Journalism studies in Ireland

The last post: Finishing my UL courses

When I start to write this post I still have almost two weeks left from my UL studies. But I came up with the idea of my last post now and I always like to write the things down when it comes to my mind. But I let myself to finish it after I really finished to add my final line of sight because this way it will be one whole summarize. So let’s get start my last blog post about my experience in the University of Limerick.

I never thought I can be emotional because I’m writing about my studies. But don’t worry maybe it’s not because of that, it’s rather because of this whole way my first but hopefully not last Erasmus experience ended. And because soon I have to leave a whole system and environment (what I phisycally already left) behind. After I had to come home my last solace was studying online at UL, that was the last thing what still connected me to Ireland and to the programme I’m applied for. So it’s like the feeling when you have to finish and close a chapter, like graduating.

I’ve already written about the biggest differences between UL and my home university so I don’t want to write it down again. It was just so good to studying here and experience this type of education. What I most enjoyed is to finally find myself in realistic situation as a journalist. I’m far from being good and ready to work in this field but I felt some developing. All the three courses I took was so useful but also hard at some points. I learnt how to manage my time better as I had to do courseworks every week. That wasn’t like this in Hungary. I also learnt to deal more with the practical parts. It’s more important than reading the theory, of course that’s important too and make the whole studies complete but I had to realise that working on a projects and writing has to be the priority. Now I know that if I’m not communicating with my teachers or with my class mates there is no point at all. Not just because I’m studying something where the focus is on the communication but also because I have to know my environment and there is nothing wrong to share opinions, experiences and interest. I got to know a lot of new information and things thanks to the people I was in the same class with. And it felt so good that our teachers was interested in us, international’s students and made us speak and share our culture.

I was also amazed by the environment and facilities of UL. We had everything to work properly. That’s really important and I hope soon the middle-eastern countries will realise it too that how important is the place where they want to educate their future workers.

I really liked the lecture-lab-tutorial system. Mostly because the labs and tutorials were in small groups and we had more time for each other and for our projects. It’s deffinitely the most effective way.

In the classes we discussed about everything that can be involved in the media and communication field. From the tabloid press to the breaking news or the importance of social media. We had to try making video riport, record an audio, practice fact checking, manage a twitter account (it was new for me, I think it’s not so popular in Hungary), create websites and write blogs. And with the blog I learnt how to manage a site and add basic tools like menus, pages, links, but also practiced writing. It was a huge total.

I’m sad about I couldn’t enjoy it in the way I planned but I’ve learnt so much. Not just about journalism but about more important skills what I told you before. And those are the ones I can use in the future, in my studies or in my job.

Thanks UL for made my first study abroad experience so much fun and useful. We had an unusual time but it made it more special and taught me even more. I hope it wasn’t the last time. And I also hope you enjoyed reading my blog with my personal experiences and thoughts.

Bye for now!

Emőke

Working in a team

In today’s post I want to talk about my another blog site I did that with another international student. How we dealt with the team work during the whole semester and how we finished it from a huge distance. Compared to my Hungarian university It’s more a UL specific so it’s important to mention.

In the favourtite online exercises post I already mentioned the Social media and Society module but we focused on another assignment. But the main project for this module is also a blog. But it can built around any topic which could be interesting for other students too. The biggest difference between this blog and that blog is that I had to create it with another student.

In the beginning of my programme I heard that in UL there is a lot off group projects. If I want to compare it to my home university it’s a big difference even though we are doing group projects at home too but those are usually just only one short presentations, not whole term projects. I was hoping that I don’t have to work like this because everything was completely new for me and I was a bit afraid of working together with natives as my English is not good compared to them. I know one of the biggest advantages of a program like this is to meet with different people and get to know the natives where you are going but let’s be honest, most of us afraid of working together in teams like this and It’s normal to feel a bit anxcious about what if you will left out of the group and no one will care about you. Now I know that was nothing to worry about because I had only positive experiences but I guess I’ll always have some fears before group projects. So I already knew that probably I’ll have to work with others too and yes, in the first lab of this module we already had to get in pairs. I doesn’t care who will be my pair because I didn’t know anyone, I felt that maybe it would be a bit more comfortable with another international student because at least we understand each other as we are in the same situation but otherwise it doesn’t really matters. But my hopes became true and I got an other international student, a guy from Sweden.

We started to think about our topic immediately in the easiest way which also helped us get to know each other a bit and started to talk about what we are interested in. We had the ideas like philosophy, politics, football, hiking, reading and music. I think you can tell they are not the easiest to tone in with each. We had to realise that even if one of us interested in philosophy maybe it’s not that topic what students want to read about in their free time. Sport was the main common interest as both of us had experiences and we tought that it’s easy to make this topic interesting and approach it from different aspects.

Both of us had other things to do in the semester but I think even if we doesn’t communicate a much about it only when we met in the class or in the pub (i hope I supposed to write this down here) we could manage it well. I think that was an important way to do this that we always shared our ideas with each other and doesn’t make decisions without a cross-check. We knew what the other will write about and we could give some advices. None of us said no to the oter one’s post but at least we had the chance to say if we think it doesn’t fit to our concept.

Then you know both of us had to travel home but we still had to work with our blog so in the last 3 weeks we finished it talking on Facebook and send to the other one what we wrote. I think the result is good. Of course it could be better but personally I think we could collect interesting topics about doing a sport and we made it relevant for those too who are in a different field like us. And because my partner is now working as a coach it made it more interesting to have an aspect as an athlete and as a coach too. So yes, summarizing all I’m satisfied what we’ve done and with our team work too.

I know sometimes we are just unlucky with the partner who we get and it’s not always a pleasant experience but teachers should always be open for students requests if they don’t feel they are doing a good team with their partner (our teachers gave us the opportunity to change partners or do the project alone) but also students should give a chance to the person they got. Maybe they just had to know each other a little bit more and then it will work out. What I learned now is to be open as well for team works with strangers and always try to find a common point until it’s possible. So speak out if you don’t like the idea but if you do this try to advise a better idea or work on it to come up with one. It’s really annoying when someone reject the other’s idea but can’t tell a better or new one. The most important is to always give it a try to listen to the others.

Nowadays couldn’t be a better time to practice it all.:) Listen to each other and stay safe!

What did Jurgen Klopp do with breaking news

In my last post when I talked about my most interesting exercises what I had to do since my classes are online I mentioned a module what I’ve never talked about before. This is the Journalism and Writing 2: Breaking News and Features class in its long whole name.

And why I called it the most challenging one?

So first as you can already tell this module is about how to write breaking news and features. Breaking news is a really important type of journalism (based on my opinion). Just look at the news site these days, right now I couldn’t tell you a better example for its importance. We need to know the latest informations and it’s have to be short and just about the main points because it has to be published immediately. I think this is already sounds frustrating enough. I’m really bad at summarizing the most important and relevant points so it safe to say I struggled a lot doing my real timed assignment. Okay, maybe not really bad but I’m able to overthink and it’s hard for me to choose between the loads of informations. And when it comes with a really short time frame that’s even more scary for me. But I don’t want to mislead you, I’m really enjoying this class because we do much more than just stressing out ourselves with breaking news.

In the first classes we practiced how to write opinion pieces. These are longer publications and we can write our own opinion about a topic. This form is a really great way for journalists to express themselves sometimes, after they are writing a lot of news which is sometimes not that interesting, but mainly because they not allowed to write down their own opinion when the duty is to inform. I really liked that we could read everyone’s pieces in the class and it was so interesting to get to know a little bit the others I’m attending the same class with. Normally (in Hungary) I don’t really know the other students who I’m studying with for two years now, only my close friends. Of course it’s impossible and unnecessary to know all the students around me but when we are in a smaller group it’s good to see the other’s style of writing and get a little piece of their opinions and their mentality. And moreover I heard about some interesting topics what I haven’t heard before and see what the others care about. I wrote about the outcry caused by Natalie Portman and her dress for the Oscars in the focus of the exaggerated feminism (her dress was embroidered with the name of female directors who haven’t been nominated as the best director). But there were a girl from the USA who’ve written about the problem of sexualising girls at universities. Looks like we always have to discuss about this type of phenomenons.

We also practiced how to pitch a story and how to make interviews. Our teacher put us into pairs and gave us stories. It was so funny for the first timet hat one of us had to act like the person who is the interviewee and the other one is the interviewer. Yes, it was funny to cover the story of the 10-year-old boy who wrote a letter from Donegal to the coach of Liverpool, Jurgen Klopp, and ask him to stop winning the matches. I bit feels weird to act like I’m Jurgen Kopp. But then I felt that how important is to think about the interesting and informative questions and to pitch a line the whole story can built around. And when I was answering I also experienced that the interviewee can divert the talk easily to a different way if the journalist doesn’t pay enough attention or doesn’t build up the questions well.

In thed end of the semester we have to submit a portfolio work which contains an interview, a review of something and a news features. I think I said that before but I’ve never had to write something like this in my previous university studies so it’s a big project for me but also such a great oppurtunity to practice and finally develope.

In the last post I talked about this module as the most useful for journalism students and now I said it is the most challenging. But I think this two characteristics are often comes together and one come from another. So never mind if you are struggling with a task, the best feeling will be when you finish it knowing you tried your best.

My favourite online exercises

Our clasess had delivered online for weeks now and I can say it’s working so well. It’s still enjoyable to study like this because I have some interesting assignments. They are challenging because the discussion is not direct with our lecturers but also a really good example that online education could be interesting and useful.

Sometimes it’s hard for me to work well when I have to study from home and online because I’m really bad at managing my time. Especially when I don’t have that usual pressure. I mean I still have pressure because of course we have deadlines but sometimes I just forget that being home doesn’t mean I don’t have school. So I have to get used to this system but it’s okay. When a class is interesting it can still motivate you even if it’s online.

So now let’s see what exercises I enjoyed the most so far!

Breaking news assignment for the Breaking news and features class

I haven’t spoke about this class yet but I definitely want to later because as a journalism student I think this is the most useuful but also most challenging one for me. But now I just want to explain an exercise what we did. Our teacher gave us a brief of a fictional story but with a realistic story line. Then she act like an official spoke person in a press brief and we could ask like we are real journalists. And she connected with us in the whole time via videochat. Then we got a bit more than an hour to write a breaking news about the story. It was so interesting to have a real time pressure on us like in a news room when a news come in. I tried to focus ont he really important parts because a breaking news have to be short and contain just the most important information. It was the first time when I had to write something like this and I enjoyed it. Obviously in the real time it has to be faster but for now I’m glad I had a bit more time.

English as a foreign language presentation

This class was an additional module for the international students if they wanted to practice the language. I took it because I know that living in an english speaking country for months is the best way to learn the language but I need to study more grammar. In this class we have to make a presentation. We supposed to present them at the class in front of everyone but as you know now it’s not feasible. Doing a presentation is not a particular thing in universities but the reason I feel this one was a bit different is because we could choose any theme what we wanted it just had to be raleted to ireland and a bit to our own countries. Everyone in the class have chosen a serious case like the Brexit and the Northern Irish situation, drug issues, climate changing. My partner is a french girl and our topic is mental illness and the policies to prevent suicidal actions in Ireland, France and Hungary. Doing the research was a bit depressing to be honest because I never studied this field so deeply and at some point I was surprised. So this project was interesting for me because I get to know a bit more a topic which is really important to get to be known and because it feels good to be able to talk about it in a university environment. I have to add that UL is really care about mental illness because at universities it can be an existing problem, a lot off students suffer from the pressure of study well at the school but they also have to start to earn money and work at the same time, and have to deal with their personal life as well. So this time could be as difficult as much fun. And the other positivity of working on this was that we could do it from a distance because both of us is home now and we had to discuss the whole plan in another way. I think the result became pretty good even though we had some difficulties to reconcile everything on Whatsapp.

Fake news presentation for the Social Media and Society class

The main project for the Social media and society module is also creating a blog but we have to do that in partners and we could choose any topic for it. But because we are not doing that alone and there is less work with that blog than this one we have some smaller assignment during the term. The last one was an individual fake news presentation. We had to find a case and write about it. I’m really interested in the field of fake news I already had a class just about this at my home university. It’s a very dangerous and existing issue and people have to know more details about it and be aware, not just journalists but everyone. So it’s always useful when we study about them and I wish I had put some more energy into this presentation, but I enjoyed to do it and do the research about my case though. It was about an American actor who lied about an attack because of his skin clour and sexuality. It was a big news in the U.S. media for weeks but then it turned out he organized the whole thing. It was crazy how everyone became so upset about this and started to blame each other and targeted different groups. That’s why I think learn more about fake news is so important.

I hope this little summarise presents well that even though we got in a new and challenging situation, education can still be interesting if both side are working on it.

Online UL classes back from Hungary

In this post I want to write about how my online courses are working and how I’m dealing with them from a huge distance. But I also want to talk about something „off topic”, which is actually not off topic, but not about my modules at UL. But I think it would help me to talk about all of this and then move on to the online classes field. So I hope it’s okay if I share some personal feelings and thoughts with you now about what happened with me in the last weeks.

So first probably everyone can relate with the online studying and working stuff as we got into this whole crazy situation. Everyone’s life now turned up-side down and it’s a challenging time for all of us. I have never experienced something like this in my life, it was always so natural to go wherever I want, meet whoever I want as log as I want and not stand in one meter distance from my friends and loved ones. To go crowded places but now this is the scariest thing what could happen to us. I don’t really want to talk about this thing because we are all familiar with them so let’s just move on why I am doing my UL classes from Hungary now.

It was only three weeks ago when we started to realize we won’t have a tipical study abroad experience as some of the international students got an email from their home universities about going home as soon as they can and the University of Limerick announced that they will close the campus and we’ll have our classes online probably for two weeks. Then I already felt so disappointed because some of my friends had to leave and because the school what I’m here for and I enjoyed is closed. But then I was still positive and we were just planning with my flatmates what we are going to do in this two weeks, going to visit some places in Ireland and try to have as much fun as we can. We had no idea that some days later all of these would change. To be accurate it’s all changed each day. So a bit more than two weeks ago UL sent us an email that they highly reccomend to all the international students to return to their home countries as soon as possible as borders might close and all the transport would stop. And it was look like the campus couldn’t open anymore in this semester. So then it wasn’t a question for my parents that they wanted me home. And I really understood them but everything was so sudden. In one day we faced with the fact that our Erasmus experience what we prepared a lot for and waited for it so much and enjoyed so much just finished after two months. It supposed to be four months. Maybe a bit more as most of us planned to stay in the country longer and travel as much places as we can. But then we had to pack our semester and leave so quickly and say goodbye to all of our friends. I don’t want to complain there is no one I can blame it for, I’m just so dissapointed and heartbroken because as you may already know from my previous posts I liked the education here and now I can tell you I loved the country so much and both the Irish and international students I was surrended with. And I can’t help it but I feel it so unfair. But I know that was the most clever idea in a situation like this and I’m trying to be satisfied with all the experiences I had in these 2 months.

So after I arrived back to Hungary I was still under the influence of the previous days but school was going on and I had to get back to studying. As almost in whole Europe the classes are online in Hungary too now. I have an insight how it is going because of my sister, my friends and of my mother as well as she is a teacher in a secondary and primary school. And all I can say is Hungary wasn’t at the top of the online learning and technological stuff but what I see in my environment is that everyone is trying so hard to get to use to the situation and try to get out the best of their opportunities. It makes me happy too because from September I have to get back to the Hungarian education system, moreover I have to do three exams in this semester at my home university too, so how things are going matters for me too, but as it was such a new thing here we still have to develop a lot. I don’t know if UL already had an experience of online modules but I know that online communication was going pretty well, it was a huge part of our studies and they have a really good system so they have everything for a well going online education. And they were so prepared from the very beginning and started to deliver the classes online even before the campus closed.

Now I got back to the normal studying routine for two weeks and to be honest I feel more overwhelming than going to the school physically. We have to write a lot of emails and upload a lot of things and for me it’s just hard to keep all the things I have to do in my mind. In normal school days usually I left the school stuff behind when I got out from there, I mean of course I had to study and do the projects at home but it wasn’t in my head all day every day and being home meant that I can have a rest. But the teachers do everything to make it easier for us and personally they are very patient with me. So they are really help us out in everything. And the system is working really well too so we have all the opportunities to get out the best of a bad situation. So even if I feel like I’m full of assignments we still have the same interesting classes and tasks like we had before it started. And I feel friendly (it’s probably not the best expression) that the lecturers contact us via videochat and it makes it feel more comfortable and personal which is really needed these times. Of course it’s not the same but compared to the situation everything is enjoyable.

In the next post I want to write more about how this type of studying going now and some exercises what I had since my classes are online and I enjoyed so much.

Until then, stay safe everyone!

Copyrights and other ethical issues

The Writing for New Media is the class where I have to do this blog. It’s about the legal and ethical issues in writing. The other purpose is to learn how to write a blog (obviously) and practicing what we learned about the issues.

There is a lot of things what a journalist has to keep it in mind while writing. But also there is a lot of rules what every people should comply when they are posting on social media platforms but we don’t really think about it. Leastwise I’m not. So I was surprised at some points when we learned about copyrights and the intellectual property. There was a lot of really important things we have to do otherwise it can lead to serious lawsuits. I don’t want to scare anyone with this and stop them posting instead just before you do it, do a little research and know your rights. Maybe I can say that this was the most useful topic for me until now.

As I mentioned it in a previous blog post every module has a more practical lab and tutorial class. In the labs we are developing our blog sites and learn how to create a html website. I’m not too good at this technical and programming things using codes but it was interesting to see how some words (codes) can lead to a new website. It’s still not my favourite but definitely useful. It would be much more comfortable if I just had to write the posts and someone else dealing with creating my website. Of course it’s not an option, just kidding. That’s what I mention a lot of times that learning about and practicing every part of the medias is what makes this education better here.

In tutorials we mostly practicing those things what we learned in the lectures. For example once we had to find a copyright case and introduce it to the others. My example was the fake Banksy exhibition in Budapest which was opened some weeks ago. Most of the people thought that it’s an official Banksy exhibition organized by him and his team but turned out it’s not, it’s just from his original prints what they bought from his website. And what was interesting for me that it’s not punishable because after you buy someone’s art legally you can exhibit them and you don’t have to ask for their consent. But we heard some examples about music plagiarism cases which happens really often. But we also had to look after fake news and talk about them at the class. It’s not a good exercise only because we have to learn a lot of news or we have to be able to summarize a story but because we practice to stand out in front of the others and speak to people. It’s always scares me a little bit especially because I have to speak a language which is not my first in front of native speakers but as I saw it everyone understood what I wanted to say and they are so nice and patient. Or they are just too polite.

So in this module we learn about a lot of different things but mostly about those what’s included in the ethical issues field and of course blogging. I hope a bit later you can see it too that I’m practicing it!

First impressions: Hungarian and Irish education

As you may already know I came to Ireland five weeks ago to start my Erasmus exchange programme at the University of Limerick. I’m doing my second year as a communication and media science student, specialized in journalism. I really enjoyed studying this subject at my home university, but to be honest the Irish education system is different and after a few weeks I can say I like it better.

The first and maybe the most important difference is that every module is built up of two or three classes. There is a lecture where we just learn about the subject and we’re listening to a presentation, and a Lab and a Tutorial which are more interactive and we can work on the projects we have to do during the term. It was a little bit surprising because before I came here I thought I will have only 4 classes a week but it turned out I have 8 haha. At least I’m never bored. In Hungary all of the modules are just one class, some of them take place in a huge lecture theatre with a lot of students and there are some with smaller groups and are a little bit more specific. Here in Ireland in those labs and tutorials we have the chance to talk a lot to our teachers and to ask for their help, discuss about the projects.

So the other thing that I like is the communication between the lecturers and the students. I think I’m lucky because at my home university in Budapest we also have a good communication too with our teachers and we can discuss about the subjects during the classes which is really important. But here as I experienced the teachers work a bit harder to start conversations with us but students are more responding in Hungary.

The third difference and the one which is the hardest for me to get used to is homework. In Hungary we don’t really have to do homework weekly just read something or rarely we have to write essays or do projects but mostly in the end of the semester. But here in Ireland I have some homework after almost every class. To be honest I’m not used to studying before the exam period starts (maybe at this point I have to mention that it’s not necessarily because I don’t have to…) but here I have to. I don’t want to lie, of course it’s not my favourite thing but I wouldn’t say it’s a bad way to educate. Because of this I think we study here in a more practical way which is important in every field but especially in journalism. You can’t learn how to write if you don’t do it. It’s missing a little bit at my home university and that’s why I feel that my knowledge and writing skills or experience is under the average compared to Irish students. But we’ll see it after the end of spring.

And as the last one let me mention this, the blogging. But it’s just one of those handy tasks we have to learn here. I think blogging, creating and designing a website is a basic knowledge that a student in the media field has to know but I haven’t realised it until I started doing it. So I want to say that it’s really good that we have to try every platform where writing appears. Sometimes it’s scary to publish my practice my practice on the internet because as I already written, I’m not used to it and it’s a weird feeling that in a “smaller version” I do what real journalist do but it’s definitely one of the best way to study. Even if you get some negative feedback.

So by and large I can say that there is some differences between Hungarian and Irish journalism studies of course, but I like both. I don’t want to say that the Hungarian one is bad because I think my university is still better than others in Budapest (maybe I’m a bit biased) and they provide us a lot of opportunities and I enjoy being there. But as I said the Irish one is more practical and even if my Hungarian one is really good and professional it can’t be the same and as good. But maybe that’s the point of the Erasmus programme that students bring home their experience and use it at their own university. I think I will.