Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? It is more important to read or watch news presented by people whose views are different from your own than it is to read or watch news presented by those whose views are similar to your own. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

I think it is important to read or watch news from multiple perspectives. In the next paragraphs I want to consider different aspects of this topic. One possible dimension is geographically. If you only consume media which has been produced in your home country this will possibly lead to an onedimensional world view. For example take somebody from Russia. If this person only looks to the news provided by the government one will get the impression that Russia is not the aggressor in the war against Ukraine at all. While listening to Western news the image will certainly be much different. Another good example is Brexit. When I listened to German news mainly the negative aspects of Brexit were highlighted since the Brexit had bad consequences for Germany. In the UK it depended very much which newspaper or channel you listened to. Summarising this dimension I think for everyone who is able to understand news in several languages should take this chance and do so in order to get different perspectives and help developing a full picture. However, it is also true that this is not possible for every topic since many topics which are important to your country does not matter for others since they are not affected thereby. As a consequence another important dimension is politically. By which I mean that it is important to read, listen and watch news from people with different political opinions. For example taking the Covid policy only listening to information given by the government there was few room for discussion and few alternatives were discussed. On the side people only consuming for example extremist media against vaccines drifted after from the majority of the population and are not able to see other viewpoints anymore. In total I cannot agree with the statement. This is because I think the consumption of similar and opposing views are of equal importance. Only reading, watching or listening to a lot of opinions ensures the possibility to really get involved in the topic, understand the pros and cons, fears and different perception of one and the same topic.