Advanced Journalism Academy for Constructive Journalism
About You
Location
Project Street Address
Aberlestr. 12
Project City
Muenchen
Project Province/State
Bavaria
Project Postal/Zip Code
D-81371
Project Country
Germany
Your idea
Will you launch your idea as a business or non-profit?
Non-Profit
Web site (url)
Name Your Project
Advanced Journalism Academy for Constructive Journalism
Describe Your Idea
Innovation
What is your idea? What makes it innovative? Why is it important?
Since ten years, our self-organized network of journalists, researchers, and educators practices "constructive journalism". Our work is totally dedicated to research and publish solutions for social problems. "Life Counts" highlights role models for sustainable use of biodiversity. "Peace Counts" documents the work of successful peacemakers, most of them indeed social entrepreneurs. "Culture Counts" reports successful solutions to race, class and gender conflicts. All projects work crossmedia: print media, radio, internet, live events, cd-roms, exhibtions. We don´t believe in the paradigm that only catastrophes and death and war stories attract readers. We are successfully convincing mainstream media to run stories about solutions, role models, visonairies, and changemakers. We are the only international media project for peace journalism by practitioners.
The next step will be the establishment of AJA, the Advanced Journalism Academy, to use the rich experience of the "counts"-projects in trainings for young journalists in conflict regions. We started to do so in Sri Lanka, Philippines, Macedonia and other crisis areas. AJA will be the roof for "practicing, developing, and teaching" constructive journalism.
One hand we change the way how media works by making journalists understand their own power as agents of change; and on the other hand we try to influence societal opinion building by giving positive news room and importance, showing people that change and peace are possible.
Impact
What will be the impact of your idea?
Impact we already had:
• Our reporter teams travelled to 33 conflict regions worldwide like Afghanistan, Israel/Palestine, Uganda, Ruanda, Sri Lanka, Bosnia-Herzegowina, Columbia, South Africa, Philippines to document the work of successful peacemakers.
• Peace Counts reportages have been published in a total circulation of more than 20 million copies. That is equivalent to a reach of 35 millionen readers; among the media are some of the major european magazines like stern, Focus, El Pais, natur & kosmos, Neue Züricher Zeitung, Frankfurter Rundschau, Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
• With Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR5), one ob the biggest broadcasting stations in Europe, we produced 18 radio features, each of them 30 minutes long.
• "Life Counts. Cataloguing Life on Earth“ was a bestselling book in Germany, also published in the following languages: english, polish, spanish, chinese.
• Awards for "Life Counts": „Scientific Book of the Year“; Book award of the German Environmental Foundation; Distinctive Merit Award of the Art Directors Club, New York.
Impact in the future:
AJA will intensify these efforts. One effect will be that journalists in conflict areas and in developing countries, but also in Germany, will shift their reporting away from just the negative and start to give media space to solutions for social problems. Second impact will be innovations like inter-disciplinary work of journalists, educators, and researchers.
This Entry is about (Issues)
People: We are looking for ideas from people who can make them happen.
One USP of AJA is the inter-disciplinary network we already established, bringing together some of the best writers and photographers in Germany, peace educators (Institute for Peace Education Tuebingen), and researchers (f.e. Bonn International Center for Conversion). One of our partners will be the Guenter Dahl Reportageschule, a journalism school dedicated to a journalism that is aware of its social responsabilities.
Sustainability
How much will it cost to launch your idea?
If AJA will be only an online-plattform, the annual costs are quite low. Our goal is to find a physical place for AJA: a place in Germany where journalists from conflict regions can be trained, where inter-cultural dialogues can be held, whith production capacities for print, photo, radio, and exhibitions. Such an institution will cost around 500.000 euro annually. Fundraising will start in the second half of 2009. We will get public funds for journalism trainings (like we already do), additionally we hope for private sponsors.
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 | 174 weeks agoJoao Marcos Aurore Romao said: Das meine Basis im Deutschland ist, finde ich gut, das diese Initiative für einen konstruktiven Journalismus statt finden soll. Trotz ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
