Ethical travel challenge for young people wins 2013 Japan Prize

Cultural Shock, a 26-minute TV program from Italy, has won the international 2013 Japan Grand Prize for excellence in educational programming.

Produced by Zenit Arti Audiovisive, Rai Educational, 2+1 and developed with the support of the EU MEDIA Program, Cultural Shock also won the Continuing Education category prize. It is an educational cross-media format using radio, the web, TV and mobile centred around a series of adventurous journeys in foreign countries by couples of young people made up of a local and a second generation youth.

Through webcasting, young candidates propose an ethical mission they would like to accomplish in their country of origin. Selected by a community of other young people, the chosen couples have 10 days to complete their expedition following some basic rules about ethical travel. Rasid and Agnese won the first challenge and are now faced with the greatest one, 10 days discovering the Balkans.

Other winners of the 2013 Japan Prize categories in the Audio-visual Division were: Pre-school, Siebenstein: Nearest and Dearest from Germany; Primary, Challenges “Hair Story” from Israel; Youth, Mission US: “Flight to Freedom” from the United States; Welfare Education, Alphee of the Stars from Canada; Innovative Media, NHK Creative Library website from Japan; Maida Special Prize, The Kamaishi Miracle from Japan; Japan Foundation President’s Prize, Within the Eye of the Storm from Israel; UNICEF Prize, Straight to the Dream: 18 Years Following of a Blind Swimmer Chikako from Japan.

The Best Program Proposal was Schooling Along Wild Track from Sri Lanka, with the Special Prize going to Let There Be Light from Bangladesh.

The Japan Prize was established in 1965 by Japan’s national public broadcaster NHK as an International Educational Program Contest with the aims of improving the quality of educational programs around the world and contributing to the development and fostering of international understanding and cooperation.

The 2013 prizes attracted 331 entries from 208 organisations in 57 countries or regions. The awards ceremony took place at the International Producers Conference for Educational Media (IPCEM) in Japan on 24 October 2013.