Do we even care about Europe?

‘What are people interested in in Europe? I think they are interested in understanding.’  Agnieszka Wisnewska, editor-in-chief of the Polish opinion daily Krytyka Polityczna, stresses the importance of small publishers that do not sprout out of capital cities. ‘The paradox is that we have so much information but we are not informed better’, she adds. 

Amongst heaps of information, it becomes difficult to assess what the general public is interested in. Statistics are oftentimes quite surprising. ‘If we’ve learned anything, it’s that one never knows what the audience is going to find interesting’ says Simon Garnett, senior editor at Eurozine. 

Topics such as the environment, housing, digitalization, the labour market, and rising right-wing fascism seem to occupy the anxieties of most of the upcoming European generation to varying degrees. Although the EU promises socio-political cohesion across the continent, the problems arising from each of its member states pose a huge threat to its structure. 

‘It’s not just about how I might feel about those issues in Germany or France, but it’s about how Germans feel about what’s happening in France’, Sara Elizabeth Cooper of My Country Talks says.

Media must facilitate direct discussions with the audience to build communities. Joined by some some founding members of the Display Europe platform, we delve into the strategies of bringing European interests closer through accessible platforms, and for a wider audience. 

Today’s guests

Agnieszka Wisnewska is editor-in-chief of Krytyka Polityczna, a Polish opinion daily.

Simon Garnett is the senior editor at Eurozine. 

Chicago-raised Sara Elizabeth Cooper of My Country Talks, facilitates a political dialogue and engagement journalism program from Germany’s Zeit Online. 

We meet with them at the Cafe Disko of the Bikes and Rails Housing Project, Vienna. 

Creative team

Réka Kinga Papp, editor-in-chief
Merve Akyel, art director
Szilvia Pintér, producer
Zsófia Gabriella Papp, executive producer
Margarita Lechner, writer-editor
Salma Shaka, writer-editor
Priyanka Hutschenreiter, project assistant

Management

Hermann Riessner  managing director
Judit Csikós  project manager
Csilla Nagyné Kardos, office administration

OKTO Crew

Senad Hergić producer

Leah Hochedlinger  video recording

Marlena Stolze  video recording

Clemens Schmiedbauer video recording

Richard Brusek sound recording

Video Crew Budapest

Nóra Ruszkai, sound engineering
Gergely Áron Pápai, photography
László Halász, photography

Postproduction

Nóra Ruszkai, lead video editor
István Nagy, video editor
Milán Golovics, conversation editor

Art

Victor Maria Lima, animation
Cornelia Frischauf, theme music

Captions and subtitles

Julia Sobota  closed captions, Polish and French subtitles; language versions management
Farah Ayyash  Arabic subtitles
Mia Belén Soriano  Spanish subtitles
Marta Ferdebar  Croatian subtitles
Lídia Nádori  German subtitles
Katalin Szlukovényi  Hungarian subtitles
Daniela Univazo  German subtitles
Olena Yermakova  Ukrainian subtitles
Aida Yermekbayeva  Russian subtitles
Mars Zaslavsky  Italian subtitles

Hosted by Cafe Disko of the Bikes and Rails Housing Project, Vienna.

Related reads

Europe Talks, My Country Talks. 

Can we decommercialize housing? Standard Time. 

Focal point: Breaking bread: Food and water systems under pressure, Eurozine. 

The alchemists of Ludwigshafen, Staffan Graner, Eurozine. 

Disclosure

This talk show is a Display Europe production: a ground-breaking media platform anchored in public values.

This programme is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union and the European Cultural Foundation.

Importantly, the views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors and speakers only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the EACEA can be held responsible for them.