The need for equal dialogue at conferences regarding generational differences: a personal report about the GMF24
“Sharing solutions” – that was the title of this year’s Global Media Forum in Bonn, Germany. Already standing in line for the accreditation on the first of the two days, I found myself surrounded by journalism professionals from different countries, media outlets and backgrounds. One thing I quickly came to notice though was the perceived age group of my fellow attendees. While I did spot a few other university students or young media makers in their early 20s, most of the people attending, speaking, or presenting the conference were from an entirely different generation, having a different background and different outlook on the media landscape in comparison to a 19-year-old. My experience with “sharing solutions” however, still managed to be both challenging and rewarding.
Panel talks: performance or real inclusion?
In the panel talks about the misinformation crisis, the advancement of AI or the participation in society, the topic of Gen Z was always brought up as a difficult factor for conventional journalism, but also as an opportunity to learn from. Surprisingly, a lot of the older speakers did acknowledge the impact of Gen Z on the media and information landscape in a nuanced way. They pointed out that Gen Z understands current trends on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok faster while also then having the ability to work with the current stream of content more efficiently. Especially Johanna Rüdiger – the Head of Social Media Strategy for Deutsche Welle’s Culture & Documentaries department – pointed out the need to work with rather than for the younger audience, by fostering projects that actively involve young adults in creating content for a broad audience. As a young adult interested in creating content myself, I couldn’t agree more. As I looked around the room, I noticed especially the older journalists taking notes and listening attentively to this new information they just received about younger audiences. For me as a young adult, involving us to enhance our interest felt like a given and known fact I had about our generation. That in turn made me reflect on my approach on conventional media and the work that journalists put in every single day to make it appealing for younger audiences. Fostering a dialogue between Gen Z and the well-established journalists might be another solution to make the current media landscape better crafted towards us. I did spot a few younger speakers in the panels, such as Steffen Ludwig from the German media project by Correctiv called “Salon5”, who perfectly summed up my thoughts: “It’s not just about talking about young people, but with them”. Later that day, there was also a question from a 17-year-old attendee answered at one of the panels. Finally, I thought, there is a person younger than me present at this conference.
Reflecting on the panel talks overall, I do believe that good solutions have been shared and a dialogue was created about involving Gen Z in the media landscape. I would have loved to see more of an involvement of younger voices overall, but also believe that having a conference centred about more than just age inclusion, but also talking about regional, professional and different forms of inclusion at a two day conference is of course a time consuming endeavour where then balancing the different challenges to find solutions for can be a difficult task.
Breakout sessions and networking
While the main events were definitely the panel talks, I also managed to get into dialogue with older generations of journalists and other professionals in the media and information field in the breakout sessions and networking breaks. The experience I had with sharing my opinions on Gen Z involvement were truly mixed. Speaking up in one breakout session about the questions and personal opinion I had on a specific project catered towards the younger audience was quickly met with older journalists chiming in and trying to educate me about what my generation actually think. While I obviously do not see myself as the spokesperson for all Gen Z audiences, I wondered if the older journalists actually listened to what was preached just hours earlier. In the networking breaks, I quickly found myself socialising with people that were closer to my age group than most of the journalists attending, sharing experiences about what it means to be a younger person interested in the media landscape. Parallel to this, I also noticed that older generations did the same, being more social with one another than with the people that might not reflect their experience as much. Trying to talk to people outside my bubble always seemed intimidating to me and rarely happened at this conference overall in a more casual setting than a panel talk. I concluded that both the younger and the older generations need to take a step forward and would probably benefit from meeting each other in this setting while sharing some coffee and biscuits instead of only passively attending joint events. However, I also was not the first one to take that step forward.
Fostering the dialogue
While the panel talks tried to reflect as much of everyone’s different experiences as possible and the networking and breakout sessions helped to create a more personal dialogue, the question still remains: How effective can talking about the younger generation be at a conference where people under the age of 24 are considered a rare occurrence? Furthermore, the younger attendants, such as myself, are likely the ones more engaged and understanding of the media landscape, as this is a media conference after all. As that young person, I also do not have the one definitive answer to this, the same way that only older journalists will also not find the answer anytime soon. What I did notice and take away from the conference is that fostering that dialogue actively, “sharing solutions“ between one generation and another can be a good step into creating nuanced understanding of what the current media landscape can do better in order to reach more of us, regardless of age.
Featured image photo by Lena Brenken
