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Schulz at the meeting with graduate students. |
Three Germany Broadcast Journalists Learned about Peabody Awards Program
The three German broadcast journalists learned about the Peabody Awards Program, toured the independent student daily newspaper, and met with graduate students and faculty during their one-week visit to the University of Georgia in October.
They also had a specialized tour of CNN, including a special session with CNN radio, met with a member of the editorial staff of The Atlanta Journal Constitution, and visited the gravesite of Dr. Martin Luther King.
In addition, they squeezed in a quick trip to Savannah to sample the delights of that historical coastal Georgia city.
“What I liked best was taking part in the classes,” Markus Preiss said. “You could get an impression of many things. How the methods are. What they are teaching. I liked to talk to the students and even the professors of course.”
Dietrich Maeurer, Preiss, and Sandra Schulz visited the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia from October 15 – 20 2006 as part of an exchange organized by the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research.
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The Group following a farewell recpetion. |
The Cox Center is a unit of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
The three journalists were selected by the RIAS Commission in Berlin to participate in a four-week program, which included a week in Washington, a week at a broadcast station, a week at an American university journalism program, and a week in New York.
Dietrich Maeurer had been at a radio station in Seattle. Markus Preiss was at a television station in Detroit. And Sandra Schulz was at a radio station in Springfield, Missouri. A total of 12 journalists participated in the program.
By coincidence, the visit of the three German journalists overlapped with a lecture organized by the Cox Center by Dr. Wolfgang Donsbach of the Technical University in Dresden, Germany.
At the end of their first day on the University of Georgia campus, the three journalists attended the lecture by Dr. Donsbach on "The Contribution of Communication Research to the Professionalization of Journalism."
Following the lecture, the three journalists joined Dr. Donsbach at a reception in honor of the four visiting Germans hosted by the Cox Center and the Graduate Caucus, the organization of graduate students in the Grady College.
Earlier that day, the three journalists were the guests of Dr. Tudor Vlad, assistant director of the Cox Center, at one of the two chapters of Rotary Foundation in Athens, the city in which the University of Georgia is located.
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The students during their tour at the entrance to the campus. |
The three met with Dr. Horace Newcomb, Director of the Peabody Awards Program, which is a function of the Grady College. The awards celebrate accomplishments in the broad field of electronic media, including journalism.
Among the classes attended by the three German journalists was one taught by Dr. Anandan Kavoori, where the discussion was of the impact of global broadcast networks on local media.
The trio also visited Professor David Hazinski’s class, “Broadcast News Reporting, Dr. Ann Hollifield’s class, “Telecommunication Management," and Professor Steve Smith’s class, “Broadcast News Production.”
The purpose of these visits was to give the German journalists and opportunity to learn how journalism is taught at an American university and to interact with students and faculty.
To increase the interaction with students, the Cox Center, in collaboration with the Grady Caucus, organized a discussion of media systems in Europe and the United States during a pizza lunch on October 18.
The Cox Center also invited graduate and undergraduate students to a dinner in honor of the three journalists the following evening.
Among the special activities organized for the three Germans was a tour of the Tennis Hall of Fame on the University of Georgia campus. The tour was organized by and hosted by retired legendary Georgia tennis coach Dan Magill.
On Friday, October 20, Cox Center Director Dr. Lee B. Becker took the three journalists to Atlanta to visit with Mike King, a member of the Editorial Board of The Atlanta Journal Constitution. King explained how the newspaper made decisions about its editorial endorsements, gave an overview of the newspapers approach to coverage of international news, and provided a tour of the newsroom.
CNN provided a tailored tour of its Atlanta headquarters, including a session with Harley Hotchkiss, head of the CNN radio division, who explained the CNN Radio operation.
The group next went to the Martin Luther King Center, where they visited the church where Dr. King had preached as well as his mausoleum.
Maeuer said he particularly appreciated the program with Coach Magill at the Hall of Fame and the visit with to the student newspaper, The Red & Black. “Everything was well organized,” he said.
Maeuer is an on-air announcer and editor of Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk in Leipzig. Preiss is a reporter for Westdeutcher Rundfunk in Cologne. Schulz is a personal assistant and head of programming of Deutschlandsfunk/Deutschlandradio Kultur in Berlin.
The RIAS Berlin Commission is a binational organization for the promotion of German-American understanding in the field of broadcasting.
