Attending the 15th award ceremony, which recognizes the best journalistic work on the economy, allowed students to gain insight into the work of experienced business journalists and current challenges in the media industry.
As part of the Thematic Reporting course, third-year students of VERN's undergraduate Journalism program , led by Professor Marija Slijepčević, Ph.D., participated in the 15th Hrvoje Mateljić Award ceremony, held at the Westin Hotel.
The award, presented by the business weekly Lider , was established in honor of the untimely death of journalist Hrvoje Mateljić with the aim of recognizing the best journalistic works on the economy and correcting injustices in journalism.
On this occasion, Lider's editor-in-chief Miodrag Šajatović reminded that 15 years ago it was believed that internet media were the biggest competitors to traditional journalism, and later this was also considered for social networks.
However , "today, the main and real competitor is artificial intelligence" , said Šajatović, urging, especially young journalists, to return to the basics of their calling.
This time, the Hrvoje Mateljić Award was presented in three categories: for the best journalistic articles on the economy published in print or digital media - Ksenija Puškarić from Lider, for the best works broadcast in electronic media (radio or TV) - Marko Šiklić from RTL, and for the best young journalist under 29 years of age for works on the economy - Domagoj Puljizović from Poslovni dnevnik.
In addition to the award ceremony, two panels were held on the state of journalism in Croatia, moderated by Gordana Gelenčer from Poslovni dnevnik.
Vladimir Niščević ( Poslovni dnevnik ), Tomislav Wruss ( Hanza Media ) and Vanja Prahić ( Waystar Media & Consulting ) participated in the first panel "Avoiding the news: How we deal with information overload". They discussed the excessive presence of black news in the media, the shortening of the audience's attention span, and the challenges faced by the mainstream media, which often make the mistake of segmenting news into too many sections.
"The currently functioning model overloads journalists and must be changed in order for the media to survive," warned Vanja Prahić.
The second panel, "Truth or Lie? - The Role of Fact-Checking in the Media," was attended by Josip Funda (World Bank in Croatia), Hrvoje Stojić (Croatian Employers' Association), and Vanja Figenwald , deputy editor-in-chief of Lider, who also presented the results of the Osvrt na 2024 survey conducted among business journalists at the event.
During the discussion, panelists emphasized the importance of distinguishing fact-checking from auditing data, noting that information must always be verified from multiple sources.
"An analyst should always check the primary source, as well as the secondary one, which does not have the same level of quality," said Hrvoje Stojić.
Participation in such events, in addition to providing students with insight into the latest media trends, also enables them to acquire valuable knowledge and contacts for their future journalism career.
(collaborator: Marinela Mesar)
