Ernst Schneider Prize 2019 for MDR volunteer project

The cross-media project “On the trail of data” by the 23rd MDR trainee class wins the Ernst Schneider Prize 2019 in the Internet category.

How monitored is Germany? That was the initial question posed by the MDR trainees of the 2017/2019 class for their data project, which was developed in cooperation with the MDR investigative editorial team.

In addition to traditional television and radio reports and internet articles, the investigative research of the young journalists was bundled in its own innovative format, namely in a digital avatar called "Data Protection Officer". The virtual data protection officer gives tips via Instagram stories on how people can make themselves more invisible on the internet.

All results of the project can be found at mdr.de/datenspuren.

MDR Director General Karola Wille is proud of her station's young colleagues: "The fact that this prestigious journalism award in a main category is going to young journalists for the first time is a novelty - and proof of the outstanding quality of our training, which, in addition to the journalistic craft, awakens a passion for innovation and imparts digital skills."

"Ten trainees, eight weeks, one topic - that was a very intensive and at the same time very productive time. In terms of content, we also broke new ground with this project and took a closer look at the grey market of data traders for the first time," says Jörg Wildermuth, the editor-in-chief, delighted about the award for the joint project.

The trainee class of 2017/2019 is: Johanne Bischoff, Sabine Cygan, Romy Heinrich, Martin Hoferick, Simon Köppl, Konstantin Kumpfmüller, Jana Münkel, Alexander Polte, Wiebke Schindler and Pauline Vestring. They were editorially supervised on the project by Christian Bergmann and Anja Riediger.

The Ernst Schneider Prize is awarded by the Chambers of Industry and Commerce to recognize contributions that address socially relevant topics in a particularly imaginative and understandable way and convey economic relationships in an exciting manner.

© Photo: MDR, Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, Daniela Höhn