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Lessons from the M100 Youth Media Workshop
At the M100 Youth Media Workshop, 27 young people from all over Europe explored the topic “migration and media” for three days. We asked them to name one lesson they learned during the event.
Benjamin Bergemann, 19, Germany
I realized that I didn’t know many things about Eastern European countries. And it was interesting to see how young people from that region are very idealistic and much more eager to move something, probably because they are used to struggle for their cause.
Yannick Brusselmans, 24, Belgium
What was really enriching for me was the perspective of someone like Kübra because normally you just talk about migrants and not with them. I found it interesting to see that she is religious and open-minded at the same time. She shows that it does not have to be the one or the other.
Franziska Megumi Cuny, 22, Germany
I found especially interesting what Süleyman Bag of Zaman said about the differences between the Christian and Muslim religions. I wasn’t aware of the fact that Ramadan, in contrast to Christmas, is celebrated very socially. In everyday life, I don’t get in touch with Muslims so much, so I wouldn’t have known if it hadn’t been for the workshop.
Patricia Curmi, 25, UK
It was interesting to find out how our media’s freedom is threatened in various ways in each country, whether by government censorship or commercial pressure.
Mojca Delač, 25, Slovenia
I think the most important thing for me was the mixture of different perspectives of young people to the burning issues of the ‘new media’. And I’ve learnt that there are a lot of difficulties to get the limits or to construct global new media, connected to migrations as well as to human rights and other topics.
Sviatlana Dzenisevich, 18, Belarus
For me the most interesting part of the workshop was the session with Christian Stahl when we had to generate ideas for projects. He didn’t tell us what exactly we were supposed to do but wanted us to be creative. That was great.
Victoria Graul, 22, Germany
When talking about the caricature controversy, I understood that, as a journalist, you can not publish whatever you want referring to the freedom of speech. You have to consider the context because you have a social responsibility.
Brindusa Luciana Grosu, 21, Rumania
I found it surprising to see that there are still young experienced professionals like Ali Aslan who have not lost their enthusiasm and are still capable of communicating in an original manner.
Maryna Kalachova, 21, Ukraine
I didn’t expect that people would be so different from each other in Europe. I’ve worked in a multinational team before, in the US, but that was completely different from here.
Agnes Köhler, 23, Germany
I realised how important it is to call attention to migration topics. Before, I wasn’t aware of this, although I am a migrant myself. But as a German in Scotland you are not considered a foreigner so much.
Teodora Kostadinova, 23, Bulgaria
I saw firsthand how a video is being cut. I never had this opportunity before. That was really fascinating and I will be proud of the result, regardless whether it is perfectly professional or not.
Yulia Lokshina, 23, Russia
The most striking thing to me was that we are all kind of the same. Although we have different backgrounds and face different problems in our countries, we all try to achieve our goals in quite the same way.
Cristiana Moisescu, 19, Romania
I found it very interesting to see the RBB radio and television station because I never had the opportunity to visit such an institution before. It was also good to talk to people with a mixed heritage because in Romania we don’t come to meet these kinds of people so often.
Ania Morawiec, 23, Poland
One sentence that was quite crucial for me, that I admired and still have in my mind, came from Christian Stahl. ‘I am not asking where you come from but where you go.’ I think this is the point, this is the right approach to nowadays problems.
Kary Virginia Morris, 19, Germany
It was great to realize that young journalists like us can generate a lot of ideas when working together, even though we have different backgrounds. At the same time I found it interesting to see that young people from Eastern European countries have much more difficulties in realizing their dream to become journalists, simply because they are often limited in their freedom of speech.
Anna Petroulaki, 24, Greece
During the workshop I realized that Europe is not something fixed but a work in progress. And that young people like us can contribute to a Europe without borders.
Oleksii Pedosenko, 25, Ukraine
I understood that we can support integration of immigrants but also that it is going to take a long time. I was glad to see that almost everybody agreed that, when it comes to hiring migrants, it is competence that counts most.
Shirin Saber, 21, Luxemburg
I found it astonishing to hear from many of the East European participants that freedom of speech is often not guaranteed in their countries. Here in Germany, we take it for granted! When talking about the caricature controversy, however, I realized that we as journalists have to make use of this right in a responsible manner.
Andris Saulitis, 24, Latvia
It was a pleasure to participate in a workshop dedicated to topics like migration and integration even though the crisis is going on. I think we have to struggle to put these issues on the daily agenda.
Olga Vozgilevičute, 24, Latvia
It was great for me to learn something about the caricature controversy. Of course, I had heard about it before, but I didn’t know the context. Moreover, I was impressed by the movie called Fitna. The mix of quotations from the Quran and violent videos just show that it is pure propaganda. Verses are quoted out of context and their meanings distorted. Another thing that I really appreciated in this project were the interesting workshops and the fact that we had the opportunity to meet editors, journalists and experts.
Maria Caroline Wölfle, 23, Germany
For me it was great to learn more about the Eastern European countries because before the workshop I didn’t know too much about them.
Kübra Yücel, 21, Germany
I didn’t know much about Eastern Europe and that’s why I found it very interesting to hear from the Eastern European participants about their media landscapes and the problems they face.
Indre Zdanciute, 25, Lithuania
By speaking to people with a migration background, I learned that they want to be recognized for what they do and not for their being a migrant. In Lithuania, we do not have a lot of immigrants yet, but there will be more and more so it is good to be sensitive to these issues.
Posted in | 08.09.09
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