Cafebabel.com: the Erasmus generation has its own media
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Who would have thought that a European citizen media could be celebrating its tenth anniversary? Since its creation on by a handful of Erasmus (European exchange programme) students at IEP Strasbourg, cafebabel.com has shown that it is possible to speak about Europe in an innovating and original way.1 February 2001 The formula is a .
Translated entirely in six languages – – it talks to and from the of past, present and future.
young and participatory European mediaEnglish, French, German, Italian, Spanish and PolishErasmus generations
This is the first generation of Europeans who have not known borders, who are multilingual, who were born with the internet. In short, it's the first generation who have lived 'Europe' on a daily basis.No European flags or Brussels directives at cafebabel.com. In the most European cafe on the internet, l: we talk about societies, cultures, lifestyles through features and photo galleries. The editorial approach is 'babelian' – it tries to cross national and linguistic borders to achieve the first successful European media.anguages are swapped as the 'Eurogeneration' develops
Chiming in with the, cafebabel.com at ten years is one of the . It's edited by a non-profit association, Babel International, which consists of a unique network of volunteers. This spans citizens as well as professional writers, bloggers, translators, photographers, videomakers and local teams in over .2011 European Year of Volunteeringmost beautiful successes that European civil society has producedtwenty cities in Europe
A new generation of media was born with cafebabel.com: it’s considered by the profession as one of the first French and European 'pure player' media. Very early on, cafebabel.com innovated in the practice of .participatory 'pro-am' journalism
What's the recipe? A team of are on board to commission and inspire content from the e-community, to select and advise on the best articles, before editing the content and sending it off to other volunteers for translation and later publication on the online magazine.professional journalists for each of the six linguistic versions
Today, cafebabel.com represents a network of almost across Europe and beyond. More than are registered on the babel e-community. There are over across the of the magazine. Who said that Europe didn't interest?1, 500 authors and translators12, 000 users350, 000 unique readers every monthsix languages
Ten years ago, sceptics were predicting short-lived multilingual media projects. They claimed that a European public opinion didn't exist and deplored the disinterest of everyday citizens in pan-European and transnational news. Today cafebabel.com is here to prove that Europe is more than just a cold and distant institutional construction. It's also the place where a , and build up Europe on a daily basis.