In view of the Russian war of aggression, European cooperation is becoming increasingly important. There are therefore regular calls for the media in Europe to report more and more competently on EU issues.

But the conditions for this are still lacking: A survey of around 500 European journalism students from all 27 EU countries, recently conducted by Prof. Dr. Susanne Fengler and team from TU Dortmund University, shows: Over 60% of prospective European journalists lack basic knowledge about the EU. For example, they have never heard of the EU's Cohesion Fund - which currently receives the largest share of EU funding alongside agriculture.

A parallel survey of European universities, which Prof. Fengler and the TU team also conducted, also shows that there is still a lack of seminars on EU topics in a third of journalism courses in Europe.

However, competent reporting and a critical public are indispensable prerequisites for functioning democratic EU institutions. This applies in particular to the use of EU funds. Content analyses show that regional EU investments on the ground are too rarely taken up by the media as an important topic and investigatively researched.

The team from the Institute of Journalism Studies at TU Dortmund University - together with partner institutes in all 27 EU member states - has now developed a solution to this urgent training need: The e-learning platform COPE is aimed at journalism institutes across Europe as well as editorial offices and individual journalists looking for further training opportunities. COPE was jointly designed by renowned universities in all 27 EU member states to help journalism students understand European policymaking and use relevant data and sources.

COPE is available in all 21 EU languages and is offered in 27 EU country-specific versions. Selected modules have so-called “local windows” that offer specially created national content. The COPE project was funded by the European Union with a budget of 1 million euros. Over 1,500 European journalism students successfully tested the platform in the first half of 2024. This makes the TU COPE project probably the largest media training project in the EU. Prof. Susanne Fengler: “More than two thirds of the students surveyed would recommend the COPE platform to their fellow students - a great success!”

Since Saturday, October 19, the e-learning portal has been accessible to the public throughout Europe - the official launch took place during the annual congress of European journalism students (FEJS), which was organized by the Erich Brost Institute for International Journalism at TU Dortmund University. To mark the launch, EU Commissioner Elisa Ferreira sent a digital greeting to the multi-national project team, in which she described the media project led by TU Dortmund University as a “shining example of European cooperation”.

At the same time, Ferreira emphasizes that the future of the EU also depends on independent media that illuminate “every corner of the European house” with their critical reporting - and in this way promote democracy in Europe. “An informed citizen is the best defender of democracy,” said Ferreira, quoting former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. “To this end, your work is more important than ever,” said Ferreira, addressing the 27 European journalism institutes and the European Journalism Training Association (EJTA), which have cooperated closely in the COPE project. COPE project manager Isabella Kurkowski already has the next goal in mind: “Journalism institutes in Moldova, Georgia and other candidate countries for EU accession have already expressed an interest in adopting the platform.”

More information about the project: www.cope-journalism.eu

The e-book is available to download free of charge in English here: https://cope.csd.auth.gr/?page_id=122

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Susanne Fengler/Isabella Kurkowski MA
Erich Brost Institute for International Journalism
Dortmund University of Technology
D-44221 Dortmund
E-mail: susanne.fengler@tu-dormund.de, isabella.kurkowski@tu-dortmund.de

www.journalistik-dortmund.de
www.brost.org