Summer Academy in Istanbul has started

Thirteen students of Technical Journalism are currently taking part in the Seventh German-Turkish Summer Academy. Since 2005, these summer academies have been held in collaboration with the Faculty of Communication at Istanbul University.

The Summer Academy, which has been supervised and organised by Prof. Katharina Seuser, Prof. Andreas Schümchen and Timo Stoppacher, research associate in the study programme "Technical Journalism", started with a word of welcome on the campus of Istanbul University last Monday. Afterwards, four mixed German-Turkish groups formed, in which the students collaborate with each other to shoot short films on Istanbul, this year's European Capital of Culture. The seminar is aimed at demonstrating the views and working methods used by people elsewhere to the students at both universities.

The students used the rest of the day to get to know the metropolis on the Bosporus. For example, they visited two of the Princes' Islands, which are part of the city area. At the first destination, they visited a Greek Orthodox monastery school; on the second island, everybody was invited to attend a presentation on this group of islands, which was given by the Mayor himself in the City Hall.

On Tuesday morning, the groups drew up a concept on the basis of their ideas and started producing their films. In the afternoon, they visited the Turkish news station NTV; afterwards, they recorded city material using their cameras again. By Wednesday lunchtime, all the teams were to have recorded enough material to do do the cutting. On Thursday, the films were finished and presented to an expert jury at the University.

Friday was available for relaxation to round off the trip. In this way, the new graduates from the Summer Academy had the opportunity to explore those parts of Istanbul that they had not yet seen while doing research and shooting their films. Thanks to the Turkish colleagues, there were plenty of insider tips and friendly people who said in reply to questions for directions , "Just follow me - I'll take you there!"