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Events - Spotlight Archive

Platforms for inter-religious dialogue?

Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 1-2 June

The mayor of Amsterdam on 2 June told a group of Asian and European journalists gathered for a dialogue under the umbrella of the Asia-Europe Foundation that his government’s role in blunting collisions between religious immigrants and secular Dutch people should be limited.

Mayor Job Cohen visited the delegation of about 20 journalists gathered to discuss reporting inter-faith issues. Europe has over the past decade witnessed the development of rather negative public perceptions toward certain religions, evident, for example, in Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders’ short film “Fitna”.

When asked about the film, Cohen said advertising prior to the launch of the movie prompted debate in many spheres of society, including government. He said he was asked many times how his government would react, because there were concerns about riots. But he chose not to act pre-emptively. And the reaction to the movie after being published was rather calm and did not extensively impact the integration of the Muslim population in the Netherlands.

Cohen and the delegates seemed to see mass media’s role in facilitating inter-cultural dialogue as freer than would be government’s.


The meeting, the Sixth ASEF Journalists’ Colloquium, organised by the ASEF and EJC, was predicated upon the idea that dialogue and education among journalists is paramount to improving coverage of inter-faith issues.

New media provides platforms to facilitate such dialogue and education, journalists at the meeting was agreed. And better to use new media for these purposes than the proliferation of inflammatory steryotypes. (read more)



Rolling along a Riga river

Riga, Latvia, 10 February

Jamaican flags seem fitting in a joint called the Sunset Café, draping over the top shelf of the bar as easily as the Reggae music flows from the DJ booth.

But since the saloon overlooks the River Daugava rather than the Caribbean, though, it turns out that the florescent lights of the bar radiate more warmth than the sunsets. But on the chilly evening of 8 February, most of Café Sunset’s patrons are more accustomed to the artificial glow of the computer screen than the warmth of the Greater Antilles anyhow.

Just as the meet-and-greet gets going this evening, alternative media playboy Arturs Mednis (editor and publisher of Jaffa Magazine) takes a moment to officially open BarCamp Baltics 2008 with a welcoming speech – in Russian – while about 75 bloggers from around the world sample flutes of complimentary champagne.

The only other interruption of the evening comes halfway through the evening, when a group of cheerful Azerbaijanis take the mic and raffle off homemade pastries to anyone who could answer trivia (again, in Russian) about their South Caucasus country.

The distinctly multi-cultural evening seems the ideal way to ring in the first edition of BarCamp Baltics, a three-day unconference boasting about 500 participants from more than 35 countries.


“For many of our participants attending BarCamp Baltics was the first time they ever saw what young people from other ex-Soviet countries look like,” writes organizer Evgeny Morozov, a Belarusian who studies the social implications of new media. “Think Ukrainians meeting Latvians, or the Kazakhs meeting Lithuanians, or the Azeris meeting Belarusians — it is thanks to BarCamps that many of them finally heard about the problems of each other for the first time.”

The foremost goal of the unconference – a term coined in the mid-90s, and, according to Wikipedia, “primarily used in the geek community” – was, indeed, networking. The entire unconference was loosely organized, so as to facilitate as many connections as possible: Friday was a laid-back “Day Zero”, full of optional, guided, museum trips and the opening party. Saturday’s schedule saw a slew of 20-minute presentations. That evening provided discounted bar-hopping for all Barcamp participants. Sunday’s activities – before rides and flights home – included an innovation incubator and a big-group session of lightning-round presentations called Pecha Kucha – a term of Japanese origin indicating five-minute professional presentations (roughly, 20 slides, .20 seconds for each). (read more)



Meeting the Challenges of an Ageing Society

Kyoto, Japan, 20 January

Are you confident about your well-being after retirement? Are you able to find out how your pension tax is presently being used? And is your company flexible enough to let you take holidays or allow you to come back after childbirth? Answers to these questions need to be found if society is to be healthy in 20 years.
It is estimated that the number of people aged 65 and over in the European Union will increase by 40 million in 2030, the population between the ages of 15 to 64 will decline by 20.8 million. This indicates that two work-aged people will be needed to support each pensioner.
The gulf is wider in Japan: There will be 10.9 million of people older than 65 but a working population of 17 million – less than two people for one pensioner. This phenomenon can be called an Ageing Society, one in which there will be much more senior citizens than employed people.
A number of journalists from the EU and Japan gathered in Kyoto from 19-20 January to talk about this urgent issue at the Annual EU-Japan Journalist’s Conference. (read more)



Cinéma de Québec à Paris

Paris (France), 20 November

Decades ago, the exportation of francophone movies was a one-way affair. In the 1960s, films were made in France and exported to the other French-speaking countries. Nowadays, however, the recent success of movies from Canada, such as Les Invasions Barbares, C.R.AZ.Y. and La Grande Séduction, has increased the exportation of movies in the other direction. The annual Québécois film festival Cinéma de Québec à Paris plays an important role in this cultural exchange across the Atlantic.

Cinéma de Québec à Paris, held on the Champs Elysées, not only portrays the latest movies, it also organises a Marché de Cinéma and a forum where professionals from Canada, France, Switzerland and Belgium can meet and discuss new ideas. The festival, held from the 14 to 20 November, might therefore prove to be a breeding ground for future projects that transcend national borders.
Most of the movies shown at the festival have not been shown in Europe yet, which makes the festival a good opportunity for European audiences to get an overview of the latest developments in Québécois cinema. (read more)



Neonet Euradio Nantes

Nantes (France), 23 - 24 November 2007

“If you want to know what life is like at Eur@dio Nantes, you should watch the film “L’Auberge Espagnol,” says Kilian Fichou.

The 20 years old student from Corsica moved to Nantes to be one of the stagiares, or interns, who participate in the radio station’s internship programme. For six months, he will be part of the European team which spices up the daily broadcasting.

Eur@dio Nantes aims to help build an awareness of the diversity of European cultures. It seeks to be a hub of information and opinions relevant to Europeans. It broadcasts online and on the radio.

Besides presenting a diverse schedule, the radio station serves as a local European school for radio journalism. The students, hosted at the station for a semester, learn codes and limits of journalism as well as develop their technical skills, while working with and around European and intercultural projects.

Stop wondering what Europe is, and start listening: The original idea behind Eur@dio Nantes was to present fresh European-related information. Inviting young people from all over the continent to expose local and national realities of the European news made it happen. And it doesn’t sound bad at all.

“In the newsroom, during the meetings, at tea or coffee time, during our endless discussions at the sea side, a European common identity is created which has nothing to do with the institutional concept of Europe,” says Andréa Bilbao, a former intern from Spain. (read more)



Stand Up for Journalism

Europe, 5 November

Although online storytelling mediums offer innovative ways to deliver content, there is a widening dearth of quality of journalism being done across Europe, said panellists at the Brussels edition of the Europe-wide effort, Stand Up For Journalism Day.

And that’s because publishers and editors oversee their newsgathering operations with only profit margins and the bottom line in mind, the panellists said. Rare is the news outlet investing in quality reporting or investigative journalism. The shrinking of newsgathering staff by way of layoffs, buyouts and attrition is rampant. Gaps are filled by a greater reliance on free labour from students or recent graduates doing internships.

“This is the time to be investing in quality journalism. Instead it’s being cut,” said Aiden White, general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists.

White, who worked for The Guardian before becoming general secretary in 1987, moderated the Brussels discussion for the IFJ, which has about 500,000 members in more than 100 countries.

It designated 5 November as a day for dialogue about the crises facing journalism, a chance to bring up the manner in which so much cost-cutting is inhibiting the ability of journalists to do quality work.

Whether the day’s events will effect any sort of change will be hard to measure. But there was participation in various countries, including England, the Netherlands, Ireland and Paris.

Back in Brussels, White emphasised the day not as a confrontation, but as a starting point for European journalists to ask their employees for the resources to do better work.

“I think it is at this time important to reaffirm the role of journalists as watchdogs of democracy,” fellow panellist Lorenzo Consoli, the president of the International Press Association in Brussels, said.

The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg, visited the meeting to speak about ethics and human rights issues associated with journalism.
(read more)



mobileCampLondon

London, 28-29 September

Evgeny Morozov of Transitions Online joined about 100 professionals from the mobile, media, and web industries in a London basement for mobileCampLondon from 28-29 September to debate the future of the mobile field.

He jotted down a few thoughts about the event for his own blog and the EJC:

The underground nature of mobileCamp – underground literally, as it was held in a basement – ensured the focus on cutting-edge topics which will probably emerge in mainstream conferences only a few months, if not years, later.

The two-day event followed the format of a BarCamp, which meant that there were no formal speeches. Everyone had a chance to put their name on a whiteboard and present on whatever they liked. It was an excellent forum for discussing some of the most exciting and transformative developments in the mobile industry.

One of the most exciting presentations given Friday was that of Sascha Pohflepp, who is an artist and designer based in Berlin but currently living in London. He is also an active contributor to the popular art blog, We Make Money Not Art.

He has been researching the world of the networked things and exploring what happens if things we encounter in our daily lives can be used for two simultaneous purposes. He is intrigued by how Internet connects people and creates shared space for them; for him the web is just one big collection of human traces.

What excites him are radical changes in personal photography: a drop in cost and many more cameras on the market; that digital cameras automatically generate a lot of meta-data, like time stamps; the fact that cameras are now almost ubiquitous, bundled with mobile phones and allow to take hundreds of pictures per day.

These shifts have significantly reshaped the way we communicate. For example, many of us treat the photos we upload on Flickr (Pohflepp says around 1 billion photos are viewed on Flickr daily) as a means of communication with our friends and the outside world. This is a relatively new development - we didn't do this with analog pictures.

(read more)



Picnic ‘07

Amsterdam, 22 - 29 September 2007

Picnic time, again! EJC editor Elisa Delaini so enjoyed the first helping that she thought, ‘Why not go back for seconds?’

Here's how it went:

I am not gifted with ubiquity, so I couldn’t simultaneously follow the whole festival programme. But I did check out some partner events, attended interesting sessions at the main conference and organised the European Journalism Centre’s own event, the European Bloggers (Un)Conference.
Plus, of course, capped a few days with dessert at Picnic@Night! (read more)



It’s a cinch: More than 3,500 registered for Picnic

Amsterdam (Netherlands), 04 September 2007

“Ik zag twee beren broodjes smeren, och het was een wonder… ”

“I saw two bears making sandwiches, oh it was a miracle”...

The ballad of this well-known Dutch children’s song greeted about 100 people as they were welcomed to the Picnic '07 Buzz Event on 4 September.
Once inside the building at the Westergasfabriek, people found a pair of Picnicers dressed as teddy bears sitting at a table. The duo ate pretend bread, cheese and the famous chocolate sprinkles known as, ‘De Ruijer’.

For dessert, spectators were served a preview of what will happen at the behemoth cultural event beginning on 26 September in Amsterdam. (read more)



Uitmarkt

Amsterdam (Netherlands), 24 - 26 August 2007

Architecture lovers and people interested in finding out more about the history of Amsterdam’s buildings waited outside the Passenger Terminal on Sunday afternoon. The throng waited patiently to listen to ‘Architects stories,’ a talk which would have revealed some secrets about blueprints and the inner workings of an architect’s mind.

Not everything was set and ready when the people entered, as a 12-story cruise ship, around 300 meters long, had just let in its 2,600 passengers. The projector was quickly installed after the floating fortress was already heading to the Atlantic and its signalling echoed all over the harbour. The Costa Atlantica managed to make the Passenger Terminal look like a small house.

For those unfamiliar with this Dutch word, ‘uitmarkt’ means 'going-out market,' in the spirit of going out to visit a show, or attend a cultural event. But when Dutch people hear it, they think immediately of the famous, annual opening of the cultural season of the Netherlands. The Uitmarkt is held every year at the end of August in Amsterdam, and this year was no exception. (read more)



Wagging the long tail

Cologne (Germany), 17 August 2007


Mick and Keith, they couldn’t always get what they wanted.

But this is the era of Web 2.0, in which music-minded innovators can set their algorithms to the beat of the latest and greatest — as well as the late and great.

Whatever you like, really.

“As production becomes cheaper, the barrier of entry is lowered and an increased range of products available to consumers created,” Susanne Stürmer said Friday in Cologne. “The demand of these niche markets can be fulfilled.”

Stürmer, the director of corporate affairs for UFA Film & TV, used her keynote address at the Cologne conference, “Wag the Long Tail,” to display ways in which a traditional mass media outlet like UFA can profitably fulfill niches in the spirit of the so-called long-tail effect.

The one-day conference brought together mass media providers, in particular broadcasters and music providers, to discuss how they are dealing with a media landscape which is shifting toward a market of one — and away from a market of many.

Most of the solutions presented involved the creation of platforms for personalized recommendation of content in music and television.

Following Stürmer’s overview, the frontmen of several innovative music delivery platforms — like the London-based Last.fm and New York City’s Hype Machine — took the stage to spread the gospel of individualized music recommendations. (read more)



Face2Face Project

Amsterdam (Netherlands), 15 June - 2 September 2007

The solution to the long-standing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians isn't in the laughing visages of the imams and rabbis depicted the Face2Face exhibition which is touring Europe. Still, much is said in the way street artist “JR” and his friend Marco paired the laughing faces of Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict has become increasingly difficult for Westerners to follow. Without diligence, it is difficult even to delineate between the agendas of Hamas and Al Fatah, both Palestinian groups. It is in this climate that the French photographer brings Israeli and Palestinians together in a 28-millimetre frame. (read more)



Innovation Journalism: Detecting Weak Signals

Maastricht (The Netherlands), 25-27 July 2007

The tune of society’s conversation with itself sounds increasingly like punk rock music, said Stanford University researcher David Nordfors at the European Journalism Centre’s three-day conference on innovation journalism.

To Nordfors, who coined the phrase ‘innovation journalism’ in 2003, mainstream media today comes off a bit like a commercial rock band, something like Led Zeppelin. And to the common man sitting way back in the cheap seats, rock legends like Led Zep look and sound a bit out of focus.

More fun and accessible to the everyman are local punk bands, the indie groups rocking out in local public houses, he said. They are closer to the people, much more direct with their message. And they don’t need big trucks for lighting and sound equipment to get their message across. Everybody can “perform” if they have something vital to say.

Read the full coverage : , , .
(read more)



“Altered Oceans” series wins the Grantham Prize

Narrangasett, R.I. (United States), 28 June 2007

The 2007 Grantham Prize has announced this year's winners. Kenneth R. Weiss and Usha Lee McFarling of the Los Angeles Times are the 2007 winners of the Grantham Prize for Excellence in Reporting on the Environment. Weiss and McFarling will receive the $75,000 prize for their five-part series "Altered Oceans," about a profound disturbance in the ecology of the world's oceans. (read more)



European Media Policy at the 19. Medienforum NRW

Cologne (Germany), 18 - 20 June 2007

Although set in Germany’s most important media location, the Cologne-based Medienforum NRW has experienced a steep decline from its glory days in the nineties. Then, media – especially television and online – were everybody’s darling with strong growth rates and burgeoning employment opportunities, and government subsidies were dispensed generously. But in the meantime, as a result of the economic crisis and structural changes in recent years, politicians as well as business managers tend to see the media sector more realistically and with much less excitement. (read more)



iCommons summit 2007

Dubrovnik (Croatia), 13 - 17 June 2007

The iCommons summit took place from June13 to June 17 in Dubrovnik, Croatia, bringing together the diverse legal, artistic, media, and business community behind Creative Commons, an entity founded by Larry Lessig “devoted to expanding the range of creative work available for others legally to build upon and share”. The summit’s agenda promised an extremely stimulating gathering and featured such big shots as Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia), Yochai Benkler (author of “Wealth of Networks”), Cory Doctorow (co-editor of BoingBoing and a popular sci-fi author), Cory Ondrejka (the developer of Second Life), and Lessig himself. (read more)



Regional InJo conference “Stanford after Stanford 2007”

Ljubljana (Slovenia), 14 - 15 June 2007

The Regional Innovation Journalism conference Stanford after Stanford 2007” in Ljubljana, Slovenia discussed the development of innovation in Europe and the role of media in encouraging and promoting innovation.
Host of the conference was Violeta Bulc, manager of Vibacom and prime promoter of the Innovation Journalism mission in the Balkan region. The photo shows her with EU commissioner for Science and Research Janez Potočnik. (read more)



INPUT Conference

Lugano (Switzerland), 6 - 12 May 2007

2007 marked the 30th anniversary of the INPUT conference, an annual forum where commissioning editors and programme makers with Public Service Television Broadcasters from all over the world meet to watch their peers’ new works and to discuss current issues without the pressures of either a marketplace or award competition. The screening sessions of the conference showed how diverse the strategies of publicly funded TV are in the context of different media landscapes. (read more)



Press Freedom in the Digital Era

Brussels (Belgium), 2 May 2007

On the eve of the World Press Freedom Day, the European magazine and newspaper publishers, FAEP and ENPA, organised a Media Lounge Event in the European Parliament to tackle the issue of press freedom in the digital era. EU legislative framework on audio-visual media was the most discussed topic. Current European legislative proposals in this field, such as the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, the E-commerce Directive, the Council Framework Decision on Combating Terrorism and the Data Protection Directive, have the potential to restrict the freedom of expression, in particular online. On 16 March 2007 ENPA communicated the need to the European Institutions to respect press freedom. (read more)



World Press Photo 2006

Amsterdam (The Netherlands), 21 - 22 April 2007

José Cendón has travelled on a motorbike in Central Africa. During his trip he photographed men and women that suffer from post-war trauma in psychiatric hospitals. Arturo Rodríguez lives in Tenerife and witnesses every day the arrival on small wooden boats of hundreds of people that seek a better life in Europe. Mohammed Ballas captured the moment of the execution of a suspected "collaborator" by two Palestinian gunmen and made his first trip out of the Palestinian territories to receive his award. "Every morning when I leave my house I don't know if I am going to see my children again".
(read more)



The 5th World Conference of Science Journalism

Melbourne (Australia), 16 - 20 April 2007

Is current media reporting about climate change sound or junk? How was the Korean stem cell fraud uncovered? How strong is political interference in science? Should peer reviewed journals play a role in breaking news? How will new media affect the role of science journalists? Will wealthy nations support science journalism in developing countries? These were some of the questions asked at the 5th World Conference of Science Journalists, held in Melbourne, Australia.
(read more)



The Pulitzer Prizes 2007

New York (United States), 16 April 2007

Corruption in the USA, the challenges facing an Egyptian imam in Brooklyn and President's Bush efforts to extend his presidential power through “signing statements” were among the news stories that were distinguished in the 2007 edition of the Pulitzer Prizes. Every year, one newspaper is granted the golden medal for public service, while 10 journalists and editors are honored for their exemplary work over the past year. There are also two awards for photographers (feature and breaking news photography) and one for editorial cartooning. (read more)



“For Diversity. Against Discrimination” Journalist Award 2006

Brussels (Belgium), 16 April 2007

On 16 April 2007 the winners of the "For Diversity. Against Discrimination" Journalist Award 2006 were announced. The first prize was given to Fabrizio Gatti for the article "Io schiavo in Puglia" (I was a slave in Puglia), published on 7 October 2006 in Italian weekly L'Espresso. The article was written after Gatti's one-week experience as a tomato picker in the province of Foggia, in the south of Italy. Inserting himself in a group of illegal immigrants which are treated as slaves, he gave a raw account of a reality hidden in one of the world's most industrialised countries.
(read more)



Digital Road Signs for German Public Service Television

Mainz (Germany), 26–27 March 2007

As it has frequently happened in previous years as well, the annual Mainz conference on television issues (Mainzer Tage der Fernsehkritik), organized by and taking place on the premises of Germany’s largest pubcaster ZDF, again allowed for watching politics in the making. Though the official topic read “A changing public: Television in the digital competition”, the main underlying and well-orchestrated agenda was how to secure a bigger slice of the Internet for the public broadcasting system. (read more)



RTNDA Announces Regional Winners of Edward R. Murrow Awards

Washington (United States), 28 March 2007

The Radio-Television News Directors Association has announced the 2007 regional winners of the Edward R. Murrow Awards.
The Edward R. Murrow Award is presented by the RTNDA in recognition of what the Association terms "outstanding achievements in electronic journalism."
(read more)



Perugia International Journalism Festival

Perugia (Italy), 21-25 March 2007

From 21 to 25 March 2007 Perugia has been the theatre of the first International Journalism Festival in Italy. Italian and international journalists have participated in conferences and round tables open to the public, discussing a wide variety of topics in today's journalism. The Festival managed to bring together professionals from different journalistic perspectives and traditions to the general public. Students, media representatives and people interested in current affairs attended the debates offered by the programme; “War photo journalism and press freedom”, “The role of the media in a democracy in an era of global war”, “Political journalism on television” were some of the titles. (read more)



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