About us
The idea of the Journalism Incubator is inspired by the once famous Czech publishing house Melantrich. Its founders offer a common path to sustainable and ethical journalism free from economic and political pressures. We want to connect experienced media practitioners with hard-working entrants, design sustainable media projects, and involve honest experts from newsrooms in the Czech Republic and abroad. Much remains to be done to make this dream come true. This site is the first step. Help us move the incubator further. Sign up for the incubation and join our newsroom!
What can we offer in The Journalism Incubator Workshop?
Incubation of beginner journalists
Our main goal is to provide practical training for those who want to start their journey into independent journalism.
Lectures focusing on the current trends in journalism
We offer thematic lectures with prominent personalities of Czech journalism and with experts on the issues of the contemporary media landscape. Lectures can take place online or in smaller numbers in a pleasant informal environment or we will be happy to visit your company, institution or school.
Connecting students with professionals
We connect motivated university students with renowned journalists and allow them to try out the functioning of the newsroom. We organize workshops of practical journalism on the basis of semester teaching and summer schools, where students, under the guidance of our lecturers, create a real edition of an online periodical focused on a specific topic.
Media literacy seminars
The ability to understand the flood of daily news, negative headlines and fake news is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve, which is why we offer seminars on media literacy, a kind of basic preparation for today’s media threats.
Education of seniors in regions
We believe that seniors are one of the most vulnerable groups to disinformation and fake news, which is why we organize seminars with seniors in their home environment in the regions of the Czech Republic. We discuss media prudence topics with them and bring them experts and journalists to panel discussions. At the same time, we support intergenerational exchanges, because we involve incubation students in the preparations and debates.
Community Journalism – study trips for local issues
We also offer experiential journalism. Intensive immersion in a unique situation accompanied by locals, analysis of local phenomena, tangible output in the form of a published report or other genre in a real medium.
Media audit and thematic researches
Are you interested in a specific topic or would you like to know what the media image of your company, strategy or project is? What connotations and associations do articles about your activity evoke, how does the topic evolve, and where are the weaknesses, strengths, opportunities, and threats? We will be happy to prepare tailor-made media searches for you with the help of our students in the Journalism Incubator.
Preparation of communication strategies
Based on the media audit, we will recommend communication strategies on how to communicate your brand or topic in the media in a meaningful and different way so that it resonates with the target group.
We develop the talent of our incubated ones and help the world with new projects
We offer various projects in which we support the talents of our students, such as graphic design, podcasting, preparation of books for the print, etc. We implement crowdfunding campaigns for these projects and we will be very happy to introduce you to them.
Meet Our Team
Tomáš Bouška
Founder
Graduate of Political Science at the Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University in Prague (PhDr., PhD.) and the Swedish Sociology Program (M.A.). He previously worked as a spokesman for the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, Deputy Director of the The College of Media and Journalism, the non-profit company Aspen Institute Prague, the Shoah Memorial Prague – Bubny and the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung. He lectures at New York University Prague. Since 2010, he has been the chair of the Političtí vězni.cz Association.
Graduate of Political Science at the Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University in Prague (PhDr., PhD.) and the Swedish Sociology Program (M.A.). He previously worked as a spokesman for the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, Deputy Director of the The College of Media and Journalism, the non-profit company Aspen Institute Prague, the Shoah Memorial Prague – Bubny and the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung. He lectures at New York University Prague. Since 2010, he has been the chair of the Političtí vězni.cz Association.
Karolína Heroldová
Projects management
She was born in Prague, where she still lives, although she much prefers trees to cars. She is a graduate of IMS FSV UK and Uni Regensburg. Since 2013, she has been engaged in project management and custom writing as a freelancer. For two years, she worked in a production position at the National Museum, where she participated as an author in several exhibitions (e.g. The Masaryk Phenomenon). She has been a proud mother since 2019. In addition to the Journalist Incubator, it also cooperates with the National Museum and provides dance lessons.
She was born in Prague, where she still lives, although she much prefers trees to cars. She is a graduate of IMS FSV UK and Uni Regensburg. Since 2013, she has been engaged in project management and custom writing as a freelancer. For two years, she worked in a production position at the National Museum, where she participated as an author in several exhibitions (e.g. The Masaryk Phenomenon). She has been a proud mother since 2019. In addition to the Journalist Incubator, it also cooperates with the National Museum and provides dance lessons.
Tomáš Nídr
Editor-in-Chief and lecturer
He studied political science at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University. He was working in the foreign section of Mladá fronta Dnes as an editor and columnist for eight years. He was deputy head of the department for three years as well. In September 2009, he went freelance and has been publishing in a number of Czech media analyses and reports from his travels, especially in Latin America and Africa. He lives in Lima, Peru.
He studied political science at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University. He was working in the foreign section of Mladá fronta Dnes as an editor and columnist for eight years. He was deputy head of the department for three years as well. In September 2009, he went freelance and has been publishing in a number of Czech media analyses and reports from his travels, especially in Latin America and Africa. He lives in Lima, Peru.