Media Practice

The idea behind this first Media Practice Week for the new students is to identify where their interests lie, what knowledge they already have and in which areas they would like to gain more practical experience. Due to their heterogeneous professional backgrounds, the students can also learn from each other and explore new fields. The Media Practice Weeks build upon one another. Therefore, the first Media Practice Week serves as preparation for the following media practice workshops, in which students deepen their previously gained knowledge and skills. 

Three workshops on three unique topics were offered this year: 

Photojournalism 

In this two-day practical workshop, students learned the basics of visual storytelling. They tried to answer the question: What is important to look for when you are sent out on an assignment for a newspaper or magazine?  

After a short introduction in the morning of the first day, students worked in groups of two to shoot a story on the topic “our changing climate”. One of the participating students, Hin-Yan Li, explains: "Our trainer  Ilvy Njiokiktjien inspired us with her amazing award-winning portfolio. Her sharing of experiences and photo-shooting tips, encouraged us to see the city of Bonn as well as "Climate" from a different perspective."

In the afternoon, the pictures were discussed, evaluating all aspects under consideration when publishing a successful story. On the second and last day, the photos were edited for publication.  

Data Journalism 

Using AI in journalism, learning research tools, managing and preparing your own data for the next 25 years. At this interdisciplinary workshop, students learned and practiced the basics of AI as well as how to navigate issues pertaining to digital data now and in the future. "Since the ChatGPT and OpenAI were the hot topic across the world currently, we had a chance to interact with the bot. We even used the AI to produce a powerpoint presentation for the final evaluation session", explains Hin-Yan Li.

As the most used search engine, Google was also analyzed in this workshop, raising the question: “Is Google really making us smarter? Or, even dumber?”  

At the end of the seminar, a topic that concerns us all was discussed: Data and security. 

Interview Training 

In this seminar, students learned how to conduct an interview successfully. This seminar examined the different forms of interviews, the goal of an interview, choosing the right person to interview and how to ask the right questions. The group concluded that the key to a successful interview is the right questioning technique. The students learned various techniques and were trained to conduct and present an interview with confidence. 

The training partly took place in the DW Akademie TV studios.