New media trends like citizen journalism, twitter, youtube and social networking was the focus of the tird and concluding workshop of the day. The questions were how young journalists assess these trends and how they can use them to their advantage.
The participants where surprisingly agile after eight hours of practical exercises, project planning and exchange of ideas. This was hugely owing to Christian Stahl and his interactive tasks that required the participants to come up with ideas for realiseable projetcts that make use of new media. 18-year-old Sviatlana from Belarus thought that to be the highlight of the day. “He did not tell us what to do but encouraged us to be creative.”
One of the groups’ ideas was to create a network of journalists that labels websites according to different criteria in order to make them more user-friendly. 23-year-old Küra from Hamburg check if ceratin websites agree with the rules of Islam and assign the “Halal-label” to them if they do.
The group of Luciana, 21, from Romania whose articles often focus on human rights issues, planned the launch of a social networking site that links International up-and-coming journalists. Whenever they plan to travel abroad they can find free accomodation with other journalists on the condition that they write an article addressing social issues in those countries. The article is to be written in English to publish it online and the authors’ mother tongue in order for it to be passed on to their friends at home.
Stahl’s statement: „I am not asking you where you are coming from but where you are planning to go”, was what particularly made an impression on Anna, 23, from Poland. The participants, too used the invitation to introduce themselves to the others specifically regarding their career aims. By doing so, the participants were reminded at the end of the day that the objective of the workshop was not only the transfer of knowledge and theoretical skills, but moreover the networking of future professional journalists.