European Youth Media Days 2007 - a continent learns to identify itself

Honey, we need to talk! (...and watch and listen and read)

The EYMD are a joint project by the European Parliament and the European Youth Press and will take place from 27 - 30 June in Brussels. Young reporters, fotographers, TV, online media and radio creators will meet at the core of the European Union, to create real European media and to discuss the future with members of parliament and professional journalists


By LAURA DAUB
European Youth Press


How many relationships fail because of a lack of communication? Suddenly there are two people who stop listening to each other, disregard their needs and feelings, and start arguing about small things like "You never do the washing up".

Considering the fact that there are 5 million people living in the EU, it seems impossible that their relationship could ever work out. Speaking 23 different languages, plus dialects, plus body language - it is difficult to maintain this partnership on so many different levels.

Couples with communication problems might find help in the yellow pages under "C" like couple counselling. There is nothing similar for Europe. Continent counselling? An unexplored field. However the European crisis demands for a counsellor, who is able to integrate all eyes, ears and hands involved in the partnership. That sounds like an almighty power - can anyone smell the francincense? No, it is not necessary to involve higher powers, as there is a very secular and man-made "fourth power" already: the media.

TV, radio, magazines and the internet are part of our everyday live. They influence what is being talked about in schools, theatres, parliaments or the cue in the supermarket. Anyone who cannot be everywhere at the same time but still wants to know what is happening in the world and at the local fisherman´s club, needs to rely on the media. That means, that European communication, European everyday life and a European identity will never be possible without European media.

European media need to take on a moderating, explaining and tabulating, a positive but critical role in the unmanageable jungle of European relations. They have to help the Europeans understand what is happening in Strasbourg and Brussels, make European issues interesting and accessible, and provide a platform for EU citizens to comment and feed back on the decision making in the institutions.

The media have achieved their goal if they manage to create striking, vivid and true images of Europe and dedicate themselves to regional, national and European issues, that turn into topics of conversation in our everyday lives. There are a couple of pioneers already: online and print magazines like Café Babel, Indigo and Journal Europa, that are published in many European languages.

The main aim of the European Youth Media Days, that will take place in Brussels by the end of June, is to create fresh supply for all areas of new and visionary European media. 270 young media makers from all over Europe, together with a group of experienced journalists, will work on this aim together in four days of workshops and debate. They will try to describe and enliven European politics, culture and everyday life in TV shows, reports, newspapers and magazines, radio programmes and blogs. In the ideal case, those media products will be first editions of new European media series.

Maybe this will help the European partners to get back together, to revive their interest in each other, to highlight their differences and similarities. Possibly, we will be a step closer to the solution for the European relationship crisis.