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Please follow the links bellow to watch the full version of the docudrama “Do it like a European?” created by communications studies students for young people. It is a non-partisan attempt to cover contemporary ideas, and young people’s hopes for Europe on the eve of the 2009 elections to the European Parliament in a way that appeals to young audiences.
Watch the film in High Definition!
Do it like a European? – PART ONE
Do it like a European? – PART TWO
Do it like a European? – PART THREE
Do it like a European? – PART FOUR
Do it like a European? – PART FIVE
Do it like a European? – PART SIX
A production celebrating the 50th anniversary of the European Parliament and 30 years since the first Euro-elections, presented by the Jean Monnet European of Excellence and the JMECE Lab at the University of Leeds, UK. A production supported by a grant from the European Parliament.
Please send us your feedback at cla7sm@leeds.ac.uk or csfbs@leeds.ac.uk
The European Parliament, the European Union and the 2009 election of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage in free elections since 1979 has always posed a challenge to those seeking to inform voters that they personally elect candidates to serve as Members of the European Parliament.
In Britain, turnout has always been low. Many people are unaware of the impending elections on 4 June 2009. Many of the students who produced this dvd were equally unaware at the outset and equally unaware that they could vote on 4 June 2009 to elect Members of the European Parliament to represent their region. So we decided to find out more.
We produced an experimental dvd written by us for young, potential first time voters. In the process of discovery and production, the importance of voting in 4 June 2009 in the elections to the European Parliament became increasingly clear.
The European Parliament influences EU legislation. Our MEPs influence the legislation that affects us all. On 4 June 2009, we have the opportunity to vote.
The dvd reflects our interpretations of Europe. We thank the European Parliament, and all those who made it possible for us to discover why voting on 4 June 2009 matters, and why voting gives all of us an opportunity to play our part in shaping the future. Responsibility for the content remains ours.
All the materials are part of the activities promoted by the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence at the University of Leeds, and the JMECE Lab, at the Institute of Communications Studies.
Please fell free to distribute the dvd among peers online.
Script/production supervisors: Stergios Mavrikis & Fabro Steibel.
Initial Idea: JMECE Lab members: May Jacobs, Stergios Mavrikis, Agnes Inge Schneeberger, Fabro Steibel, Anna Zoellner.
Producer: Vivienne Errington-Barnes, Ass. Producer: Maya Manwaring, Writer: Nick Miller, Director: Ali Dickinson, Camera: Joe Davis, A.D.:Anna Spragg, D.O.P: Charles Woods, Editor: Will Lock, Script Political Supervisor: Luke Errington-Barnes, Hair & Make-up: Jessie Young, P.D.: Laura Smith, Special Effects: Will Lock, Composer: Howard Carter, Ass. Writer: Emma Brown, Lighting: Tom Lane, Lighting Ass.: Jonny Hughes, Boom/Grip: Alex Darwin, Ass. Script Political Supervisor: Sundeep Kumar, Production Design Ass.: Cameron Carswell, Costume: Jinny Howarth, Costume Ass.: Klaudia Stoniek, Researcher (film): Amy Moorcroft, Production Ass.: Cristina Cretu, Runner: Teresa Lee, Runner: Edmund Perou, Runner: Lucy Dixon, Sound Editor: Lee Charallah, Animation Composer: Callum Oliver.
We would like to invite you to watch the following short interviews with EU officials and others interested in the future of Europe and the forthcoming Euro-elections filmed and edited by the JMECE LAB team on the eve of the 2009 elections to the European Parliament in a way that appeals to young audiences.
Feel free to use that material online on your blogs and websites.
Communicating Europe, reaching out to EU citizens – PART ONE
Communicating Europe, reaching out to EU citizens – PART TWO
Communicating Europe, reaching out to EU citizens – PART THREE
Communicating Europe, reaching out to EU citizens – PART FOUR
Interviewees:
• Sarah Lambert, Acting Head of Representation European Commission in UK
• Andrew Robinson, Honorary Consul, French Embassy in UK
• Caroline Flint, Minister for Europe in UK
• Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, Ambassador of France to the United Kingdom
• Diana Johnson, Labour MEP for Hull North
• Per Augustsson Minister, Deputy Chief of Mission Political and European Affairs, Embassy of Sweden in UK
• Detective Inspector Phil Butler, Northumbria Police
• David Fortune, Chief Inspector
• Christian Krappitz, European Commission Representation in UK
• Ambassador Georg Ambassador of Germany to the United Kingdom
• Jan Winkler, Late Ambassador for the Czech Republic to the United Kingdom
• Maureen Foers, Yorkshire Women Entrepreneurs
• Borbála Czakó, Ambassador of Hungary to the United Kingdom
• Dr Richard Corbett, Labour MEP for Yorkshire and Humber
• Les Parkes, Deputy Chair, European Movement, Yorkshire Branch
• JMECE Lab members Juliet Lodge, Fabro Steibel, Stergios Mavrikis, Francisco S. Perez, Amy Moorcroft
Conference theme: In June 2009 European citizens will elect a new European Parliament, some of them who joined the European Union only recently for the first time.
17 – 18 September 2009
The conference will be organised by the ECREA Political Communication section, the Centre for Digital Citizenship and the Jean Monnet European Centre of Excellence at the Institute of Communications Studies.
Conference theme: In June 2009 European citizens will elect a new European Parliament, some of them who joined the European Union only recently for the first time.
2009 will also see numerous national elections throughout Europe. The Political Communication section will take this important election year in Europe as an opportunity to revisit one of the key areas of political communication research – how democratic participation is shaped and transformed by processes of mediatisation and what consequences this has for the nature of contemporary citizenship.
The nature of democratic citizenship is presently undergoing fundamental changes, which are assumed to have far-reaching consequences for the way democracy works. The relationship between citizens and their elected representatives seems to be characterized by growing distance, mistrust and ignorance. Long gone are the days of an ideal (or idealized) Athenian polity where political engagement was regarded a virtue and daily life was permeated by political debate.
Instead, a growing number of citizens has withdrawn from politics and doesn’t even find it worth the while to follow the news or to cast their vote. Meanwhile, the enthusiasm that initially inspired the citizens of the new democracies in Eastern Europe has evaporated and we now see similar patterns of disenchantment in these countries like in their established counterparts. Media organisations and political actors have responded to these developments in various ways – so far without significant success. Turnout continues to drop, and news programmes, in particular current affairs programmes, are losing their audiences.
Are modern democracies, then, left without citizens, as Robert Entman suggested twenty years ago? The question is even more urgent with regard to the European Union, which for a long time has been largely ignored by its citizens, but is now at risk to be rejected altogether, as the recent No votes in the referenda in Ireland, France and the Netherlands demonstrate.
However, the situation might be more ambiguous and complex. While citizens are withdrawing from institutionalized politics and established channels of communication new arenas of participation and new forms of communicating political ideas have emerged, which for many – in particular the young – appear more meaningful and more trustworthy. In particular the Internet has opened up new spaces for democratic citizenship from the local to the global level that could not have been dreamed of twenty years ago.
The ECREA Political Communication sectional workshop aims to provide a forum to discuss these themes with scholars who are working on the changing nature of citizenship, political involvement and the media both in the European and the national context.
Call for Papers
We invite empirical as well as theoretical papers that contribute to understanding contemporary democratic citizenship and the role of the media, old and new, in shaping the way it is experienced and practiced. We are particularly interested in papers that address the following aspects:
* European citizenship: media and perceptions of Europe; Participation and vote choice in European elections and referenda.
* The ballot box and beyond: media and national electoral politics; non-institutionalised participation; non-voting and political disengagement.
* Communicating to citizens: Mediated and mediatised political messages; implications for political information and participation.
* Making sense of politics: citizens’ response to political information; information processing and civic knowledge.
* Conceptualizing citizenship (European, national): relationship between media and citizenship; lay understanding of citizenship.
Submission of contributions: Abstracts of not more than 500 words should be sent to ics-conferences@leeds.ac.uk, mentioning ‘Mediated citizenship’ in the subject line. Deadline: 15 May 2009 If you wish to propose a whole panel please get in touch with Dr. Katrin Voltmer at k.voltmer@leeds.ac.uk
Key note (Thursday afternoon) Prof. Peter Dahlgren – Lund University, Sweden: “Mediated Democracy and the Centrality of Civic Identities and Practices”
Please download registration form and send to ics-conferences@leeds.ac.uk
Contact: Dr. Katrin Voltmer (academic organiser) Houldsworth Building, Room 3.50 Institute of Communications Studies University of Leeds Leeds, LS2 9JT United Kingdom Email: k.voltmer@leeds.ac.uk Tel: +44-(0)113-3435829 Fax: +44-(0)113-3435808
