This post was written by Jason Yang, a Senior Communication Studies at Northwestern University attending the School of Communication’s Global Media & Communications Seminar in London. 

By day four of our trip, I had begun to feel more acquainted with London as a city as well as the general groove of our schedule which I know was a sentiment shared by many of my classmates. With that being said, Tuesday saw a slower day of two morning lectures at LSE and an afternoon visit to Deloitte. At least for me personally, I admittedly did not have expectations of this day bringing too much excitement. However, I was genuinely surprised with the value of the academic discourse and the unique interaction with a company typically assumed to be reserved for finance or economics rather than media studies. Our lectures at LSE were by Professor ? and Thomas Hoegh with both discussing our modern usage of social media and European specific media industry. Thomas went into more detail regarding his background as a Northwestern alumnus and founder of various media companies. Despite being two lectures back to back in the same classroom and truthfully being tough to absorb all the information, it was an enriching and gratifying experience to see them take time out of their day to speak to us.

After our time at LSE, we moved to Bill’s for lunch to refresh and recharge. I actually ordered an elderflower cordial, a historical Victorian soft drink, for the first time which certainly helped to reenergize my mind for our next visit to Deloitte. The atmosphere upon arrival at Deloitte was certainly much more formal and corporate than previous companies. Sara Siegel gave an informative presentation on the nuances of media work at the company with an additional highlight of the visit being two younger employees answering questions. Overall, I gained a surprising amount of insight into consulting as a career choice and the scope of media problems that Deloitte is tasked with solving on a regular basis. With anything ranging from sports to video games, media is still a growing industry and people knowledgeable in the area are still high in demand. This visit was especially enlightening for me to understand Deloitte consulting as being more than simply for finance or IT work and giving me more perspective on career choices.

After this visit, we finally had free time to experience the more touristy locations of London and a group of us obviously had to go to the Shard for one of the best views of the city. The aerial view was astonishing and after a couple hours of taking (excessive) pictures and embarrassingly wondering if you could see the Eiffel Tower from here (not me), the sun had set giving us another view of the brightly lit city (wow). For dinner, our group visited a French bistro and trekked back to the hotel to join the rest of the class. Some of our class decided to stay in while the others decided to visit a popular university student location. We listened to music, walked the city, interacted with locals, and even got cool wrist art to signify the city’s acceptance of us foreigners. I know I went to bed content (albeit not to wake up at 8:30) and ready for the next, especially long, day of new experiences.