It occurs to me, particularly after much talk about the subject and my most recent blog, that a definition of “backpack journalism” may be in order. So, backpack journalism is the craft of one properly trained professional using a hand-held digital camera to tell stories in a more immediate, more intimate fashion than is achievable […]
It’s not exactly backpack journalism. But our students are learning how to tell stories on the run with hand-held digital cameras, which is a key component of backpack journalism. The 24 students are broken down into four groups of six. The film making responsibilities are distributed among them. The kind of material they’re looking for […]
These American University students are working on a series of documentaries about alternative power sources in the Galapagos. Here, on San Cristobal, they shoot one segment about wind power.
We’ve been fortunate to have hooked up with Allan Baer, one of the founders of SolarQuest, a company that substitutes alternative energy sources for environmentally UN-friendly systems. Actually, it was MacKenzie O’Donnell, one of the AU students on this trip, who met Allan after one of his alternative-energy presentations in Washington, DC, and then got […]
Back in Latin America. A woman carrying an infant begs for change at the airport alongside freelance cab drivers trying to snatch a fare. The smell of diesel as our vehicle weaves through chaotic traffic. Fire breathers spout flames from their mouths on street corners. Upon our arrival in Quito on Friday night I can […]
Backpack journalism moved further into the mainstream last week when AU graduate student David Coffey and I traveled to New York where we finalized his internship with the Associated Press in Bangkok, Thailand. During his 12-week internship, David will employ the backpack journalism model that I’ve been teaching at American University as well as at […]