The innovative focus of the Micro-Europa network
A direct link between students and teachers
The Micro-Europa network is founded on close collaboration between students, who produce reports and European programmes broadcast on their journalism schools’ various web-radios, and their teachers who are official correspondents of the Micro-Europa network.
Common themes, different approaches
Producing one report and one programme monthly or every two months, the network’s correspondents (teachers and students) choose a common theme to be covered – an example being ‘Minorities in Europe’. Partners choose their own approach, which may be local, regional or national. Each partner then produces a radio report lasting no more than three minutes on this specific theme.
To exchange their reports and make use of those produced by their colleagues, the students prepare a script in English examining the content of their work. Each partner school ‘duplicates’ the other schools’ productions, by adapting them in their own language. Lastly each partner, on each of the web-radios, produces a European programme of 30 to 60 minutes covering the monthly theme and featuring the different productions. These programmes also include interviews, comments, the viewpoints of studio guests, and so on.
A strong intercultural dimension
Besides introducing students to local European journalism – in other words linking real events to European policies on a specific issue, the network focuses on linguistic and intercultural comprehension. For it is often very difficult to adapt the themes of each partner to the different contexts (national, regional or local) in order to make them easily understandable in other countries.
The multiplier effect on young people
Micro-Europa’s European programmes are broadcast over the different web-radios to students in each school and more widely to young people connected to the Internet. The European information that is broadcast therefore extends far beyond the students who are directly involved in making the productions and European programmes.
Preparing to practise local European journalism
Journalism students in the different partner schools aim to become professional journalists. The experience they gain in Micro-Europa, with the educational and methodological support provided by the teachers, is designed to prepare them for jobs in European citizen journalism, working at the local level. It goes without saying that journalists accredited to the European institutions play a key role here. But there is a wider challenge for the Micro-Europa network: training future local, regional and national journalists (and not only those working as Brussels correspondents) to provide broad coverage of European issues wherever they may work.
