EU Commissioner Praises Media Project of TU Dortmund as a “Shining Example of European Cooperation”: 1,500 European Students Successfully Test New EU Learning Platform of the Dortmund Institute of Journalism

Launch of the New E-Learning Portal for European Reporting “COPE” – Survey by TU Dortmund Among European Journalism Students Shows: Over 60% of Aspiring Journalists Lack Basic Knowledge about the EU

In light of the Russian invasion, European cooperation is becoming increasingly important. There are repeated calls for the media in Europe to report more frequently and competently on EU topics.

However, the prerequisites for this are still lacking: A survey of around 500 European journalism students from all 27 EU countries, recently conducted by Prof. Dr. Susanne Fengler and her team from TU Dortmund, shows that over 60% of aspiring European journalists lack basic knowledge about the EU. For example, they have never heard of the EU’s Cohesion Fund – currently one of the largest recipients of EU funds alongside agriculture.

A survey of European universities, conducted in 2023 by EJTA and Prof. Fengler and her TU team, revealed that a third of journalism programs in Europe still lack seminars on EU-related topics.

Competent reporting and a critical public are indispensable prerequisites for the functioning of the EU’s democratic institutions. This is particularly relevant when it comes to the use of EU funds. Content analyses show that local EU investments are too rarely picked up by the media as important topics and investigated in-depth.

The team from the Institute of Journalism at TU Dortmund – together with partner institutes in all 27 EU member states – has now developed a solution to meet this urgent educational need: The COPE e-learning platform is aimed at journalism institutes across Europe, as well as newsrooms and individual journalists seeking further education. COPE was jointly designed by prestigious universities in all 27 EU member states and aims to help journalism students understand policy-making in Europe and utilize relevant data and sources.

COPE is available in all 21 EU languages and is offered in 27 country-specific versions. Selected modules feature “local windows” that provide specially created national content. The COPE project was funded by the European Union with a budget of 1 million euros. Over 1,500 European journalism students successfully tested the platform in the first half of 2024, making the TU project COPE likely the largest media education project in the EU. Prof. Susanne Fengler stated: “More than two-thirds of the surveyed students would recommend the COPE platform to their fellow students – a great success!”

Since Saturday, October 19, the e-learning portal has been accessible to the public across Europe – with a ceremonial launch as part of the annual Congress of European Journalism Students (FEJS), hosted by the Erich Brost Institute for International Journalism at TU Dortmund. On the occasion of the launch, EU Commissioner Elisa Ferreira sent a digital greeting to the multinational project team. In it, she described the media project led by TU Dortmund as a “shining example of European cooperation.”

At the same time, Ferreira emphasized that the future of the EU also depends on independent media, which with their critical reporting, “shed light on every corner of the European house” – and thus advance democracy in Europe. “An informed citizen is the best defender of democracy,” Ferreira quoted former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. “For this, your work is more important than ever,” Ferreira said directly to the 27 European journalism institutes and the European Journalism Training Association (EJTA), which worked closely together on the COPE project. COPE project manager Isabella Kurkowski has already set her sights on the next goal: “Journalism institutes in Moldova, Georgia, and other EU accession candidate countries have already expressed interest in adopting the platform.”

More information about the project: www.cope-journalism.eu

A reel with information about the project is available here: