CU Boulder held two portal talks during the “Reporting in the Age of Alternative Facts” journalism conference on Saturday. Portals are large containers with a single wall-to-wall screen. The screen allows participants to speak with people in other parts of the world, in real time. The portal at CU, a gold-painted shipping container, currently sits in the plaza in front of Folsom Field.
The two portal talks on Saturday were with people in Germany and Mexico. The first took place around noon with two people from Berlin, Matt and Karam. Matt is originally from Philadelphia, and Karam is a Syrian refugee. Karam studies political science while Matt studies journalism. They spoke from a portal in one of the city’s migration hubs.
Matt and Karam said that they enjoyed living in Berlin and that it was a fairly liberal part of the country. They also discussed the upcoming German elections, which will take place in September. They predicted that the Social Democratic Party, headed by Martin Schulz, will win. Angela Merkel’s center-left Christian Democratic Union Party could also win again, they said.
The other portal talk was later in the afternoon with people from Mexico City. The groups discussed what it was like to live there. Many agreed that it was a beautiful city, but had too much violence. They also brought up the recent election of President Trump and asked those in Boulder what they thought of him. Those in the Mexico City portal unanimously disapproved of Trump. They brought up his immigration policies and the wall he plans to build between the United States and Mexico. The group did not agree with these policies.
The portal, hosted by CMCI, will stay on the CU campus through May 9. Students can sign up to participate in sessions set to take place with half a dozen different countries.
Contact CU Independent Copy Editor Carina Julig at carina.julig@colorado.edu.
