By Frank MacekThe dawn of a new day is beginning in newsrooms across America - the birth of the backpack journalist.
These folks are not amateurs. They are not the most experienced. But backpackers are becoming specially trained people, selected from a pool of qualified candidates, whose job it is to cover stories that may not necessarily lead the 6 pm news. In many cases, their materials will become web exclusives or interesting sidebars in the burgeoning world where broadcast television migrates to the internet.
Armed with relatively inexpensive digital cameras, cell phones and light weight laptop computers, these one man bands of reporters head into the field to shoot their own video, write their own stories, take their own pictures and edit their own footage with editing software that's plentiful and easy to use.
From remote locations, the final products are fed back to the home station via broadband or other upload venues like satellite or fiber optic (where available) for air. Other backpackers will shoot in the field, then return to the station with their reports in hand.
How did we get to this point?
In the "Golden Age of Television," shooting video required sending an entire crew out into the field. You needed a cameraman, an audio man, a lighting assistant, a producer and talent. The sheer weight and amount of equipment made it necessary to employ many people in this process, each with their specialized talents. As you can imagine, this was rather expensive.
Those days are gone in the world of big media giants who have consolidated people into a more efficient work stream. The advance of technology has put ALL those talents into the hands of one person.
A backpack journalist also has the advantage of being able to get into areas where a large camera crew would either be prohibitive or in case of investigative reporting - revealing.
In Iraq, for example, backpack journalists are moving around the war zone bringing you stories - mostly for the web - about what is happening inside the country, outside the capabilities of the mainstream media.
One of the best known backpackers is Kevin Sites (see photo) - who has travelled to every war zone imaginable to bring viewers a unique view of conflicts and how the lives of those people are effected. You can read more about his travels on his blog: CLICK HERESome experts worry that these backpack journalists will degrade journalistic integrity as more newsrooms go to this type of process. For one, backpackers may be less experienced in reporting the facts. These backpackers, sometimes called "sojos" - for solo journalists - will likely be the only involved in putting together a report. Will this mean a lack of oversight or multiple eyes on a project? Not likely, as newsroom managers will still be carefully watching what they are putting on their airwaves. If nothing else, managers will want to ensure the stories are timely, interesting and meet the objective - high ratings.
More seasoned, professional journalists are also nervous since they feel they are being replaced by backpackers. The threat is always there in this business. But so far, backpackers are being used to supplement, rather than replace, the true journalists in the industry. Most watchers agree it will take quite some time before backpackers are the mainstream - if ever.
Gannett, the parent of WKYC, has been one of the leaders in this process. With 90 daily newspapers, nearly 1,000 non-daily publications and websites, and 23 TV stations in the United States covering 20 million households, the company already sees the vision of this future.
Television and newspapers newsrooms all across our company are actively hiring people who have the right attitude to undertake the challenges of being a backpack journalist. In some cases, they are re-training current employees in these new positions.
At WKYC, we are beginning to use backpack journalists as our newsroom transitions to the concept of being an "Information Center" - we will no longer be a newsroom....or a television station. We will become a center where information is transmitted on multiple platforms - over the air, on the web, to your phone and to other platforms as they evolve.
In the coming months, we'll share with you more about the concept of the "Information Center" as we implement it here in Cleveland. For example, I am not only a director of newscasts - but also write various blogs (like this one), produce stories for the WKYC.COM and am involved in our weather product on the web. This will become the norm for all employees, not the exception.
In the meantime, our backpark journalists are hitting the field across Cleveland to bring our viewers new angles to interesting stories regarding news, weather and sports. Soon, you'll begin seeing more and more of their reports on the air.
Gannett has professional backpack journalist program that holds recruiting and training sessions from time to time. Our first one began successfully in February 2007 under the training of award winning journalists Harvey Mars and Lane Michaelsen. If you would like to read more about our Gannett program: CLICK HERE
I'd like to hear your feedback about what you think about backpack journalism. Send your emails to me at: fmacek@wkyc.com
