International, Interactive, Interdisciplinary
Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, two of the best-known journalism-researchers and -teachers, find a surprising definition: “While once the word journalist described a group of organized professionals – now it
describes anyone who might find him or herself producing news.” (The Elements of Journalism, 2014). In the course we will ask questions: Are we all journalists if we only want to be it? If so, how do we perform on
our channels ethically and responsibly? Is there a role for professional communication in a time when the US president by-passes media and journalists with – until now - 40.000 messages on his personal Twitter account?
How to distinguish propaganda, fake-news and corporate publishing from reliable, independent, professional media-production? How to identify journalists in 2019 pp.?
Traditional media-companies – TV, radio, newspaper – in Europe and all over the world face a tremendous challenge as a consequence of globalization, digitalization and the internet. New big digital players are
taking over. The international mix of Sommerhochschule gives us the great opportunity to compare internationally. The course will integrate the students own experience as “ProdUsers” , who are familiar with new
technologies and new technical devices and their national media-landscapes. In working groups students will analyze practical examples of old and new media (-production) for an incremental understanding of the changes
of mass-communication and media-democracies.
Requirements: Performance will be assessed on the basis of participation in class discussions (40%), journalistic experiments of working groups (30%) and a final exam discussing a topic of change in journalism and
media-societies (30%), which is an essay based on provided literature and the course discussions.
