Same problem, different language: Reconnecting Balkan youth

Two strangers sit side by side on a tram, each carrying different views shaped by their backgrounds. They have until the last stop to talk it out, in public, with other passengers around them. 

The goal is simple, but not easy: to listen, respond, and try to understand each other.  

This is all the more challenging in a diverse region like the Western Balkans, where cross-border exchanges aren’t the norm, and historic animosities prevail.

Six young media professionals from Montenegro, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina developed this concept to bridge gaps between people during the NextGen Media Lab, part of the EU-funded "Innovation. Media. Minds." program. Their project "Unpopular Ride" was first presented during the Next Gen Media Expo in Prizren, Kosovo, in March 2026.  

The young group tackled topics difficult for everyone: taboos, difficult conversations, and what it means to truly listen to someone who thinks differently. 

A moving conversation 

Antonela Martinovic from Radio and Television Montenegro says this project addresses a fundamental, though lacking, exchange: "Today, everyone has an opinion, but we rarely truly exchange it with someone who thinks differently," Antonela says. What drew her in from the start was the format's honesty. "It was impossible not to want to be part of it," she said.

The team has filmed two episodes in Belgrade and is planning to film in Podgorica and Sarajevo in the coming weeks. Producing the show, Antonela says, turned out to mirror what happens on screen: Working across borders, through online calls and group chats that sometimes went quiet for days, the team found themselves navigating the same differences their participants do.

"We realized how similar our problems actually are, no matter where we come from," she said. "But we also realized how different perspectives can enrich the final result." 

Breaking the silence around mental health 

Ahmed Bradaric is a journalist from Sarajevo with more than a decade of experience at Bosnia and Herzegovina's national broadcaster. When his choice to join the NextGen Media Lab in Tirana was deliberate, he said, because he did not want to work with anyone from his own country.

"I understood this project as a great opportunity to meet someone new," he said. He ultimately formed a team with Klejda Piroviç from Albania and Ramanda Shehu from North Macedonia. 

Together, they created "Give Yourself," a video project that addresses one of the most persistent stigmas in the region: the idea that seeing a psychologist is a sign of weakness.  

"There is a stereotype in the Balkans that makes you seem crazy if you go to a psychologist," says Klejda. "We want to break that and make it possible for young people to have an honest conversation about it."  

For Ramanda, the idea came out of a collective moment of reflection.

"We were talking about the Balkans, the stigma, what is missing," she says. "And we saw that one of the major things facing the region is exactly that stereotype about going to a psychologist." 

The team filmed six stories across Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, and Kosovo. Each member organized the production in their own city and then traveled to the others. All interviews were conducted in native languages because, as Ahmed explains, "to share emotion, you need to express it in the language you belong to." The first episode is already available on YouTube. 

Learning to collaborate across borders 

Both teams developed their ideas through the NextGen Media Lab, an initiative under "Innovation. Media. Minds." The program is funded by the European Union and managed by the Goethe-Institut in collaboration with DW Akademie. It supports public service journalism across six Western Balkan countries, working with media organizations to develop content, strengthen editorial practices, and invest in media's next generation. 

The lab brought together young journalists and media students from around the region for an intensive brainstorming process. Out of nearly 30 ideas, six were selected and developed into media projects. Teams were formed across borders, and participants received mentoring, funding, and support to bring their projects to life. 

For Klejda, the experience went well beyond the project itself.

"I applied to the program randomly," she said, "but it turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life." She has since been urging friends to apply, too. 

Supporting the next generation of media makers 

Ahmed has covered stories in Bosnia for years, but this was his first time working regionally. What struck him most was how similar young people's concerns turned out to be, regardless of which country they came from: employment, political uncertainty, the urge to leave.

"The only difference was the language," he said. "We share the same burden." 

For Ramanda, cross-border projects do something that regular media rarely manages: they break the bubbles people live in.

"You can be diverse and still make change in society," she said. "You can show people: you are not alone in this."

Klejda agrees, adding that projects like this help young people step out of their comfort zones and see their own work from a new angle.

"You can get inspired and think: why not apply this in my country?" she said.

Both teams say they hope to keep working together and take on new projects at a larger scale. What they built in a few months, across borders and languages, started with a brainstorming session and a shared instinct that something was missing. As Klejda said after it was all over: "It will change your life." 

Funded by the European Union, the "Innovation. Media. Minds: Support to Public Service Journalism in the Western Balkans" program is managed by the Goethe-Institut on behalf of the European Commission and in collaboration with DW Akademie.