Deutsche Welle and the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia recently appointed four Mike Thompson Deutsche Welle Internships for 2007. The lucky individuals have been given the opportunity to travel to Germany for six months of professional placement and training in the English Department at the headquarters of Germany’s international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, in Bonn. Two of the programs are for radio broadcasting, while the other two are for online broadcasting.

To be eligible the interns had to be either community radio reporters, broadcasters or producers, with experience and commitment to community radio broadcasting and have some journalistic training and experience. They were also required to demonstrate an interest in European/German issues, understand, read and speak German (or be ready to attend an intensive German language course) and have a university degree.

CBAA’s previous General Manager, Mike Thompson, saw the need for the program as he kept coming across talented individuals involved in community broadcasting who found it difficult to attain employment in the sector. The internship opens the door for people to build their experiences in broadcasting, making them highly employable as a result. This is evident in the fact that to date, all interns to receive training at Deutsche Welle continued their professional careers in broadcasting, predominantly as Journalists. While past interns maintain an involvement in the broadcasting sector as a whole, a large number still support and work in community broadcasting. Deutsche Welle hopes that future interns continue to engage themselves with education programs and community broadcasting bodies, such as the CBAA.

Clare received her Bachelor of Journalism and Arts degrees in 2005, majoring in German and Music. In 2006 she began writing and reading morning news bulletins on 4ZzZ. She also contributed stories and interviews to Brisbane Line, a news and current affairs show on 4ZzZ, later becoming the show’s host. While at 4ZzZ, Clare was involved in the Convergent Community Newsroom, a pilot project where participants filed stories for radio, television and online. This wont be Clare’s first time to Germany, as she undertook studies for six months at Albert-Ludwigs-Universitat in Freiburg in 2005.

Clare saw the internship as a way to bring together her two passions in life, Journalism and all things German. She put a great deal of time and effort into her application as she, “knew the competition would be fierce”. Clare compiled a collection of her stories produced for 4ZzZ and included an article she had written about her time at Oktoberfest. After making it through the initial application stage she flew from Brisbane to the CBAA offices in Sydney for the interview.

Clare hopes the internship will further develop her skills as a Radio Journalist, allow her to learn more about Germany and Europe and improve her German language skills. She is excited about the prospect of working with such a well-respected broadcaster.

Cheryl first heard about the Deutsche Welle program through a past intern who found the experience highly rewarding in its ability to enhance his radio broadcasting skills. She knew of Deutsche Welle’s outstanding reputation as an international broadcaster and decided to apply for the once in a lifetime opportunity.

Before applying Cheryl commenced a German language course at TAFE, where she learnt enough of the language to be able say how old she was, that she didn't have any children and was unmarried - enough to put an ad in a German singles column. As the interns had to be familiar with German and European current affairs Cheryl regularly read publications like Der Spiegel and Die Welt. Once she was offered the internship she bought herself a handy German dictionary and begun planning her big trip.

Cheryl’s interest in community broadcasting began while completing her Communications degree at UTS. During this time she volunteered at 2RRR and 2SER, working on local current affairs and arts shows. For a time Cheryl worked at the National Film and Sound Archive, ScreenSound and in a freelance capacity for radio production companies. At present she is the Radio Producer for AMRAP, the Australian Music Radio Airplay, working with community broadcasters to produce exciting radio content about contemporary Australian music.

At the end of the 6 months Cheryl hopes to have broadened her field reporting skills by covering European and international events.

Emma’s interest in German culture, language and people dates back to her time as a high school exchange student in Dresden, Germany, where she first learnt to speak German. She continued working on her German while completing her Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in German and English Literature.

After discovering her interest in journalism Emma moved to Sydney and commenced a Masters in Journalism at UTS. She knew journalism would be a difficult field to break into so producing stories for Razor’s Edge, 2SER’s weekly current affairs program, seemed like a prime way to gain the experience.

Coming across the Deutsche Welle internship while volunteering at 2SER, Emma recognised that it would be “a great opportunity”, especially being able to re-live her teenage years by living in Germany again. When applying for the internship she collated stories she had produced for 2SER and from her Masters degree. As she was a confident German speaker, part of the interview for Emma consisted of a German oral language test with Esther Blank, the Deutsche Welle representative in Australia.

Emma hopes the experience will improve her journalistic skills by filing some great stories for Deutsche Welle. She feels “lucky to get the opportunity to go overseas straight out of uni”, so she plans to make the most out of the experience.

Stephanie is not a stranger to foreign places, foreign languages or community broadcasting. She began volunteering at Radio Adelaide in 2000, returning in 2002 to present a weekly current affairs breakfast program. In 2006 Stephanie was offered an internship at SBS radio working on an Italian program. From the skills attained through community broadcasting Stephanie was able to produce reports in Italian, which were broadcast nationally on SBS. She is currently finishing her Masters in Journalism, working at the ABC and SBS, learning German and volunteering at 2SER.

Stephanie’s experiences overseas range from completing her International Studies degree in Italy, to working as an intern reporter for the Asian Games News Service in Doh, Qatar and lastly teaching university students the operational skills of a radio station in the Peoples Republic of China. While in China she presented an English music program from her bedroom, as the Government would not permit her to enter the state-owned studios.

She has had her eye on the internship for a long time and feels that her previous experiences have given her the “perfect preparation for the Deutsche Welle online internship”. She hopes the program will allow her to enhance her online broadcasting skills and build her knowledge of European issues and politics.

The program is perceived by Stephanie as highly valuable as, “it can be very difficult for new broadcaster and journalists to get work experience, especially internationally”. She aspires to become a Foreign Correspondent and believes the work at Deutsche Welle will bring her closer to this goal.

Stephanie feels that “Australia is fortunate to have community media as a space for which to explore issues and to produce interesting and different media. I am proud to be involved in community radio and I hope that in the future the sector will continue to grow”.