Applications are under review by project manager Patrick Benning (left) and head of DW-AKADEMIE's Asia division Dr. Andrea Rübenacker

The call for applications to the fellowship was launched online. The reaction to it by far exceeded all expectations. “We were extremely impressed by the high number of talented and qualified journalists applying,” says project manager Sabina Casagrande who spent two weeks evaluating the applications together with her colleague Patrick Benning. Both project managers admit they would have loved to invite more journalists to participate. “It was heartbreaking to have to reject so many promising candidates,” they say. However, six fellows between the ages of 25 – 35 will be heading to Germany in September for one-and-a-half months of journalistic and intercultural training. They will also be putting together a multimedia project on the topic of sustainability. Here’s a quick peek at the participants:

Ashish K Mishra

Ashish K Mishra works for Forbes India in Mumbai as their principal correspondent. His regular beats are the automobile industry and renewable energy sector – areas in which Germany demonstrates great expertise. For Ashish, being a journalist in a globalized world also requires insight into the German way of thinking. “I want to build empathy and understanding of a culture different from mine so I can do a better job,” he says.

Ruchika Chitravanshi

Ruchika Chitravanshi mainly focuses on tourism, as well as shipping & ports in her work as senior correspondent for the Business Standard in New Delhi. She aims to depict the cost of India’s phenomenal economic growth in her reporting, both on the environment and on the people. Ruchika is excited to learn more about multimedia reporting during the fellowship. “As the landscape of journalism shifts and changes, it is imperative for me to be able to adapt to the interplay of news and technology,” she says.

Idrees Lone

Idrees Lone is currently freelancing and has covered conflict-related issues for both broadcast and print media (The Asian Age, NewsX, BBC) for several years from Srinagar. Living in a tense region such as Jammu and Kashmir, Idrees can call a long list of national stories his own, but would like to use the fellowship to gain a broader perspective. “This project will give impetus to my interest in global issues,” he says.

Charu Kartikeya

Charu Kartikeya is busy both behind and in front of the camera at India’s parliamentary channel Lok Sabha TV in New Delhi. “Indian journalists at this point in time are craving to see and report on what the ground situation in Germany is like,” he says. As a journalist and anchor reporting on policy making issues about poverty, climate change and energy-related issues, Charu is looking forward to getting a first-hand view of Germany.

Sarah Abraham

Sarah Abraham is a senior associate editor for You & I in Hyderabad. In addition to her weekly column on football, Sarah reports on social issues for the magazine. She says that Germany is an unknown entity for most Indians. “At Deutsche Welle, I’ll get insight into the issues that need to be addressed effectively by Indian media – and see how it can be done,” she says.

Anjilee Istwal

Anjilee Istwal is a senior special correspondent for NDTV in New Delhi. She covers issues ranging from politics to health and environment. Anjilee says she is looking forward to examining the strong cultural and economic ties between India and Germany. “It will be interesting to study how the two countries can mutually benefit each other in every possible field,” she says.

Active acquisition of knowledge to solve concrete challenges creates confidence. And that’s something you need when you have to teach journalism to a classroom full of young Laotian twentysomethings, as do the instructors at the National University of Laos (NUOL).

These instructors are currently students themselves: they’re taking part in journalism teachers’ training and coaching, which is organized in partnership with DW-AKADEMIE’s Asia team.

At a workshop in December we reviewed some of the progress made so far. “I have more confidence in teaching these subjects now,” said one of the younger colleagues. Others agreed.

One senior lecturer brought along a revamped version of a project the training participants had created the previous September – a newspaper made from scratch. It was a showcase item at NUOL’s 15th anniversary celebration in November.

The instructors-in-training had put tremendous effort into producing it, and that has really paid off in their daily work. Here’s why:

Getting down to basics

The task we had set ourselves was quite simple: Create a newspaper. From scratch. In three weeks time.

There are several good reasons for choosing such an exercise. Creating a newspaper is low-tech. If necessary (and if you don’t mind creating only one copy), it can be done with paper, pens, a scissor and glue.

It’s also very tangible, easy to talk about, perfect for discussions in dual-language settings (in Vientiane we use Lao and English with translation in our workshops).

Most importantly, it’s a very generic form of journalism – and thus a good foundation for discussing the core elements of journalistic work.

Active participation instead of passive listening

Creating a newspaper from scratch turned learning into active acquisition of knowledge to solve concrete challenges. Much better than hearing lectures on writing, style, research, etc.

Among the many questions discussed during the production of the newspaper were issues like “What will be our editorial guideline?” (As opposed to the more passive “What is an editorial guideline and what is it good for?”) “What should our layout look like?” and  “Are we on track time-wise, quantity-wise, quality-wise?”

As a result of such exercises that produce tangible results, the university teaching staff are not only gaining a new understanding of journalism practice itself, but also experiencing first-hand fresh and viable ways of conveying knowledge to their students.

By Daniel Hirschler

Is there a proper definition of journalism in the Lao language? Since DW-AKADEMIE’s first workshop on journalism at the National University of Laos in Vientiane, there is. It was conceived by 15 staff teachers of the Department of Mass Communication at the Faculty of Letters – after long discussions revolving around somewhat abstract terms like “media”, “the public”, “society” and “information”. 

Lao is not a language that lends itself to describing abstract ideas. Yet the 15 teachers feel it was worth the effort to lay a foundation they now can build upon. They are learning the mindset, tools and skills that in combination make a journalist. The reasoning behind this is that they are the ones training a new generation of Lao students who are eager to take on the profession.

Redefining public and professional understanding of journalism

Laos is opening up its state-controlled media market. The new economic era, started in the late 1980’s, only recently reached the media.

Today, more and more print publications and privately funded but state-controlled television and radio channels are starting up.

In this era of transition there is a dire need for new concepts. This involves exploring the very definition of journalism and the role of journalists.

Previously, a journalist served the government, “explaining the party’s policy to the people”. This is a concept that a growing number of people reject by simply switching off. The ruling People’s Revolutionary Party now officially wants to swap this premise for one that includes two-way communication between politicians and the people.

Uniting practice and theory

Still, the old mental models are deeply rooted – and so discussions about changing them are lively.

The idea is for the university to become the focal point for dialogue about the concept of journalism in the making of a new Laos.

Until then, practical training is interwoven with more theoretical exploration. “Types of questions and how to use them” was the main focus of a workshop in March. 

The trainees are trainers themselves, so DW-AKADEMIE trainers put emphasis on creating a learning situation that conveys not only knowledge but also methods.

Here’s one training method that was both fun and effective. It’s called “Human Bingo” and is quite helpful for training the mechanics of open and closed questions:

Each participant tells the trainer something special about himself that the other participants don’t know or expect. It can be a talent, dream, wishes, plans. The trainer collects the statements individually (and hidden from the rest of the group), writes them down on individual cards that are then redistributed. Each participant gets one card and has to find out which statements belong to whom. Their first questions have to be general and open questions. If the interviewer thinks that the statement he’s holding in his hands fits the interviewee, he can ask directly about his assumption. But he should choose carefully when to guess because this is only allowed twice per person.

Try it yourself – it also works well as a warm up for all kind of group activities.

Contributed and photographed by Daniel Hirschler and Michael Karhausen