German journalists get lesson on U.S. optimism in NJ high school (Journalistenprogramm Frühling)
March 31, 2017
German journalists get lesson on U.S. optimism in NJ high school (Journalistenprogramm Frühling)
Ten German radio and TV journalists visiting the United States got the chance to see an American high school in Hoboken, New Jersey from the inside at the end of their three-week study tour on Thursday – Frank Sinatra’s home town. The friendly 17- and 18-year-old Americans took the German visitors by the hand and gave them wonderful small-group tours of their classrooms, gym, labs and cafeteria.
But maybe, without even realizing it, they also showed the German journalists something far more important than the bricks and chalkboards — an irrepressible optimism in the United States and a can-do spirit that, no matter who you are and where you come from, there is no reason you can’t have big dreams.
One 17-year-old dancing talent with a contagious smile showed the RIAS Fellows his amazing performance that got him on a national TV show and other gifted football players showed their audition video clips attached to the hopes of college scholarships. And afterwards they showed the Germans how good American pizza tastes at the local pizza parlor and what a great view of Manhattan their town has from the west banks of the Hudson River.
March, 2017
1,502 and counting! The 1,500-threshold has been passed.
The ten German journalists participating in the RIAS BERLIN COMMISSION’s spring program in the United States has brought the grand total of participants over the last 25 years to 1,502.
The Germans have been getting an illuminating glimpse into the major changes taking place in Washington in their meetings with think tanks, American and German journalists, and non-profit organizations as well as meeting with some American fellows from past years. They will be heading off to their “station weeks” at broadcasting stations small and large across the country before coming back together in New York for the third and final week at the end of March.
The Fellows also used their first day “off” on Saturday to visit the Newseum, which included an exhibit on the Berlin Wall and description of RIAS itself: “Radio Gives Voice to Facts: The Soviets could not stop the flow of news into East Berlin from West German radio and television. In 1946, the United States launched Radio in the American Sector (RIAS), a popular radio station operated by Germans in West Berlin. People in East Berlin could receive the RIAS broadcasts, which became an important source of fact-based reports and fueled the quest for freedom.”
The group in the United States is the first of four exchange programs in 2017 that kicks off a special year for the RIAS BERLIN COMMISSION— its 25th anniversary. The program was created by the German and U.S. governments in 1992 to promote the exchange of broadcast journalists in those two countries to further “mutual understanding” between Germans and Americans.
March 21, 2017
The RIAS BERLIN COMMISSION is proud to announce the winners of this year’s RIAS Media Awards. The awards ceremony that will also celebrate 25 years of the RIAS BERLIN COMMISSION will take place on Monday, June 12, 2017 at 7 p.m. at the RIAS Funkhaus am Hans-Rosenthal-Platz in Berlin, and all RIAS fellows and past winners are cordially invited to attend the ceremony in the historic building.
The panel of seven distinguished journalists from the United States and Germany met in Berlin to pick the winners in TV, Radio and Digital Media categories. The jury members had lively discussions and were duly impressed with the high quality of entries in this year’s competition, a truly exciting year for journalism that was heavily influenced by the U.S. presidential election.
