Two days in Munich full of visions, innovations and smoking heads - this week, the jury for this year's Constructive World Awards met at BurdaForward in Munich.
The aim of the 22-member jury, which is made up of renowned media professionals, business experts and social entrepreneurs, was to find the most innovative and constructive media contributions: To evaluate the submitted critical-constructive media contributions in terms of their journalistic quality and social impact.
FOCUS online received a total of 160 applications from renowned media companies from German-speaking countries. A large number of moving image contributions, for example from ARTE, ZDF and RTL, were included. The BurdaForward team also received numerous text contributions from media such as taz, FAZ and SZ-Magazin, as well as a range of multimedia formats, podcasts and video contributions.
In collaboration with renowned journalists and the Aarhus Institute, as well as assessments by experts from the Active Philanthropy network, the first shortlist of entries was created. This week, the jury then dedicated a lot of time to the submissions together in Munich. Is the media contribution of high social relevance? Does it have the potential to initiate major changes and contribute to solving problems? The jury members spent two days discussing this at length and scrutinizing each individual media contribution.
Also present at the jury conference in Munich: Two exciting panel discussions in which the participants addressed the role of journalism in a society with increasingly destructive forces. How can journalism help to better tackle and overcome complex problems?
The mood in Germany is not constructive enough and is currently often destructive," says Burda CEO Philipp Welte with regard to the Constructive World Award. It is therefore "crucial for the future that we look to the future". Journalism is "obliged to innovate because people's media behavior is changing dynamically.“
A lot of innovation, courage and drive will definitely be on display when June 4 arrives. The Constructive World Award will then be presented at a ceremony in Berlin and we will find out which constructive contributions and which projects have won the race.
Eva Schuler
BurdaForward Communications
During my studies I discovered my enthusiasm for communication. Here, at BurdaForward, I have now been given the opportunity to live it out. When not in the office, you can usually find me somewhere in the mountains for mountaineering and skiing or on the Isar.