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AJTA Teachers Conference at DMJX campus Aarhus 2022

May 11-13, 2022 - Aarhus, Denmark

EJTA Teachers’ Conference

How to teach engagement journalism and getting in touch with your audience

This year's theme for the EJTA Teachers' Conference is about interacting with and involving the users of journalism and about developing better ways to have democratic conversations in a time with growing polarization.

The background for this is many things. Contemporary journalism is facing a lot of challenges: news avoiders, distrust in the media and other institutions, questions of representation, inclusiveness and diversity, a mismatch between media and audience agendas, polarization in society and growing competition, shrinking budgets. 

We, the organizers of the conference, don´t think that involving the audience, will solve all these problems, but we see it as one way to address the problems.

It is our conviction that journalistic services are needed for a working democracy — albeit in a somewhat different way than before. We believe that journalists should get closer to the audience to understand what they see as problems and what they see as solutions. Journalism should empower the audience, not make citizens feel hopeless as they often do today. 

These suggestions are meant as an addition to the traditional ways of journalism, not as a reform. Our constructive approach to journalism underlines traditional standards of reporting.

Practicalities

When

May 11 - Preconference meetings - everybody's welcome

May 12 - How to involve the audience?

May 13 - Headline: Are journalism schools part of the problem with the growing polarization?

Where

The Danish School of Journalism, Campus Aarhus

Accommodation and getting there

--> Download the guide (PDF)

Registration - Deadline April 21

--> Registration for the EJTA Teachers' Conference

Read the preliminary program and sign up for the conference on this page. See you in Aarhus this spring!

 

Programme

--> See the full final programme for the EJTA conference

Breakout sessions – content:

Room A: User-centered journalism: How to teach journalists to look at the world with their user’s eyes.

We want our content to reach people who are interested in what's going on around them. To succeed, we have to think not only about what interests them, but also about how we can get them to pay attention to us. A new manual shows you how to do it.

Alexandra Stark, Director of Studies at the Swiss School of Journalism MAZ

 

Room B: How the J-schools in the Dialogue project have taught engagement journalism

Teachers from HdM, DMJX and Windesheim University

Room C: Journalistic Collaboration with citizens, migrants and refugees.

Susanne Fengler, Dortmund University:   

Susanne Fengler is Professor for International Journalism at the Technical University Dortmund and Scientific Director of the Erich Brost Institute for International Journalism at TU Dortmund University, Germany.

Room D: How to serve as a brilliant SoMe host

TV 2 Østjylland/Peter Svith Skou-Hansen

Peter Skou-Hansen is an editor at the regional tv-station TV 2 Østjylland in Aarhus. The tv-station has developed and educated Social Media hosts and has found inspiring ways to connect with the users.

Room E: How the students have worked with engagement in their projects

Students present some of their productions and how they have worked with involvement.

Room F: Why should we involve the public in the making of journalism?

Niek Hietbrink, Windesheim University of applied science

Nick Hietbrink works as a Scientific Researcher, Research Center Constructive Journalism.

Room G: Audience metrics in the newsroom and journalism education

Dries Rombouts from Artevelde University of Applied Sciences Ghent

Digital news publications have more and more data on the behavior of their readership. Artevelde University of Applied Sciences has been running a research, mapping these audience metrics and their use in Flemish newsrooms. We invite you to share your insights on the use and incorporation of audience metrics in journalism education and newsrooms.

 

Keynote speaker

Watch this video about Aarhus and the region

Aarhus is at the same time a very old and a very young city. The city's history goes back to the Vikings, but now it is a very vibrant city, and with more than 50,000 students, Aarhus has the country's highest concentration of students in relation to inhabitants.
 

Experience world art at the Teachers' Conference at DMJX

The Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist has exhibited all over the world and among others MoMA and Guggenheim in New York have permanent Rist works in their collections. But her biggest permanent work is to be found at the Danish School of Media and Journalism (DMJX) in Aarhus.

Here, Rist has made his largest site-specific video installation to date ‘Ground light and ping pong with the sun’, which the participants at the Teachers ’Conference will have the opportunity to see in connection with the dinner on Thursday 12 May during the conference.