Inside the News Media — A Review

Back in July 2016, I decided to register for this course because I had already worked for a radio station as a freelancer for 18 month and had been a trainee for some other media institutions. Since I want to work in the media for a living someday, I considered this course to be useful and a chance to get another view on the news media.
Looking back at the semester, this decision was a good one. It was quite interesting and exciting, to have a critical look at the news media. During the course, I, little by little, looked more and more critical at the news coverage than I did before the semester. Especially in these days, when rightist movements and parties grow in popularity, news media and news coverage should both be critical and be looked at critical.
The handouts were always helpful, informative and clearly arranged. I struggled a bit with the theoretical part at the beginning of the semester, but this is simply part of the issues we dealt with, right? The articles for Medium, for me, were a great opportunity to complain about the news coverage that bothered me, especially the one of the ARD concerning the attack on the Christmas market in Berlin. Besides, these articles were a wonderful alternative to an exam.
Above all, I enjoyed the clips shown during the sessions; they were always informative and furthermore complementary to the session’s issue. In summary, I am really glad that I choosed and was grouped into this course. I really enjoyed it, despite the quite early, and maybe inhuman, time of day.
Closing, thanks Geoffrey for introducing the British comedian Russel Howard in the last session. I watched some more clips on YouTube, he is amazing and just hilarious. I wish you all the best for whatever you will do after your time in Mainz!