1. The project
East 4 South (E4S) gives young media professionals and students from journalism, communication and filmmaking schools of EU-12 member states (Malta, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania) the opportunity to work alongside their African counterparts.
Selected journalists work in teams and use their reporting skills to bridge societal gaps in understanding development issues.
We unite 60 young journalists from EU-12 and African countries to investigate EU development policies and report directly from sub-Saharan Africa. This happens in three rounds, each including 10 European and 10 African journalists.
E4S gives young journalists an immersion experience with development issues lasting several months. They are introduced to challenges faced by people in developing countries. They investigate on development efforts and projects and check out impacts and objectives. They report on progress or lack thereof in the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals.
E4S participants are trained in intercultural reporting to ensure a flow of authentic, first-hand and multi-faceted information from sub-Saharan Africa. They have direct access to local sources and a unique chance to create a sustainable network of informed European and African journalists concerned about development issues.
Programme
Initial training and team building in Brussels:
The European and African journalists meet for the first time during the week-long intro session in Brussels. During the week, the 20 newcomers are trained in intercultural reporting and delve into development with a number of EU experts. Finally, they ‘pair off’ for the joint reporting project and start preparing phase two.
Research and preparation for reporting:
Once the journalists return to their home countries, the team mates work separately, one on each continent, but stay connected via the website east4south.org. During this period teams define the key elements of their joint project and work out their production plan.
Reporting from the field in sub-Saharan Africa:
After two to three months of preparation, each team’s project enters production. European journalists fly to the various African countries to join their team mates. On-the-spot reporting now begins. Over the course of 10 days, African-European teams convert their ideas and scripts into video pictures, sound bites and texts. The African journalists’ local knowledge and networks are of great value to defining and developing all the stories.
Post-production in Bonn, Germany:
After the reporting phase in Africa, E4S journalists meet at the Deutsche Welle Akademie in Germany. Teams spend a week together, take part in a professional training course run by audiovisual experts and finish their media projects. After returning to their home countries, the E4S journalists promote and distribute their final productions through their local, regional and national media.
