Earlier this month, the Facebook page of telenovela Jojo Sucht das Glück and multimedia project Destination Europe won top prizes in their respective genres. Jojo Sucht das Glück won a bronze E Learning Award in an international competition hosted by London-based Bizmedia. Destination Europe won an International Media Excellence Award (the AIBs) from the Association for International Broadcasting, also based in the UK.

The E Learning Awards are one of the most prestigious competitions in the industry. DW’s Esther Weingarten accepted the bronze for “Best use of social media for learning” in London.

The Facebook page for Jojo Sucht das Glück not only features supplementary info about weekly episodes. It is also a forum for fans to directly interact with the star of the show and practice their German. Users have even made fan videos about the telenovela and uploaded them to YouTube.

The AIBs honor excellence in international broadcasting, picking winners from entrants all over the world. DW’s Felix Steiner and Klaus Dahmann accepted the award for Destination Europe at a London ceremony.

The Association for International Broadcasting praised the project for its “first-rate multilingual, multi-platform approach, with extensive use of social media to provide real, relevant information to those seeking a better life in Europe.”

This month has seen two DW documentaries winning prestigious European awards. “Machine Music – Four Decades of German Electronic and Dance Music” took home a Golden Dolphin at the Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards. Another documentary with a musical focus, “Schumann at Pier2,” won the Czech Television Prize.

“Machine Music” is all about the evolution of electronic pop music in Germany. The two-part film, by Reiner Schild and Anja Freyhoff-King, starts with German pioneer Kraftwerk in the 1970s and goes on to show the influence of German groups on international acts like Depeche Mode and Pet Shop Boys.

The Golden Dolphin is the fourth award for “Machine Music,” which was released in 2010 as part of the Deutsche Beats project.

“Schumman at Pier2” is shaping up to follow in the footsteps of “Machine Music.” “Schumann” director Christian Berger and producer Bernhard Fleischer accepted the Czech Television Prize in Prague last week.

“Schumann at Pier2” is a modern take on the four symphonies made by legendary composer Robert Schumann. The narrative follows Estonian-American conductor Paavo Järvi and members of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen as they play at a converted shipyard.

This Friday (October 26) sees the official release event for “Schumann at Pier2” at Kino International in Berlin. Audiences will be able to watch the documentary on DW as well as the European cultural channel Arte starting in November. Berlin-based C Major Entertainment plans to sell a DVD box set including recordings by the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.

DW picked up a total of of eight prizes, including two gold at the PromaxBDA Global Excellence Design Awards for 2012.  The PromaxBDA awards recognize accomplishments for TV design and media marketing and the event is considered one of the most presitgious in this field.  The team took three prizes in the category of “News, Bumper” – a gold for the design of “The Car Making World,” silver for “Global 3000 Africa on the Move,” and bronze for “Global 3000 Global Snack.”  The design for “The Future of Motoring” also took gold in the category of News, Open/Titles. Other nominees in this category included CNN International, CNN en Espanol, Al Jazeera English and Schweizer Fernsehen.

 

DW today announced the winners of the 2011 Deutsche Welle Blog Awards – The BOBs.

An international jury of blog and media experts awarded honors in six multilingual categories. The awards will be presented as part of the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum on June 20, 2011 in Bonn, Germany.

Best Blog went to "A Tunisian Girl", a blog written by Lina Ben Mhenni, a 27-year-old assistant professor at the University of Tunis. She has blogged about repression and censorship in her country since 2007 – long before a popular uprising unseated former president Ben Ali. During the protests in December 2010 and January 2011 she traveled to places including Sidi Bouzid and Kasrine to document the repression and killings occurring there. She now keeps a careful watch on political developments in the new Tunisia. ().

A list of all the User Prize winners can be seen here.

DW will also be hosting a panel discussion with jury members from The BOBs later today (April 12) in Bonn.

Winners will receive their prizes at the Global Media Forum in Bonn on June 20, 2011.