DW Akademie is staying ahead of the learning curve and has designed a new trainee program that opens a door of opportunity  for a talented group of young and international media professionals. DW’s new international traineeship uses a multilingual and multimedia-oriented approach with televison, radio and online, providing graduates with the skills they need to succeed in today’s global media landscape.

Admission is competitive and if selected, you will be part of a distinctive learning community among international colleagues who will share your passion for media and world-class training in journalism. You will also be exposed to a broad spectrum of disciplines and professional backgrounds while expanding your horizons in a stimulating, internationally diverse atmosphere.

A traineeship with DW is also about being active and putting practice first. Trainees have the resources of Germany’s international broadcaster at their fingertips and will get the opportunity to work with DW’s editorial departments in Bonn and Berlin as well as internships abroad with DW’s foreign bureaus in Moscow, Brussels or Washington D.C.

This year 12 candidates will be accepted into the 18-month program. Think you have what it takes? Applications are now being accepted and the deadline is October 31. You can also put yourself to the test right now and try out the general knowledge quiz used for candidates in 2013.

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.

It is becoming a dangerous digital world out there with everything from hackers phishing for passwords to governments spying on communications. Journalists are often in possession of very sensitive information and there is the persistent danger of it falling into the wrong hands. Learning how to securely save and transfer information has therefore become vital to the skill set of modern journalists.

DW is on the front line in the fight for digital security. This week, DW Akademie is hosting free online workshops about Digital Safety for Journalists, in cooperation with Reporters Without Borders. The seminar is open to everyone interested in learning more about Internet security and consists of six sessions held by digital safety experts and journalists.

Some of the experts include Ala’a Shehabi an activist and journalist based in Bahrain, Anne Roth from Tactical Tech, an NGO that works on digital security for activists and Morgan Marquis-Boire, a digital security researcher and technical advisor. You can explore the issues on the community page which will be continuously updated and you can follow the sessions on Twitter at @dw_akademie and #digisafe. Don’t miss out, register now for the seminar and learn how to protect yourself online.

What will the future look like for the silicon savannah?

DW Akademie is also currently accepting proposals for papers to be presented at the fifth Deutsche Welle Media Dialogue in May. The topic this year addresses different social and structural challenges affecting the media in Kenya.  Media academics, political scientists, economists, academic lawyers and journalists can register online to join the symposium and upload their proposals. The deadline for submissions is January 31, 2014.

The symposium will be held in two parts. The first session will cover media legislation and media ownership in Kenya with a look at the current media landscape and what developments are to be expected. The second session will look at journalistic standards and ethical practices with an extra focus on election coverage. The development of communication technology in Kenya has been seen as an African success story. The next step will be to ensure that the information being shared on the new networks meets journalistic standards. The symposium and presentations will be in English.

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.”

DW Akademie believes more should be done for local journalists and that thorough research needs to be recognized. With Investiga DW is introducing a journalism prize in Latin America that should highlight these issues and the journalists that work to ensure them. The competition is open to television, radio and online journalists and the deadline for submissions is April 30, 2012.

The focus will be on reports with a social and political weight – topics that Colombian journalists are sometimes hesitant to tackle. “We’re hoping for a courageous type of local journalism, one that shapes public opinion without being patronizing. This is incredibly important in Latin American countries where media systems are usually centralized,” says Petra Berner from DW Akademie.

DW Akademie will award the winner a ten-day trip to Germany. This will include participation in the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum and discussions with DW staff in Bonn and Berlin. The runner-up will receive a multimedia equipment set, funded by the Universidad del Norte.

In Spanish, “investigar” means to investigate, to research. “We want to motivate local journalists to dig deeper. We’re looking for stories that haven’t been told,” says DW Akademie Director Gerda Meuer.