Self-Reflection

Dear Reader,

This will be the last entry for my blog and also a finish for my financial media subject. It will be a self-reflection of my development during the last twelve weeks of the course and the eleven entries that I made in my blog.

                                                                     (Source:wordpress)

Starting from the beginning, I must say that I never followed or let alone wrote an own blog. The thought to write a critical blog about the media coverage of different journals and newspapers, seemed to be really difficult.

During the lectures we learnt some interesting theory about the different writing styles that newspapers use. Additionally we observed that journalists mostly add their own opinion to the stories, which they are covering, to address the regular readers, who are purchasing this particular newspaper to read the opinions.

Before I attended this course I was reading news mainly from two sources, which were the Frankfurter Allgemeine and the Wall Street Journal. However during the course I started to look at other media coverage’s and sources. To follow the different stories I started reading the FT, Economist, Business Week, Spiegel and Handelsblatt, which I all included for my blog research.

It was interesting to see the difference in coverage of one story.  I recognized that the political views of the newspapers influenced the style and the view of the news. I observed that the newspapers used different quotes and different authorities and people to interview for same story covered. At the beginning I had difficulties finding this kind of differences in the story, but with the time it became very obvious in which direction the writer was trying to take the reader Therefore I developed new reading skills, which allowed me to have a clear view when analyzing news from different papers.

I can say that I really enjoyed writing the blog and I think it was a nice opportunity to enter the blogging world and being a continuous follower of different stories covered in the media. Additionally I think it was a good tool to understand the importance of critical media analysis and the connection of the media to financial topics.

I hope I created a read-worthy blog, which was trying to share some interesting articles covered in the media during the last twelve weeks, also integrating my own opinion and comments to them. It was a nice experience to learn how to use the internet to spread my opinion by using the blog as a form of communication. I believe that I developed my research and commenting skills especially through the weekly research on different topics in detail.

To conclude, it has been an exciting practice and a challenge for me to write this blog, as it was my first time to use this gadget.

Thank you all for following my blog,

E.V.

The Bloomberg HQ Visit

Dear Reader,

This blog entry will be about our financial media class visit to the Bloomberg Headquarters. Our lecturer Mrs. Linda Lewis arranged a guided tour through the building, including a demonstration on the Bloomberg Terminal. I was really looking forward to this event, as I am interested in doing an internship in this company.

The first thing that caught my eye during the tour was how modern and structured the different floors in the company were. It was explained why every floor was designed in different colours, which I found a really interesting approach. Blue, Green, Yellow and Red are the colours that I remember, that were allocated to the different departments. I think blue was to create a calm atmosphere for the stressed traders.

(Source:Hintmag)

Another aspect that was differentiating the inside of the building from other companies that I visited, was the huge aquarium on every floor, with around 600 species building the biggest collection of fishes in Europe. Mr. Bloomberg’s affection for fishes was not to be overlooked. Talking about unusual things, it was interesting to see that the company is recycling electronic parts to built chairs, tables etc.

During the tour we were lucky to see a live TV appearance of Judith Bogner (Pic Below), who I recognized, because I saw her moderating the Bloomberg news a couple of days earlier . The technology on the set was really impressive. I did not know that the company has different cameras in important buildings to announce breaking news in the same second as they are spoken out.

(Source: Businessinsider)

At the end of the tour we were gathered in a room to get some insights of the Bloomberg Terminal, which is the core product of the company. I personally used the terminal once in Uni, but I found in really complicated to get useful information out of it. However after the presentation I was really impressed by the amount of the information that is provided by this terminal. The possibility even to track tankers on the golf stream to predict the oil price movements or to observe the oil spill of BP was amazing to see. The “Dine” function was a highlight that I found really employee friendly.

(Source: Businessinsider)

Finally we had a meeting with one of the HR managers, who presented some historical background and the job opportunities in the company. She explained us that the structure of the company was "flat" meaning that everyone was sitting at the same desk. The design of the floors contributed to this argument by not having walls, which were deviding the rooms, but "glass walls" where everyone could see what was happening at all times. Even the executives offices covered with "glass walls" demonstrating the equal treatment of every person in the company.

The visit ended in the cafeteria, which provides the Bloomberg employees with free snacks and beverages. The fact that there was no seating area provided was as I think to keep the breaks as short as possible.

Overall it was a nice experience to get some insights about Bloomberg and I can say that I really enjoyed this excursion.


E.V.