By Jovana Golubovic

To answer the ever-relevant question asked by all media, I sought answers at three conferences: in Amsterdam, Budapest, and Perugia. As an editor and author of music shows at Radio-Television of Vojvodina, through the European Union program "Innovation. Media. Minds", I was given the opportunity to hear in several places how media and music professionals think about this topic. The different perspectives of numerous speakers provided me with a new, fresh insight into the needs of today’s audience and the media potential in this field.

Conference on contemporary opera and the Opera Forward Festival

The Dutch National Opera, as the organizer of the Opera Forward Festival, hosted this year’s spring Opera Europa conference in Amsterdam, with the slogan Creativity as Opportunity. Over four days in March, we had the chance to listen to artists and managers of European opera houses who spoke about producing contemporary operas and the challenges they face along the way. We heard diverse experiences and aspirations, possibilities and opportunities. And we also watched excellent new operas!
The completely full halls where we watched several new operas at the festival (which was held in parallel with the conference) showed that this art form has an audience of all generations, and that current themes, creative and modern staging choices, along with top performers, attract the most attention.

The same applies to the media. If something is presented creatively, using contemporary technological possibilities, it will capture the audience’s focus. The goal is communication, and for it to be successful, it is important to understand who we are talking to and to choose the best way to convey the message. Through the panels at the Opera Europa conference and the performances of contemporary, very engaging operas at the Opera Forward Festival, I recognized excellent possibilities for presenting art in the media, depending on what we want to focus attention on.

Classical Next

Conference, expo, showcase events and concerts. An event intended for everyone working in the field of classical music: artists, managers, presenters, orchestras, labels, educators, media, filmmakers, publishers. Networking is a special bonus of this event that offers so much! This year, the 13th edition of the event was held in April in Budapest, for the first time. So much was packed into four days! The event took place at four venues, giving us the opportunity to get to know the most important musical locations of the Hungarian capital.

Through the panels, we could hear how renowned artists see the possibilities for the development and revitalisation of classical music, for its popularization and media coverage. One of the messages we heard is that classical music must be present in the media in different ways in order to be listened to. Media and marketing experts shared several examples through which they successfully gained and retained the audiences’ attention, which continues to grow! The insights into these specific strategies are very valuable to me. It was also priceless seeing numerous short performances by artists from all over the world. They introduced themselves through a wide variety of performances, opening completely new horizons in existing performance practices. Classical Next truly demonstrated the future of classical music in all professional spheres.

International Journalism Festival

For the end of my mobility project, I chose the journalism festival in Perugia – an event that approaches journalism and current topics from multiple angles. Given the increasing influence of artificial intelligence on our reality, quite a lot of attention was devoted to the relationship between journalism and this phenomenon.

We were shown several very useful free tools, which significantly speed up and facilitate journalists’ work, and even help in finding new stories. It was also important to hear discussions about the future and legal frameworks of artificial intelligence in relation to the media, as well as the ways in which the profession can adapt to new, imposed technological conditions. Still, the key messages are that journalism must retain its dominance over artificial intelligence, as a profession that will always provide the truth – in a time when it is questioned the most.

In an era of ever faster changes, technological innovations, and the commercialization of all types of content, the attention of the individual is significantly scattered and shortened. This greatly affects people’s habits, who consequently consume less and less content in traditional media. However, research shows that they trust the media more than algorithmic platforms or artificial intelligence, and this leaves space for maintaining the importance of journalism in these challenging times. Moreover, journalistic texts today also live through series, movies, video games, and even theatre performances, and this is a way for art to preserve the Fourth Estate!

Funded by the European Union, the Innovation. Media. Minds Program: Support to Public Service Journalism in the Western Balkans, is managed by the Goethe-Institut on behalf of the European Commission and in collaboration with its implementing partner DW Akademie. The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.