Hello dear listenersand welcome to show 290 of our podcast“Absolutely Intercultural”. Today’s topic is all about the impact of our media consumption. I am Laurent Borgmann, your host, and as I am over sixty years old, I feel obliged to start with a bit of media nostalgia. Back in the good old times, yes, in fact,more than 50 years ago, every house in our street got a newspaper on their doorstep before 5 am every morning. Subscription was the rule. People would read it during breakfast, and this seemed as essential as the first cup of coffee in the day. In our city, we had two papers to pick from, but honestly, although one was slightly more left and the other slightly more right-wing they were like twins separated at birth. They sometimes even shamelessly used the same pictures on the front page. At school I learned that they were actually produced in the same printing house. And the effect? In the 1960s, when you caught up with the neighbours over the garden fence, it was like a big gossip party. All neighbours knew the same news stories and were ready to outraged by the same scandals. The update in the evenings was also the same–at 8 o’clock, families all over Germany tuned in for the TV news, and you could bet most people were watching the same news show–Die Tagesschau! Of course,even then people had different takes on the same news, depending on their political affiliations or demographic backgrounds. But we could all still join the chat because everyone had the same input. Those were the good old days.
absolutely informed
In our opening story, “absolutely informed”, we’ll tune in to Emanuel from Germany. As a young adult in Germany, Emanuel is interested in what is happening around the world. However, finding out which news reports can be trusted and which are only an opinion for the bubble they are meant for, seems a constant challenge for us nowadays.
absolutely independent
In our next part “absolutely independent”, we’ll hear from Rozana, who is from Albania and now she works as a guest lecturer in Germany. Rozana shares with us her concerns about potential government influence on the contents of the news.
absolutely positive
In our final story, “absolutely positive”, we’ll hear from Krishna, originally from India and now an exchange student in Germany. Krishna does not like to follow the news as he prefers to keep his surroundings positive.
Now, we’re curious about your own experiences with Media, are you a keen news reader like Emanuel or do you keep negative information out of your life like Krishna? Are you good at detecting fake news and do you ever report any?
Share your story with us via comment or email, and you can feature in one of our upcoming shows. For more information and previous episodes, visit our website at absolutely-intercultural.com. If you enjoyed the show, please give us a thumbs-up on Facebook.
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Our next show, hosted by Anne Fox in Denmark, will be out on 2 February.
Until then – look out for fake news! and
Bleiben Sie absolut interkulturell!
The host of this show is: Dr. Laurent Borgmann
Chief Editor: Natalia Obikhod
Assistant Editors: Mariam Bilge, Sebastian Berg
