Dosti Banushi on involving internationals and minorities in the Danish local elections

The Mundus Journalism Programme not only offers a great combination of analytical and practical skills, but also the opportunity to develop them in a real-life context. This is the case of the extra-curricular activity carried on by the current Mundusian Dosti Banushi, 22, from Albania. With a political journalism background, Dosti involved other students from the 2021/23 cohort in a project to include internationals and minorities in the Danish local elections that took place in Aarhus in November.

Mundus Journalism: Can you introduce yourself? What is your professional and academic background?

Dosti: My name is Dosti Banushi, I come from Albania, I have a Bachelor in Political Science and I work as a political journalist and political columnist. I also have experience in political campaigns and political management. I’m very interested in politics. My second-year specialism will be Politics and Communication in Amsterdam.

Mundus Journalism: Can you tell us more about this project? Why did you decide to do it?

Dosti: When you move to another country, you have to plan your future. I was doing research about things to do here in Denmark and I saw that they would have an electoral campaign and I thought it would have been amazing to participate.

However, I was aware of the linguistic barrier. I ended up participating in a campaign meeting of the Social Democratic Party here in Aarhus [for the local election of the 16^th of November]. Trying to overcome the language barrier, I had the idea to do a campaign to target minorities and international voters. It was the first time in a Danish local political campaign.

I thought it would be better not to work alone. I reached out to other current Mundusians, around twelve people, all interested in politics. From day one we had fun, did our best and tried to help not just the Social Democrats but the minorities and the internationals. It’s important for them to participate in the local elections.

Mundus Journalism: What did this experience give to you?

Dosti: First of all, it gave me the sense of how different Danish politics is. It’s chill, it leads not to emotion. Here, politics is a matter of rational analysis, more than emotional. I want to export these principles to other countries: a model focused on policies and not on emotionality.

In addition, I met cool people, I restored my faith in new generations, and I spent a lot of time with my classmates. The best lesson, though, remains that politics is transforming daily life, reaching the middle ground through a compromise. First of all,we have  to think it’s a fundamental lesson for other countries, that is how to do politics with pen and paper and not with heart.

Mundus Journalism: How the skills of the Mundus Programme helped you in designing a political strategy?

Dosti: In the second course of our first semester, Public Opinion and the Media, we are learning a lot about social reality influence and public opinion at a theoretical level: for instance, a slight change in wording can influence the effects of a political message. We put that theoretical frame in practice to design our motto, logo and fliers of the electoral strategy. Compared to other campaigners, this academic background was an advantage. We also used the international skills of our team, that’s why I want to thank all the people that participated in this project.

Together with Dosti, the students who participated in the project were Namrata Acharya, Hyunju Ock, Tshering Yangki, Didong Zhao, Yiwen Wang, Rida Shah, Enno Hinz, Jakib Weizman, Ronald Rodrigues. Check the 2021/23 edition of our BlueBook to know more about them!

Excited about following your passions also by developing extracurricular projects alongside your studies? The Mundus Journalism community is the place for you! Applications to join the programme are open until January 10th at 12:00 CET.