Saturday, 23 August, 2008,
Marlene-Dietrich-Allee 25,
Potsdam-Babelsberg
09:30 a.m. – 01:00 p.m.

Rudolf Porsch, Executive Director
Axel Springer Akademy, Berlin
Corinna Emundts,
Political Correspondent (tagesschau.de), Berlin

By Anja Mücke

For young journalists, the question about the future of journalism is a particularly important one. What is at stake, when they decide to turn their passionate hobby into their profession and, what standards do they set themselves for their work? Split in two separate groups, the participants discuss with the political journalist Corinna Emundts (tagesschau.de) and Rudolf Porsch, a member of the Axel Springer Academy, such essential questions.

What will journalism mean in ten years time? The focus was thereby not so much on the technical aspects, but the workshop was concentrated on the role of journalism in society as a whole.

Is this a scenario of the future? The society is becoming ever more proactive in conceiving change and the middle class seems to disappear. What we are left with is a gap, which strongly reverberates with the consumption of media. The provision of media becomes increasingly complex, the wrapping up of the product is more important than the actual content of the information and, quality journalism is going to become a form of art, affordable only to few. The main task of a journalist of the future will therefore be, to select the huge quantity of information we receive and to channel the most significant bits of such information into the news. The pressure on the journalist to work precisely and responsibly will hence grow.

Below, four fundamental tendencies:

• live reporting through mobile phone technology
   and the Internet
• globalisation of news through cross-national
   cooperation
• the shifting of newspapers from print media
   to the Internet
• traditional journalism, but in digital formats

In conclusion, it must be mentioned that the entire discussion was led from a western point of view. The debate made clear that journalists from different countries will face a varied set of challenges. Christina’s (Belarus) plea for press freedom in her home-country was representative of the difficulties many of the young participants will be facing in the coming ten years.