Symposium

Re-Inventing Journalism? Journalistic Training in the Social Media Age

09:30 - 09:45 Opening Address

Gerda Meuer, Director Deutsche Welle Akademie, Germany.

09:45 - 11:00 Panel 1: Rethinking Journalism - Preparing for an uncertain future

Today weblogs, wikis, podcasts and online videos are connecting users to knowledge and resources like never before. This growing variety of platforms and the ever-expanding online networks of data and content offer endless possibilities, but also pose new challenges. How will these topics play out in terms of journalism? And what does it mean for the training and continuing education of journalists?

Panellists:

Prof. Michael Krzeminski, Media Scientist and Lecturer, University of Applied Sciences Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, Germany.

Marko Milosavljevic, Ph.D., Head of Journalism Department, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Juan Varela, Journalist and Consultant, Director Mediathink Consultores, Spain.

Adam Weatherhead, Project Manager, Commonwealth Broadcasting Association, United Kingdom.

Moderator:

Jonathan Marks, Director Critical Distance BV, The Netherlands.

11:00 - 11:30 Coffee break

11:30 - 13:00 Panel 2: The advantage of being digital - Best practices in international media development

Small, flexible and cheap: Digital technologies now allow for media projects that would have been unthinkable in analog times. Cassette recorders have been replaced by cheap digital recorders; expensive editing studios have been replaced by laptops and digital video cameras and archive shelves have been replaced by hard drives; the advantages of these developments are obvious. On the other hand, the disadvantages often only become clear in practice. Unlike analog technologies, which are basically straightforward, the complete flexibility of digital tools can be overwhelming. What if an audio or video editing program is not intuitively understood? Using real-world examples, including a community radio project in West Africa and a digital audio archiving project in Vietnam, the opportunities and challenges of such technologies will be discussed.

Panellists:

‚Freedom Fone - Citizen radio programming via mobile phone'

Brenda Burrell, Director Kubatana Trust, Zimbabwe.

‚Informotrac Modell Westafrica - Media for Development',

Bernadette von Dijck, Deputy General Manager, Radio Netherland Training Centre (RNTC), The Netherlands

‚Living Memory - Digital audio archiving project in Vietnam',

Nguyen Pham Hoa Binh, Director Audio Centre, Radio The Voice of Vietnam (VoV), Vietnam

Heidrun Speckmann, Project Manager Asia Divison, Deutsche Welle Akademie, Germany.

Moderator:

Dr. Andrea Rübenacker, Director Africa Division, Deutsche Welle Akademie, Germany.

13:00 - 14:30 Lunch break

14:30 - 16:00 Panel 3: Does journalism training make sense? And if yes, when and why?

Good journalism works. At least this is the hope of those who want to promote development and democratization through supporting journalists worldwide. But journalists act within complex systems and are subject to numerous factors of influence. Such factors, like the degree of press freedom, the regulatory situation in a country or economic independence of the media can promote, block and/or hinder professional journalism. Those who aim for sustainability in media development have to be aware of and consider the dominant factors of influence which shed light on the degree to which professionalization projects can be successful. Panel 3a will investigate which influencing factors are beneficial for the sustainability of media projects. It also asks how these factors can be influenced positively. International experts discuss the preconditions and guarantees for sustainable training and present starting points for networked strategies and initiatives.

Panellists:
Quality of Journalism and Journalism Training...
...in South America:

Jesús Arroyave, Ph.D., Media Scientist and Associate Professor at Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia

...in Africa:

Prof. Guy Berger, Head of School of Journalism and Media Studies, Rhodes University, South Africa.

...in Asia:

Dr. Helmut Osang, Director Asia Division, Deutsche Welle Akademie, Germany.

Moderator:

Jonathan Marks, Director Critical Distance BV, The Netherlands.

16:00 - 16:30 Coffee break

16:30 - 18:00 Panel 4: Social Media Journalism

Exactly who is a journalist when today anyone can report about anything from just about anywhere? How will quality journalism then be defined? And will it remain in sufficient demand to survive? What is more threatening to classic journalism? The pervasion of the once passive, now increasingly active public into the sphere of journalism? Or the movement of users from traditional consumer-oriented media to self-produced content? What happens when members of the traditional media adopt the methods and platforms of social media? Where would their "unique selling point" then lie? Panel 4 will explore journalism works in and with Web 2.0 and discuss what consequence will arise from these new platforms both for the individual and for society.

Panellists:

Kevin Anderson, The Guardian's blog editor, England.
Emer Beamer, Research and Development Director of Butterfly Works, Social Design Agency, The Netherlands
Marcus Bösch, Journalist, Deutsche Welle, Germany.