Media and the EU

Serious brainstorm session

Ernst-Jan Pfauth — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 15:35:19 +0000

Trust me, it’s incredibly inspiring to brainstorm with people from all over Europe. Everybody has his or hers own thoughts and ideas, heavily influenced by the culture of the country he or she is from. Because the setting in the room wasn’t really appropriate, we decided to park ourselves in the hallway. Here you see us talking about the articles we want to write for Indigo, the culture lifestyle magazine for Europeans.

Photo was taken by Brecht Soenen – bresc.be

The pressure, oh the pressure!

Ernst-Jan Pfauth — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 15:28:30 +0000

It turns out that participating in the European Youth Media Days is an awful lot of work. Of course there is enough time for binch champagne drinking in the evenings, but at six in the morning the alarm clocks are ringing. They mark the beginning of a tough day that consists of fighting against deadlines and the urge to sleep at the same time.

Due to this unexpected time pressure, this blog isn’t as up to date as I wanted it to be. However, I hope I can still give you a nice insight in these very exciting days. I’ll spend my 2 hour break on uploading pics and material. Just so you know dear reader. Please, do stay tuned!

Brussels here I come!

Ernst-Jan Pfauth — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 10:44:58 +0000

Last night I received some great news. I’m selected to join other young European journalists for the European Youth Media Days! Looks like this blog worked after all. I’ll keep you posted about my adventures in Europe’s capital.

Cheers,

Ernst-Jan

Bright blogging future

Ernst-Jan Pfauth — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 11:07:38 +0000

The European Union is a beautiful, life-saving, profitable and noble concept. Though it has one weakness – for many Europeans it’s still too abstract. Sure, people know there’s something going on in Brussels. Yet they have no idea how it affects their daily lives. Except for that Euro then, and the constitution that France and Holland rejected. A few examples of their questions:

What are the advantages of an united Europe?
Why do those diplomats gather in Belgium?
What are they doing there?
And on top of that, why should I be pride of the European Union?

In 50 fifty years from now, the media will be extremely fragmentised. Every consumer has access to hundreds of TV channels and multitasking is the standard. Also, blogs have become mainstream. In 50 years, it no longer is some nerdish medium, each blog then serves as a platform for like-minded people.

Bloggers are a rather diverse community. Within this enormous group, pro-EU writers are for sure represented. The way they’ll write about the EU – personal and convincing – will teach many people about its importance and also, spark a debate.

It already happened to me after reading this post. I started researching and guess what, it even inspired me to apply for this exciting event. Please, allow me to evangelise our bright blogging future in Brussels.