Journalism shouldn’t be a privilege (last blogpost)

In the past few weeks, I’ve had the chance to visit different media institutions, meet professionals, and explore how journalism works in Germany. One conversation stuck with me the most: when Felix Haselsteiner, a journalist at Süddeutsche Zeitung, said that today, journalism is often something only privileged people can afford to do. He explained how hard it is to make a living as a journalise, especially as a freelancer or someone starting out. The money isn’t always enough to pay your bills. If you don’t have financial support from family or another job, it’s easy to burn out or give up. That means the people who stay in journalism are often the ones who can afford to. And that means many stories never get told, because the people who could tell them don’t get the chance.

This idea became even clearer to me during our field trips. At M94.5, a student mediaschool and radiostation, we saw a place full of energy and freedom. Students can create without pressure to make money. There are no strict rules or commercial goals. I loved how open and creative it felt, but I also noticed that it might be harder to prepare students for the fast, competitive, and digital media world outside. Still, it’s a place where people learn by doing, without needing money or status to start.

A week later, we visited the Munich Science Communication Lab (MSCL), which focuses on research and evaluation. There, I saw how media can also be about impact. Like when they built an escape room in the Deutsche Museum to teach people how to stay safe during heatwaves. The way they used existing theories and qualitative methods to evaluate communication opened my eyes to another side of the media world: one that is more academic, precise, and focused on changing behavior. Not just sharing information.

From both experiences and, from Felix’s talk, I learned that the media landscape is not one single system, but a mix of different models. Some are creative and experimental, like M94.5. Others are structured and science-based, like MSCL. And then there are traditional newspapers like the Süddeutsche Zeitung, where journalism still has power, but is under pressure to survive in a digital world.

What they all show is that media doesn’t just reflect fact, it reflects cultures, values, and systems. It looks different in every country, and that makes it even more meaningful to study media in an international class. It’s interesting to hear how my classmates from around the world see media in their own societies.