The last days I have been fighting with my dissertation topic. I am not quite sure what it is about. Given that it has to be handed in at the start of September and August is filled with reviewing the Festival, it’s getting a bit late.
I know it is about the G8 and the protests and activists because I have done a lot of interviews and already written my reflective essay, which only needs to be intellectual-ified with quotes and references and beautifying the language, but the headline and take on the whole issue is still varying greatly. My supervisor is nearly as frustrated and nervous as I am, he insists that it needs to be a topic attractive enough to sell for publication and the work should be about something totally new. This marketing aspect is like totally throwing me off the track.
Add it then together with the news that Veritas has once again managed to hit the shortlist of the Press Gazette’s prize draw, I am wondering if I am in the wrong universe at the wrong time. Although Lewie Peterson has always been nice, tolerant and open-minded to me. But most of the content of Veritas seemed quite boring this year, except for Arlene’s cooking recipes, though I read the interview with Noel Edmonds – but it didn’t add anything to my quality of life.
One nice aspect of German news is, that it contains a lot of dry in-depth background explanations and is sometimes frustratingly theoretical. Now, here in Britain, it seems there are too many weird unusual personal stories of entertainment value in the media and you wonder how much background research has been done and what’s actually going on and why.
Maybe the balance is right in the middle in philosophical France then?
Anyways, I wish I knew where I and how my weird sort of journalism would fit into.