Published on germany.info (with accompanying photo gallery): http://www.germany.info/Vertretung/usa/en/10__Press__Media/03__Trips/2012/Think__Transatlantic/Capachi-Think-Transatlantic-S.html
By Casey Capachi
“As journalists, we ask, ‘Why did they meet if there were no results,’ but we should not underestimate the value of people meeting,” explained Howard Schneider, a reporter at the Washington Post, about the importance of recent discussions between heads of state on the euro zone crisis.
Looking around the conference table at the Washington Post, where myself and another 14 journalism students from the United States and Germany sat listening, I could not help but apply this same notion to our own meeting as participants of the program.
The workshop provided us with a rare opportunity to meet with journalism students who usually live an ocean apart from us and to truly “think transatlantic” – as was fittingly the theme of the program.
Many of the best conversations I had with the other students were after the scheduled talks with German diplomats, economists, and journalists from top German news outlets like NDR radio, ZDF television, and Der Spiegel. Walking down Embassy Row or sitting side by side on board a water taxi down the Potomac River, we would lament together about some of the issues facing both of our countries, from tensions surrounding immigration to economic crises to the recent quality of American rap music.
It was four days I will never forget as a young journalist. The discussions I had with my German and American colleagues have made me more aware of both the news I report on and the news I consume.
As the prominent German reporter Rüdiger Lentz said to us on our visit to the German American Heritage Museum, “You have to love being a journalist. Otherwise, it’s a lousy job.”
Luckily for us, we all do.