Leaving Does Not Mean Forgetting. “Inside the News Media,” And Out of the Box.

This was in all honesty one of the most enjoyable courses that have decorated my schedule, so far. In contrast to what I’d say about most of my other courses —in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way, of course ;)— this course actually affected my real life.

I have chosen to participate in this course for the simple reason that I was interested in questioning the news before. Looking to get an insight into how news work and finding new ways of criticising news media, I happily enrolled.
I was not disappointed.

And suddenly, there was the blogging task…

Let’s face it, I am horrible with deadlines. When I heard about the blogging task, my first thought was that, while interesting, I would utterly fail this requirement. I have other courses with assignments. And if there is something I can’t do, it’s writing under pressure.
Thankfully, this has turned out to be merely paranoid thinking on my behalf. The blogging is actually really fun and much easier than I would have thought. There are enough topics to choose from as well! The blogging has giving me a motivation to dig around the news, question them, comparing them with each other. And it gave me the freedom to express these things — even in a more sarcastic tone. This isn’t academic writing. This is my writing. Hey, I can even do this: Fuck!

Seriously, though. This course has made looking at the news a fun task again. The news themselves know how to ruin my good mood, but the fun is there nonetheless. Even topics I was sick of, such as the U.S. election, have started to feel easier to endure to me.

I have actually learned a lot — Comparing news sources and effective ways of thinking critically about them have become a ritual to me. I notice things that make me suspicious much more often, especially when news — fake or not — sound suspiciously made-up.
This course has drawn my attention to fake news as well. Fake news and “alternative” news platforms that are all but trustworthy were nothing new for me, however, I am impressed by the dimensions they have taken. They are much more widespread than I have thought. And even funnier, this course has shown me that “reliable,” official news sources often lack original research as well. Copying is more widespread than I have expected it to be — which also has led to fake news being leaked into actual news.
On top of that, I have learned that international news sources can be even more reliable for news about Germany than German platforms. This is interesting…

Long things short, the very message I take from this course is: Watch out. Question. Research. Write a sarcastic blog article. Question again. Notice you have almost missed the deadline. Hastily publish the blog article.

I would like to thank Geoffrey Miller for the fun and indeed insightful course. His humour and his rather laid-back attitude have proven to be a good combination with the course. Open discussions, even if they took a route I couldn’t quite agree with, are the essence of a course that teaches us to question. And I think that Geoffrey did a good job by giving us enough space to discuss.
Not only that, though. This course was never about dry theory only. Funny videos, discussions and the blogging have been a really good counterpart to the sometimes dry facts and figures.

You did a great job, Geoffrey. Too bad I won’t be able to pester you in another course in the next semesters!