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31.05.2016

“I generally like to know and report what is going on around me”

Yann Schreiber, graduate student at Sciences Po, has been awarded three prizes by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), the oldest organisation representing journalists in the US, for two reports he produced during his year abroad at the Ohio State University.

You won the TV feature reporting award for a video you shot in Paris after the November attacks. How did you address this complex issue?

Two days after the attacks, my friends from Ohio sent me a message saying they were doing a story on it and asked me if I could make a video, without giving me specifics in terms of angle or content. I remembered the format they used, so I stuck to it and recorded a commentary on a video clip. I live close to the Place de la République in Paris so one day I just I took my camera and went out there. I felt that I didn’t need to prepare any scenes or call any people to arrange interviews. I just felt I could go to Place de la République and find someone I could talk to. And indeed there were many people willing to talk spontaneously.

You also won the Breaking news photography award for a photo report on a confrontation between Ohio’s police and students after a National Championship Game in Texas. Why did you want to report this through photography ?

I was initially sent there by Mark, the photo editor of The Lantern [the student newspaper of Ohio State University] for three reasons. One was that there was a “watch party”: people were watching the championship game altogether in a hall on a giant screen; I had to write an article with some photos about the party’s atmosphere. After that, Mark told me that if our university won the game, it would be great to go in front of the university to snap the students’ happy celebrations. I even remember him saying something like “if we win, High Street will be like a zoo!” But that night nothing turned out as expected: for unclear reasons, the police started driving the supporters away quite violently.

Originally, we were only planning a photo gallery about the celebration, but since there was an unusual event I also wrote an article for the newspaper. Nothing was planned and I went back home at 3 a.m. that night, but I felt it was important to cover what happened.

What do you think made your work stand out?

I don’t think that my photographs of the confrontation are the best I took in my life. One or two are good, but technically they’re clearly not the best. But when you see them I feel like you get a sense of what was going on. Getting sharp pictures was an achievement in itself given what was happening that night. I guess that is what the jury saw: the combination of what it took to get them and the fact that no one sent me to cover this confrontation, that I did it proactively.

During you studies in the European Franco-German programme on the Sciences Po campus in Nancy, you contributed to the student newspaper and TV; then, during your year abroad at the Ohio State University you joined The Lantern, the student daily and TV. Now that you're back in Paris for your Master's at Sciences Po you work for La Péniche, of one of Paris’s student newspapers. Why is it important for you to contribute to student life through journalism?

Because it’s fun! [laughs] I generally like to know and report what is going on around me, and I don’t really care if it is Sciences Po or global politics. Also, whatever you do gives you experience. There is no “good” or “bad” experience to build up a professional portfolio. I am doing lots of things that are not student-related but I don’t think it is a valid reason not to cover something that happens in front of you.

You are currently pursuing your studies at Sciences Po while carrying on several journalistic projects. What does your joint Master's programme between the School of Journalism and the Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA) give you in terms of knowledge and practice?

In the joint degree there are two aspects: you get a lot of practical experience at the School of Journalism and you learn about international affairs theory at PSIA. 

The most important part, I believe, is the practical one: you have to know the laws that govern journalism, how to shoot a video, how to write a story, how to do a radio report. We learn all these things at the School of Journalism.

The joint Master's programme gives a broader view, in the sense that you have access to a lot of different perspectives. In my future professional life, I don’t think I could do as well without the skills I developed at PSIA. I already noticed that when I interned – at the Austrian Press Agency (APA) or ARTE for example – these skills helped me a lot.

Is there a specific field or media you would eventually like to specialise in?

I’d like to specialise in TV or work in a news agency. I like TV because it is visual and you can tell a lot through image, sound and commentary. I like news agencies, because there you have access to the raw news, you’re nearly always first! In order to make my choice, I will do two internships this summer: one in Strasbourg in France, at ARTE Journal, a Franco-German TV channel, and another one at the Agence France-Presse bureau in Berlin.

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