GMF

Highlights of the 2021 Global Media Forum

Check out the highlights and top speakers that participated in the DW Global Media Forum 2021. We were honored to welcome these renowned voices from around the world to discuss "Disruption and Innovation".

"In democratic societies where we are open to new developments, we have to keep thinking carefully about what freedom really means to us."

Angela Merkel, Federal Chancellor of Germany, opened the 2021 conference with an important message on our responsibility for and the limitations of freedom.
"Independent fact-based journalism has never been as important as it is today."

Armin Laschet, Minister-President of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, held an impulse speech in person in Bonn. Michaelle Müntefering from the German Federal Foreign Office contributed a message on the second conference day, as did the chairwoman of the Green Party of Germany, Annalena Baerbock.
Lizzy Scharnowkse, the 'human drum machine'

The musician's performance was part of the opening ceremony of the 2021 Global Media Forum - quite fittingly to this year's topic of "Disruption and Innovation." Throughout the program, further local artists constributed to the conference.
Looking into the future - A fruitful endeavor?

A discussion on social media and journalism with Philipp Justus, Naja Nielsen, Julia Becker and Věra Jourová. Google's Vice President Central Europe, the Digital Director at BBC News, the Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board at FUNKE Media Group and the Vice President for Values and Transparency at the European Commission dove into the topic with conference host Liz Shoo.
"Flood the internet with an alternative message of hope and tolerance, because that is in short supply on the internet."

Nuseir Yassin, founder of Nas Daily and Nas Academy, dove into how to give power to the people and how he enabled agency through stories one minute at a time in his one-on-one with DW's Max Hofmann. The Palestinian-Israeli Youtuber first became an online hit by creating 1,000 daily 1-minute videos on Facebook.
"What we want in journalism is not optimism and not cynicism, but accuracy."

Steven Pinker, US-American cognitive scientist at Harvard University and popular writer on language, mind, and human nature, took a look into the future beyond pandemics and political upheaval and explored availability bias and the need for constructive journalism.
"Information saves lives – The role of local media in fighting the infodemic"

... was the topic of one of our 14 insightful partner sessions. WDR, Goethe Institute, BDZV, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Friedrich Naumann Foundation, sef:, DW Akademie, ENTR and DW Distribution were an integral part of the 2021 online streaming conference as hosts of the Global Media Forum partner sessions. Thank you for your contributions!
"Democracy should be of the people and for the people, nothing less."

The investigative journalist Tobore Ovuorie received the DW Freedom of Speech Award 2021 for her outstanding commitment to human rights and freedom of expression in Nigeria. She is best known for her work uncovering a human trafficking ring in Nigeria in 2013, during which she was abused, raped and nearly killed.
"The word 'disruption' has to be recycled. The idea of a local newspaper is disruptive. The idea to have iPhones and be on the internet is reactive."

Timothy Snyder, best-selling US-American author and Professor for History at Yale University, USA, explored what went wrong and how to fix it in disrupted democracies and the media.
"It's a pity that when our demonstrations, because of violence and torture, disappeared from the streets, journalists lost a bit of interest."

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, Belarusian opposition leader and candidate in the 2020 presidential elections, talked to DW's Sertan Sanderson.
Will individualization end mass communication?

Peter Limbourg, Director General at DW, Jesper Doub, Director of News Partnerships at Facebook, and Ambreen Jan, Director General at the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation explored media use in the near future with DW's Michaela Kuefner.
"We live in a microwave generation. Everyone wants everything too fast, but we have to put in the work."

Mission impossible? Leymah Gbowee, peace activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate 2011 from Liberia, was on a panel with Anne Applebaum and Lutz Güllner to give us more insight into political communication in the era of disruption that we are in.
"To protect freedom we also need some rules, because freedom without any rules destroys more than it makes possible"

... said Tobias Schmid (left), Chairman of the European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA). In our panel on social media inventory and whether it connects people but divides societies, he discussed the topic with Philip N. Howard from the Oxford Internet Institute and Felipe Neto, Youtuber from Brazil
Congratulations to Klipworks from Denmark and iCompass from Tunisia

Guido Baumhauer, Managing Director Distribution, Marketing and Technology at DW, presented the winners of this year's international media start-up contest. From 100 applications from around the world, following the Incubation Training Days with a selected 10 candidates, our jury choose four finalists and finally announced two winners. We thank all contestants for their inspiring ideas!
"We don't need more news, we need better news, news we can trust, someone who cleans up the information."

Beyond who, what, when, where, and how: Ellen Heinrichs, Head of Trends and Knowledge at DW, Ruona Meyer, Africa Initiative Manager at the Solutions Journalism Network and Ulrik Haagerup, founder & CEO at the Constructive Institute and author of the above quotation explored constructive journalism with DW's host Javier Arguedas.
It's a wrap: The first wholly digital Global Media Forum

2 days, 110 speakers, 40 sessions, talks, and workshops packed with disruption and innovation. This year, we took the conference in its full size online and provided our more than 3,400 viewers with two parallel day-long streams, networking possibilities, an international media start-up contest and the Freedom of Speech Award ceremony 2021. We look forward to continuing the conversation!

"In democratic societies where we are open to new developments, we have to keep thinking carefully about what freedom really means to us."

Angela Merkel, Federal Chancellor of Germany, opened the 2021 conference with an important message on our responsibility for and the limitations of freedom.
"Independent fact-based journalism has never been as important as it is today."

Armin Laschet, Minister-President of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, held an impulse speech in person in Bonn. Michaelle Müntefering from the German Federal Foreign Office contributed a message on the second conference day, as did the chairwoman of the Green Party of Germany, Annalena Baerbock.
Lizzy Scharnowkse, the 'human drum machine'

The musician's performance was part of the opening ceremony of the 2021 Global Media Forum - quite fittingly to this year's topic of "Disruption and Innovation." Throughout the program, further local artists constributed to the conference.
Looking into the future - A fruitful endeavor?

A discussion on social media and journalism with Philipp Justus, Naja Nielsen, Julia Becker and Věra Jourová. Google's Vice President Central Europe, the Digital Director at BBC News, the Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board at FUNKE Media Group and the Vice President for Values and Transparency at the European Commission dove into the topic with conference host Liz Shoo.
"Flood the internet with an alternative message of hope and tolerance, because that is in short supply on the internet."

Nuseir Yassin, founder of Nas Daily and Nas Academy, dove into how to give power to the people and how he enabled agency through stories one minute at a time in his one-on-one with DW's Max Hofmann. The Palestinian-Israeli Youtuber first became an online hit by creating 1,000 daily 1-minute videos on Facebook.
"What we want in journalism is not optimism and not cynicism, but accuracy."

Steven Pinker, US-American cognitive scientist at Harvard University and popular writer on language, mind, and human nature, took a look into the future beyond pandemics and political upheaval and explored availability bias and the need for constructive journalism.
"Information saves lives – The role of local media in fighting the infodemic"

... was the topic of one of our 14 insightful partner sessions. WDR, Goethe Institute, BDZV, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Friedrich Naumann Foundation, sef:, DW Akademie, ENTR and DW Distribution were an integral part of the 2021 online streaming conference as hosts of the Global Media Forum partner sessions. Thank you for your contributions!
"Democracy should be of the people and for the people, nothing less."

The investigative journalist Tobore Ovuorie received the DW Freedom of Speech Award 2021 for her outstanding commitment to human rights and freedom of expression in Nigeria. She is best known for her work uncovering a human trafficking ring in Nigeria in 2013, during which she was abused, raped and nearly killed.
"The word 'disruption' has to be recycled. The idea of a local newspaper is disruptive. The idea to have iPhones and be on the internet is reactive."

Timothy Snyder, best-selling US-American author and Professor for History at Yale University, USA, explored what went wrong and how to fix it in disrupted democracies and the media.
"It's a pity that when our demonstrations, because of violence and torture, disappeared from the streets, journalists lost a bit of interest."

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, Belarusian opposition leader and candidate in the 2020 presidential elections, talked to DW's Sertan Sanderson.
Will individualization end mass communication?

Peter Limbourg, Director General at DW, Jesper Doub, Director of News Partnerships at Facebook, and Ambreen Jan, Director General at the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation explored media use in the near future with DW's Michaela Kuefner.
"We live in a microwave generation. Everyone wants everything too fast, but we have to put in the work."

Mission impossible? Leymah Gbowee, peace activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate 2011 from Liberia, was on a panel with Anne Applebaum and Lutz Güllner to give us more insight into political communication in the era of disruption that we are in.
"To protect freedom we also need some rules, because freedom without any rules destroys more than it makes possible"

... said Tobias Schmid (left), Chairman of the European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA). In our panel on social media inventory and whether it connects people but divides societies, he discussed the topic with Philip N. Howard from the Oxford Internet Institute and Felipe Neto, Youtuber from Brazil
Congratulations to Klipworks from Denmark and iCompass from Tunisia

Guido Baumhauer, Managing Director Distribution, Marketing and Technology at DW, presented the winners of this year's international media start-up contest. From 100 applications from around the world, following the Incubation Training Days with a selected 10 candidates, our jury choose four finalists and finally announced two winners. We thank all contestants for their inspiring ideas!
"We don't need more news, we need better news, news we can trust, someone who cleans up the information."

Beyond who, what, when, where, and how: Ellen Heinrichs, Head of Trends and Knowledge at DW, Ruona Meyer, Africa Initiative Manager at the Solutions Journalism Network and Ulrik Haagerup, founder & CEO at the Constructive Institute and author of the above quotation explored constructive journalism with DW's host Javier Arguedas.
It's a wrap: The first wholly digital Global Media Forum

2 days, 110 speakers, 40 sessions, talks, and workshops packed with disruption and innovation. This year, we took the conference in its full size online and provided our more than 3,400 viewers with two parallel day-long streams, networking possibilities, an international media start-up contest and the Freedom of Speech Award ceremony 2021. We look forward to continuing the conversation!

Date 26.07.2021
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SPECIAL

GMF

Highlights of the 2021 Global Media Forum

"In democratic societies where we are open to new developments, we have to keep thinking carefully about what freedom really means to us."

"Independent fact-based journalism has never been as important as it is today."

Lizzy Scharnowkse, the 'human drum machine'

Looking into the future - A fruitful endeavor?

"Flood the internet with an alternative message of hope and tolerance, because that is in short supply on the internet."

"What we want in journalism is not optimism and not cynicism, but accuracy."

"Information saves lives – The role of local media in fighting the infodemic"

"Democracy should be of the people and for the people, nothing less."

"The word 'disruption' has to be recycled. The idea of a local newspaper is disruptive. The idea to have iPhones and be on the internet is reactive."

"It's a pity that when our demonstrations, because of violence and torture, disappeared from the streets, journalists lost a bit of interest."

Will individualization end mass communication?

"We live in a microwave generation. Everyone wants everything too fast, but we have to put in the work."

"To protect freedom we also need some rules, because freedom without any rules destroys more than it makes possible"

Congratulations to Klipworks from Denmark and iCompass from Tunisia

"We don't need more news, we need better news, news we can trust, someone who cleans up the information."

It's a wrap: The first wholly digital Global Media Forum