Looking back at my studies in the second period of the master’s degree, I feel that I learned not only essential theory related to media studies but also how to improve projects when dealing with possible stakeholders, inclusive teams, and clients. In the first course, Design Thinking and Maker Culture, we dealt with a more hands-on approach: we had as a final project the creation of a podcast. To do that, we learned about user-centred design, critical making, and multimodality.
As a journalist, these three topics truly caught my eye! I believe that applying a user-centred design approach to journalism, as well as the critical use of multimodality and literacies, are extremely important to provide more accessible and coherent content to different audiences. Moreover, I think about researching on my thesis the use of technological resources such as 360° cameras, drones, and virtual reality in the production of audiovisual journalistic products. I think this is a topic really embedded in user-centred design, and it is also correlated to the course of Real Virtualities from the first period.
In the Machines of Knowledge course, I found the readings extremely interesting! I love to read about big tech companies such as Google, YouTube and Facebook. I think it is essential to understand their business models and social pitfalls. By ‘social pitfalls’ I mean issues such as fake news and algorithmic bias. I am really interested in how to solve (or at least improve) the spread of fake news. Coming from Brazil, I watched closely during Bolsonaro’s election how fake news can impact a democracy. So it was fascinating to deepen my knowledge about filter bubbles, echo chambers and how they influence misinformation. One topic related to this course that I would like to research is how to guarantee the role of journalists as gatekeepers in an era of social media.
Overall, I really enjoyed this second period of Media Studies. It was great to participate in the tutorials and skills sessions, and I am looking forward to what will come next!
Dear Camila,
I think your reflection on the second semester is really interesting. It is nice to see that you throughout had a good experience this semester and thought of the topics we discussed as relevant for your thesis. It is also nice to see that you already have made connections to the courses for your thesis. Indeed, the topics of the user-centred design was very fascinating and it seems to work really well in relation to drones! As for filter bubbles and echo chambers, I think your experience as a journalist comes very handy and I agree with you that it was a fascinating topic to talk about during the course.
I wish you good luck for the next term!
Hannah
Dear Camila,
I absolutely agree that this semester more so than the first provided not just concepts but also very practical skills when it comes to our field. I also appreciate how you are tying these topics not only to our studies but also to your personal career. And how exciting that you already have ideas for your thesis! You have picked quite an intriguing topic if you ask me (and you even tie it to courses from previous terms). I would love to know more about what kind of questions you’d like to ask in your thesis because the options are so vast that I’m finding it hard to comment on them.
For Machines of Knowledge you, again, find great ties to your personal life. The role of journalism in combatting fake news is immensely interesting to research I think, as you have big politicians like Trump actively trying to diminish the value of the news they provide. It might be interesting to look at the way journalists and broadcasting companies attempt to combat these potential blows to their public image.
Good luck with the final assessments today and I hope you have a good break.
Best wishes!
Marc