Summary – M100 Young European Journalists Workshop 2013
September 1 – September 6, 2013 in Potsdam and Berlin

The M100 Young European Journalists workshop was primarily supported by the German Federal Foreign Ministry, the Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung (German Federal Agency for Civic Education) and the ZEIT Foundation; the Axel Springer Academy provided rooms and equipment.

Day 1
Christian Stahl opened the intense working days at the Axel Springer Academy in Berlin by pointing out one fundamental trait of a journalist – the ability to “listen”. In their first lesson, the participants were given an opportunity to interview each other in front of the whole group and were able to incorporate direct feedback and tips from Stahl on their interview technique. The coach advised them to challenge the interviewees provocatively.

In the afternoon, the young journalists learned the basics of rhetoric. Using an example from the British House of Commons, they identified and elaborated successful structures of an argumentation. Stahl explained that at the beginning, the speaker has to attract attention in order to be able to pitch the message afterwards. This should be followed with a discussion of the facts and the presentation of the message’s storyline. The debater has to organize the story in chapters, and, when summarizing his discourse, he has to evoke emotions in the audience.
Later, the participants formed pairs for a short debate training, which was recorded on video. Together, they analysed the video recordings, discussed posture, the structure of the discourse and elaborated additional possible roadmaps for an argumentation. At the end of the first day, initial ideas about cross-media projects were collected, and teams for subjects, such as social media, time management and editing and texts, were formed.

Day 2
From Monday on, the young talents were supervised by Christian Stahl and by the Berlin filmmaker and camera specialist Riza-Rocco Avsar. The challenge: 20 languages, 5 days, 4 nights, 1 goal: a self-produced media blog (from start to finish), posing the provocative question: “Are the media destroying Europe?” Impossible? No!
After a brief introduction, the participants filmed the first short video sequences, learned to correctly frame their shots and tried filming under different lighting scenarios. Afterwards, they evaluated the results. In the subsequent team meeting, the group agreed to produce a video titled “Europe? Who cares?” including  short personal videos sequences during the next few days. Additionally, the group decided to write essays and  to conduct interviews during the M100 Sanssouci Colloquium as well as to consider issues, which they then wrote on postcards to hand over to certain  participants of the Colloquium. The division of tasks, including details, were discussed until late into the night.

Day 3
On the third day, individual projects were further specified, photos collected and posted on Facebook and theses and questions developed for use in the debate of the M100 Sanssouci Colloquium. The first draft of the multimedia blog, on which the results of the workshop were to be presented, was reviewed and met with great enthusiasm. Initial concepts were presented and discussed. The exhausting working day was characterized by long debates on issues, concepts and assessments of the feasibility of individual projects. The questions for the debate participants for the postcard project were compiled and selected into the late evening hours.

Day 4
During the fourth day, the focus was on practical work. The Axel Springer Academy arranged a studio and a camera man for the participants. The first videos were made, the postcards were produced, the essays were written and the questions for the interviews during the M100 Sanssouci Colloquium were elaborated. As a surprise guest, Erdem Gündüz, this years’ winner of the M100 Media Award, showed up  to support the participants with the shooting of their video “Europe? Who cares?”.

Day 5
Before the debate of M100 Sanssouci Colloquium began, the 20 young journalists met with moderator Tim Sebastian in the morning to talk about their theses. He provided valuable advice on how not to be intimidated by high-profile debate participants.  Under the bright sunshine, the team behind the development of the interview format “Are the Media Destroying Europe?” taped interviews with personalities such as the Austrian author Dr. Robert Menasse, who delivered this years’ keynote speech, Chief Editor Stefan Hrib from Slovakia and Annalisa Piras from Italy. The theses, comments and questions of the young journalists were taken seriously and incorporated by moderator Tim Sebastian into the debate. During the closing gala dinner in the New Chambers, the young professionals had the opportunity to mingle with numerous professionals from politics, media and society, with whom they exchanged ideas about the latest developments in Europe.

Day 6
On the last day of the workshop, the videos were edited, the essays corrected, the postcards scanned and the blog updated with content.
In the afternoon, the Young European Journalists presented their work to the project manager of the M100 Sanssouci Colloquium, Sabine Sasse, to the co-director of the Axel Springer Academy, Rudolf Porsch, and to a group of Italian journalists. With a rich buffet, a hand over of participation certificates and the firm intention to stay in touch, the 9th M100 Young European Journalists Workshop came to an end.