Once more unto the breach…

Well, the semester is coming to an end, and it’s time for some revision and introspection. Honestly, I don’t feel like a very good media critic. However, I do notice that I regard my daily dose of news differently now, taking into consideration different things we discussed in class. I wonder which news values are behind the motivation to publish a particular article and who might gain from reporting news from a certain angle.

We had no shortage of interesting news topics this semester. From the election of the 45th president of the United States, the plane crash of a football team in South America or the war in Syria, there was plenty coverage to be critical about. Then there was of course the whole debate about fake news and the credibility of the press, as well as the question of media bubbles and how we are in danger of perpetuating our own biases by only consuming news that agree with our points of view. Facebook is certainly a big part of that media bubble and it will be interesting to see if and how Facebook will deal with its problem of fake news as they have vowed to do.

Change will eventually come to the news media landscape as traditional daily newspapers are losing money and Facebook is the daily go-to for quick news. Free and independent journalism is important and desperately needed and the question how it can stay viable in the era of internet freebies will certainly be a challenging one to answer. Present models do not seem to be working out as hoped and as a society we will probably need to rethink the value we put on independent quality journalism.

Regarding how the world has changed since the semester began, I quite enjoyed having a critical look at the daily and somewhat mundane goings-on instead of works of the literary canon or philosophical treatises.