Second edition

On July 27^th, we officially announced the 30 winning initiatives that will implement their innovative ideas in the media and journalistic sector with the financial support of Stars4Media. The 185 media professionals from 22 different European countries will cooperate across borders to bring their ideas to life in the timeframe of 15^th of September until 15^th of January 2022.

During this time, we are proudly introducing all winning initiatives in a series under the umbrella of six distinct macrotopics:

The series is giving an exclusive glimpse into the details of the proposals, including interviews with the initiative leaders.

3rd edition

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Submit your idea!

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Second edition winners: Five outstanding initiatives

Wounds of Europe

Initiative formed by Cafébabel and BX1 (BE): awarded the Journalism, Trust & Participation prize!

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Visual journalism without constraints

Initiative formed by Vocento Group and Cruncho: awarded with the Media, Technology & Marketing prize!

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Wounds of Europe

Initiative formed by Are We Europe, Bear Radio and Novasaga: awarded with the Other innovations Prize!

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Wounds of Europe

Initiative by Compromiso Empresarial, Instituto de Periodismo Constructivo and Innovation Media Consulting Group : won the Business Transformation Prize!

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The summer of 2020

Initiative formed by Design AI GmbH, European Pressphoto Agency, Agencia EFE: awarded with the Newsroom transformation Prize!

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More co-financed initiatives

TikTok for Journalism

Participants/partners: Are We Europe (NL), CIVINC (NL), Melody da Fonseca, Nestor Romero Clemente, Christian Helgi

Achievements: If younger generations’ attention is not going to quality news, quality news is going to them. With Stars4Media support, Are We Europe expanded its audience by creating informational and journalistic content following TikTok trends: from climate change to European identity issues, 12 videos have paved the way for a new revenue line for the partners involved in the initiative. The videos are available here.

Deliverables: 5 TikTok videos on 5 different overarching European themes

Logo AreWeEurope Logo Civinc

Small independent local/regional newsroom cooperating cross border – developing a business model based on membership

Achievements: Thanks to a sustainable financing model based on membership, misflits.eu aims at regaining the trust of the readers, building a bridge between European journalists and telling in-depth local stories so we can all learn from each other. And if you want to join the mission, Novinářský Klub Jindřicha Oppera and Misflits have thought of a handbook with a step-by-step explanation on how to turn your passion for writing into a source of revenue.

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: Novinářský klub Jindřicha Oppera, z.s. (CZ), Misflits (BE)

Deliverables: Newsroom creation, development of a new business model considering membership and crowdsourcing models

Sol(vox), the solution podcast of Solvo, a solution journalism collective

Achievements: Is technology really helping us achieve a sustainable change in our society? Thanks to the involvement of experts and We Tell Stories’ expertise during the post-production phase, Solvo’s podcast “À qui profite la tech for good?” discusses in eight episodes the benefits and limits of innovative technological solutions.

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: A solution journalism collective (Solvo) (FR), We Tell Stories (BE)

Deliverables: A solution podcast

Logo Solvo

Let’s educate on TikTok

Achievements: If online disinformation is common, let’s make online information viral: to the sound of trending songs and with more than 300,000 views, HlídacíPes.org and EFE joined forces with the support of Stars4Media. The companies are now on TikTok to teach their audiences about information verification, journalism and the fight against misinformation. Check their profiles: EFE Verifica, HlídacíPes.org

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: Ústav nezávislé žurnalistiky (CZ), HlídacíPes.org (CZ), Agencia EFE (ES)

Deliverables: Creation of an educational profile on TikTok, including short explanatory videos, interactive manuals, quizzes and more

Logo HlidaciPes Logo EFE

Stolen identity

This proposal aims to reconnect “stolen nephews” with their genetic family, thereby performing important work in the investigation and solving of the so-called “Madres de Plaza Mayo” movement. This concerns the abduction and disappearance of more than 30.000 people under the military dictatorship of General Jorge Rafael Videla from 1976 to 1983 in Argentina. After a worldwide campaign in 2020, a few of the stolen nephews, also, called “Desaparecidos”, were found – the initial hopes to increase this number.

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: La Repubblica (IT), Le Monde (FR), The Guardian (UK)

Deliverables: A cross-border investigative report with La Repubblica, Le Monde, The Guardian, launching of a platform to disseminate the Abuelas’ research and providing of a virtual test to discover if one could be a “stolen nephews”

First longform (La Repubblica)

Podcast series

Episode 1

Logo la Repubblica Logo Le Monde

Connecto: towards European values through digital media. The Live Streaming Hub

This cooperation includes four partners that aim to strengthen European solidarity as opposed to extremist national movements by means of their founded consortium. The consortium will bring local media to a European level and connect the Romanian communities with the European Audience. Further, the skills of journalists shall be improved in terms of their digital capacity.

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: PressHub.ro (RO), EURACTIV Romania (RO), ȘTIRILE TRANSILVANIEI (RO), Occidentul Românesc (ES)

Deliverables: Next to the developed consortium, a series of interviews with success stories from the Romanian communities abroad will be developed

Logo STIRILE Logo Occidentul Românesc

A force for good and a force for growth

Achievements: Improving journalists’ skills, capabilities and knowledge are the main goals of Revista Haz. Compromiso Empresarial, Instituto de Periodismo Constructivo and Innovation Media Consulting Group put together their expertise to implement a constructive and solution magazine in the Spanish market (mode details, in Spanish, here). Moreover, through Haz transparency seals, businesses can now assess and show their commitment to fair transparency standards.

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: Compromiso Empresarial (ES), Instituto de Periodismo Constructivo (ES), Innovation Media Consulting Group (UK)

Deliverables: A constructive and solutions magazine in the Spanish market

Logo Compromiso Empresarial Logo Innovation Media

For a constructive television in southern Europe

Achievements: “Change the media, change the world” is a documentary project that believes in the positive impact that constructive journalism can have on our reality. Through interviews with high-level personalities, En Positivo and Associazione Italiana Giornalismo Costruttivo shed light on current mass-media formats in Italy and Spain. Watch the teaser here.

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: En Positivo Association (ES), Associazione Italiana Giornalismo Costruttivo (IT)

Deliverables: A set of short documentaries with a constructive journalism approach, starting with 4 episodes. A critical investigation of current mass-media formats including a comparison with Northern Europe

Logo En Positivo Logo Associazione Italiana Giornalismo Costruttivo

Sex Ed Video Glossary

Achievements: From online dating to revenge porn, Sex Ed Video Glossary breaks taboos related to human sexuality. With the aid of psychologists, sexologists and through personal stories, ten journalistic videos support educators and parents in raising awareness about the current phenomena and trends. The videos are available in Croatian, Romanian and Slovenian.

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: Reci HR (HR), RTV Slovenia (SL), SEX VS. THE STORK (Sexul vs. Barza) (RO)

Deliverables: 10 journalistic videos that explain one term from the field of human sexuality each

Mind the Challenge

Achievements: Misinformation is one of the challenges that we face every time we use social media, but its consequences are not limited to the online world. Young generations and educators are the target audience of the multilingual website Mind the Challenge, created by Facta and Verificat. By involving psychologists, policy-makers and fact-checkers, the website hosts high-quality, non-time-sensitive content for general public consumption about online challenges, a phenomenon that pushes social media users to emulate viral video behaviors.

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: Facta IT (IT), Verificat (ES)

Deliverables: A dedicated website featuring a number of web docs on the described topic. Content will also be shared on TikTok and Instagram

Logo facta

Euromag

Achievements: When it comes to urban farms, refugees centres or inclusion, Cafébabel and BX1 have a different story to tell. Actually, different stories. Through a local solution journalism angle, Solution Capitales puts an end to the occidental covering of European topics with a series of four TV show episodes broadcast by TV BX1.

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: Cafébabel (FR), BX1 (BE)

Deliverables: A monthly show of 26 minutes

Logo bx1

AI to Enhance Creativity in Newswriting

Achievements: Journalists, forget the writer’s block: Sigmalive and JECT.AI have come to the rescue! Through Stars4Media, the partners created a platform, now available in Greek and English, that automates the discovery of new content and angles and supports the creation of associations between ideas through creative thinking. All of this by importing daily news content from 70 news publications based in Greece and Cyprus.

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: Sigmalive LTD (CY), JECT.AI (UK)

Deliverables: Real-time tool to help journalists discover supporting articles and research papers on city.com.cy

Logo Ject.ai

SMART Podcasts / Accordion

Achievements: The future of Podcasting is here. Thanks to the technological expertise of BWLB and the audio content provided by Bulle Media, we can now adapt the length of our favourite podcast to our needs without losing the audio and storytelling quality level. Specifically, Accordion gives you control of the duration of the podcast while maintaining its quality and listenability. For an example, check out the series “My questions to Angela Merkel, now available in English and French on the Accordion website.

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: Bwlb (UK), Bulle Media (BE)

Deliverables: Further development of Accordion

Logo BWLB Logo Bulle media

Let the money talk – a data tool on public spending

Achievements: Openpolis and Altingent joined efforts to make sure we all understand our governments’ spending habits. Through a colour-coded map, you can now visualise the difference between public budgets and expenditures of several municipalities in Italy and Denmark. In the published articles (click here for Italian and here for Danish), you can find the answers to questions such as “How do costs change over time?” or “Do elections influence public finances?”.

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: Altinget (DK), Openpolis (IT)

Deliverables: A tool that visualized and explains monetary data as public budgets and accounts, the prototype shall be able to cover the municipal elections in Denmark in November 2021

Vocento & Cruncho join forces: Hyperlocal tourism content in Spain powered by AI

Achievements: Diario Sur is an AI-powered city guide of the South of Spain, which combines a live search widget, and events services collected from trustful sources. Through advertisement, affiliate revenues and sponsorship, Cruncho’s expertise has helped Vocento create several new sources of revenue.

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: Vocento Group (ES), Cruncho (SE)

Deliverables: Integration of AI-based city-guide services in selected areas of Spain

Artificial intelligence in photojournalism, can it work?

Achievements: There is still a long way until journalists can blindly rely on Artificial Intelligence, but Frameright and the Czech News Agency (CTK) are working in that direction. As visuals represent an essential part of any story, AI mistakenly cropping a picture can lead to manipulation of reality. This initiative explored the future of AI in photojournalism and both partners will continue building a dataset that will allow identifying eventual biases in this practice.

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: Frameright (FI), Czech News Agency CTK (CZ)

Deliverables: A machine learning model that understands various types of photography (action aware), delivers the right kind of style (style-conscious), and doesn’t discriminating against minorities (inclusive)

Logo CTK

Article 7 Intelligence – Helping Newsrooms across Europe close the Accountability Gap

Achievements: As languages change also the context does: the “EU Bubble” political language differs hugely from the domestic political debates of individual countries. For this reason, thanks to the data collected by Article 7 and IDA GmbH’s machine learning expertise, journalists can now count on a database of political statements derived from politicians’ Twitter accounts and compare the content for its semantic relevance.

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: Gap Article 7 (BE), IDA GmbH – Innovations- und Digitalagentur (DE)

Deliverables: Database of relevant political content and their context

Videre AI: Next generation video understanding for news content

Achievements: Trained on specific keywords, subjects and descriptions of its partners EPA and EFE, Videre AI aims to revolutionise video analysis practises. Archiving news outlets might never be the same thanks to the remarkable results achieved in terms of tagging and captioning the partners’ online content.

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: Design AI GmbH (DE), European Pressphoto Agency, epa. (DE), AGENCIA EFE S. A (ES)

Deliverables: Implement Videre AI into practice, conduct further research and development in partnership with the news outlets

Logo DesignAI Logo epa Logo EFE

Virtual Humans in media contexts

Achievements: Virtual Humans is not the title of the next sci-fi trilogy, but the result of VRT, YLE and Broadcasting Center Europe’s joint efforts to help European media companies familiarise themselves with virtual reality tools. The partners teach companies how to create their own avatars, environment and metahuman expressions to make the most out of the Virtual reality world. For more insights, check this video.

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: VRT (BE), BCE (LU), YLE (FI)

Deliverables: Research around virtual humans and media storytelling, proof of concept for each partner using the virtual human character, sharing of findings in EU media ecosystem in the form of a media format

Logo BCE Logo YLE

Project Empire

Achievements: České centrum pro investigativní žurnalistiku, Atlatszo.hu and Jan Kuciak Center of Investigative Journalism have designed a database that allows journalists to monitor the business, politics and media fields parallelly. The cooperation led to the collection of data for over 200 companies all over Europe, and the Project Empire uncovers the complex and untransparent company ownership.

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: České centrum pro investigativní žurnalistiku, o.p.s. (CZ), Atlatszo.hu (HU), Jan Kuciak Center of Investigative Journalism (SK)

Deliverables: Expansion of existing database (both in terms of content and functionality, e.g. develop tools and workflow for the future database editions)

Logo investigace-cz

Reading with your ears

Achievements: Two truths and one lie: you can smell with your hands, you can taste with your eyes, you can read with your ears. Courrier International and La Libre Belgique have implemented a new feature that provides their subscribers with an automated audio version of online articles.

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: Courrier international (Groupe Le Monde) (FR), La Libre Belgique (IPM Group) (BE)

Deliverables: AI tool to convert articles into audio format

TemplAR (Templates in Augmented Reality)

Achievements: By collaborating on this initiative, the partners aimed to create a bridge between traditional newspapers and interactive content and social media, transforming the newspaper of Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace into a digital platform. The teams have successfully finished creating a tool that enables a user without coding experience or knowledge to upload augmented reality on the printed media, without the need to install a dedicated app. Specifically, three user-friendly and content-creator-with-no-coding-experience-friendly templates were developed to bridge the gap between traditional newspapers and digital interactive content.

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: DNA Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace (FR), templAR SAS, France Régie (« Les DNA ») (DE)

Deliverables: A weekly special edition, daily augmented articles, gamified content for the partnered newspapers, new sources of income

Logo DNA Logo France Regie

RISE Project Mobile App for Loyal Readers

Achievements: This collaboration between three investigative journalism organisations led primarily to the creation of the RISE app, now available on Google and the Apple store. Additionally, a series of articles were exchanged between partners and made available for broader audiences: Uncertified surgical masks in times of COVID, IQOS deceiving advertisement and public budget transparency in illiberal democracies are only some of the striking articles converted into podcasts and translated into Bulgarian and Hungarian that you can find on the app and on the partners’ websites

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: The Bureau for Investigative Reporting and Data (BG), Atlatszo.hu (HU), Atlzatszo Erdely (atlatszo.ro) (RO)

Deliverables: RISE Project app, publishing of 25 articles

Logo BIRD Logo atlatszo RO

Rich media: Increasing Diversity of Experts’ Voices in Journalism

Achievements: To address the bias and inequalities produced in news reporting, and to raise awareness about the issue, the Lithuanian Journalism Centre and Sheldon Studio designed and developed a website based on data journalism. By looking at the Lithuanian media landscape, “Diversity matters, especially in the media” shows the extent of the gender gap in the media.

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: Lithuanian Journalism Centre (LT), Sheldon Studio (IT)

Deliverables: Website dedicated for the data journalism project

Logo lithuanian journalism centre

Solutions Journalism European MOOC (Massive Open Online Course)

Achievements: If you are looking for a “Solution Journalism 101”, the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) developed through this initiative is what you need. To be launched in May 2022, the MOOC will provide students, journalists, editorial rooms and citizens with insights into the definition, context and methodology of solution journalism through video lessons, case studies, expert interviews and tests.

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: Reporters d’Espoirs (FR), Voxeurop Belgium (BE), Voxeurop Italy (IT), ESJ Pro Médias (FR)

Deliverables: Creation of a Massive Open Online Course dedicated to solutions journalism with a European dimension

Logo reporters d'espoirs Logo voxeurop Logo ESJ Pro

Monetizing audiences in a cookieless world

Achievements: The Audience Monetisation Platform has been optimised for the collection of GDPR-compliant audience data for publishers to get higher marketing accuracy and advertising revenues. The more you contribute to the collection of GDPR compliant data, the more data you can keep to monetise premium audiences. And if you are a small publisher, ID Ward and Network N have designed a managed software that will reduce your workload and doesn’t require technical skills. More details here.

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: ID Ward (ES), Network N (UK)

Deliverables: Establishment, implementation and refining of a data collective for publishers

Logo Network N

Building sustainable revenue models with community-centric media trainings

Achievements: A community can bring value to brands and Euronews, EURACTIV Poland and FATHM want to teach media companies how to turn that value into a sustainable revenue model. Through in-depth research on the market of media/journalism training, the partners have collected recommendations for small and large media organizations on how to pick trainers, prepare the courses and the tools to use.

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: Euronews (FR), EURACTIV Poland (PL) , FATHM (UK)

Deliverables: How-to guide for media organizations and the industry at large to design, produce and sell user-centric media/journalism training – also available as a webinar/online course

Logo fathm

The Self-Investigation Academy: an e-learning platform to scale up our successful stress management course for journalists

Achievements: “Well-being in the newsroom: the basics” is the Self-Investigation Academy’s first English and Spanish Language course for media professionals. 40 short videos and practical exercises guide participants as they learn how to handle stress, remote work best practices, boundary settings and much more.

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: The Self-Investigation (NL), Motion Crew (BE)

Deliverables: Creation of an e-learning platform that will offer two self-guided courses

Logo The Self-Investigation Logo Motion Crew

Engaging the disengaged from local news, and attracting new newspaper subscribers through non-reader engagement

Achievements: Have you ever wondered how you would like your local media to be? To answer this question, Dublin Inquirer and Social Spider have conducted focus groups and workshops in the lower-voter turnout areas in Dublin and under-represented groups in the local Media in Enfield. With an increased interest in local media, the disengaged have successfully been engaged: thanks to the feedback received during the focus groups, Dublin Inquirer has run several stories about local issues such as concerns about the cleanliness of neighbourhood, community spaces, social housing plans, and changing street names. Social Spider’s workshops have stimulated the participants’ interest in reading their newspaper, Enfield Dispatch, more regularly and actively writing about local issues.

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: Dublin Inquirer (IE), Social Spider (UK)

Deliverables: Completion of the neighborhood project including the running of events and focus groups, conducting of surveys, giving journalism training, set up of collaborative crowd-sourced journalism project

Logo Social Spider

Interactive Map for Audio Stories

Achievements: Have you ever wondered what local people listen to, believe in or simply do whenever you are travelling in a new place? No need to w(o)/(a)nder anymore. HEARE is the result of the joint efforts of Are We Europe, Novasaga and Bear Radio that allows you to listen to podcasts curated by local experts, and filter the topics and language you are more interested in wherever you are.

Media organisation(s) with country of origin: Are We Europe (BE), Novasaga (NL), Bear Radio (DE)

Deliverables: Interactive map for audio stories with comprehensive filtering options

Logo AreWeEurope

Second edition

Take part now

Second edition winners: Five outstanding initiatives

Wounds of Europe

Visual journalism without constraints

Wounds of Europe

Wounds of Europe

The summer of 2020

More co-financed initiatives

TikTok for Journalism

Small independent local/regional newsroom cooperating cross border – developing a business model based on membership

Sol(vox), the solution podcast of Solvo, a solution journalism collective

Let’s educate on TikTok

Stolen identity

Connecto: towards European values through digital media. The Live Streaming Hub

A force for good and a force for growth

For a constructive television in southern Europe

Sex Ed Video Glossary

Mind the Challenge

Euromag

AI to Enhance Creativity in Newswriting

SMART Podcasts / Accordion

Let the money talk – a data tool on public spending

Vocento & Cruncho join forces: Hyperlocal tourism content in Spain powered by AI

Artificial intelligence in photojournalism, can it work?

Article 7 Intelligence – Helping Newsrooms across Europe close the Accountability Gap

Videre AI: Next generation video understanding for news content

Virtual Humans in media contexts

Project Empire

Reading with your ears

TemplAR (Templates in Augmented Reality)

RISE Project Mobile App for Loyal Readers

Rich media: Increasing Diversity of Experts’ Voices in Journalism

Solutions Journalism European MOOC (Massive Open Online Course)

Monetizing audiences in a cookieless world

Building sustainable revenue models with community-centric media trainings

The Self-Investigation Academy: an e-learning platform to scale up our successful stress management course for journalists

Engaging the disengaged from local news, and attracting new newspaper subscribers through non-reader engagement

Interactive Map for Audio Stories

Learn more about the process behind the second edition on the links below: