TRAINING
Masauna Peary is in the process of training to become a journalist from Ilisimatusarfik. After an internship at Sermitsiaq, he is now starting a semester at Denmark Media and Journalism College in Aarhus. – It’s been hard, but now it’s going better, and I’m learning a lot from it, he says.
33-year-old Masauna Peary from Qaanaaq started in 2024 on the journalism course at Ilisimatusarfik.
The education has so far taken him past the Sermitsiaq editorial office, and most recently the Denmark Media and Journalism College in Aarhus (DMJX), where he is currently doing an international course: “Video journalism and foreign reporting”, which takes place in English together with students from all over the world.
– There are students from Spain, England, Ireland, Germany, Australia and Indonesia and then me from Greenland, so we are a very international team. There are 22 of us in total, so that’s a lot more than I’m used to. There are only seven of us on the team in Nuuk, says Masauna Peary, who is happy that there are more students because it provides inspiration.
New learning
The semester started in August and runs until December. Along the way, the students must about video journalism and the production of reports as well as looking more closely at how to tell stories about people.
The students also gain insight into the role of the news media on the global stage, and are allowed to practice foreign journalism, fact-checking, AI and other tools in an editorial environment. The semester ends with a project based on own research.
Along the way, there are also excursions, for example to DR Byen in Copenhagen.
– It was a great experience for me to see what the opportunities are for journalists in other countries.
Interview with chairman of Naalakkersuisut
Later, Masauna Peary also managed to get an interview with chairman of Naalakkersuisut Jens-Frederik Nielsen, which caused a stir among his fellow students.
– I was the only one who had got hold of a “Premier”, so it was fun. But I know him from my internship at Sermitsiaq, says Masauna Peary, who feels that she has improved significantly both in English and in filming and editing video.
– I have also got more ideas for which stories I can tell and how they can be told. So I can use that in my bachelor thesis.
Struggled a lot at first
However, it has not only been easy to move from Nuuk to Aarhus. At the beginning of her studies, Masauna Peary was close to dropping out because it was difficult to keep up with the lessons in English.
– I struggled a lot at the beginning, but then I spoke to a study advisor, and then things got better. It would have been nice if there had been more of us from Greenland on the course, so that you could support each other and speak your mother tongue, says Masauna Peary, who started by living in Det Grønlandske Hus, but who after 14 days moved to Vilhelm Kiers Kollegiet, which is within cycling distance of the school.
– Even though it has been hard, I can really recommend it to other students. You develop incredibly professionally and socially.
This article is from the education newspaper, which can be read for free via the link here
