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Hired and fired? Challenges for young journalists across Europe
Different languages, different paths, different stories following a common goal: To become a journalist is a dream for many young Europeans. The way to make this dream come true is often a long and tough one. Youth Press Italia (YPI) invited six colleagues from France, Spain, Romania, Germany, Poland and Hungary to participate in a panel of young European journalists, moderated by Marisa Adinolfi, YPI president. Coming from different cultural contexts, born under communist regimes or in the western countries, the six young journalists had the chance to share their experiences in an appealing debate.
By Chiara Merico
Are you worried about your future as a journalist in Italy? Don’t complain: Even in other countries the way to succeed is hard. In France, as Cèline Diais explained, the situation is almost similar to Italy: students have to attend a 2-years journalism school, with the chance to take internships during the summer holidays. Afterwards you have to look for a job, and this is everything but easy.
Better news from Germany: Maximilian Kall pointed out that starting off a journalist career is more a question of practical experience. “Young journalists should have a clear definition of what they want to do, which topics they want to work on, which media format they want to use”, he said. “It’s about proving your journalistic experience as early as possible, a school or university magazine or a journalistic blog can be a starting point."
And what about a rather young European democracy like Romania? Carmen Paun said that before the economical crisis hit also the Romanian media it was very easy to become a journalist, because many newspapers and TV channels opened after the collapse of the communist regime, and editors were in constant need of fresh energy. After five years of working experience you could already be a “senior editor”. This has changed rapidly: Many companies currently close down, and the first to be fired are the youngsters.
# The turning point in Eastern Europe
The real turn of eras for the Eastern European countries, mainly affecting their media, was the fall of the Berlin Wall, exactly 20 years ago. Too young to be eyewitnesses, the three journalists coming from former communist countries (Hungary, Poland and Romania) tried to explain how the peaceful revolution diversified media and journalism in their homelands. Piotr Marciniak from Poland explained that the situation has changed radically after 1989. Before, in Poland there was no press freedom. Media were centralized and under the control of governments, and there were basically no local media. After the collapse of communism, new media appeared spontaneously, and many investors came from western countries, bringing knowledge and skills that improved the quality of journalism.
Carmen Paun said that in Romania press became “nearly” free, after the dictator Ceausescu was overthrown. In a short time the first journalism schools were opened, and a lot of new media, including tabloids. Before 1989, she said, journalists could not talk about crimes, because the communist regime forced media to tell people that everything was going on for the best. Carmen remembered that her parents could watch TV only two hours per day, and channels broadcasted only propaganda.
# Media ones again dominated by political angles
Zsuzsa Zsabo from Hungary underlined that after 1989 press became free, with various consequences on people’s lives. For example, she said that her mother discovered that many Hungarians were living abroad, and that had been totally hidden by the communist regime. Today, Zsuzsa explained, journalism in Hungary faces new challenges: There are right- and left-wing-media, again politically dominated from different sides. A large part of the media is more an amusement industry than a means of information.
In such a diverse landscape, is it possible to define what a “European journalist” should be? Maximilian from Germany tried to give an answer: what is needed is nothing more than the skills required to work on a national, regional or local level: curiosity, open eyes and minds, an independent and critical view, and a talent for reporting news to the citizens. “At the end”, he said, “being a European journalist is more a feeling than a profession.”
Posted in | 04.04.09
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