German journalists learn more about inside workings of U.S. TV, radio stations
RIAS Berlin Commission journalists made the most of their three-week fellowships in the United States. The 14 German journalists spent a week in Washington DC, a week in New York and then spread out across the country to “look over the shoulder” of American journalists working at large and small stations from Texas to South Dakota, and between California to South Carolina.
Viktoria Kleber, a reporter for RBB TV in Berlin, spent an enlightening week in Sioux Falls, South
Dakota hosted by American RIAS fellow Jay Trobec, where she not only learned about working in the high plaines but also how to shoot a pistol. She proudly displayed her results during a talk-show appearance in KELO-TV. “It was my first time
shooting a pistol. I’m really talented,” Kleber (pictured on the left) said with a smile. “I nailed it. We’re not allowed to do that in Germany. We have a different gun culture in Germany.”
In a good-spirited interview on KELO-TV, Kleber admitted she was surprised how quickly U.S. TV reporters get their news on air and also how much work U.S. reporters do on their own. “I was really surprised,” she said. “You’re technically very advanced. If look at a reporter and compare it to Germany…Here a reporter goes out pretty much by himself. He carries everything, the camera by himself, shoots by himself, edits everything and does everything on his own. In Germany, we have big teams. We have a reporter, a cameraman, sound guy and sometimes even a driver, and then someone who cuts with you and someone who is a sound engineer. Here just one person is doing all those different jobs!”
In Tyler, Texas, ZDF journalist Anna-Maria Schuck spent a week working with and looking over the shoulder of US RIAS alumni Lane Luckie (both pictured at right) at KLTV in East Texas — also learning a lot about life in a
rural part of the United States and how to shoot a gun. Schuck was also pressed into duty on-camera, spending two hours on the East Texas Now live TV streaming broadcast set up in the middle of the KLTV newsroom. East Texas Now host Jeremy Butler and Luckie joined Schuck for an illuminating discussion about the differences between Germany and the United States.
Sarah Schmidt from RTL in Berlin spent a week in Los Angeles, first working with RIAS fellow Frank Mottek, who is the voice of business news in LA as the senior money anchor at CBS’s all-news station KNX 1070, and then with CNN national correspondent Miguel Marquez, also a RIAS alumni. Schmidt also produced this story for NTV online following the RIAS fellows’ meeting with Pennsylvania Congressman Mike Doyle (Democrat).
Other German journalists spend their station week in the United States learning more about guns and gun control — and how to shoot. Louisa Maria Gersberg from MDR TV station in Schwerin, northern Germany spent her station week in South Carolina with Thomas Colones of WSPA-TV, a US fellow from 1997, in Spartanburg.
Eberhard Schade from Deutschlandfunk radio spent a week in San Francisco at KQED radio with US fellow Don Clyde (above) learning more about podcasts while Bianca Leitner from ARD’s Tagesschau national news broadcast got a glimpse of Las Cruces, New Mexico and parts of the great southwest with Hugo Perez (below right), a US RIAS fellow and journalism professor from New Mexico State University.
Marcel Grzyb, an executive producer at Germany’s all-news NTV station (below), spent a week at CNN in Atlanta observing how things work at the U.S. TV media giant — and connecting with many of the dozens of U.S. CNN alumni who have been on the RIAS programs in Germany.
Many RIAS fellows from Germany spent their week in Texas. Anne Demmer from RBB radio in Berlin had an eventful week in Houston, Texas with Houston Public Media reporter and RIAS alumni Andrew Schneider (below) before she drove south to the U.S-Mexico border at the Rio Grande to work on a story for her station back in Berlin.
And Laura Fritsch (below right) of all-news network Welt TV made the most of her station week in Denver, Colorado as well as a return visit to New York City to re-connect with US fellow Clare Toenniskoetter of the New York Times (pictured below left), a RIAS alumni and the New York area chapter coordinator.
