LONDON

             After preparing for a week in Los Angeles, most of us were anxious to arrive in London.  While some of us were lucky to have previously visited various international countries, it was exciting to go on a program and truly be a student abroad.  Since the language is very similar to ours it was easy to connect through conversation with the locals.  Instead of using our “rest days” to recover from traveling across the Atlantic, our group of 16 students went exploring and hitting the tourist destinations.  The important thing I learned in London is that it is such an immersive experience to go out and observe what is happening in real-time.  Meaning, it is possible to read content and research papers about the effects of subjects such as globalization, but it is easier to recall and more meaningful to go out and find those effects in your personal life.  For instance, McDonald’s is a global chain but I really forgot how accessible it is across the world.  Even though we all knew better than to go to McDonald’s, the brand created a destination to serve as our “home away from home.”  All the brand had to convey was a sense of familiarity and consistency in their messaging for us to cave and buy a chicken nuggets meal to refuel for a long day of walking.  By no means did this stop us from enjoying local restaurants because trust me we did, but it was interesting to note that I still consumed McDonald’s.       

            Our time in London was filled with company meetings with IPSOS MORI, Pielle Consulting, BBC, Sam Howard from Comms Crowd, Index Ventures, and Channel 4.  During our IPSOS MORI meeting, the topic of BBC having a legal restriction of maintaining political neutrality was brought up.  Followed by a poll saying that the majority of the public thinks BBC and ITV are unbiased.  I find this interesting because my opinion on the subject is that there is no such thing as being truly unbiased.  There will always someone or a company gatekeeping information to some degree and deciding which news to spotlight over the other.  Even if people tried to do their very best in being unbiased, there is still an unconscious agenda behind covering the news: whether they decide to cover it or not, when they decide to cover it, how they decide to cover it, etc.  All these variables can be manipulated and there will always be an underlying opinion or agenda when it comes to reporting news.  Samantha Barry from BBC spoke on a similar topic of differentiating facts, opinions, alternative facts, and fake news.  This was a great discussion to have given that it is such a controversial topic in the US.  Barry reported that 59% of all links shared on social networks aren’t actually clicked on at all, which is concerning given the fact that many people consume social media every day and some consider it their most common news source.  Even though it is worrisome that journalism cannot truly be unbiased and is currently under attack for publishing “clickbait” for lack of a better term, there is a future for those who want to do their best in communicating as effectively and truthfully as possible.  This movement of people craving accurate information in a post-truth society is already happening and it will take effort and motivation to report true facts and not settle for the easy tabloid headlines. ​