KAS Quality Journalism Seminars - Foundation Office Greece and Cyprus
Event Reports
Quality Journalism remains an important pillar of the activities of the Greece Office of the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation and two more seminars were organized in the second half of 2017. The objective of the seminar series on journalism is to provide the participants with technical expertise on the latest media trends, as well as pose ethical and conduct questions on journalism. The content, preparation and execution of the seminar series is done by Eleftherios Petropoulos, KAS Research Assocate, and Elina Makri, Freelance Journalist.
The first seminar took place on 26 September, dedicated to Data Journalism. About 20 young journalists and students had the opportunity to attend this intensive closed seminar with the media trainer and journalist Claus Hesseling from Hamburg, Germany. Mr. Hesseling analyzed in his introduction crucial theoretical aspects of the issue, whereas the main part of his presentation consisted of practical exercises with the participants on data. He used a large data base and guided the participants through it, in order for the latter to select and work on specific information, composing in the end a certain journalistic result.
The second and last seminar took place on 15 November, this time on Journalism and Social Media. The journalist of VRT (the Belgian public broadcaster) Majd Khalifeh, expert in how there can be verification, processing and use of user generated content, analyzed how large public broadcasters can use such material. He presented software and programmes that journalists can utilize in order to collect and check information, whereas he made special reference to material being produced in extreme cases, such as in war zones, or regarding terrorist groups. Odille Duperry, experienced journalist of Agence France-Presse, third largest news agency in the world, and AFP bureau chief in Athens, focused on the selection of trustworthy sources for the creation of valid pieces of news and presented examples of major cases of false spread of information throughout her long career.
