The Borderline Academy

Journalism Tom Kummer founds a
"School of Borderline Journalism". The majority of students come from the
Advertising, knows the "Bad Guy of German Journalism". With his "School of Borderline
Journalism", Tom Kummer returns from faraway California,
five years ago because of his idiosyncratic interpretation
journalistic duty of truth (keyword: falsified interviews)
has been banned from the German-language press and since then only
was sporadically and sometimes anonymously present in the gazettes. Kummers
"School of Borderline Journalism" only exists virtually.
At the latest when naming his former customers Weltwoche and
Spiegel as sponsors of the study program, it should be clear to everyone that it is
this is a fantasy product. That is only partly true, says
Kummer at the request of Werbewoche. More than 50 students have already
have registered. "Significantly, almost all interested parties come from
advertising," says Kummer. And adds: "People think more freely there."
Following the counterfeiting scandals in a number of US media
Journalists should probably be wary of dealing with a forger.
labeled colleague, even though Kummer had expressed his views in
a journalistic tradition. "The deeper I go with my
students into the subject matter, the more obvious it becomes that
Borderline journalism has nothing to do with copying or faking. It
is rather a special form of New Journalism."
Redefining reality in journalism is also a declared goal
of the course.
Obviously, there is now also interest in the USA in the
Swiss journalist, who has now been working for twelve years in
lives in California. He is often invited to give lectures at media schools.
invited. As a cautionary tale. "Accordingly, many
people, and they naturally want a battle of words between the 'Bad
Guy' and their professors." But that didn't happen, rather
students are interested in the topic of "borderline journalism", because
You haven't heard much about that in the States. "That sounds like
Terrorism. Dangerous, but exciting." From his work as
guest speaker spontaneously had the idea during the summer vacation in Bern.
which he has presented to the students of the various media schools
to organize and bundle them.

Kummer's many realities
The Borderline Academy website can be found at the following address
not too much to read yet - just ten
entries can be found on Kummer's weblog. The majority are
recycled texts already published on paper, next to them are
two programmatic documents on the fictitious school. And as befits
an institution with a mission, is located at the center of the
body a manifesto. The document was recently published as an article in the
German media magazine Cover. It is neither a reckoning nor a
"mea culpa" and also no justification for previous actions. Rather
Kummer attempts to integrate the borderline variant into the system.
Journalism, 2005 version. His credo: The path to
Truth today is about many realities. He believes that people
no longer expected to see the newspaper when they opened it.
truth in black and white. He added to Werbewoche
Kummer that he sees borderline journalism as the antithesis of
"Embedded war reporting", to infotainment, to the
Spin journalism, "which all print media have slagged off".
Is someone casting out devils with Beelzebub here? Creative montage
versus PR buzz? As a pointed contribution to a debate that
all too often conducted in an agitated tone and with an outstretched index finger
Kummer's views are always good. Whoever feels addressed,
Kummer can comment directly on his weblog using the comment function.
contradict. No one has yet seized the opportunity.

Nick Lüthi