RIAS RADIO, TV, AND NEW MEDIA AWARDS 2015
June 12, 2015
Award Ceremony and Reception on Friday evening, June 12, 2015, Rotes Rathaus, Rathausstraße, 10178 Berlin.
With the 2015 Awards of the RIAS BERLIN COMMISSION outstanding Radio and TV productions aired/posted in 2014 were honored for having contributed significantly to German-American understanding.
The awards were presented this year again by Dr. Melinda Crane, member of the RIAS BERLIN COMMISSION. Guest of Honor of the evening: Jürgen Hardt, MdB, Coordinator for Transatlantic Cooperation at the Foreign Office. Music entertainment came from Roland Heinrich and Anja Clarissa Gilles.
The 2015 Jury of the RIAS BERLIN KOMMISSION:
Claus Detjen (Haller Tagblatt), Erik Kirschbaum (Reuters), Petra Gute (rbb), William Skane (ehem. CBS), Melinda Crane (DW tv), Christian Wilp (n-tv/RTL), Dieter Schröder (Berliner Zeitung)
THE AWARD WINNERS
1st TV Award
Dag Freyer
Ein Hauch von Freiheit — Breath of Freedom — Schwarze GIs, Deutschland und die U.S.-Bürgerrechtsbewegung (ARTE/MDR)
The Afro-American soldiers serving in a racially separated U.S. army experience a breath of freedom in Germany, as they become liberating heroes in the war against the Nazis. Back home they begin the long fight to claim the same freedom they had brought the Germans for themselves. Fifty years after civil rights advocate Medgar Evers was murdered, we hear from important figures like his brother or the former U.S. Secretary of Defense Colin Powell, that the fight for equality is long from over — even under the first Afro-American U.S.-President.
2nd TV Award
Thomas Berbner, Johannes Jolmes
Panorama — die Reporter: Angst vor Fracking (NDR)
This TV documentary makes use of compelling conversations and nuanced analysis to investigate the alleged dangers of fracking and confront popular prejudices with facts. With a concrete approach firmly anchored in reality, it contributes significantly to shifting the debate on fracking from the realm of emotion to reason.
2nd TV Award
Christof Boy, Herbert Elias, Michael Grytz
Gegen den Strich: TTIP — kein Freihandel mit den USA? (WDR „markt“)
This humorous and imaginative film was aired by WDR Markt in its section “against the grain” and it really does just that! With creative graphics and a chorus of voices — both figuratively and quite literally — it analyzes the benefits that a U.S.-European Free Trade Agreement could bring Germany and reveals that “chlorine chicken” doesn’t taste so bad after all.
1st Radio Award
Nora Sobich
Ich verkaufe, also bin ich — der Mythos des Salesman (rbb Kulturradio)
The first radio award goes to Nora Sobich, rbb Kulturradio, for „I Am in Sales, therefore I Am — the Myth of the Salesman”, an entertaining feature and gripping sociological analysis of the archetype of the U.S. salesman. The author reveals the manner in which salesmanship has evolved from Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Saleman”, 1949, to the inspirational coaches of today. In the era of the internet, e-commerce, and social media, the salesman’s persuasive art — as self-promoter and self-optimizer — is timelier than ever. As the feature puts it: “We are all in sales now.”
1st New Media Award
Erik Olsen, Melissa Eddy
Germany’s Energiewende: Off-shore Wind Push (www.nytimes.com) – Olsen
Germany’s Coal Addiction (www.nytimes.com) – Olsen, Eddy
The digital media award goes to Erik Olsen and Melissa Eddy of the New York Times for two multi media stories: “Germany’s Energiewende: Off-shore Wind Push” and “Germany’s Coal Addiction”. An outstanding example of video and print convergence, these reports use high quality images and sound to give the online audience an opportunity to experience as well as reflect on the potentially contradictory implications of Germany’s ambitious effort to transform its energy system away from nuclear power and fossil fuels to renewable sources.