Digital media is changing the world and giving more people everywhere the chance to have their voices heard and participate in social processes. This year’s Global Media Forum will explore the complex diversity of these issues along with experts, policy makers and interested guests from all over the world. With so much to choose from, we wanted to highlight some events and partners that you should look for at this year’s conference.

A session hosted by the German Development Institute titled, Transcultural understandings of legitimacy: A pre-condition for global governance?, will explore the effectiveness of international institutions in achieving legitimacy on the ground in the different countries and cultures where they operate. The focus will be on increasing trans-cultural dialogue in order to create common values and common solutions.

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom is hosting a panel discussion that will explore how social media is helping foster democracy around the world. The session titled, The role of (social) media in promoting and sustaining democratic governance, features guest experts from Lebanon, Egypt, India and Myanmar who will discuss how social media initiates and even stabilizes processes of social change.

A plenary discussion hosted by ASHOKA titled, Room for all? How social entrepreneurs in media are forging a new infrastructure for participation,  explores the changing structure of global media. The discussion focuses on the role of the media and audience in light of digital media and where the traditional information power structure is changing to allow for the creation of a new public sphere. Challenges will be introduced like finding new audiences and financing, how to bring in new participants and ways to create new “information communities.”

A talk hosted by Voices of Africa Media Foundation will feature a case study from Nairobi, Kenya that provided young people living in the cities slums the chance to become reporters. The talk titled, A case study in enabling residents from informal settlements to participate in decision-making, will showcase some results from the project which provides an example from Africa for how disadvantaged people can make their voices heard.

A workshop hosted by Wartburg College titled, A blueprint for building communities: Applying community-building practices to a news media company,” will explore how the traditional business a model has changed for big news organizations and how they can adopt practices from social media to increase their relevance and attract new audiences.

And that is not all! There is much more to see and learn at the 2014 Global Media Forum. The conference starts Monday June 30 and you can follow the events with live updates on Twitter and Facebook or on the press website.

Peter Limbourg will be the new Director General of Deutsche Welle (DW). On March 15, the Broadcasting Board elected the current Senior Vice President of News and Political Information of ProSiebenSat.1 TV Germany as the successor to Erik Bettermann with a clear majority. Bettermann, whose term as DW’s Director General will officially end on September 30, 2013, has been in charge of Germany’s international broadcaster since 2001.

“Together with my colleagues, I hope to further enhance Deutsche Welle’s journalistic standing and its multilingual and multimedia programming. Intensifying DW’s cooperation with Germany’s public service broadcasters ARD and ZDF is another goal I have set myself,” said Limbourg.

 

Deutsche Welle (DW) will look different on February 6, 2012. We have set a new course for the future by announcing comprehensive changes to our programming structure, design and online services. At a press conference in Berlin on January 31, Deutsche Welle Director General Erik Bettermann referred to the set of changes as “a milestone for representing Germany better around the world.”

New changes to television include an expanded program for Latin America with 20 hours of Spanish programming daily. There will also be a new channel with 24 hours of English programming, broadcast in North America, Africa, Asia and Australia. DW will also offer additional channels in several regions: In North and Latin America and Asia, the second channel will be made up of 20 hours of programming in German and four hours in English.

In the Arab world, there will be a channel featuring 10 hours of Arabic programming and 14 hours of English; and in Europe, DW will broadcast 18 hours of English and six hours of German during primetime.

Along with the new television program and the completely redesigned website, DW will be creating a unified brand identity with a new corporate design.

Yes and no. With the title An invisible woman taught me German, the Slate’s Mark Garrison gives a good overview of what DW offers language learners: “One of the best language lessons of my life came from a randy invisible woman named X, a talking owl with her own creepy theme song, and young sleuths with relationship issues.”

What might sound strange at first only highlights the wide range of German language courses available online from DW. According to Garrison: “Extensive and absolutely free offerings that are quite possibly the most unusual language courses around. They’re well worth checking out if you want to learn German.”

 

 

DW reporter Stefan Nestler is still onboard the research vessel "Sonne," currently sailing off the coast of New Zealand. His blogging stint has about run its course but you can still catch up on all the developments on the Methane Blog.

This blog is just one of many contributions to DW's future now project, which is exploring the science of tomorrow. Check it out and explore several different topics in four categories: environment, communication, mobility and health.

Also a great chance to check out the latest DW WebDoc Arsenic in the water about the current situation in Bangladesh.