Media’s propensity for doom-and-gloom stories have turned many people away from the news. An average 38 percent of people actively avoid the news, compared to 28 percent in 2018, according to the latest Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism’s annual digital news report. The situation with young people’s media consumption is even worse. Social media natives do not follow the news, but rather expect that if the news is important enough, it will find them.

Not all is lost, however. Emerging new ways to tell stories and growing demand for quality reporting are firing up young journalists who are eager to learn the nuts and bolts of newsgathering.

Inspired by the work and dedication of young people and the shift in the way young people consume news, we decided to take a closer look at media by/for youth. This year, our annual conference centers on media and youth. Sofia Talks Media: Youth will bring a number of renowned journalists and media professionals to Sofia.

The conference, which includes talks and discussions, will take place on June 30 in Sofia.

We will tackle some of the following questions:

What do we know about young audiences? What are the best practices when we cover topics related to children and young people? How do we talk to children as sources? How do we write for teenagers?
What topics do young people care about? What coverage do we offer children and teenagers? How to reach young audiences?

The conference will offer talks and panel discussions about three main themes:

  • Children and the Media
  • Next Generation: Journalism by and for Teenagers
  • How Do We Reach Young Audiences?

WHERE

Astoria Grand Hotel, Sofia

WHEN

June 30, 2023

Agenda

9:00-09:30 Registration

09:30-9:45 Opening remarks
Welcome by Martin Kothé, Regional Director of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in East and Southeast Europe
Welcome by Nancy L. Schiller, President and CEO of the America for Bulgaria Foundation
Welcome by Elina Naydenova, Head of Google News Partnerships in Central and Eastern Europe
Welcome by Irina Nedeva, Chair of the Association of European Journalists-Bulgaria

09:45-10:45 Reporting on children: From the war in Ukraine to social issues
Panelists:
Irene Caselli, senior adviser at the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma.
Oana Sandu, freelance Romanian journalist
Gabriella Jozwiak, UK-based freelance journalist

11:00-11:45 Child-Friendly News:
Panelists:
Iskra Djanabetska, co-founder of Vijte.bg
Karin Wesselink, Kidsweek.nl

11:45-12:15 Koncentrat: How to engage Generation Z and Alpha in transforming news from noise to knowledge
Sune Gudmundsson, co-founder of Koncentrat

12:15-13:15 Lunch Break

13:15-14:15 Next Generation: Journalism by and for Teenagers
Panelists:
Katerina Vasileva, sCOOL Media
Polina Petkova, Inside Out Podcast
Youth workshop representative

14:15-14:30 Coffee Break

14:30-16:00 How to Attract Young Audiences?
Panelists:
Joseph Warungu, journalist and media trainer
Camille Deckers, Are We Europe
Sune Gudmundsson, co-founder of Koncentrat
Daniel Rzasa, Google News Lab in Central & Eastern Europe

16:00-17:30 Networking event supported by Google

Workshops

July 1, 2023

How to report and write stories of domestic violence with an impact?

When: Saturday, July 1, 2023, 10:00-11:30
Where: tbd

Attendance is free but you need to register.

Read more

This 90-minute workshop will center on ways to cover domestic violence: stories of intimate partner crimes, about survivors’ networks or special orphans, the children who have lost their parents due to femicides.

For Romanian reporter Oana Sandu, domestic violence — her beat for the last 10 years — is a national health crisis. She’ll talk about how you can document and write with care and empathy about women and children who are victims of family abuse, how you can find sources and experts to help you learn about the social phenomenon, and also how you can build a community of readers on this topic.

About the speaker:

Oana Sandu is a freelance Romanian journalist with more than 15 years of experience in radio and narrative journalism. For the past 10 years, her reporting has focused primarily on social issues such as extreme poverty, discrimination against children with disabilities, and the birthing system, but mostly domestic violence. Her storytelling work has changed the level of society’s perception of domestic violence and has triggered legislative changes. In 2022, she was a fellow of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma Fellowship and wrote about the impact of domestic violence on early childhood

Working language: English.

How to do trauma-informed interviewing?

When: Saturday, July 1, 2023, 12:00-13:30
Where: tbd

Attendance is free but you need to register.

Read more

What to consider when interviewing children, migrants, and other people who have been affected by trauma

Trauma affects our bodies, minds, and relationships. When journalists deal with people who have faced traumatic events, we need to understand how these may affect them physically and mentally, as well as how they can affect their reaction to us as journalists. This 90-minute workshop will help deepen your understanding of what trauma is and teach you how to do interviewing that is trauma-informed and does not retraumatise survivors by creating check-lists of what to consider before, during, and after an interview.

About the speaker:

Irene Caselli is a multimedia reporter and writer, with two decades of experience in radio, TV, and print, now focusing on early childhood, reproductive rights, and carers. For a decade, Caselli was a foreign correspondent in Latin America, reporting for the BBC, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The New York Times, and others. In 2019, she started covering early childhood for The Correspondent. In January 2021, she launched her own newsletter, The First 1,000 Days, where she continues covering early childhood, partly influenced by her experience as the mother of Lorenzo and León. She is also a senior advisor for The Early Childhood Reporting Initiative at Columbia University’s Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma.

Working language: English.

Speakers

Oana Sandu

Oana Sandu is a freelance Romanian journalist with more than 15 years of experience in radio and narrative journalism. For the past 10 years, her reporting has focused primarily on social issues such as extreme poverty, discrimination against children with disabilities, and the birthing system, but mostly domestic violence. Her storytelling work has changed the level of society’s perception of domestic violence and has triggered legislative changes. In 2022, she was a fellow of Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma Fellowship and wrote about the impact of domestic violence on early childhood.

Irene Caselli

Irene Caselli is a multimedia reporter and writer, with two decades of experience in radio, TV, and print, now focusing on early childhood, reproductive rights, and carers. For a decade, Caselli was a foreign correspondent in Latin America, reporting for the BBC, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The New York Times, and others. In 2019, she started covering early childhood for The Correspondent. In January 2021, she launched her own newsletter, The First 1,000 Days, where she continues covering early childhood, partly influenced by her experience as the mother of Lorenzo and León. She is also a senior advisor for The Early Childhood Reporting Initiative at Columbia University’s Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma.

Joseph Warungu

Joseph Warungu is a Kenyan media consultant and trainer with over 30 years experience in journalism. He was head of the BBC African News and Current Affairs Department and a former Knight International Journalism Fellow. Warungu is the founder of Top Story, a national mentorship programme for young journalists in Kenya, which takes the form of a popular reality TV show. Top Story is the flagship programme of AfricaonAir, a Nairobi-based organization that works with media, investors, managers, and training institutions for the re-tooling and re-imagining a new vibrant media sector capable of advancing peaceful, wealthy, and just societies in Africa and beyond.

Sune Gudmundsson

Sune Gudmundsson, based in Copenhagen, Denmark, is the CEO and co-founder of Koncentrat (launched 2018), a learning-oriented media outlet for the oldest pupils in Danish elementary schools. In 2020/21, he was a fellow at Constructive Institute in Aarhus, focusing on how to strengthen young people’s news literacy.

Gabriella Jozwiak

Gabriella Jozwiak has worked as a journalist for 13 years, writing mainly about children and young people. She covers child policy and education for UK titles and writes about issues affecting children of all ages around the globe for national and international outlets. In 2022, Gabriella received an early childhood global reporting fellowship from the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma to report on how the war is impacting young children’s mental health in Ukraine. In 2015, she received the Amnesty International Best New Journalist Media Award for covering human rights during the 2014–16 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Gabriella is of Polish and British descent and lives in London, England, with her husband and three young children.

Iskra Djanabetska

Iskra Djanabetska is one of the founders and the executive director of the Bulgarian children’s news media outlet Vijte.bg, as well as the online educational platform for reading promotion Knigovishte.bg. Both products are in close interrelation, so as to reach more children. Vijte.bg targets the youngest among readers — kids from 7 to 14 years old. Iskra is in charge of managing and promoting Vijte.bg as an educational tool both at schools and in the broader public space.

Katerina Vasileva

Katerina Vasileva started her journalistic career in 2019, when she joined the team of the online platform for student reporting sCOOL Media. Currently, she is a fellow of a journalistic program which allows her to intern with leading Bulgarian publications. Her stories have appeared in the weekly Capital, the daily Sega, and online platform Uspelite.bg. She is a student majoring in political science at Sofia University.

Camille Deckers

Camille Deckers is a Belgian journalist and content creator specializing in youth, news, and media. With expertise in digital storytelling, she produces captivating content tailored for young audiences. She has worked for several years at the Belgian public broadcaster VRT, where she helped to set up the Instagram account nws.nws.nws, tailored to teens aged 13-18, who are often forgotten by the media. She is currently a community manager at DPG Media and editor for Are We Europe and ENTR.

Polina Petkova

Polina Petkova is a young podcast host based in Sofia, Bulgaria. Her podcast Inside Out is centered around the theme of mental health, especially among young people, tackling a range of topics — from breathing techniques to eating disorders and tools for overcoming anxiety. In every episode, there is a guest psychologist who shares their expertise on a given topic.

Daniel Rzasa

Daniel Rzasa leads Google News Lab in Central & Eastern Europe, which is a part of a global team at Google that helps journalists fight misinformation, grow diversity in the media industry, and thrive in the digital age. He assumed the role in August 2022, after over a dozen years of working in a range of editorial roles in newsrooms across Europe.

Karin Wesselink

Dutch journalist Karin Wesselink has put children in the center of her reporting for more than twenty years. He has interviewed children (9-13 years) from all over the world, including countries such as Indonesia, Suriname, Egypt, Bangladesh, Uganda, and of course the Netherlands. Her stories and videos are being published in Samsam, an educational magazine about identity, culture and sustainability, and in Kidsweek, a weekly newspaper for children. The target audience of both publications is primary school students.

Partners

Location

Astoria Grand Hotel, Sofia