About the Project

Media Crossing Borders

What is the project about?

The project “Media Crossing Borders” connects the journalistic project “KROSSE”, offered by the Institute for Historic Journalism, Communication and Media Studies (IPKM) at the University of Bremen (Germany) and the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Science at the Moldova State University (MSU) in Chișinău in order to foster cultural exchange. A journalistic working group in Chișinău is addressing interesting question that concern their daily life and the Moldovan media system with the help of a German guest lecturer and furthermore produce short movies about current issues as well. The class is coordinated by the media agency “Südost-Medienagentur” whose head Christoph Sodemann is an assistant lecturer at the IPKM for years. The project in Chișinău is furthermore financially supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs. In Bremen, there is working group of bachelor and master students from the “KROSSE” project that prepare short movies as well. In the end, the movies are presented to the two groups as an introduction to the countries and cities they are going to visit. For now, the two groups are already communicating through different channels such as this blog, a facebook page and a youtube channel.

When is the exchange going to take place?

The Moldovan group is going to visit Bremen in the 18th calendar week of 2015 where they will experience a program that offers theoretical as well as practical media and journalism lectures and events. The return visit of the students from Bremen will take place two weeks later, where the cultural exchange continues and the students will explore Moldova’s beautiful capital Chișinău and Moldova’s culture and media system.

What are the aim, focus and value of the project?

Moldova is a case in point for a transforming and developing (media) system. On the one hand, it signed an Association Agreement with the European Union but on the other hand, there is still a great amount of dependence and pressure from Russia, influencing the economy, social life and politics. This is noticeable especially in the region of Transnistria where Russian Moldovans are supported by the Russian Army which in the end can destabilize the whole region. As a result, it seems important to present European values such as independent journalism and freedom of speech and information. This main focus has the aim to make the German students understand and appreciate their own media system and compare and contrast it to the Moldovan situation. This knowledge and appreciation is mutual, since the Moldovan students can benefit from this comparison to the same extent.