From the expanse of the African wilderness to the streets of Brazil, the training programs from DW Akademie provide journalists with the tools they need to produce stories that make a difference and have a positive effect on their communities.

A new series of workshops is set to begin this summer in cooperation with the Kavango-Zambesi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA), located in southern Africa. This conservation area is the largest in the world and stretches across five countries. Journalists from Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe have been invited to participate in the 16-month project.

The workshop will be focused on helping to increase awareness through the media of the need to protect the region. Journalists will be trained primarily in bio-diversity and how to better promote protection of species through their journalistic craft. Other issues that will be covered are ecological research, land development, tourism, resource conservation and conflict-sensitive reporting.

In a testament to the effectiveness of DW’s traininig programs, four radio journalists who took part in a DW workshop were recently awarded a Microfone de Prata (Silver Microphone), one of Brazil’s most prestigious journalism prizes. Journalists Gecylene Sales and Eanes Silva, who took part in a 2013 DW Akademie workshop on investigative reporting in Boa Vista, produced the award-winning report on forced prostitution in Amazonian countries. The journalistic production required them to use skills they learned with DW Akademie like doing effective research, conducting sensitive interviews and protecting sources.

Also winning a Silver Microphone were workshop participants Aroldo Bruce and Alcinio Limo, who produced a report on the struggle of indigenous Amazonian tribes with preserving their cultural identities. The competition for the prize was intense and the fact that two groups of workshop participants were chosen separately,  is something the DW Akademie can truly be proud of.

The proven success of DW Akademie’s training in Latin America and the new partnership with KAZA are just a few ways with which DW is working to improve the world through better journalism.

The 2014 DW Global Media Forum (GMF) will focus on the transformative power of the Internet and its effect on modern media, governance and political participation.  A collection of intriguing individuals active in media and government will provide insight, understanding and shed new light on these critical issues.

Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland ,will be delivering a keynote speech following opening remarks from DW Director General Peter Limbourg.  Also attending as a special guest will be the Egyptian political satirist Bassem Youssef, host of the widely-popular and controversial comedy news show El Bernameg. Other special guests include German Foreign Minister, Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier and humanitarian activist Auma Obama.

The Media Summit at the GMF will get to the core of the issue at hand with a panel of distinguished individuals from German and international media. Delivering a keynote speech will be the CEO of Axel Springer Germany, Mathias Doepfner.  Panelists will include Peter Horrocks, Director of BBC World Services Group and Director General of Al Jazeera Media Network, Dr. Mostefa Souag.

Another highlight will be a panel discussion on transatlantic relations with panelists that include Senior Editor for Foreign Policy at the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Stefan Cornelius, Editor-in-Chief of RTL television, Peter Kloeppel and DW Chief Political Correspondent, Melinda Crane.

You can see the entire guest list here.

DW has made a big impression at two American flim festivals in April. Multiple productions from DW have taken home a total of 14 awards at both events.

Productions from DW stood out at the New York Festivals International TV & Film Awards in Las Vegas, winning a total of seven awards in six categories.  The awards are among the premier international distinctions that can be received in the television industry. Winning Silver World Medals were the DW classical-music documentary films Schumann at Pier 2, which won medals in both the Arts and Feature Films categories, and The Colón Ring – Wagner in Buenos Aires, which won silver in the Documentaries category as well as picking up a Bronze World Medal in the Arts category. Also winning a Bronze World Medal in the History and Society category was the KickOff! special production- 50 years of the Bundesliga.  Winning Finalist Certificates were the Euromaxx series Europe28 in the Travel and Tourism Category along with a video feature news report, Robert, Helene and the Horrors of Oradour in the Heroes category. The awards ceremony was a part of the 2014 NAB entertainment trade show. The two latest awards for Schumann at Pier 2, make a total of 14 that the film has received.

At the 47th annual WorldFest–Houston a rich variety of DW productions won seven “Remi” awards. Many took home a platinum Remi, the highest distinction for each sub-category. Winning a platinum in the Lifestyle Programming– Series category was the 10-part series PopXport special. Other platinum winners in the TV Series- Documentary category were the Brazil and Japan segments of the human interest special Coming Home.  Also taking platinum in the Cultural/Historical Program category was Tracing the Past- German-Jewish Cultural Heritage and again on the list Robert, Helene and the Horrors of Oradour in the Historical Programming Segment category.

Another two-time winner with a gold award in the Documentary category was The Colón Ring – Wagner in Buenos Aires. Also picking up a gold in the Individual On-Camera Talent category was the Euromaxx special Germany by Scooter hosted by Micheal Wigge. Last but not least was Strangers- 6 years later, which won silver in the Documentaries category. The WorldFest- Houston is one of the oldest film festivals in the world and this year DW was among 4,500 entries from 33 countries.

The Internet is an open frontier for creative media. By cooperating with partners who are developing innovative media applications, DW is finding new ways to present and reformat content. One of the latest collaborations is with Flipboard, an innovative App that allows users to curate an online “personal magazine”.

 The winner of Apple’s 2010 App of the year features a novel yet simple functionality and with one click, users can “flip” an article or other online content onto a personalized platform that has an attractive magazine style layout. DW news content in 14 languages is now available for use with the App and each website is presented in a magazine format with a “cover story” that updates automatically. Flipboard reflects the diversity of DW’s news services with a variety ranging from Arabic to Chinese and Russian. By clicking on an article, users are redirected to the DW website. The partners at Flipboard are already enthusiastic about the attractive layout of the sections prepared by DW’s marketing team. Flipboard’s user-generated magazines provide a great example for how audiences can take control of their content.

In another exciting partnership, a team from DW has recently been working with developers at Microsoft to ensure that online content from DW is featured prominently on Bing news, the sleek online news application now included on all Windows 8 devices. There have been over a million page views since DW first went online in German with Bing news last month. Content from DW in 11 languages is set to be integrated into the App in the coming weeks. DW is keeping an eye on the horizon and will continue to play a part in more exciting and creative developments with online media in the future.

Guest Commentary

Benjamin Schnabel, Distribution Representative for Global Partnerships at DW

MIP Digital Fronts will be the first international digital content marketplace for the production, distribution and acquisition of high-quality original content produced exclusively for online audiences.

Even as television and the Internet merge closer together, online video is still in the early stages of its development as a conventional medium. But in the next few years, it will really take off as audiences become more comfortable with using hybrid television and streaming video. Online networks and channels are beginning to feature programming created specifically for the web that has mass appeal. The fact that MIP is exploring digital fronts indicates it could be where the market is heading in the future.

Traditional news outlets can redefine their place in the digital landscape by producing or distributing innovative and interactive web documentaries. DW has been exploring the world with interactive documentaries for years now. And this definitely shows another direction that interaction, digital content and smart TV could have – a type of “choose your own adventure” documentary.  These productions unlock the multimedia potential of the digital world by combining insightful and interesting journalism with captivating visual settings and video. DW’s WebDocs for example take you deep into the rainforests of Papua New Guinea or the shantytowns of Rio de Janeiro. And unlike traditional documentary formats, the user interacts with the environment and can choose actions, questions and decide where the story goes. All of these elements combine to place the user in the journalist’s shoes.

There is a demand on the emerging digital content market for productions that meet journalistic and intellectual standards. While Digital Fronts seems to focus nearly exclusively on entertainment, fiction and series, the large-scale success of documentaries in the recent past like “An Inconvenient Truth” or “Super Size Me” suggest that real stories can also have a place in the digital world. Interactive Webdocs could play that role on digital channels. Take for example NPR’s “Planet Money Makes A T-Shirt” or “Journey To The End Of Coal” produced by the private French studio honkeytonk films and first released on the website of the leading French daily, Le Monde.

There is still a lot of junk floating around in online channels. There is a need to develop content that tries to reach a higher standard and is aimed at digital natives who will use online video portals as their primary source of entertainment. They are seeking high-quality online content that combines news, entertainment and audience participation. By developing and promoting novel video and documentary formats, broadcasters can take the lead in adding quality to digital channels.

If you are interested in working with DW on co-productions or integrating our content into your lineup, just contact our sales team. We will also be in Cannes at MIP from April 7-10.