Last 15th and 16th December took place at CIDOB a seminar titled “Europe behind (mis)understandings: a critical view by communication students”. The activity, funded by the programme Europe for Citizens, aimed at reflecting on communication from and about Europe, in general, and the European Union (EU), in particular. The seminar was attended by a total of 15 students from undergraduate, post-graduate and doctorate level on communication (journalism, PR, advertising, etc.), with 9 different nationalities.

Taking as a starting point an article published in the national press of the different countries, that the participants had selected and critically analysed, a series of conversations were proposed following the World Café methodology. This methodology is characterised by brief, simultaneous and rotating debates led by a “host”, who presents his/her analysis and collects the comments of the rest of participants. The dialogues were articulated around three questions: 1) How does the article favour a European sense of belonging?; 2) How does the article hinder a European sense of belonging?, and 3) According to this, what are the challenges Europe faces?

Issues such as immigration, European identity and citizenship, the multiple crises affecting Europe (the economic one, but which is also social and political), or the EU’s internal and external image were some of the recurring themes in both the articles selected by the participants and in the discussions that developed around them.

Some of the most important problems the EU faces when it comes to communication were identified by the participants in the workshop. Mainly those related not only to the way Europe communicates (the messages and the media used), but also regarding media’s responsibility and the reception of messages by citizens, which is still mediated by old stereotypes and prejudices, that have re-emerged due to the crisis. A clear example of this is the so-called “North-South divide”, often reinforced, according to the participants in the seminar, by media themselves.

In addition to the analysis, students made proposals to address these challenges, related to the development of transnational media (with different perspectives from different member states of the EU), which would contribute to the formation of a European public sphere; increased communicative transparency from the side of the institutions in Brussels; the use of social networks as a mechanism for participation, or the shift of the EU’s communication strategy towards a communication more centred on issues affecting European citizenship, and less focused on the economic aspects of European integration project.

The programme Europa abierta, from the external radio of Radio Nacional de España (RNE), reported on this activity and interviewed Yolanda Onghena, senior researcher of the programme of Intercultural Dynamics of CIDOB, and Ana Escaso Moreno, one of the participants in the seminar who is currently enrolled in a master on Journalism, Media and Globalisation in the City University London. The programme can be accessed here. Furthermore, during the next months, a publication will be issued which will include the students’ participations, as well as a summary of the debates and articles by the seminar’s scientific committee members: Amparo Huertas (Universitat Autònoma de Catalunya); Michelangelo Conoscenti (Università di Torino); Carme Colomina (Universitat Pompeu Fabra), and Yolanda Onghena (CIDOB).