Backpack journalism, also a reporter called as backpack reporting, is an emerging form of journalism that requires a journalist to be a reporter, photographer, and videographer, as well as an editor and producer of stories. There is no set definition for this practice, but it is essentially "a method using ... journalism to create powerful, intimate stories that take people beyond the boundary of their own life experience and connect them with the currents, forces and situations reshaping our world on a daily basis."[1] This method uses various media tools, such as lightweight laptops, satellite phones, inexpensive editing software and digital cameras to more fully engage both the audience's intellect and emotion. Backpack journalists file material to supply the Web, and occasionally television, from locations that would be otherwise inaccessible to large news teams (e.g. in war zones[2] and as well as in areas hit by natural disasters[3]). Although the term originated within the sphere of broadcast journalism, it has expanded to include all areas of the media world.
An accomplished backpack journalist must be a master of new technologies, capable of fusing previously separated roles, such as writer and videographer, and able to produce a story that ensures accuracy, fairness and balance, shaped by high standards and solidified practices.[4]
According to pioneer backpack journalist Jane Stevens, backpack journalists must also "know the difference between when you're a lone wolf and when you're part of a greater whole."[5]
Backpack journalism is being used by print publication staffs to create visual journalism for websites, by broadcast operations to offer unique content, and by freelance journalists who recognize its value to tell stories and present evidence and testimony for media and non-media clients.[5] News directors are finding this style of journalism beneficial to their organizations. Instead of requiring cameramen, reporters and editors to produce news stories, a larger group of employees who can do all of the above are available, which can double or even triple the number of stories that can be covered. The various platforms involved with this type of reporting also opens more doors for reaching a broader and more varied audience.
History
In the United States, backpack journalism is said to have evolved out of Video News International (VNI), a project by The New York Times, in the mid-1990s.[6]Michael Rosenblum, a former broadcast journalist, thought that training print journalists and photographers to use small high-quality digital video cameras would encourage television networks to do more international coverage because it would be more cost effective.
After September 11, 2001, multiple news organizations created specific websites to share continuing developments after the terrorist attack. These sites told the stories of what happened on that day, supplemented by slide shows and video of the events of September 11, information about Afghanistan, Pakistan, the history of terrorism, and links pointing to outside resources.
Print (text, still photos, graphics) and television (video, audio, animated graphics) tell stories linearly. Both these mediums are one-way systems because they offer the reader or viewer little opportunity for feedback. Both are also temporal – "the newspaper becomes fishwrap; television's news disappears into the ether."[6]
Multimedia storytelling – the heart of backpack journalism – uses a combination of text, still photos, animated graphics, video and audio presented in a nonlinear format in which all of the information in the elements are non-redundant. This method provides a two-way communications system, in which consumers can search for information, submit their own text, photos, graphics, video clips and audio to comment on stories, or provide additional information to the story.
Print publications and television stations alone cannot provide as much information around each story as multimedia storytelling can. The characteristics of multimedia journalism will change how beats, or areas of the news, are covered and will expand news coverage.
Media convergence
Media convergence is the "coming together of all forms of mediated communication."[7] The key place that all media – print, audio, and video – comes together today is the Internet. Through the advent of the Internet, print publications are able to supplement their print stories with audio and video. Video news finds its print counterpart in the text capabilities of the Web. Radio stations are able to use the Web to stream live and archive their audio, and enhance their audio with print versions of their stories.
News organizations worldwide have been embracing convergence at different speeds in comparison to the United States. In 2001, Dr. Juan Antonio Giner, founder of Innovation International media consulting group, wrote that "media diversification is the past. Digital convergence is the present. Multimedia integration is the future."[8] Years later, Giner's words have proven to be true. The journalism world has been transformed into a 24-hour information business that takes advantage of virtually every form of technology available.
Backpack journalism is a prime example of media convergence since it makes use of all types of media – audio, visual and written. Journalists practicing this method of reporting must be proficient in all of these areas in order to effectively communicate their story.
Future
Some producers see the method as "a key to unlocking new techniques of storytelling; enabling a way to move past the image conventions and story lines that have defined journalistic storytelling in mass media during the last part of the 20th century."[9] Backpack journalism is the inevitable future of the industry due to the faltering world economy – "expand your skill sets or it's game over."[10] Others within the field, however, see the "one-man band" method of storytelling as dangerous to reporting itself, because information or quality may be sacrificed without the expertise a full team can provide.[10]
More traditional journalists say there are few opportunities for employment in the news industry, and that even being trained in new technology and methods will not aid in securing a job. They also view backpack journalism as a threat to the responsibilities of fair, balanced, and accurate news that journalists hold to their audience. Lou Ureneck, chairman of Boston University's journalism department, said that the multi-tasking backpack journalism requires has a "flattening effect" on the quality of reporting; it does not allow the reporter to focus on the individual steps required for producing a story. Ureneck says that being a reporter is a "fully engaging task."[10]
Those seeking to enter the journalism field in the present and future will be affected by the backpack journalism practice because of media convergence. The people who can "do it all ... are the journalists of the future," said John Schidlovsky, director of the Pew Fellowship in International Journalism.[5] Advocates of this new model argue that it will be impossible to survive in the journalism field if a reporter cannot shift from medium to medium, and take control of their own stories. However, "clear writing and the provision of context and background will remain fundamental to the journalist's role."[8] This means that regardless of what happens with technological advances in the future, journalists will still need the building blocks of journalistic writing style in order to stay afloat in the field. Similar to how newsrooms made the transition from typewriters to computers over the past 20 years, so will they adjust to the new convergence and multimedia presence within the industry; just as it would be unfathomable today to hire a reporter without knowledge of a computer, it will be unheard of to hire a reporter 20 years from now who cannot slide across different media. Alexandra Wallace, senior vice president of NBC News, said "as long as you can keep quality and quantity up, the reality is it takes fewer people to do what it took many people to do, and that's really, truly based on technology."[11]
Jane Stevens wrote that over the next 20 years, if economic conditions do not worsen and technological developments continue apace, the content of newspapers and television news shows are likely to be delivered principally over the Internet. Stories will include breaking news, daily stories, features, and in-depth reporting. Breaking news, daily stories and some features will be delivered as short video spots, and combinations of text and visuals in updated news packages that the audience checks throughout the day.[6]
The news organizations that thrive in a converged world, Steven said, will have a myriad of different methods for producing stories, but basically the models will break down to producer-driver and reporter-driven stories.
Producer-driven stories will work best for breaking news and much daily news content. A producer-driven story is one in which the producer of a converged news operation sends out a team of reporters to hunt down the story and gather information. The reporters file what's in front of them, and don't know how much of their contribution will end up being published, or in what form.[6]
A reporter-driven story, however, is one in which a reporter or small team of reporters puts together a package whose content they essentially control from beginning to end. One element of the package may be very dramatic still photos with audio and text. Another element may be a biting analysis, in text augmented by a few video clips. The main part may comprise integrated text, video clips, graphics, interactivity.[6]
Journalism schools around the United States have developed programs around multimedia journalism and backpacking, in order to train tomorrow's journalists for the industry that awaits them. It has become relatively standard practice to require print journalism majors to take courses in radio and TV news and multimedia, as well as requiring multimedia majors to take courses in radio and TV and print journalism.
American University's school of communication is home to Bill Gentile and Thomas Kennedy's Backpack Journalism Project. The aim of the project is to promote the sense of authorship to practitioners of backpack journalism, to identify trends and best practices of the backpack journalism model, to impact decisions of managers and editors regarding implementation of the model, to reach a broad audience interested in powerful stories about key issues, and to reach creators and distributors of new visual communication platforms that desire powerful content for their news organizations.[12]
Related Research Articles
Multimedia is a form of communication that combines different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to traditional mass media which features little to no interaction from users, such as printed material or audio recordings. Popular examples of multimedia include video podcasts, audio slideshows and animated videos.
Technological convergence, also known as digital convergence, is the tendency for technologies that were originally unrelated to become more closely integrated and even unified as they develop and advance. For example, watches, telephones, television, computers, and social media platforms began as separate and mostly unrelated technologies, but have converged in many ways into interrelated parts of a telecommunication and media industry, sharing common elements of digital electronics and software.
The news media or news industry are forms of mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public. These include print media, broadcast news, and the Internet.
A newsroom is the central place where journalists—reporters, editors, and producers, associate producers, news anchors, news designers, photojournalists, videojournalists, associate editor, residence editor, visual text editor, Desk Head, stringers along with other staffers—work to gather news to be published in a newspaper, an online newspaper or magazine, or broadcast on radio, television, or cable. Some journalism organizations refer to the newsroom as the city room.
Mass communication is the process of imparting and exchanging information through mass media to large segments of the population. It is usually understood for relating to various forms of media, as its technologies are used for the dissemination of information, of which journalism and advertising are part. Mass communication differs from other types of communication, such as interpersonal communication and organizational communication, because it focuses on particular resources transmitting information to numerous receivers. The study of mass communication is chiefly concerned with how the content of mass communication persuades or otherwise affects the behavior, the attitude, opinion, or emotion of the people receiving the information.
Broadcast journalism is the field of news and journals which are broadcast by electronic methods instead of the older methods, such as printed newspapers and posters. It works on radio, television and the World Wide Web. Such media disperse pictures, visual text and sounds.
Digital storytelling is a short form of digital media production that allows everyday people to share aspects of their story. The media used may include the digital equivalent of film techniques, stills, audio only, or any of the other forms of non-physical media which individuals can use to tell a story or present an idea.
The Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia is one of the oldest formal journalism schools in the world. The school provides academic education and practical training in all areas of journalism and strategic communication for undergraduate and graduate students across several media including television and radio broadcasting, newspapers, magazines, photography, and new media. The school also supports a robust advertising and public relations curriculum.
Jonathan Dube is a digital media executive.
Digital journalism, also known as netizen journalism or online journalism, is a contemporary form of journalism where editorial content is distributed via the Internet, as opposed to publishing via print or broadcast. What constitutes digital journalism is debated by scholars; however, the primary product of journalism, which is news and features on current affairs, is presented solely or in combination as text, audio, video, or some interactive forms like storytelling stories or newsgames, and disseminated through digital media technology.
Interactive journalism is a new type of journalism that allows consumers to directly contribute to the story. Through Web 2.0 technology, reporters can develop a conversation with the audience. The digital age has changed how people collect information. News from print newspapers, once the only source for news, have seen declines in circulation as people get news on the Internet.
Transmedia storytelling is the technique of telling a single story or story experience across multiple platforms and formats using current digital technologies.
Robb Montgomery is a filmmaker, journalism professor and an author of academic textbooks and diploma courses in mobile journalism.
Mobile journalism is an emerging form of new media storytelling where reporters use portable electronic devices with network connectivity to gather, edit and distribute news from his or her community.
Immersive Journalism is a form of journalism production that allows first person experience of the events or situations described in news reports and documentary film. Using 3D gaming and immersive technologies that create a sense of "being there" and offer the opportunity to personally engage with a story, immersive journalism puts an audience member directly into the event. By accessing a virtual version of the location where the story is occurring as a witness/participant, or by experiencing the perspective of a character depicted in the news story, the audience could be afforded unprecedented access to the sights and sounds, and even the feelings and emotions, which accompany the news.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to journalism:
Multimodality is the application of multiple literacies within one medium. For example, understanding a televised weather forecast (medium) involves understanding spoken language, written language, weather specific language, geography, and symbols. Multiple literacies or "modes" contribute to an audience's understanding of a composition. Everything from the placement of images to the organization of the content to the method of delivery creates meaning. This is the result of a shift from isolated text being relied on as the primary source of communication, to the image being utilized more frequently in the digital age. Multimodality describes communication practices in terms of the textual, aural, linguistic, spatial, and visual resources used to compose messages.
Multimedia journalism is the practice of contemporary journalism that distributes news content either using two or more media formats via the Internet, or disseminating news report via multiple media platforms. It is inseparably related to the media convergence of communication technologies, business integration of news industries, and editorial strategies of newsroom management.
"Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek," is a New York Times multimedia feature by reporter John Branch about the 2012 Tunnel Creek avalanche, published on December 20, 2012. The article won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing and a Peabody Award. Packaged together as a six-part story interwoven with interactive graphics, animated simulations and aerial video, "Snow Fall" became one of the most talked about online news articles in 2013 and garnered praise and debate over it being an example of "the future of online journalism." The article became highly influential among online journalism circles, with many other publications attempting similar multimedia features and even coined an industry term, "to snowfall."
Convergence culture is a theory which recognizes changing relationships and experiences with new media. Henry Jenkins is accepted by media academics to be the father of the term with his book Convergence Culture: where old and new media collide. It explores the flow of content distributed across various intersections of media, industries and audiences, presenting a back and forth power struggle over the distribution and control of content.
↑ Kennedy, Thomas. "About". Archived from the original on 24 January 2012. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
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