by Richard Brandt; Juliane Niepert and Isabella Kurkowski, TU Dortmund University, Germany.
The EU, with its many institutions and complex structures, may sometimes seem like a closed book from the outside. The image of the EU – a bureaucratic monster. This image is also reflected in the media.
To improve and intensify reporting on the EU, it is extremely important for journalists to have a solid basic understanding of the EU, its institutions and its policies, as these have an impact on many issues – right down to the local level and our everyday lives.
A new digital Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for EU-wide journalistic training on topics relating to the EU, EU institutions and EU cohesion policy is intended to provide a remedy. It is being created by a team from TU Dortmund University with 27 international partners as part of the project “Covering Cohesion Policy in Europe – Training MOOC for European Journalism Students” (COPE). The course’s rich pool of material consisting of 14 individual modules is primarily aimed at BA journalists.
EU topics are underrepresented in the journalism curricula of European universities. This is shown by a survey conducted in 2023 in preparation for the project among 36 universities of the European Journalism Training Association (EJTA). According to the survey, only 61% of respondents stated that EU topics are part of the curriculum at all – and what exactly is taught in the respective subjects varies greatly between universities.
There is a lot of catching up to do, especially when it comes to economic EU topics, which only appear in half of the curricula. This is particularly important as misuse and misappropriation of cohesion funds is a recurring topic – especially for collaborative or investigative journalists. According to the study, less than a quarter of existing journalism training courses at universities cover topics related to EU cohesion policy and less than half cover communication science aspects of the EU topics themselves. The COPE project addresses these gaps.
The COPE team at TU Dortmund University, led by Prof. Susanne Fengler and funded by the EU Commission, has developed Europe’s first e-learning platform that trains young European journalists to report on the EU and its cohesion policy in a more comprehensive, critical, versatile and audience-oriented way. The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) called COPE is available in 27 versions – for each EU member state in its own language – and is primarily aimed at BA students, with a total of 108 hours of work over the course of a semester.
Susanne Fengler explains: “In 14 modules, COPE trains prospective media makers on the basics and mechanisms of the EU, EU institutions and their areas of influence, research on EU topics – and how to present them in an interesting way for local target groups.”
This is to be achieved primarily through practical tasks that are repeatedly included in the 14 modules. Two modules also place a particular emphasis on economic topics and how to report on these subjects in a more engaging way.
Great importance has also been placed on the local level – as some topics offer a so-called “local window” from the respective national perspective of each country, developed separately by journalistic and scientific institutions in 27 EU countries. The local view represents corresponding differences in the perception of the EU as well as their similarities and needs – How are the EU funds distributed in each country? Is the money being invested in the right projects? What is the current reporting on the EU like and how can journalists access all the important information about the EU in their countries?
An online-course designed to inspire critical journalism. The course is now in the active test teaching phase at 27 recognized universities in all EU countries. Other countries outside the EU, such as Georgia, Moldova, North Macedonia and the Philippines, are also interested in adopting the MOOC in their journalism curriculum.
First outcomes from our COPE pilot-test-teaching evaluation:
Authors
Juliane Niepert, COPE Research Assistant, TU Dortmund University, Germany
Richard Brandt, COPE Research Assistant, TU Dortmund University, Germany
Isabella Kurkowski, COPE Managing Director, TU Dortmund University, Germany
