EU: failing its citizens by being too boring?

Take Initiative, Do It Yourself!  That was the motto at the Youth and New European Media conference organised by Europocket.tv happening just outside Valencia, Spain, this last May 7-9.

The event gathered young journalists, as well as more “seasoned” ones from all over Europe and organised discussions and debates around issues such as old versus new media, the future of journalism, and how to make reporting Europe an engaging topic.

The result?  A buzzing atmosphere full of loud Italians, opinionated Portuguese, smiling Polish, inquisitive Germans, and so many more – amongst whom one Belgian born Brit living in Italy, and representing Vita Europe. 

Traditional media was represented by the likes of Sergio Cantone, reporting for Euronews in Brussels, and Patricia Kelly a Brussels freelancer and veteran, former bureau chief for CNN.  Friday kicked off with a bang as they both participated on a round table and strongly disagreed about most things.  It seemed that one thing they did agree on was the “bureaucratic” and “boring” side of Brussels and its institutions, which Kelly went further in describing as “wholly undemocratic”.

The same subject was taken up at the following round table by the likes of Susanne Henn, from Deutshe Welle and Wilfried Rutten of the European Journalism Centre.  How to involve young people into the upcoming European parliamentary elections?  How to get them interested in the continental project?

The answer which emerged was depressing to say the least.  Hard to get people involved in something that is uninteresting from the start, they argued.  Journalists cannot be held responsible for lack of engaging content, it is their job to report critically what is happening.

Greg Milem, former European correspondent for Sky News, talking from Washington in a video specially registered for the event, spoke of the difficulty of relating long and often complicated matters to a public used to fast and furious news. 

So is the solution “New” Media?  Should we turn to citizen journalists, bloggers, twitterers, facebookers, and spontaneous video reporters?   Yes and no.  In an inspiring speech at the opening of the conference, Lisbeth Kirk, of EUobserver.com, called for a throwing out of the old ways, but for a need to regulate and filter the new. 

The best quote however was from the outspoken and charismatic Kelly, who fast became a reference point to all young female journalists attending.  This is what we want to sound like in a few years, we agreed over coffee in between meets.

“You need to question people in authority”, she said, “and never be in awe of any of these dreadful people.  I respect one person only, and that is the woman who created the Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat concealer.”

Sacred words.