It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman! Well, kind of.
The backpack or multimedia journalist is the superman, or woman, of modern journalism.
Backpack journalists do it all. They are their own producers, photographers, reporters, and editors. Carrying and operating all their own equipment, developing their own stories, gathering all story components, and editing everything together to produce a cohesive whole.
Backpack journalism first appeared in the 1990’s and, thanks to its efficiency and low cost, is becoming ever more prevalent in today’s journalism. So much so, that the majority of news sources, including national news sources, now employ at least one superman or woman journalist. Becky Diamond, formerly of CNN and MSNBC, Travis Fox, of the Washington Post, Preston Mendenhall, of MSNBC, and Kevin Sites, of Yahoo News are all multimedia journalists. The content they produce as a one-man, or one-woman, band is undistinguishable from content produced by the traditional team.
Backpack journalism is the future. And for those of us looking to enter into this field, backpack journalism is our future. It may mean more work, but it also means more creative control, being able to see a story through to the end. That, for me, is the best thing about this recent revolution. Knowing that a story is yours and that you produced it from beginning to end brings such a feeling of accomplishment. I know it is going to be rough, but I am so excited to begin my journey as a backpack journalist.
I hope you all will come along with me.
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