WASHINGTON, DC, 1 March 2011 — I conducted a Backpack Journalism Workshop for eight new fellows at the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) in the nation’s capital prior to their departure for assignments overseas. During the all-day workshop, we discussed Controlling Idea, Dramatic Arc, the ABCs of the visual language, character-driven documentary and other components […]
WASHINGTON, 22 January 2011 — Maria Howell (R) is on a roll. Last summer she was the winner of the Associated Press/American University Backpack Journalism Foreign Internship that took her to the AP bureau in Jerusalem. Last fall she took on a backpack journalism internship at WashingtonPost.com. And this week she begins a backpack video […]
LITCHFIELD BEACH, South Carolina, 24 November 2010 — You see it all the time. Lovely women wearing ugly lav microphones sticking out of their neck as if it were some malignant growth. Hide the thing! Go to a pharmacy and get some Moleskin tape, which you normally would apply to your heel when wearing new […]
WASHINGTON, DC, 5 November 2010 — I’ve recently come across two documents that, particularly after the recent election, are as profoundly relevant as they are disconcerting. The first is a 1958 interview by Mike Wallace of social critic and author of “Brave New World,” Aldous Huxley. The other is a recent speech by Bill Moyers. […]
WASHINGTON, DC, 17 October 2010 — Participants at the four-day Backpack Journalism Workshop in Washington, DC, work to finish their mini documentaries as the evening deadline approaches. (Photos by Bill Gentile) Below, assistant Kelly Donnellan works with American University professor Simon Nicholson on his project. Below, Theresa Bucci (left) and Rebecca Byerly work on their […]
WASHINGTON, DC, 15 October 2010 — Rebecca Byerly, a participant in the latest Backpack Journalism Workshop, interviews her subject for a mini documentary on a busy street in the nation’s capital. She’s practicing what I refer to a “participatory observation.” That means the art of engaging subjects in a manner that allows them to tell […]