Inside Washington '02: A journal

Inside Washington '02

Politics and the Media: A journal

Washington Monument

By Michelle Ruckdaschel

The Inside Washington '02 seminar featured several well-known media and political personalities and site visits within Washington D.C. As a senior mass communication major at Bemidji State University, I attended this Washington Center seminar with the expectation to better understand te American political system and to learn about the role the media plays in politics.

My personal learning objectives for the seminar were the following:

To gain a general overview of the American political system by getting a behind the scenes look of Washington D.C.
To observe how the media and politics relate to each other and how the two are interconnected.
To learn how September 11 and the War on Terrorism is effecting the media's role of covering hese topics in the Washington D.C. setting.
To better understand the lifestyle of a journalist.

What I gained fom this seminar was more than I ever expected. This seminar provided me the opportunity to get a real inside glance of the media process inside Washington D.C.

The seminar's speakers included ABC's Sam Donaldson, Nightline's Ted Koppel, and former White House Press Secretary Amy Weiss. The site visits included a bus tour of Washington D.C. and visits to embassies, political think tanks, media and international organizations, and musems.