Media for a European Public Sphere #1

with Christian-Zsolt Varga and Patrick Leusch, moderated by Paulina Fröhlich

Our guests work hard on creating such a pan-European media infrastructure: Christian-Zsolt Varga is an online editor at n-ost, reporting on Hungarian politics and other crucial issues from across Eastern Europe. Patrick Leusch is Head of European Affairs at Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcaster. In this capacity, he is responsible for international relations, especially to European institutions and partners.

Christian pitches n-ost, a non-profit media network that connects journalists and other media outlets from across the European Union to foster collaboration and strengthen pan-European reporting. Their members campaign against economic, social or political restrictions in journalism and push for fair compensation. By collaborating through n-ost, they can tap into additional resources for time-consuming research and improve each other’s reporting.

Patrick argues that creating a shared sense of discourse and narratives across the EU requires media outlets to produce content that engages people beyond the pro-EU bubble. Also, he shares his insight into ENTR, an upcoming collaboration between several European broadcasters and media institutions that aims to create a cohesive European media network.

Recommendations:

• The European social network: “Plattform Europa” by Johannes Hillje (Deutsche Welle, IPS, or book)
• Forum.eu for European news in different European languages:
• ENTR (to be launched on April 1, 2021)
• “This is not propaganda” by Peter Pomerantsev