This course is about understanding the importance and impact of journalism in society. Journalism is key to a well-functioning democratic society: It provides the public with information of general interest. The quality of news largely determines the quality of public debate. But what determines the quality of journalism? How do journalists select relevant news facts? How are journalistic values such as objectivity, impartiality, professionalism, news values shaped? How biased (fake?) is the news? To ensure daily news, journalists rely heavily on access to elite sources, but who has the real power over the information? In addition, news is also a commercial product that is produced in an almost industrial way and has to be sold to news consumers. In the 21st century, news, journalistic practice and the way people consume news have changed significantly with the rise of digital communication technology and social media.

In this course, we place the study of journalism in a historical and comparative context and address the challenges of digitalisation. You will learn to understand and analyse what news looks like, why it looks the way it does and how news consumers use news.