Ardmediathek: Although it is in the German language, this site covers the broad category of German culture within entertainment, news, sports, and even the stock exchange. Ardmediathek is run by the ARD organization which stands for The Working Group of the Federal Republic of Germany’s Public Broadcasters (translated). This site is used primarily as a German media outlet for ease of access and information among German citizens. It is updated daily with new articles on German artists and political events. More importantly, this site offers live German TV at any time of the day. The directory of mediathek is set up similarly to any news station website within the United States with the intention of being free as well as an open source to the public.
You can access this site at ardmediathek.de and on Twitter @ARDde.
I chose this site because it shows the modern cultural expanse of Germany. I was directed towards it by my German professor as a means of practice for my German language. Since then, I’ve found that it helps not only my German proficiency, but also my knowledge on German events and practices as they happen daily. I will stay up to date with this site by habitually checking on it to improve my German as well as check on German events. Likewise, I followed mediathek on Twitter to get more snapshots on major articles that are posted daily.
Europa World Plus:Europa World Plus is an international reference series that provides key surveys for more than 250 countries around the world. The almanac is overseen through the worldwide publisher of Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group with data being provided from numerous sources that can be accessed through each country’s bibliography. This series keeps up to date with current nation’s elections and statistics and updates periodically to ensure concise depictions of country’s numbers. For Germany, the main statistics appear to come from the 2015 census. You may choose a country such as Germany and view its history, demographics, and specific statistics such as population, external trade, and industry from the last updated period.
This site can be accessed through OhioLink or any other library site that has authorization to use it on a subscription based fee. For Ohio State Students, search Europa through http://library.ohio-state.edu/screens/databases.html . You can also follow Europa @EuropaWorld on Twitter.
I hope to use this site as a reference page when doing research with other sources. Europa provides great overviews of countries that I am able to fact-check as I observe the credibility of articles and if their ‘facts’ hold up to the data. I selected this site because it is the most credible and unbiased source of information I can start with as I continue to dog deeper into German media and news sources. It will act as a screening source that either supports or refutes future articles and their credibility.
Global Voices: Articles such as Netizen Report: Germany’s New Social Media Law Puts a Price on Hate Speech on globalvoices.org are unbiased accounts of local or national events occuring in the world. Written by citizen reporters and bloggers, Global Voices depicts the people’s voice on what is going on in their region of the world. This article in particular was by the Netizen Report Team, a team of researchers and writers that work on Global Voices Advocacy. Plainly, it puts the news in the hands of everyday citizen reporters. The article focuses on a new law set forth by the German government in hopes to mitigate hate speech online. This law would charge private companies a fee if they do not take down content that is flagged as hate speech or derogatory.
This source can be accessed through globalvoices.org. It is updated on a weekly to monthly basis as large stories come out in the world. The site seems to focus on bigger events that affect the populace of a nation or nations that deserve public weigh in.
I chose this source because of its credibility with citizen reporters. It is difficult to find a source such as this that isn’t biased. Global Voices gives thorough and factual information while not swaying towards either side of the isle. I plan to use Global Voices mainly to keep up to date with major events that occur with my state locally, nationally, and internationally. The scope of Global Voices will be beneficial in observing the range of news coming from Germany and what the people have to say about it.
DW.com: DW.com is a German newsite that provides newspaper articles on their website in over 30 languages including English. Similar to the layout of CNN.com, users can choose from categories to read on articles of news, sports, culture, and more. New German Disaster App: Getting Help Without Cell Service, written by journalist Carla Bleiker, focuses on a new app in development that would help individuals affected by natural disasters. The app, called Smarter, would use local wifi or phone cloud services to allow users to call or located others without the use of cell phone towers or cell service. The article brings up skepticisms of the app and the hurdles that would need to jumped in order for this service to become a household name.
All articles are run through the Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcaster. This source can easily be accessed through dw.com or through their Twitter @DeutschWelle. This source is updated hourly as it is one of Germany’s largest distributors of news.
I plan on looking at this source on a weekly basis. It looks to be a great source of German information as to what’s happening all of the nation. I likewise will test my German by attempting to read the articles in the German language and then rereading it in English to see what I can get out of it! This will be a good source to use in tandem with Europa World Plus so I can see what the numbers (statistics) actually mean as I read them. I chose this source because it broadens the newspan of Germany to an even larger degree from previous sources. I would like to see expansive coverage of the country as a whole so the moving parts within it end up making sense as a whole.
Der Tagesspiegel: Belin ist wie New York – nur in die Waagerechte gekippt is an article on Der Tagesspiegel website that harks on Berlin’s architecture and its likeness to the United State’s New York City. Since no author is published on this work, it is assumed that it comes from Der Tagesspiegel’s reporting office. Der Tagesspiegel is Berlin’s daily newspaper that covers stories and news events within the city. This article focuses on Berlin being a ‘horizontal’ New York since the hustle and bustle and size are comparative to the big apple, but not the vertical size of building. This article continues discussing the premier architect Walter Benjamin and his likeliness to Berlin’s original builders.
This article was found through the online german newspapers directory via wikipedia. It updates daily and can be accessed online at tagesspiegel.de.
I became interested in this source while trying to find local newspapers. I chose Berlin since it is a large and expanding city that carries not only history but ongoing change. This source is great for a variety of topics within a specific location in Germany. I will use this source to get a focused view on Berlin. I can see what happens with policies and events in Germany in accordance to specific regions such as Berlin.
Twitter Filters: Twitter is a heavy source of opinion in the social network of apps. With the ‘advanced search’ option, you are able to filter through the tsunami of tweets to view topics that are tailored to your liking. I used the ‘advanced search’ to view German citizen’s thoughts and feeling on immigration. With Twitter, I will get opinions of natives in the regions of Berlin, Dusseldorf, and Munich and what they feel about the massive immigration numbers coming into Germany, as well as the policies beginning to be put into place because of it. The authors being observed are all users of the Twitter app, concretley in specific regions of Germany. This can range from teenagers to politicians, so a number of opinions can and will be noted.
This source can be accessed through the ‘advanced search’ option on the desktop of Twitter.com. With this feature, the source will update by the minute. However, this brings heavy bias into play as the tweets I will be observing will be opinions on immigration rather than an analysis of what’s going on.
I selected this source because it is important to keep up to date with what the populace if feeling about trending matters. With the public opinion, I can see what splits parties and what they stand for (or at least some of their members). I believe that I will use this source the most as I am an avid Twitter user. It will be fun to see what stories and tweets I can find in different areas of the world. I know that since I have a tailored feed, it will be refreshing and surprising to see what other corners of the world have to say about matters important to their country.