Dr. Stephan Dreyer is a researcher in media law. In this BredowCast episode, he tells us how he became one.
Even as a young student, it was clear to Stephan that he would not become a sly lawyer later on. During his first internship in a law firm, he had to find out that "lawyers are there to argue. But I don't particularly like arguing," he says. "I prefer to discuss joint solutions."
So research it was. He slipped into this rather by chance, namely at the HBI. Looking for a student job, Stephan first applied for an IT admin position. Back in the nineties, he was passionate about everything that had to do with computers and the Internet, and was already programming websites on his own. When HBI Director Wolfgang Schulz found out that Stephan was studying law, he hired him as a legal assistant without further ado. He enjoyed the work so much that from then on he spent less and less time in the lecture halls of the law faculty and more and more at the HBI.
Good people in media law wanted
The road to science is not typical for a lawyer, says Stephan. Law studies are actually designed to qualify students for legal professions, i.e. lawyer, judge, notary, etc. It produces few researchers, although there is certainly a need for them, especially in the field of media law. Stephan therefore advises law students who decide against a "classic" career in law to consider whether media law is worth considering. "We will need a lot of very good people in this area in the future.”
Links
BredowCast Episode 58
„Wie wird man Medienforscherin“ mit Prof. Dr. Wiebke Loosen
Stephan Dreyer
Johanna Sebauer
Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut