Accurate, immediate, and independent media coverage is of great need in today's world in order to prevent further conflicts from arising and to preempt populist tendencies in politics. Young people are already reporting themselves on social issues of their concern through social media. However, there is no global platform allowing them to leverage the impact of their contributions by regrouping them into transnational policy issues and linking them up with the political decision-making structures. The partners in this strategic partnership would this like to set up a platform on which the journalistic coverage of young people can be shared and which shall help them not only to reach decision-makers, but also improve the quality of their reports, and to engage in transnational communities on their chosen social topics. The "Open Journalism Challenge" thus aims to become a journalism platform for young people all over Europe and beyond. The project shall help to boost media literacy especially among youth, with a focus on active involvement through journalistic coverage by young people themselves. Young citizens will be encouraged to report on issues of concern in their societies, and guidelines on qualitative journalistic coverage will help them to achieve the impact they aim for. Participants will report through short videos, which will be shared online and can be found under specific key-words and topics. This pool of resources with reports on a variety of social issues can then be used in innovative, up-to-date, and immediate quality education as well as by the political decision-making structures. The platform can also be used in youth work, empowering young people to make their voice heard in effective and constructive ways. Partners in this strategic partnership will also explore ways to communicate the video reports of young people to all relevant decision-makers on the local, national, and European levels. International project meetings shall be designed which will enable participants to engage face-to-face with decision-makers on their research topics and to produce joint media outreach productions, designed to inform the larger public on ongoing political decision-making challenges. In terms of methodology, the traditional sequential methodology will be used in combination with benefits realization management. Each of the three partners will initially have their own set of individual tasks, which will then be combined into joint outputs. A three level quality insurance involving young participants, the partner organisations themselves, as well as external experts shall ensure that the Open Journalism Challenge platform will be as effective as possible, while being constantly improved, through a three-month evaluation cycle. While the strategic partnership will only involve a small number of people of the partner organisations and experts, the platform which will be created shall later serve thousands of young people all over Europe and beyond and establish itself as a participative media channel of high quality and trust. Future participants will be able to analyse mainstream media with a critical mind, and make their own contributions towards accurate and in-depth media coverage. Their contributions will help every citizen to gain true and up-to-date knowledge on the most pressing issues our societies are facing, so that they can take an informed choice during democratic elections.
With a view to nowadays overflow of information, getting the most important news has become a challenge for every citizen. At the same time, we all need to have an in depth understanding of a number of policy areas in order to make sensible democratic choices. In this regard, the ‘Open Journalism Challenge’ by Our Common Future invites citizens all over Europe to cooperate in the field of news consumption. Inspired by Thomas Huxley’s quote “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something”, this strategic partnership has elaborated a mechanism by which citizens can mutually inform each other on issues of social concern. Every participant chooses one topic he or she feels passionate for and tries to analyse the most important news on this issue. Participants continually upload media products they find most interesting in a database and once a month publish their own media product with the aim of summarizing the latest and most important findings on their topic. In this way, citizens can share the burden of staying informed, save time, and make sure the knowledge they gather is as relevant as possible. Everyone can continually consume those media products that are deemed most interesting by experts and also receives independent citizen media coverage on a number of social issues, while contributing their own knowledge in their field of expertise. While submitting their own media products, participants indicate a number of decision-makers with whom they would like to exchange on their topic. The organisers of the Open Journalism Challenge gather these requests and organise meetings between participants iand decision-makers. These meetings shall allow participants to check their findings while also contributing to future policy making in their chosen areas. The "Open Journalism Challenge" thus encourages citizens to report on issues of concern in their societies and provides them with guidelines on qualitative journalistic coverage. Participants will report through short videos, which will be shared online and can be found under specific key-words and topics. This pool of resources with reports on a variety of social issues can then be used in innovative, up-to-date, and immediate quality education as well as by the political decision-making structures. In view of the European elections 2019, the Open Journalism Challenge will put a particular focus on the issues which will determine the future of the European Union. Citizen will thus contribute to the strengthening of the European public sphere and help each other to be informed on the most pressing issues. This accurate, immediate, and independent media coverage can help to prevent further conflicts from arising or populist tendencies from growing. The leading partner Our Common Future Asbl. is an organisation with members all over Europe and focuses on strengthening the European Public Sphere and democratic procedures. The Faculty of Communication Sciences at Anadolu University in Eskisehir, Turkey, focused on the effectiveness of different digital media products. “Verein Kino5 - Plattform für unabhängige Filmschaffende” provided expertise in the area of collaborative video making which is an important tool for independent citizen media contributions. Partners explored ways to communicate the video reports of young people to all relevant decision-makers on the local, national, and European levels. A first international project meeting with Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič in June 2017 in Brussels allowed participants to receive valuable feedback on their research topics. While project partners consulted their communities in order to receive feedback on the planned Open Journalism Challenge, they met in Luxembourg from 6th to 11th December in order to compare first results, further develop the platform, engage in a public dialogue forum with local citizens in Luxembourg, and to plan ahead. The Public Dialogue Forum gave participants the chance to discuss the topic of democracy with people from a variety of social spheres living in the Greater Region. Given that all topics in the end depend on the structure of decision-making processes, democracy was chosen as the overarching topic for all Open Journalism Challenges. Future participants will be able to analyse mainstream media with a critical mind, and make their own contributions towards accurate and in-depth media coverage. Their contributions will help every citizen to gain true and up-to-date knowledge on the most pressing issues our societies are facing, so that they can take an informed choice during democratic elections.