Peter Laufer (left) speaks to the Club Prensa Asturiana (Asturian Press Club) in a recent presentation.
“‘In this world where everything goes so fast, I claim the value of the ‘slow news’, the news written in a thoughtful and leisurely way,'” Peter Laufer, a School of Journalism professor at the University of Oregon, recently told the Asturian Press Club of La Nueva España. He was invited to speak on current issues and journalism in today’s world by the Asturian Press Club during his time in Oviedo while teaching GEO students in the Cross-Border Interviewing and Storytelling in Spain program.
During the presentation, as reported by La Nueva España, Laufer also referred to the work his students are doing in Oviedo, based on the study of the interview between people of different languages, as a way to break cultural and linguistic barriers. Two of them, Lucas Warner and Manuela Báez, participated by translating some of the parts of Laufer’s comments and contributing their views on some issues. Among other things, they highlighted the differences between journalism in Europe and the United States, which is one of the topics they study during the four-week program.
Based at the GEO Oviedo Center, Cross-Border Interviewing and Storytelling in Spain takes an in-depth look at approaches to interviewing, even with significant language barriers. The program’s courses are designed to improve and professionalize students’ journalistic skills, from the art of posing questions to the critical task of listening actively and creatively to answers, which an emphasis on how to make the best use of interview material in a story.Courses are taught by Professor Peter Laufer, an accomplished author of over a dozen well-reviewed books. Laufer writes on borders, migration and identity along with animal rights. He also reported, wrote and produced several documentaries while an NBC News correspondent, ranging in topics from the crises facing Vietnam War veterans to illiteracy and hunger in America, and a study of Americans incarcerated overseas, for which he won the George Polk Award.
More information on Laufer’s presentation and the GEO students are available from the Spanish media.