Backpack Journalism Blog

HAVANA, Cuba, 10 September 2012 — During my recent visit to Havana, I went over some of the basic functions of the Sony Alpha 77 DSLR cameras. The new, hi-tech gear was loaned to American University’s School of Communication (SOC) largely because of our Backpack Journalism Project, which I launched two years ago.

I visited Havana to oversee the beginning of the fall semester and the eight AU Abroad students spending the next four months there. I selected a Cuban instructor to teach my “Photojournalism and Social Documentary” course, which I will oversee from Washington, DC.

Some of the students are using Sony’s new Alpha 77 DSLR cameras, one of the latest to arrive on the scene of backpack video journalism. Sony has loaned American University’s School of Communication more than a dozen of the cameras, a handful of which are being used by our students in Cuba. American University is only one of eight in the United States to receive the Sony “loaners.” AU Abroad takes about 1,000 students to study overseas each year. Cuba is one of those locations.

We now are in full throttle of the technological revolution that makes the methodology of video journalism possible. These handheld cameras, which are highly regarded by young documentary filmmakers, can help produce a brand of visual communication far more immediate, far more intimate than can larger, shoulder-held cameras with extended crews.

I’ll be returning to Havana this semester, probably in November, to check in on our students — and the work they’re doing with the new Sony cameras.

(Photo by Carlos Ernesto Escalona Marti)

WASHINGTON, DC, 10 May 2012 — This article and related content are the result of an interview I did in Caracas with the newspaper, El Universal. For the whole story, click HERE.

WASHINGTON, DC, 10 May 2012 – Got back last night from a weeklong trip to Caracas, Venezuela, teaching and promoting backpack journalism. Funded by the U.S. Department of State, the trip was scheduled to coincide with World Press Freedom Day. (See attached photos.)

Perhaps more than any other visit that I’ve made to Venezuela, I believe this one stands out as the most gratifying on a personal as well as professional level. The trip included presentations, a two-day Backpack Journalism Workshop and a series of interviews with Venezuelan and foreign journalists.

The highlight of the week was the time spent at Andres Bello Catholic University (UCAB), where some 90 students from across the institution attended my Thursday 10 May presentation, “Technology and the New Age of Information.” About 30 of these students attended a two-day Backpack Journalism Workshop. The workshop was a great success, with students arriving early, leaving late and working hard all day in between. All of them finished their projects on time.

It was at UCAB that I was so deeply impressed with the quality and the character of the young generation of Venezuelans. I found their intelligence, their maturity and their optimism to be truly gratifying.

On Monday 7 May at Monteavila University, I repeated the “Technology and the New Age of Information” address to a classroom of about 40 students. Despite the fact that only a handful of those attending the event envisioned a career in the field of communication, most of them seemed compelled by the examples of my work that I presented, and by the idea that technology was democratizing the international dialogue that we refer to as “journalism.”

An afternoon interview with journalists from El Universal provided another opportunity to spread the idea that technology and the Internet are democratizing communication by making the tools of the craft available to vast numbers of ordinary citizens. Curiously, I found myself talking to a team of journalists that included a reporter, a photographer and a videographer — about how multi-media journalists like myself now can work alone. My hope is that they see the power and the promise of the methodology that I presented there. I hope they weren’t offended.

On Tuesday 8 May, I visited the Foreign Press Association at the Reuters news bureau, where a handful of members discussed the challenges facing them in this time of government pressure and deep polarization of Venezuelan society. I advised them to maintain close contact with organizations like the Committee to Protect Journalists (with which I have a good working relationship) and Reporters Without Borders.

At Venevision, I was received by an administration and staff who gave a tour of the facilities and with whom I discussed at length the challenges and the opportunities presented by the revolution in technology that we employ to practice our craft. We discussed the methodology of backpack journalism and how I use it to participate in an increasingly inclusive global conversation. It’s all part of the broad endeavor to employ journalism to bring about positive, democratic change.

Thanks for following.

Above, I meet with colleagues at the Venezuelan Foreign Press Association, which is housed at the Reuters bureau in Caracas. From left are Jota Rodriguez of the Agencia Photographer Press International; freelance fixer/producer Luisa Berlioz R.; myself; Lisett Gonzalez of Venevision; Andreina Flores of Radio Francia Internacional and RCN Radio Colombia.

Below, I’m interviewed at Venevision. To my left are Eduardo H. Croes of the U.S. embassy; Jose Ramon de la Cotera, vice president of information and opinion at Venevision; and Sol Vargas Arnal, director of Internet content.

Below, the closest I’ll ever get to being an anchor:

CARACAS, Venezuela, 3 May 2012 — Had a great two-hour session today with students at the Andres Bello Catholic University. About 90 students from all sectors of the university showed up for the presentation, which marked World Press Freedom Day. During the talk, “Technology and the New Age of Information,” I showed a bit of the piece I did for NOW on PBS in Afghanistan and discussed the role of backpack journalism.

Quoting from a speech I delivered at the Harvard Club in New York City two years ago, I said:

“We are, right now, at an extraordinary juncture in the history of mankind, technology and communication. Even more important than the Gutenberg press, the advances in digital cameras and the Internet provide us unprecedented opportunity. Ordinary citizens of the world now wield extraordinary power. We wield the power to communicate instantly, globally and in a language, the visual language, which supersedes both the written and the spoken word. This visual language knows no frontiers. It needs no translation. It is contingent on no corporate support. It is one of the most powerful tools of our time…And backpack journalism is the embodiment of this visual language.

“No matter what the new media landscape looks like after the current upheaval, backpack journalism will be an important part of it.”

If anything, backpack journalism will be even more important in the future than I expected two years ago.

WASHINGTON, DC, 28 March 2012 — I was one of a handful of judges at the Defense Information School (DINFOS) during yesterday’s “2010-2011 DoD Visual Information Production Awards” competition. We spent the day reviewing and voting on dozens of videos submitted for the competition. I had the opportunity to meet and speak with professionals in the military about the methodology we refer to as backpack journalism.

(U.S. Air Force photos by SSGT Christine Fink)

WASHINGTON, 10 March 2012 — The Backpack Journalism Workshop in Washington, DC, began on Thursday with a showing of “Chain Gang” as an example of what this methodology can achieve. We have a terrific group of students. Most have never shot video before, but bring an innate sense of the medium to the event.

(Photo by Bill Gentile)

HAVANA, Cuba, 15 December 2011 — Our hosts at Casa de las Americas, Cuba’s premier cultural center, held a going-away party for American University students, professors and friends at the end of our fall semester in Cuba. This was the first time that AU Abroad held a semester at Casa. And it was the first time that an AU instructor has spent an entire semester with students overseas.

During our stay in Cuba, I taught my “Photojournalism and Social Documentary” course, the foundation upon which I teach the methodology that we refer to as “backpack journalism.”

OLD HAVANA, Cuba, 2 November 2011 — A student at a workshop run by the Office of the City Historian recently helps restore a building weakened by the rotting and subsequent expansion of steel reinforcement rods embedded deep in its concrete frame. I was able to document part of the restoration in conjunction with freelance work here as a backpack journalist.

(Photo by Bill Gentile.)

HAVANA, Cuba, 31 October 2011 — Young Cesar recently navigates the parallel bars with the assistance of a therapist at a center for disabled children in Old Havana. The center is operated by the Office of the City Historian. I had the opportunity to shoot this session as the result of a backpack journalism I’ve initiated here.

(Photo by Bill Gentile.)

HAVANA, Cuba, 28 August 2011 — AU Abroad students (l to r) Paul Barrett, Efrain Ramirez and Emmalee June Kinard get ready to board a bus to downtown Havana after arriving Sunday at Havana’s international airport. Paul, Efrain and Emmalee are among six AU Abroad students who will be spending fall semester studying at Cuba’s prestigious cultural institute, Casa de las Americas.

The American University students will take five classes while studying at Casa de las Americas, including my Photojournalism and Social Documentary class, which I teach as the foundation for the visual storytelling methodology that we refer to as backpack journalism.

Below, Chelsea Jay Crandall (l) and Dara Adelaja Jackson-Garrett, see Havana for the first time on the drive to the Havana Paseo Hotel where they will be staying.

Below, Cristina Khan gets her first view of Havana.

(Photos by Bill Gentile.)