The Jeremiad Over Journalism

A few weeks, six months, or a year in the United States provided food for thought for the scholars,
journalists, union leaders, doctors and teenagers selected for a study abroad stay with a more
nuanced picture of the United States. Rosendal described gaining a more ―differentiated‖
perspective on the United States and the Danish journalists similarly described gaining increased
knowledge of American society.
Moreover, the overall picture gleaned from the Danish journalists‘ evaluations is one of a very
fruitful year in terms of knowledge acquisition, changed impression of the United States,
networking and greater understanding of the different media environments. USIE was disappointed
with the results of the shorter trips made by Osvald and Jensen during a low-point in international
opinion on the United States, but for those who came after them, and spent a longer period of time
in the United States, the experience was almost uniformly positive. Exactly how that carried over
into daily journalism routines is difficult to ascertain, but the example of Krab-Johansen shows that
an educational exchange at an elite American journalism school could have lasting effects on
journalistic practice.
The following section will provide two concrete examples of the Americanization process through
transmission, transnationalization and appropriation using New Journalism and investigative
journalism as cases.
4.3 Appropriation
―The Americans have drawn up a constitution for modern journalists,‖ wrote Ole Cavling in 1928
and echoed his father‘s travelogue enthusiasm for the United States written 30 years earlier. Based
on his American experiences Cavling turned this new-found knowledge into the first Danish
journalistic text book and evocatively called it, ―Brief Guide to Modern Journalism.‖ 423
What was modern was the Anglo-Saxon way of writing journalism. This had been the experience of
Ole Cavling, it was the experience of his father Henrik Cavling, and it was the experience of
countless Danish journalists in the subsequent generations. If Danish journalists took one thing and
423 Cavling, Journalistik - Kortfattet Vejledning I Moderne Journalistik [Brief Guide to Modern Journalism]. Page 170.
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