International Citizen Media Award 2014
Trophies, smiling faces and a red carpet: Last Saturday 6th of December the European Youth4Media Network Association celebrated the award ceremony of the International Citizen Media Award 2014 in the Bürgerhaus Bennohaus in Münster (Germany). About 80 guests attended the bilingual event which coincided with the end of the 4th edition of Team Up.
Conducted by the moderators Daria Jaranowska and Arndt Selders, the International Citizen Media Award rewarded videos and audios sending by radios and film makers from all over the world. The topic of this 4th edition was "Work-Life Balance: Reconciling Work and Family". Work and family life play an important role in everyone’s life and sometimes it can be really difficult to find the balance between them. The participants in the contest tried to deal with it through video and audio.
The winner on the category audio, awarded with 300€, was Heiko Alfers, from the German city of Wilhelmshaven, who presented a podcast with interviews with German army soldiers.
Carina Lassek won the first place in the category, which consisted on 1000€, with the short film Oh Eddy. In a humorous way, here is the opposite of "Work-Life Balance” implemented.
The ceremony also included the German Citizen Media Award, which honoured audio and video under the topic of "Citizens Media for Democracy and Tolerance - against racism and right-wing extremism". The best contribution on the category audio came from Franziska Klemm and her project group from the German city of Eisenach; and the winners on video was Christian Schega and Kristiana Förtsch from Ludwigsburg.
Dr. Wolfgang Ressmann, Chairman of the Federal Association of Citizens and Educational Media, emphasized in his speech the importance of this subject: "racism and right-wing extremism - these terms are threatening Europe and are the opposite of democracy and tolerance".
Also, Jochen Fasco, the director of the Thuringian State Media Authority, said in a video message: "Community media are essential for a pluralistic society because they contribute to the democratic commitment". Christian Stadali, a jury member and the director of the Wortwerk-Weimar, was impressed by the quality of the contributions and the different debates on the issue, which reached from the World War II to nowadays.
The award is sponsored by the Federal Association of Citizen Media and Media of Education e.V. (Bundesverband Bürger-und Ausbildungsmedien e.V), the Citizen Center Bennohaus (Münster, Germany) and the European Youth4Media Network e.V in cooperation with the Bundesverband Offene Kanäle.
Let’s stay updated and visit our website to know the dates to send your submissions for the International Citizens Media Award 2015.
