The Jeremiad Over Journalism

the information I until my stay in the US had received was inaccurate but it is of course a
quite different thing to read about a country and to live in it.‖ 402
Physician Tage Rosendal pointed out that once you got to the United States, you got a ―more
differentiated picture,‖ of the otherwise generalized depiction of racial and political problems that
he had received from television and the press before he left and Associate Professor Jytte Strøm
from Odense University also thought that the ―positive things in the country have been more
overwhelming to us that the negative things.‖ 403 With evaluations like these flowing in from all over
the United States, the American Embassy‘s hunch, that exchange was the most effective approach
to the Danes was quickly validated. There was a great potential for swaying Danes towards a more
favorable impression of America.The positive view of educational exchange presented by doctors
and academics were shared by journalists like Boelsgaard who subsequently noted that there was
much to learn from the United States in terms of higher learning.
―For my part it was the wish and the plan to study my journalistic specialty, foreign policy, a
year in the United States. The American‘s are significantly further along with journalistic
education than we are in Europe.‖ 404
The individual experiences among the journalists varied to an extent, but some things also stayed
the same. Without exception the written evaluations available from journalists sponsored by the
Denmark-America Foundation or the Fulbrigh Program mention the unique aspect of their
402 Isi Foighel, "Report of Visiting Scholar," (Rigsarkivet. 10754. Danmark-Amerika Fondet og Fullb. K. 1956-1981
DK Legatmodtagere, Rapporter/Evalueringer 1970-1981. Box 77. October 20, 1969).
403 Jytte Strøm, "Report of Visiting Scholar," (Rigsarkivet. 10754. Danmark-Amerika Fondet og Fullb. K. 1956-1981
DK Legatmodtagere, Rapporter/Evalueringer 1970-1981. Box 77. July 10, 1970). Erling B. Andersen, who studied
mathematical statistics at the University of California, Berkeley wrote, ―First of all I was impressed by the high quality
of American researchers. I found that the average American professor works very hard and maintains a high
productivity of scientific papers through most of his active years. I was also very impressed by the level on which
American PhD-students work. These observations are based mainly on University of California, Berkeley and Stanford
University, but from talks with university professors from other universities in the United States I got the impression
that the observations have some generality. (…) We feel that we have learned a lot not only on the academic level but
also about the United States and the Americans, a knowledge I find very essential for a better understanding of the
world today.‖ Erling B. Andersen, "Future Plans Report," (Rigsarkivet. 10754. Danmark-Amerika Fondet og Fullb. k.
1956-1981 DK Legatmodtagere. Rapporter/Evalueringer. Reports Danish Students 1967/68. September 30, 1967).
404 Boelsgaard, "Sabbatår Med Ekstra Slid [Sabbatical with Extra Work]." Page 11. My translation. Original text reads,
―[f]or mit eget vedkommende var det ønsket og planen at komme til at studere mit journalistiske speciale,
udenrigspolitik, et år i USA. Amerikanerne er væsentlig længere fremme med journalistuddannelse end vi er i Europa.‖
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