MediaPedia

What is a "dialogue between cultures"?

letzi83 — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 19:33:00 +02:00

At the beginning of September took place in Potsdam, Germany the M100 Youth Media Workshop, an event conceived to gather young journalists from all over Europe. In its third edition the theme raised was: "Dialogue between cultures". The 41 participants from 14 different countries (Sweden, UK, Denmark, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Italy, Germany, France, Finland, Macedonia as well as Israel and Palestine) amongst other things discussed ethical and moral principles in Europe, freedom of the press after the Danish cartoons controversy, religious questions and globalisation.

I think we are all children of the age of technology and knowledge. This is our common culture. It means that we are citizens of the world. Because the internet is a place without borders, we adopt this frame of mind. “We stop thinking of the borders of our countries and start to think more of what we are interested in,” says Yermi Brenner from Israel. So what does the phrase “dialogue between cultures” mean? “It means that people are getting to know people who are different from them,” Jermi says. “They learn about different opinions and thoughts on what is important in life and what is not. It means getting to know other people, anyone that is different from you.”

Malene Rykaer from Denmark thinks that the word “dialogue” is often misunderstood. “I think in the Western world, even though you say the word ‘dialogue’ when you consider the whole world, you really think about teaching others the values of the Western world, and then you think you have a dialogue. But really, that’s a monologue.”

While discussing various subjects in the workshops, one topic was the case of the Danish cartoons of the prophet Muhammad and the following reactions. Was this an example of a “clash of cultures”? “In a way it was,” Malene says. “You can isolate it as a national conflict within Denmark. But you can also look at it as the Western world and its interference in the Middle East and its view of Islam and the treatment of people belonging to these regions of the world. You can see the cartoons as a symbol of that and that is how it was used internationally. But I think it’s too easy to blame the cartoons, because the problem is much deeper. But the discussion never got to the point. It ended up being about embassies burning and stupid drawings.”

Yegor Samusenko from Ukraine considers this controversy a “clash”, but he thinks that the media played an important role when the conflict started. “To me, there are only a few examples of real clashes of cultures. This conflict was enlarged by the media. The mdia likes conflict. In a situation where there is no conflict there is no need for some types of media,” he says.

Yermi has quite a different experience when it comes to cultural differences. “Clash of cultures is for me when one person’s culture, one person’s belief, contradicts or goes against another person’s belief. There are examples everywhere in my country, Israel. There is definitely a clash of cultures. Maybe eighty percent of the people are Jewish, which means they have a certain kind of culture, and twenty percent of the people are Muslim and they have a different kind of culture. Religion affects culture and this causes a lot of problems, because people with different beliefs try to live together, but sometimes their beliefs contradict each other and you have a clash of cultures.” Regarding the case of the cartoons he clearly thinks it shows that there were significant differences between Western culture and other cultures. “One culture, the Western culture, believes that everything can be criticised and that contradicts another culture’s belief, which is ‘you hurt my pride if you say something bad about the prophet of my religion.’ Two beliefs clash, and there you have a clash of cultures.”

What do you mean with “Western culture”?

“Western belief is that everyone can be criticised, and that nothing is holy, and you have the freedom of speech – freedom to express yourself in anyway and about anything and it’s your opinion. That’s the western belief, the way I see it.”

But there are different opinions about the cartoons within the Western society as well. What does that tell you about “Western culture”?

“Publishing these caricatures was on the border between two Western beliefs. One is that everything can be criticised and the other one is that people’s culture should be respected and it should be tolerated. So even within the Western culture itself, this was some kind of a borderline.”

Is respect for other cultures a Western idea?

“No, it’s not a Western idea, but in the modern world, in the West, they put more emphasis on this.”

How do you create a dialogue between cultures?

“You have to have interest in order to create a dialogue and understand what is going on in other cultures, especially when it is a culture in conflict with your own culture. I have interest, so even though I live in my bubble in Tel Aviv and sit on the beach, play Frisbee and go to bars, while people a hundred kilometres away are dying, I try to understand their situation.“

“A dialogue can be many things,” says Malene. “It can be that you just talk to your neighbour who maybe comes from another culture, and you exchange some ideas. But it can also mean that you meet politically. I think that because of the globalization the clash of cultures is definitely much smaller when I meet people from my own generation then for example when I meet old people in my own country. In that case, there is a bigger difference and a bigger clash.”

Media Censorship in Spain

sinikkahe — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 11:01:00 +02:00

I guess everyone has heard about the latest media scandal in Spain. Well, I'll explain it anyway. There is a magazine called El Jueves, thursday, that is published every wednesday. It isn't easy to define the magazine, I have never really browsed it through, but it's about cartoons, humour and irony. Many people that don't buy it still check out the cover page every week because it's usually very funny. Nevertheless, the thing is that last weeks issue was drawn out from the market. It was a victim of real European media censorship 2007.

The thing is, that El Jueves hurt the Spainish Royal Family. And if they feel offended, they have every right to use the censorship. They hardly ever use their right, for example El Jueves has a page every week about the king, but it doesn't annoy him that much. Well, this time the joke was in the cover and it was quite striking. To be able to understand the joke you have to know the background: the Spanish goverment is going to give 2500 euros to the parents for every baby they have. It is planned to improve the country's birthrate. Well, in the scandalous issue's cover you see the caricatures of the Crown Prince Felipe and the Crown Princess Letizia. They are having sex "doggy style" and the prince says: "Have you noticed? If you get pregnant, that'll be the closest I ever can get to real work." The cartoon surely looks awful, the prince with his red nose and the princess with wide-open scared eyes. That's the magazine's style.

The case has sticken out a huge discussion in Spain. Mostly the people think that the Royal Family exaggerated, that the freedom of press and opinion is more important than anything. Should the Royal Family tolerate everything? Bear in mind that the Spanish law can condemn up to two years in prison for offending the Royal Family. I don't really know what to think about the storm. As a journalist I must defend the freedom of expression, but I still can imagine the prince's angry face. In the end the whole thing just makes me smile...

Europe, with love

maddie — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 08:12:00 +02:00

So what about that video of the European Commission? Don't know what I'm talking about? Just look here...

No later than Thursday, Joe Hennon, recently appointed spokesperson for the commissioner on communication, told us that the European commission will focus more on Internet. Well... they already did it. The controversy around the video I linked to is a living proof of that. Why? Because all those videos already were on the European commission website, ready to be downloaded by anyone who wanted... but who really took the time to go to that website and look to videos about Europe?

"What we have on EUTube is material we already had. But why would people go to the Audio-visual section of our website instead of going to YouTube?", Mr. Hennon said.

And I have to admit that in the beginning I was a little skeptic about that (how would the boring videos produced by the European Commission could possibly rise the interest of young people on YouTube- or EUTube)? Well... I obviously, i hadn't seen them

What's That? Multipolar Views on Journalism

Dami — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:24:00 +02:00

The first part of an inquiry about our views on journalism. Many short interviews to shape and invent the new European media. Let's read following ones, others are coming soon.

Well, writing about journalism from an auto referential point view seems to be kind of usefull, as far as I know it supplies for views on our life, deciding what's news from the everyday world, and everyone potentially could realize her media stuff, think about photos for istance. Should we increase our awareness on this incredible potentiality even more? Why not! Journalism frames the debate and mass media are becoming the connective tissue of billions of human beings experience. No kidding! For sure Europeans are included in this very broad selection: billions. I took a dip inside these billions during European Media Days in Brussels. I mean, just a small part of these billions. The deep dip occured on a rainy morning in the capital of Belgium and Europe. I chose to walk in the streets asking people, all of them citizens of the world and citizens of Europe no matter they come from, what they think about journalism, what is journalism and how young european mediascape is going to look like within next fifty years. I invited them to feel as utopian as realistic and I chose also to address the same questions to young media producers meeting together from 27 to 30 June in European Parliament.

Let's start from the Molenbeek area, around the sbuway station called Comte de Flandre. Hussein comes from Turkey, he has been leaving in Brussels for twenty years: "Journalism displays things how they are, that's important but I don't know how is going to be within fifty years". Jean Charles is Belgique, he stops studying journalism as he was not of his work in a Tv channel. He says to be disillusioned: "I feel talking about journalism means getting aware of its problems. One of them is the news run too fast. Swiftness is the key feature of present journalism and there isn't time for reflection and closer examination. There isn't time left to set facts in their context, to dwell on the meaning of words. What future do I Imagine? I see difficulties for journalist mission to interpret what's happening all over the world, but I hope everyone could become journalist on her own by opening a blog and communicating her point of view". Cherif is 30, he reads newspapers and watches Tv news any single day: "I think journalism is very important, but journalists are not free: they are censored, blocked in their work, hold up among cultural clashes and different perspectives. How to change this situation? We have to wait for the world to change, of course". Malaia is a young Romanian boy, in a hurry and quite assertive: "Journalism in not about truth, it's about fakeness. I don't feel to trust all these information". Ben Aissa is a Moroccan in retirement and it has been living in Brussels for forty years: "Journalim is very important, it displays, covers and reveals problem, as racism".

Let's move now to the European Parliament, where hundreds of young European media producers are busy because of workshop activities concerning Tv, Radio, Photo, Online, Print media. Oliver, 24, comes from Germany: "Journalism is a such important and big part of society because it allows to control politicians, give publicity to certain topics and many possibilities to share news. I hope one day we will be able to read an European paper magazine made by a mixed crew, a mixed editorial office, journalists from several countries for all the countries, for istance not in english for England".

Joana is 20 and portuguese: "Journalism is one of the most important thing we can give to people. It's a test to prove how society should be. In the future, I would like journalism to be interested in improving partecipation to political life, by connecting politicians to people and viceversa more closely so they can understand what is going on around them".

Ana is 22, she's swedish but is working in Berlin: "I feel journalism is really needed in the world to feel closer to the other, to keep peace. When I think of journalism I say also: freedom of expressing own opinions. I would like to see even more young European journalists, not necessarily full time journalists. Blog gives us the opportunity to communicate and inform when we get home, at night".

Chiara is 25 and Italian: "Journalism is telling what you see, it's mediating between facts and the people you're writing to, who are reading your words. Journalism buil up society and reality and trasmit different information by different perspectives. I would like to imagine within fifty years young European journalists being happy working together in the same office for the same multimedial multilinguistic European magazine".

Who killed the newspaper?

Jane — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 15:35:00 +02:00

European media production is not just for journalists any more. The young people of Europe are well educated and interested in their sourrounding society. Therefore they want to participate themselves in the production of medias, and they don't want to wait for slow journalists to discover new things - so they do it themselves.

Citizen journalism - this term was unknown in just recent past, now it has become a very common expression. People who are not journalists publish their blogs, post photos on sites such as Flickr, they communicate on MySpace, Facebook.. they are taking away our audience - the readers. Are they stealing our jobs? It may seem like that.

However, professional journalists are starting to appreciate citizen journalists because they have realized that these people have some impressive ideas, opinions and come up with amazing stories. It is a new trend that publishing houses actually PUBLISH the best blogs in printed newspapers.

There is debate that the psychical form of the newspaper will cease within 50 years. The Economist had a useful article about this, titled: WHO KILLED THE NEWSPAPER? Everything is going online and this is becoming a threat for the newspapers. In the future, newspapers are set to be so-called E-papers, digital papers which will be able to connect to our computer and update content.

Many things are happening in the media sector, for sure. With the internet-boom newspapers are experiencing biggest trouble in the history. Will everything go online? Will people only read articles online? Will radio and TV be purely online?

What will happen to citizen journalists? Professional journalists could profit from them! Just like it is starting to happen. Journalists are realizing that citizen journalists can inspire them with ideas and it's up to the professional journalists to make a quality piece out of the idea and quote the blog.

This can be the future - to cooperate.

Citizens partipate, make ud their mind and they create new media, but is that a good or a bad thing for 'regular' journalist? Is this the beginning to the end for professional journalism when more and more newspapers and television invite the citizens to make their own stories and to participate in creating media ? Luckily not, we think!! Citizens journalism is great in many ways because it includes the readers, viewers etc. But profesional journalist will still be needed to make the overview of the enormous amount of information. Journalist will still be needed to be critical about the citizen journalism and to make sure that the citizens aren't doing spin in the papers. Therefore journalists should not be afraid of blogs and other kinds of citizen journalism - in stead we should use the citizens participation to come up with new and great journalistic ideas.

- Kristina Havasova and Jane Thyrring

The MediaPedia Team @ Mickey Mouse

flamingphilip — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 15:03:00 +02:00

Europe on the Internet

maddie — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 14:50:00 +02:00

How does the new media influence the European Union institutions? Well, just ask Margot Wallstorm, the vice-president of the European Commission who made a lot of people jealous because the popularity of her blog. Yes, the vice president of the European Union is blogging and only last years, she had 2 million visitors on her website. People who know what the commissioner thinks now have the chance to find out directly, from her blog, just like Margot Wallstorm finds out what citizens think from the over 200 comments she gets on her posts.

But this is only one little change brought to the European communication by Internet. Joe Hennon, who has recently attended the European Youth Media Days, said that "until now, the Internet was the orphan of communication of the European Comission. Now, we are putting more energy, money and resources on the Internet"

Mr. Hennon thinks that the biggest change that the Internet brings to European communication is the fact that people can freely publish their thoughts. "Internet brings a fresh view, you can see what people think" They also decided to bring their video material closer to the average Internet user: the European Commission now has its own YouTube channel. Check http://www.youtube.com/eutube to see a very nice cartoon about energy saving, that already has over 3000 views, even though the channel wasn't officially launched yet.

For another point of view, it's enough to visit the blog of a correspondent for La Liberation, a national French Paper. On Coulisses de Bruxelles you can read about European affairs in a different view. "blogs have completely change the way I do Journalism", said Jean Quatremer the author of the blog who recieves 15.000-28.000 visits a day. "The reader now gives me information that I wouldn't have known otherwise or gives me clue to research in driections that I wouldn't think about", Quatremer said. And if there are any written press journalists reading this... he has one thing to tell you: "La presse ecrite, c'est pas l'avenir!"

And, just because this is a blog and not an official magazine, let me sell you one scoop: everybody is talking about the Berlaymonster. It's an anonymus blog of scoops, gossip and critique of the European Comission. The latest entry is about Tony Blair... just compare this with what I heard the president's spokesperson saying: "The president of the European Union, Jose Manuel Barroso, phoned former prime minister Tony Blair and wished him and his family well".

Nope. Be sure you'll never read this on a blog.

Why journalists use blogs?

Mina — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 14:43:00 +02:00

There is a dramatic increase in the creation of blogs the last years and it is really positive that a great majority of journalists can use them. But why do journalists use blogs?

Journalists have the privilege to use the language in a proper way and that gives them the power to express their views and their ideas freely and without hesitation. They play an active role in the process of collecting, reporting and analyzing news and information.

What should be mentioned is that journalists by their blogs, they cultivate a spirit of cooperation and coordination with the public. They talk with their fellowmen about economical, political and cultural issues and they can criticise the authorities and their actions. Journalists' blogs are a motivation for the public to protest against certain governmental behaviors. This is the meaning of democracy and journalists with blogs try to fulfill their desire of a world of justice and equation.

The Erasmus Generation

sinikkahe — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 14:00:00 +02:00

Young journalists create media from their own point of view. What influence does our Erasmus Generation have? Thoughts that awoke in EYMD conference in Brussels.

It's quite obvious that when you take 270 young European journalists, many of them have done the Erasmus-programme. They have packed their backs and gone to live abroad for one semester or the whole schoolyear. We are the Erasmus Generation. Or are we? At least the participants of this event seem to be very internacional and multilingual. They study or work in another country or maybe their parents are from different cultures. I'm Finnish and I was an Erasmus student in Spain and then I decided to stay there, to try to work as a freelancer journalist. Surprise, surprise: I managed to start from nothing and really get my living from (young) journalism. But now I suddenly feel like living between two cultures. I cannot imagine how the persons with three or four cultures see Europe or the world. Incredible!

Well, yesterday here in EYMD in Brussels we had a little discussion on the topic. There were people from the Erasmus-organisation, some media-workers and other experts. The people that had experienced Erasmus said that it was the first time they really felt like belonging to a generation. In addition, they got a feeling of being Europeans as well. During Erasmus they learn languages and get fresh ideas so when they go back home and work as journalists they can spread the message. Or with the back up of their experience, they aren't so afraid of actually moving to another country. Anyway, the sense of being European is expanding. In the discussion yesterday the speakers defined the Erasmus Generation flexible, active and capable of working across borders. I certainly agree. Erasmus is amazing. I'm excited about seeing the work we do all over Europe. What are the post-Erasmus journalists like? We already create and use the new media without problems, we have so many skills and studies, we have travelled all over and and besides, we are not afraid of anything. The Europe is open, go, young journalist, go!

The picture seems very positive. And it really is positive. But in reality you always have to cope with some or many problems. Who buys our work? How do we get our ideas through if the media world is controlled by people that don't share our young view? Yesterday the speakers talked about volunteers, that's how cafebabel and many other new mediaprojects work. We should have a passion for journalism without getting paid. Unfare. So, in the end we have to swallow our fresh ideas and Erasmus-feeling and do what the big bosses say? The new generation fighting with the old one. Who's in?

European Youth Media Days

flamingphilip — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 13:00:00 +02:00

Participants of the European Youth media Days in the hemicycle of the European Parliament.

Meet MediaPedia

maddie — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 12:26:00 +02:00

What can 11 young European journalists who believe in the power of media in shaping a new European public sphere do?

We met at the European Youth Media Days and decided to start a blog on media in Europe, focusing especially on new media and the power of Europeans to express their own visions on Europe.

We are trying to bring different visions on media, as we represent various countries all over Europe. If you want to know more about the team, just click on our profiles.

Our first post is written right here, in the heart of Europe, from the Press Room of the European Parliament in Brussels. For the last three days, we've been attending conferences, get- togethers and workshops on the topic of Young European Media. We met extraordinary people (like ourselves). Ah, and also the President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pottering.

Stay tuned for inputs on media all over Europe!