ENTR

A new European voice

Text Tim Schauenberg, ENTR journalist

The pan-European project ENTR tells digital stories from Europe. The focus is on young people, their experiences and the cross-border dialogue about how they want to live in Europe.

For a year now, the multimedia project has been publishing content on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube in six program languages—English, German, French, Portuguese, Polish and Romanian.

The young media makers are forming a pan-European editorial team. Whether from Berlin, Lisbon, Paris, Krakow or Bucharest, the journalists work together daily across borders, discussing relevant content ideas and new formats. The content is specifically for and about young Europeans. It is a niche that has hardly been filled yet, is desperately needed, says ENTR Head of Content Patrick Große: “If you want to report in a European way, as a medium you have to deal more with the realities in the neighboring countries. That’s what we try to do in our daily editorial work, and we want this to be reflected in our reporting, of course.”

The project comprises a total of nine European public and private media houses, including Radio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP), the Romanian RFI Romania and G4Media.ro, the Polish online platform Onet, MyCountryTalks, the Genshagen Foundation, and the media collective Are We Europe, as well as the broadcasting group France Mèdias Monde, DW’s long strategic and ENTR partner. DW is coordinating the project, which is funded by the EU Commission and the German Foreign Office.

Thematically, the focus is on Europe, but the aim is not so much to explain politics and the EU explicitly, but to present political connections and possibilities for shaping them, based on the realities of young people’s lives.

People are the stories — Europe is the common ground

ENTR emphasizes deep and profound stories, which are then adapted by the partners according to their local target groups. Often the program centers on a major guiding question, such as: What kind of society do you want to live in? Or, is democracy important to you?

The editorial motto “We appreciate differences and celebrate similarities” puts a strong focus on constructive storytelling.

“We look at what the situation is like for individual people in their country, how they deal with challenges, and then compare it with other countries in the EU and show possible solutions that may be found in their own or other countries in Europe,” explains Lukas Hansen, who heads the editorial team for German and English at DW.

By juxtaposing a wide variety of fates, experiences and political attitudes across borders, the aim is to give people a voice. On the other hand, it also aims to create space for dialogue and debate, ideally generating a debate about the present and future lives of Europeans, as well as about common European values and ideas.

Strengthening civil society

Debate is also part of everyday life in the editorial office. Personal viewpoints and perspectives have to be reviewed again and again and discussed with colleagues in other countries. “We don’t want to look at problems from the outside, but rather understand what people in the countries think. Pan-European editing also means constantly questioning oneself and letting others have their say. It’s an exciting and challenging task,” says Patrick Leusch, Head of European Affairs at DW and Project Director of ENTR.

Rebecca Berker, for example, takes ENTR on one of the ships of SeaWatch—the rescue service for refugees from the Mediterranean Sea. She coordinates the search and rescue of refugees on the high seas who come to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea. ENTR also accompanies climate activists or people who stand up against homophobia or bullying.

ENTR does not stand still

The next step for ENTR is to launch its own TikTok channel this year. The use of content on social media varies greatly from country to country, according to Große, and TikTok is growing strongly across Europe: “That’s why TikTok is particularly interesting and the next step in ENTR’s development: young people from all over Europe meet there, and soon they’ll meet us there, too.”