DW Akademie Europe and Central Asia

29/06/2026

Is AI a colleague or a competitor?

We asked media makers from across Ukraine at MediaPain AI 2026, organized by Media Development Foundation and DW Akademie in Kyiv. The event brought together regional editors, media managers, and technical staff to talk through the practical realities of integrating AI into their newsrooms.
And the answers were anything but simple.

Watch the video to hear what they had to say. Then tell us how your newsroom is approaching AI?

26/06/2026

🗣Applications are now open for Myth Detector Lab 2026, a Media and Information Literacy (MIL) program organized by Myth Detector and DW Akademie. The program is open to young people from Armenia aged 18-30, who are interested in fact-checking, verification, and countering disinformation.

Applicants must:

🔹Be 18-30 years old;
🔹Be from Armenia;
🔹Have a good command of English.

⏱ Deadline: 15 July 2026
Learn more and apply here: https://mythdetector.com/en/a-joint-media-and-information-literacy/

26/06/2026

🎬 TikTok Premiere: Can you trust the internet?

How do you talk to teenagers about risks online in a fun and interesting way?
➡️ Our vertical fiction series “Trust me” designed specifically for young audiences dives into digital safety and the psychological impact of life online. The fast-paced
TikTok series blends storytelling with media literacy and cybersecurity.
✅ The idea: engaging young audiences by baking education into the content
teens already consume.
One June 17, our partner Suspilne Ukraine posted the first episode (in Ukrainian) on their channel hto.pro.sho ⤵️ ⤵️ https://www.tiktok.com/.pro.../video/7652389307998653717

15/06/2026

This year, DW Akademie launched the Young Media Makers Fellowship program in the Western Balkans.

Meet the faces behind the new fellowship program 👇

This year, DW Akademie launched the Young Media Makers Fellowship in the Balkans. These are the 12 faces behind the new fellowship program.

04/06/2026

We're building something new - and we're looking for experts to build it with us!

Our new "AI & Innovation Network" in Eastern Europe is building practical AI solutions for small and regional newsrooms.

We're looking for experts who know the real problems: tools that do not work in local languages, budgets that do not cover dedicated AI roles, and the gap between what AI promises and what a small newsroom actually needs. We're starting with a pilot from July 2026.

Sounds like you? Apply by June 22, 2026:
👉 https://akademie.dw.com/en/eastern-europe-experts-for-ai-and-innovation-in-media/a-77372746

29/05/2026

Our Western Balkans team is establishing a pool of trainers who will be trained to support media organizations in structured business mapping and to develop sustainability strategies.

👇 Follow the link in the comments and apply by June 8, 2026!

27/05/2026

What does a serious AI strategy actually look like inside a newsroom? Not the hype, not the fear, but the day-to-day choices about where AI helps and where it should stay out.

As part of "Strengthening Media Resilience in the Age of AI", our three-month course with Kyiv Media School for editors, journalists, and managers of Ukrainian media, Ludwig Siegel from The Economist shared how his team approaches AI.

He walked the group through what The Economist has built, what it has chosen not to build, and why journalists remain at the center of every decision.

See the key takeaways 👇

21/05/2026

What made special this year?

We brought our local media partners together with two international AI experts from our AI Community of Practice.

DW Akademie supported this year's Lviv Media Forum as part of our EU-funded project "Strengthening Independent Media for a Strong Democratic Ukraine." We welcomed our colleagues from DW Akademie's AI Community of Practice.

The forum was a chance to share what we've learned supporting "AI for the business of news" with local media around the world.

27/04/2026

🤖 How do you reach readers when social media algorithms keep shrinking your reach, and what does it take to turn a newsletter into a real audience-building tool?

These were some of the questions on the table last week in Lviv 🇺🇦. As part of the Mediafit Re: loaded project supported by the European Union in Ukraine, DW Akademie brought together Ukrainian regional media partners and international experts for three days of discussion and hands-on work.

The first day opened with panel discussions on Ukraine's culture of donation and subscription, and on the innovation trends, AI tools, and sustainable journalism models shaping regional media in 2026.

Days two and three turned into a hackathon. Seven regional outlets sat down with international trainers and DW Akademie experts to map their existing newsletters, redesign them, and prototype new concepts for reaching readers directly.

What came out of those three days: a clearer picture of where regional newsletters are today, where they could go next, and a few first prototypes ready to be tested with real audiences.

21/04/2026

In a region where cross-border exchanges aren't always the first impulse, how can public broadcasters from the Western Balkans cooperate to reach more audiences and elevate their content?

See what journalists and media professionals took away from the Next-Gen Media Expo 2 at ITP Prizren, Kosovo.

Funded by the European Union, the "Innovation. Media. Minds: Support to Public Service Journalism in the Western Balkans" program is managed by the Goethe-Institut on behalf of the European Commission and in collaboration with DW Akademie.