DW’s blog and social media awards has relaunched its website with a new look and a new logo. The Bobs – Best of online activism – has been recognizing the best independent bloggers and citizen journalists since 2004 and is just one way that DW contributes to promoting freedom of expression and the upholding of human rights around the world. This year, the contest has added three additional languages – Hindi, Turkish and Ukrainian – opening the contest’s categories to a total of 14 languages.

Find out more at thebobs.com

A new partnership with Standard Group Ltd. will make DW radio and television programming available to even more viewers and listeners in Kenya. The new agreement will make DW’s Swahili radio programming available on Radio Maisha and English television programming on KTN. Radio Maisha has been rebroadcasting DW’s Swahili programming since January 15, with one programming hour being aired five days a week from Monday to Friday. In addition, 10 minutes of news is being broadcast on Saturday and Sunday. In addition, DW’s English television programming will also be broadcast on KTN – a privately run television station which broadcasts throughout Kenya in English. A promotional campaign will accompany the partnership featuring bill-boards, radio and newspaper ads to introduce DW programming to the Kenyan audience.

DW Akademie has announced a call for papers for its Media Dialogue on May 29, 2013.  This is the fourth installment of the symposium which will focus on “Pakistan’s Media Landscape: The Effects of Liberalization”. The event will be held in Bonn and will welcome international media researchers, political scientists, economists, legal experts and journalists to discuss recent developments as well as future trends in Pakistan’s media landscape. DW Akademie is organizing the Media Dialogue in collaboration with Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences. The deadline for paper proposals is February 25, 2013.

 

 

To start the new year, DW’s program Pulse will offer music fans a new way to hear the latest music from the German club scene. The new DW page at Myspace will offer music fans the chance to listen to the latest songs from up-and-coming German groups as well as offering tour dates and interviews with bands: www.myspace.com/dwenglish.

Berlinskibeat was the first of the unsigned band profiles Pulse featured this week. Among others, the following bands will be presented in the coming weeks: Devil Named Jones, Julian King, Sticks in the Casino and Sputnik Booster & the Future Posers.  All episodes of the show are available as audio on demand on DW’s Pulse homepage, as well as on Myspace Unsigned’s Stream. Myspace boasts the largest free online music and video library in the world, which currently contains more than 42 million songs and videos.

The weekly English-language radio show Pulse takes a look at youth culture in Europe and around the world. Each edition consists of 30 minutes of fun, stimulating information and music. The show is rebroadcast by DW’s partner radio stations around the world and is also available online.

Guido Baumhauer, DW’s Director of Distribution, recently took time for a Q&A with the EBU, covering everything from the future of media to the Hunger Games and Jane Fonda. One of his insights has to do with using social media outside of the office:

“It is redefining how we all receive and redistribute our information and how we communicate. As a communication platform and information channel, social media provides a great opportunity for people to find and share information and news from many reliable sources.

I love this new freedom of the former “recipient” – when something big happens, social media channels are often faster than traditional sources and I rely on my smartphone. But to be honest, I don’t need to share pictures of my dinner on Facebook and Twitter via Instagram – I concentrate on eating it instead.”

Read the whole interview here.