London Festival of Europe

Karolin Schaps, London representative of cafebabel.com

Who would have thought that by writing this today I am actively engaging in the transformation into a new era? An era which has the potential to make up for the current state of the media, their bitter struggle against ruthless market forces and entertainment information. At least, that is the message I got from John Palmer, former European editor at The Guardian and one of the guests at yesterday’s event on European news coverage.

Should we trust his judgement? After all, he is himself an avid contributor to The Guardian’s blog “comment is free” and has experienced the evolution of the media over 30 years…Mary Dejevsky, a prominent columnist and chief editorial writer at The Independent, disagreed with him. Even though she admitted that The Independent’s pioneering transformation into a “compact” size has resulted in less in-depth coverage, she dismissed the new media era. “If you are, for example, Serbian, you can get stuck in a one-sided Serbian-world on the internet”. According to her, it is not a given that everyone gets exposed to various points of view.

So what about Europe? Can its coverage be saved by the internet? Jean Chalaby, a media lecturer from City University, feels that the new media encourage nothing more than narcistic self-portrayal: “It’s all about ‘Me in my kitchen’, ‘Me in my garden’, ‘Me with my webcam’.” So no chance for Europe over there. Even pan-European media, such as EURONEWS were not popular with him: “It’s all EU propaganda”. At this point, Annalisa Piras, former Brussels correspondent for EURONEWS, suffered a vocal coughing-attack: “I absolutely disagree with you. I can assure you that EURONEWS is at no point exposed to pressure from the EU”.

Mrs. Piras, currently London correspondent for Italian magazine L’Espresso, not only disagreed on that point. She was the only one blaming British journalists for the lack of informed European news coverage in the UK. “They make no effort to make Europe interesting to their readers”, she said. “They are just not interested. They still talk about the ‘EC’ when referrring to the EU.” John Palmer, on the other hand, found the answer in British identity itself. He said that as long as Britain has not let go of the glorious imperial past, it cannot partake in the future. And as long as Britain has not defined its identity, it cannot partake in Europe.

I tend to agree with the stance Mr. Palmer took yesterday; on the promising new media and his argument for British identity. Being London representative of cafebabel.com, the first pan-European online magazine, I like to think that blogs like these, forums, participatory journalism and even narcisistic self-portrayal are the future. Especially for Europe, it is vital that its citizens form a collective identity, which is impossible without exchange. Why not let the internet be a vehicle for European identity-shaping? Within a few weeks, cafebabel.com will launch a community which will enable exactly these particpatory tools. I am curious to see how it will be received by Europeans and hope that my prediction will, maybe in ten, maybe in 50, maybe in 100 years’ time, be a reality.