European Youth Event 2021: TVS travels to Strasbourg

By Anoniman (nije potvrđeno), 22 listopada, 2021

This year`s European Youth Event was held in Strasbourg from 8th to 9th October. As a part of the event, there was a special event for journalists, The European Generation Media Lab - an opportunity for young journalists to connect with their colleagues from all over Europe. This two-day event offered journalists an insight on the "complicated" world of the European Parliament, introducing them to various workshops and ways to find new ideas in their work environment.

European Generation Media Lab

The event, which focused on teaching journalists how the European Union works, also gave an insight on what all the services the European Parliament offers to journalists and most importantly, connected them with some MEPs as well as fellow journalists. Eva Egido, press officer in the Media Service Unit in the European Parliament said: "We really believe that it`s now the time for young people to act, to have their voices heard and to do something". For that to come true, the European Union needs young journalists that know how to speak with young people - educate them on what is happening in the European Union and also to give them a platform to have their voices heard.

Workshop on "How to brainstorm"

This workshop was held by a famous media strategist, Charlelie Jourdan. It was divided into two parts - theoretical and practical workshops. Journalists were offered new ways to learn about so-called method of “brainstorming”. One such method was the four-minute method - it is a matter limiting the time of thinking to four minutes. A journalist is given a time period in which he must write as many ideas as possible. The catch of this exercise is that the brainstorming moderator tells the reporter that four minutes have passed, although this is not true. It is this pressure that gives a person the urge to think better, and thus produce more ideas.

Why are these kind of events important?

Eva Egido points out that the diversity of journalism education in the EU can often be a disadvantage. “Sometimes information just doesn’t flow the way we want it to," she adds. "We tend to see that European information is quite dry and quite complicated, so it was important for us to simplify things a bit and make these young journalists understand that there are ways to communicate about European affairs in a good way and with a lot of help from us. I can help you communicate with this."