tapmag

Dear Readers,

After an exciting couple of years, tapmag has decided it’s time for a break. In the past years of reporting, live-blogging, and commenting on transatlantic relations, we have become part of a network of fellow transatlantic minds, and we hope we’ve helped bridge the gap for some of you and maybe even inspired some of you to cross the pond.

We have been privileged to have meet and work with great transatlantisists and  journalists. A special thanks to all of the guests and participants at our “Reporting America” seminar at the Free University Berlin (read more about it here)!

We will be using our time off to work on various projects ranging from Bachelor’s theses to getting to know Zurich or Chicago. We will check in from time to time and let you know where tapmag is headed.

In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter or stay in touch with the individual editors through their social media presence:

Kolja is currently studying in Zurich, Switzerland. He’s finding out university can actually teach you things, and that the Swiss are a very nice and helpful people. All the while, he’s analyzing media trends and developments in journalism on his blog, All Things Considered.

Jessica has moved to Chicago to study at the Medill School of Journalism. She is roaming the Windy City for stories and moving steadily into multimedia reporting. You can read about her experience being Curious in Chicago on her blog of the same name.

Semir is working hard on his thesis at Free University Berlin and will soon be a proud Bachelor.

Dirk and Peter are moving in the same direction as Semir. They look forward to taking that to the next level at the John-F.-Kennedy Institute’s graduate school, and will thus stay true to North American Studies.

Thanks to our great readers, fellow bloggers and students for sharing this experience with us, for your inspiration and contributions. Please keep in touch!

We are always open for new ideas. If you want to get involved with the tapmag team, please contact one of the team members in Berlin.

Keep your eyes and ears open – we’ll be back!

“It’s futile for us to even try and compete with the Internet as far as speed is concerned,” says Frederik Pleitgen, correspondent for CNN in Germany. Last week, we welcomed him as our final guest to our seminar “Reporting America,” a student-run seminar we organized at the Free University.

Pleitgen reviewed articles submitted by seminar participants to iReport. He also took the time to talk about his experience as a CNN reporter on assignment in Germany, Burma, Iraq and elsewhere.

We gladly took the chance to ask him some questions about the future of 24h news channels in the digital age. Here’s the interview.

USA Erklaert blogger Scot W. Stevenson has been a guest on tapmag before. We were happy to have him also visit our seminar last week, where he gave a compact and informative guest lecture on transatlantic journalism.

Here is the video (in German). Scot mainly talks about the differences between American and German interpretations of free speech, the rights and duties of the press, and how the Internet undermines German privacy rights via American websites. Good stuff.

The very first seminar hosted by the tapmag crew has seen a few sessions already, so it’s time for a short update! Preparing the course has kept us all busy, so please excuse the low frequency of postings at the moment.

Highlights from “Reporting America” so far:

• We had Michael Dobbs of the Washington Post visit the seminar. We are still thankful that he took the time to meet us and shared anecdotes and insights with the seminar. More on his visit will follow, stay tuned.
• The first two workshops turned out great as well. We had an introduction to blogging, wordpress and the like, and recruited about ten new members to the blogosphere. The results from our first writing exercise will also be published soon.

The next few sessions promise to be interesting too:

• Next week the marketing and PR directors of CNN Germany are at the JFKI (see poster above).
• In three weeks time we will have Joerg Wolf from Atlantic Community join the seminar.
• In the following sessions Scot Stevenson of USAerklaert.de, Jerry Gerber from Democrats Abroad Berlin, and Dalila Nadi, an Al-Jazeera reporter, will meet the seminar. For more consult the syllabus (pdf).

If you are interested to attend, stop by at the John-F.-Kennedy-Institue, each wednesday, 4-6 p.m. at room 201. See you soon.

Starting on April 15th, the team of tapmag will offer a student-run seminar at the John F. Kennedy Institute of the Free University of Berlin. The KVV files it under “Reporting America – How to Write, Edit, Research, and Publish as a Transatlantic Journalist“.

In a collaborative fashion, we want to explore the multi-faceted world of transatlantic journalism, get comfortable writing, and become familiar with the latest Web 2.0-tools. We will invite exciting guests who will help us in our quest. Last but not least, CNN Germany has agreed to cooperate with the seminar. We will publish our results on ireport.com, and CNN will award the best entry.

Here’s the syllabus:

1. Introduction
2. Q&A with Michael Dobbs (Washington Post) on transatlantic Journalism and his career
3. How to set up a blog and make it beautiful
4. Journalism 101
5. CNN, ireport.com & Social Media for Journalists, Guests: Dr. Amelie Heinrichsdorff (Director PR & Corporate Affairs CNN), Joerg Buddenberg (Marketing Manager CNN Germany)
6. Writing for the Enemy, Workshop Session: Exercise in writing from different political viewpoints (e.g. Huffington Post, Foxnation, etc.)
7. Writing for the Net, Guest: Joerg Wolf (Atlantic Review, Atlantic Community)
8. No session
9. Transatlantic Journalim Erklaert, Guest: Scot Stevenson (USAerklaert.wordpress.com)
10. Presentation articles for the CNN ireport contest
11. The other Voice, Guest: Al-Jazzera reporter Dalila Nadi
12. Q&A with Jerry Gerber (Press Secretary Democrats Abroad)
13. Tba
14. Final of the CNN contest, Guest: CNN correspondent Frederik Pleitgen (requested)
15. Sum-Up & BBQ

This seminar is open to the public, you don’t have to be a student of the Free University to attend. We’re looking forward to seeing you at the JFK-Institute!

After we’ve heard lots of talk of this Web 2.0 invention, we’ve decided to join the pack.

[Read more]

After following this election campaign closely for what seems like forever, we woke up this morning wondering… what will we do with all this newly free time? Suggestions after the jump.

[Read more]

In a little more than 13 hours, U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama will stand in the golden hue of Victoria, at the foot of Prussian greatness, walking in the footsteps of American greats before him.

[Read more]

Feel like you don’t know all there is to know about the “Second Coming”? Still unsure how to categorize this newest high-rise on the Democratic block? Here’s your chance:

“Wer ist Barack Obama? Vortrag und Diskussion” featuring Christoph von Marschall, Washington correspondent for the Tagesspiegel

Time: Monday, 21. Januar, 2008 @ 18.30 Uhr
Place: Galerie der Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, Rosenthaler Str. 40/41, Berlin-Mitte
Free Entry/Eintritt frei

Excerpt from the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung’s own description (in German):
Der Vorwahlkampf in den USA ist in vollem Gange und Barack Obama ist der Überraschungskandidat mit guten Chancen auf das Präsidentenamt.
Obama gilt als der “Kennedy seiner Generation”: ein Hoffnungsträger, der einen neuen Stil einführt und die Schranken des Establishments niederreißt.
Doch welche politischen Positionen und welche Werte vertritt er? Was hat die Welt zu erwarten, wenn er als erster Afroamerikaner ins Weiße Haus einziehen sollte? Und vor welchem gesellschaftlichen Hintergrund konnte er in so kurzer Zeit so erfolgreich werden?

Christoph von Marschall begleitet seit einem Jahr Barack Obama im Wahlkampf und verfolgt die Vorwahlen aus nächster Nähe.

Fachkontakt: Barbara Assheuer assheuer@boell.de

By Peter Dahl

tapmag still hasn’t got HQs. If you have any idea of how we could get some office space, please contact us. We will all add you to our mySpace profiles – as a Top Friend, that is!