Backpack Journalism: Still Young

by Mu Li

In a sense, everybody can become a backpack journalist in the digital age.

All it takes is a backpack of laptop, video camera, still camera and cell phone. Ordinary folks can report what he is seeing and hearing on their blogs wherever they are, thanks to the blessing of bluetooth technology. No million dollar equipment, just do it and share it on the web. This is the notion of citizen journalism, but also the bud of backpack journalism. Things are easier than they used to be.

Back in China, I was browsing Danwei.org, one of the blog-based website that runs daily translations of Chinese news and member-produced photos and videos about China. It's founder, Jeremy Goldcorn, is pretty much a Jack-of-all-trades. Of course, Danwei's work are not perfect in the professional sense. But guess what? A large English-reading crowd who are concerned about China visits the website. Even some of the professional western journalists seek their story ideas from those useful translations. Content matters.

But if journalists are to outlast any Jim or Jack on the street, they need to become expert on the subject, and wrap it up MUCH better. There is the question: Will there be more journalists end up becoming one of the "do-it-all" Preston Mendenhall or Smita Paul, who can get the real story in really good quality reporting?

Technology advance and industry upheavals means a lot more journalists will have the ability to perform across platforms, as Jane Stevens tells us, even when few could be the master of all arts today. Even when much of the multi-media journalism nowadays are criticized as "mush of mediocrity", backpack journalism is here to stay, as the inevitable trend goes.

Most people who have doubts about the trend seem to neglect the fact that in this information overload age, the phrase "backpack journalism" has only been around for about less than decade. Much as what newspaper, radio and TV reporters have experienced, a new generation of professional backpack journalists are still growing up. In the future, the most important stories will be told in a timely media package. That means media efficiency, and better public knowledge.