The 4th meeting of the project ‘Team Up for Youth’ has just finished in Münster (Germany). Between 29th of November and 7th of December over 24 young people from 6 different countries (Germany, Poland, Spain, Denmark, Romania and UK) were trained in the field of cross-media journalism and pedagogy and were learning about filming in the Bürgerhaus Bennohaus in Münster.

The European Youth4Media Network Association has organized a new media camp under the topic “cultural diversity”. The participants were divided into four different groups. Three of them joined the Module A (video journalism), where they learnt basic techniques about video making, cameras, sound, light, editing programs and journalism in order to increase their media skills. The most experienced youngsters took part in the Module C (‘Train the Trainer’) in which they learnt how to become a trainer. The leader of that group – Grzegorz Konopski confirms: ‘In the beginning it was a little bit stressful to be in charge of the workshop in which you have to teach how to teach. You need to use your pedagogical skills to talk about pedagogy. However, I was lucky because participants were open minded and professional, so everybody learnt from each other”.

The group of Grzegorz Konopski produced a short movie focused on stereotypes. The groups from Marko Hassler and Stephan Kuhlmann created two video reports and the making of group, lead by Isabel Barragán, was documenting the whole process. “It is a unique experience to teach people who are interested in media. They learnt how to record a report under the topic of cultural diversity, which is such an interesting topic because all the participants were from different countries and the discussion to come up with the main idea for the report was pretty enriching for everyone”, says Marko Hassler, a German trainer.

Youth4Media tries to invite some experts for Team Up training, this time the special guest was Dionne Walker, a film producer from London, who creates debate series and independent film projects. Walker presented part of the documentary Down by Law, which talk about the urban life of Mark Duggan, a man who was killed by the police. This incident was caused in London and UK riots in August 2011. The producer from London is currently leading this documentary with the director George Amponsah. After the presentation, the participants took part in an interesting debate in which they discussed about media and social issues, connecting it with the cultural diversity, the topic of this edition’s Team Up. Stephan Kuhlmann, one of the trainers admits: “I don´t know what was more interesting: the lessons and professional experience of Dionne or the deep debate that appeared afterwards. Everybody reported their ideas about the media responsibility on social and political topics”.

The week was full of work but also of funny moments. The participants had the chance to get to know each other during the intercultural evening, which is always taking place on all the media camps organized by Youth4Media. Everybody presented her/his country through videos, music and typical food and drinks, which is a perfect situation to know other cultures and usages.

In order to establish a network of young people and to promote civil society engagement and digital creativity, Youth4Media started the project ‚Team Up for Youth‘, funded by the European Union, in October 2013. The two last meetings are planned for 2015; one of them will take place in Lublin (Poland) and the other one will be again in Münster, Germany.

Youth4Media will continue with the project. Stay updated to see the results of the 4th edition on our international magazine Team Up, created by the participants.

Isabel Barragán Vera (source: youth4media.eu)