Wow - next-generation news gatherers in my very own market! I'd heard the local CBS affiliate was about to go solo of sorts. Hey, we've all heard (and a few of us have rambled) about the evolving role of the electronic news gatherer - but Jeepers - Backpack Warriors right across the street! What's next, Campfire Editors? Pup-Tent Producers? I can see the action figures now! And about those Backpacks - I'm envisioning something in a neon yellow with lots of logoes and floppy antennas, maybe a flag or two...and don't forget the satellite-dish helmet!
Okay, so it's ripe for parody. But the ugly truth is a new form of news gatherer IS on the horizon. Whether or not the term 'backpack journalist' sticks around is still unknown, but the concept of a one-person field crew is indeed here to stay. Here's why:
$$$. Cash. Legal Tender. Righteous Escudos.
Smaller cameras, laptop editors and emerging wi-fi technology may very well take the 'crew' out of "news crew". It's not our fault! Station owners and network bigwigs see the shrinking gear as the natural evolution of the electronic data hunter. Remember all the laptop vid-phone thingies the nets used during our latest foray into Iraq? YOU might remember the sub-standard grainy pictures and delayed response time, but all the guys with the checkbooks recall is the lowered cost of their sexy new video insurgents.
Now, we rightly lament the erosion of production values inherent in this winnowing process, but please don't think the chiselers care. They're too intoxicated by the state-of-the-art bells and whistles and multi-tasking possibilities to consider such esoteric matters as quality, craftsmanship and nuance. As a result, the role and image of the TV News photographer will lose focus, morphing from that of a dedicated specialist to a multi-tasking journeyman. Thus, overall aesthetics will dip. It's inevitable. Attempt enough simultaneous tasks, and some aspect has to suffer. Do not attempt to adjust your set. We are losing control of the picture....
As a matter of full disclosure, I must admit about a half dozen people kidded me about signing up for the backpack brigade. After all, I shoot, write, and edit all by lonesome as a matter of choice. Would I want to go across the street and help spearhead the latest invasion of News-onauts, be on the ground floor of that new generation? Uh...No Thanks ( and why are you asking? What do you mean log off my computer? ).
No, though I will continue to defend my right to practice ENG solo, I damn sure don't want to strap a pack to my back and wallow into the muck of general assignment. At least my bosses here seem to understand the role of a one-man-band. It's one of the more lucid observations. They realize that given enough elbow-room I can supplement their newscasts with a enlarged portion of highly-processed fluff and tragedy, all with no asssistance. Boy, do they. They think nothing of asking me to bend space and time in the process, but even they know when reinforcements are needed (as do I). It's like this: If I'm up against you and your scribbler at a band camp, an old folk's home or butterfly farm, I'll make it a point of solo-honed pride to EAT YOUR LUNCH. But change that locale to train wreck, fatal drive-by, or county commissioner meeting, and I'm calling in my logoed army. After all, a man's got to know his limitations.
So who will step up - who wants to be in the game so much they'll forgo such essentials as a technical or editorial staff? I suspect it will be the same crowd the suits have always chosen from - the young and eager. How many of us bit our lips while we signed up for less pay and more work than we knew we should, just because we wanted in? I sure did. In fact, I'll hazard a guess that WFMY (and those entities that will surely follow suit) will have no problem finding fresh young faces to go with those adorable backpacks. But they better pack a lunch. This ain't exactly Miami, but it is a very competitive market, and I know oodles of shooters on the ground who take great offense at being marginilized. Not that they would ever take it out on any of those weighed-down but bright-eyed news pioneers. Hey fella, want me to help you tune in your grey-balance transponder ?
Perhaps I'm making too much of this. Surely those in charge of such things value the contributions of all those highly-skilled yet underpaid technician-artist types. They wouldn't dare forgo the quality of the craft and go for the quick easy score. They wouldn't bamboozle some kid fresh out of J-School, strap a miniaturized TV station to his back and call him a pioneer, would they? Yeah, I guess they would. And once they get it right, it may very well become all they ever want. Like that silly rookie with the neon backpack over there said in his stand-up close, 'only time will tell'.
Back to you.
[ July 15, 2004, 07:55 PM: Message edited by: Lenslinger ]
