Just remember, people who carry backpacks are always prepared.

I was personally upset by the article that referred to backpack journalists as "jacks of all trades and masters of none." I think the article went about the whole idea of converged media the wrong way. We are bringing the news to the public; that's our job. We are informing them and we are also trying to be as available as possible. With technology changing, we too must adapt. We are not just putting stories on the internet for the heck of it. We are going to the internet to make news more readily available to the public. People can get more information than on other mediums such as print and broadcast alone. It is at their fingertips any time, they don't have to wait until the morning paper arrives, or the ten p.m. news comes on. It is automatically archived so people can easily go back and research it later.

The article goes on to say that the author does not believe that converged media can report a breaking story and although I think that it will take more time to put a website story together than to interupt your favorite televison show, the other article "Backpack Journalism is Here to Stay" puts the whole idea into perspective when it discussed the September 11 attacks. "...many news organizations created specific sites for the continuing developments after the September 11 terrorist attack. These sites contain the stories of the day. Wrapped around them, in a "shell", are archived stories, including slide shows and/or video of the events of Sept. 11; information about Afghanistan, Pakistan, the history of terrorism, etc.; and other resources in the forms of links. Print and television simply can't provide that much information around each story."

The online websites contributed more than those on-air and in print alone because if a person missed the six o'clock news, the weren't able to see what they had missed later. With these websites, people could now look at the new material, as well as what was new yesterday.

I believe that the author of "Backpack Journalism is Here to Stay" was correct when they said, "You can't expect in-depth multimedia or cross-platform reporting unless you provide continuous training and support for early adopters." If the author of the condemning article says that backpack journalists are not good enough at using all the varieties of technology to put a successful online story together, she needs to understand that with the proper training, anything is possible.