for throwing a shoe at US President George W. Bush in 2008.

The GIJC programme includes a total of more than 60 sessions over four days. As a partner, the European Journalism Centre, will provide a live video stream. Go to www.livestream.com/ejcnet to find out more.

Follow the conference on Twitter via www.twitter.com/gijc2010

For the conference website: www.gijc2010.ch

Posted on April 20, 2010 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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Polish economic reform architect to speak at EJC conference

Former Polish Finance Minister Grzegorz W. Kolodko, will be in Brussels on Monday 15 March to deliver a keynote speech at ‘Exiting the Crisis: Europe 2020’, a conference organised by the European Journalism Centre.

Professor Kolodko is widely considered as the key architect of the economic reforms that took place in Poland during the past two decades. In his keynote, he is expected to share his views on the new economic reform plans that are currently under discussion at the European Union.

The conference is open to all accredited journalists in Brussels. You may register your attendance by sending an email to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). The event starts at 9:15 in the Sofitel Europe Hotel on Place Jourdan

Posted on March 12, 2010 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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“Up Rompuy!” gives taste of Brussels, Barroso and buffoonery

The congregating of the press corps to watch the annual, eagerly awaited theatrical production with a cast comprised almost entirely of journalists has become a regular feature in the Brussels calendar.

This year’s production, held on 27 February, had the irreverent but appropriate title “Up Rompuy” a satirical celebration of the new face of Europe in the world. But, was it not Lady Ashton to represent Europe on the international scene? The jury is still out on that case. And willy-nilly raising Europe’s profile on the world state is so daunting that the two can easily share this Sisyphean task (Sisyphus v Hydra 0-1 after extra time).

This was the butt of one of the numerous sketches that journalists both write and then act out. A plane is about to leave for …Haiti. Hermann Van Rompuy (Geoff “Rick” Meade) desperately tries to convince a Lady Ashton dressed for a starring role in Casablanca (Jacki Davis manfully taking on the Ingrid Bergman role) that she has to get on the plane roaring in the distance. Indecision prevails and amid a flurry of good-byes, the plane leaves - the aeronautical equivalent of Europe missing the boat (the SS Copenhagen).

It was pyrotechnic with sketches coming thick and fast representing some of the most relevant protagonists on the EU stage - from president Barroso to the head of the spokespersons’ service who impersonated herself, very convincingly, in one of the scenes together with a few other spokespeople. All were the subject of some hilarious exchanges of “repartee” that had the audience (which included many Commission officials) splitting themselves with laughter.

The Lisbon Treaty was the real prima donna of the evening, even if it was somewhat like Banquo’s ghost: nobody could see it far less understand it. But it was omnipresent, sketch after sketch, exemplified in the exchange between two drinkers in a pub in middle-Britain trying to analyse how to put into practice the fuzzy provisions of the citizens’ initiative article which has been hailed as a great democratic advance but which nobody knows how to implement.

The Barroso Avatar was another great sketch with longtime correspondent Enrico Brivio returning from Milan for a guest appearance. A cameo role would be a gross understatement! And German journalists imitating some of the commissioners were another clou of the soiree.

The first satirical shows of the British press corps were held in local community halls dispersed in the area of the European quarter in the ’80s when Geoff Meade, correspondent for the Press Association in Brussels, orchestrated this satirical get together among British journalists. The show graduated a few years ago to the Albert Hall, a beautiful Art Deco style theatre in Chaussee de Wavre.

From an initially all-British cast, it has gradually come to include journalists from all over Europe, especially from Germany and Italy, who write and act their own sketches. But even the 500-seat Albert Hall has now become too small.  Requests for tickets outstripped demand and the Meade-Davis duo had great difficulty persuading friends that the show had sold out as soon as the tickets were available in mid-January. But if the journalists left without tickets were disappointed, others also not in the audience will benefit from the show, ie, the charities targeted by the organisers (Meade and Co.) who passed to them all the profits of the evening.

Posted on March 9, 2010 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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Covering the Crisis, day 2 - Live blog

Posted on November 10, 2009 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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Covering the Crisis - live blog

Posted on November 9, 2009 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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Promoting Womenomics

Some see gender as a business issue, not a women’s issue. Many see the emergence of women as the “next economic revolution” and agree with “The Economist” magazine that economic growth is driven by women. All of these groups have a stake in the first EJC-EC joint seminar “DG ECFIN Briefing for Women Media”, held 6-7 July in Brussels.

For two days, 15 selected journalists from women’s media and mainstream media with an interest in “Womenomics” will discover how European economic and financial policies affect women and families.

By means of free and open discussions with EU officials and politicians, NGO representatives and independent experts, participants will be briefed on the economic importance of women.

The position of women – as employees, consumers and leaders – is more and more seen as a measure of health, maturity and economic viability. So there is a growing need for policies to enable them to fulfil their potential.

At the same time, the financial and economic crisis is constructed on the same lines of the existing divides within society. The spreading global financial crisis is also having a devastating impact on some of the most vulnerable and marginalised groups in society, including women and children.

Women are particularly vulnerable during this economic downturn because of their marginalized economic status. They still earn less than men and are less likely to hold leadership positions in business and government. They are more likely to suffer in the crisis. Single-parent households, the vast majority headed by single mothers, are at risk of falling below the poverty level during economic downturns.

Answers to these and other pressing questions should be given throughout the seminar. Since the works are not open to non-invited reporters, EJC will report on its outcome and conclusions. More details here.

Posted on July 6, 2009 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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Latin American Media tour the Heart of the Eurozone

For two days in June 2009 Portuguese and Spanish voices from the New World could be heard in the corridors of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt. Business and financial journalists from across Latin America (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Costa ruca, Venezuela, Mexico, Nicaragua, to name but a few) were invited by the European Journalism Centre and European Commission’s Directorate-General Economic and Financial Affairs (ECFIN). 

The EJC group spent two intense days being briefed by ECB high-ranking officials on the financial architecture of the European Union and on the global role of the euro. 

The invited reporters had the chance to meet specialised reporters from Europe and from Asia. All were there with the aim of attending, live, the press news conference in which ECB’s President, Jean-Claude Trichet, announced new measures and concerted action to tackle the economic and financial crisis in Europe. 

Two extended meetings with President Trichet and a member of the Executive Board, Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, were the highlights of the visit. Both hosts spoke frankly with the visitors, whose curiosity translated into multiple, technical, questions, probing Europe’s response to the crisis. 

Most were surprised to discover that all EU Member States are part of Economic and Monetary Union, which means they coordinate their economic policies for the benefit of the Union as whole. However, not all of them are in the euro area – only those having adopted the European single currency are indeed members. 

At several policy briefings, the invited journalists were given extensive information about the framework ruling the economies and public finances of EU Member States.

Posted on June 25, 2009 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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The trouble with localisation on the world wide web

Google makes money with advertising. So why doesn’t your news site?

The engineer who co-founded the communications protocols for the Internet said Monday that he doesn’t know.

“Young people don’t pay for Gmail or Google Docs,” Vint Cerf said. He is responsible for enabling new technologies on the Internet for Google.

“They basically get all that for free. … And people pay us to present their ads. The model seems to work for us. So why isn’t it working for journalists?”

Speaking in front of 200 participants at The Sixth Conference on Innovation Journalism, Cerf (on right) talked about journalism’s failure to make money with advertising on the platform he helped enable during the 1970s.

His keynote, which followed IJ-6 host David Nordfors’ welcoming remarks at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, also touched on the immediacy the Internet fosters.

In a brief “engineer’s history of mass media”, Cerf linked the proliferation of powerful one-way mediums like radio and television with the (still) rising importance of local audience.

“That was an important property because advertisers can take advantage of locality. Advertisers want to reach an audience they care about,” he said.

Terrestrial radio advertisers in particular must target their ads at to the geographic location of their audience. Indeed, in times of economic stability, print and broadcast journalism has been able to make money with demographically specific advertising.

But when a news product has a potentially global audience, as it does on the Internet, it’s hard to know whom the advertisements would be for, Cerf said. This problem must be solved.

“The journalism of the future has to lay in an advertising model,” he said.

Perhaps advertisers and content creators have not yet fully adapted to the personal, targeted nature of the Internet.

This individualised experience of a medium that transcends time and space presents a great deal of immediacy for advertisers and journalists.

Consumers of journalistic output are in a position to act instantly, in real time.

Transactions (financial and otherwise) can happen within the medium of the Internet, unlike mediums like magazines. Book lovers, for example, can purchase or download titles online.

That said, perhaps the role of journalists could (should?) be to increase transactions online.

“The immediacy and opportunity to do something with the information you’re getting places opportunity on shoulders of the journalist,” Cerf said.

Posted on May 19, 2009 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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