US-and-UK-based publications dominate international news, casting themselves as neutral observers. Given the state of these two countries, it's time for Europeans to challenge this.
Anglogaze rolls off the tongue better, though if Döpfner makes Politico Europe do a prayer circle for Meloni and Manfred on European elections night, adding "Saxon" to it might come in handy.
To be fair to euro journalists, most not only marinate their brains in anglo content for work, but also consume vast amounts of anglo infotainment for fun and probably think this is the norm. That I too should know or care who Bordan Jeterson is, or the specific gerrymandering patterns of southern Florida. Twitter really is the worst thing that has ever happened to your profession.
This process of immersion is why I don't agree with the Everyone Speak English! approach. I also find it unambitious. If ARTE can produce content (European news included) in six languages that together cover nearly two thirds of all EU citizens, we can do better than just have an English-speaking Euro Times. It can have its uses, especially for elites' media consumption, but for the wider audience we should build a multilingual public European broadcaster. EBU already produces the most watched entertainment event on the planet. I don't want to hear about how it's impossible and expensive or that Viktor Orban will say no. Build it around him.
Unfortunately, I don't think most "casual" readers make much of an effort to look into who's behind the agenda setting. If you ask the 3 out of 4 statistical Germans who think Italy is not a net contributor to the EU why they think that, how many of them would say it's because of decades of endless Britaly-style covers in German newspapers? (See the infamous gun in the spaghetti plate one or Mario Draghi as a vampire sucking German blood...)
As for journalists (and here I agree that this should serve as a reminder to them in particular), I'm afraid twitter has broken their brains. That sweet shot of twitter dopamine and chasing engagement is often overpowering all professionalism or ethics. It's taken more than a year for them to stop retweeting and spreading Ukraine war disinformation from Visegrad24. This was despite repeated warnings from Polish colleagues about this anonymous outlet being a PiS troll with a history of pushing far-right talking points, Viktor Orban propaganda (obligatory Soros antisemitism included) and anti-European disinformation. So I'm afraid a "critical mind" is already too high of a bar to clear for most of the profession that's Very Online.
Anglogaze rolls off the tongue better, though if Döpfner makes Politico Europe do a prayer circle for Meloni and Manfred on European elections night, adding "Saxon" to it might come in handy.
To be fair to euro journalists, most not only marinate their brains in anglo content for work, but also consume vast amounts of anglo infotainment for fun and probably think this is the norm. That I too should know or care who Bordan Jeterson is, or the specific gerrymandering patterns of southern Florida. Twitter really is the worst thing that has ever happened to your profession.
This process of immersion is why I don't agree with the Everyone Speak English! approach. I also find it unambitious. If ARTE can produce content (European news included) in six languages that together cover nearly two thirds of all EU citizens, we can do better than just have an English-speaking Euro Times. It can have its uses, especially for elites' media consumption, but for the wider audience we should build a multilingual public European broadcaster. EBU already produces the most watched entertainment event on the planet. I don't want to hear about how it's impossible and expensive or that Viktor Orban will say no. Build it around him.
Unfortunately, I don't think most "casual" readers make much of an effort to look into who's behind the agenda setting. If you ask the 3 out of 4 statistical Germans who think Italy is not a net contributor to the EU why they think that, how many of them would say it's because of decades of endless Britaly-style covers in German newspapers? (See the infamous gun in the spaghetti plate one or Mario Draghi as a vampire sucking German blood...)
As for journalists (and here I agree that this should serve as a reminder to them in particular), I'm afraid twitter has broken their brains. That sweet shot of twitter dopamine and chasing engagement is often overpowering all professionalism or ethics. It's taken more than a year for them to stop retweeting and spreading Ukraine war disinformation from Visegrad24. This was despite repeated warnings from Polish colleagues about this anonymous outlet being a PiS troll with a history of pushing far-right talking points, Viktor Orban propaganda (obligatory Soros antisemitism included) and anti-European disinformation. So I'm afraid a "critical mind" is already too high of a bar to clear for most of the profession that's Very Online.