Diary of a Backpack Journalist

By Portia Grant

(Portia Grant is a college freshman who participated in three days of training in new media techniques in a pilot program sponsored by Connect and Join, a website that connects deployed National Guardsmen with their families.)

I never realized how in just three days, two words could have such an impact on my life. Those words are backpack journalism. They are what brought me and seven high school members of the Texas Youth Leadership Council to Columbia, South Carolina and the IFRA Newsplex, a newsroom of the future at the University of South Carolina.

It was a cool, crisp November morning in South Carolina’s capital when we arrived in Newsplex. As I sat down in my assigned seat, I thought, “Oh cool, we get to learn more stuff.” Little did I realize that this “stuff” would impact me so profoundly.

It was Friday, Day One of our training, and it began fast and furious. The day included tips about how to produce thought provoking photographs, how to write a story versus an article, and how to conduct an engaging face-to-face interview.

Then it was time for our first assignment: to interview Captain James Smith Jr., a member of the South Carolina Army National Guard and a State Representative. CPT Smith had just returned three months earlier from a one-year deployment in Afghanistan. During the interview, CPT Smith shared how a family trip after 9/11 to Ground Zero in New York City inspired him to give up his military commission as a JAG officer in order to enlist in the infantry and voluntarily deploy. I listened intently, taking notes as CPT Smith answered numerous questions recounting some of his experiences while deployed and others when returning home. CPT Smith’s story was very touching and hit very close to home since my father, now a retired Texas Army National Guard soldier, had also left his family to deploy and serve his country.

On Saturday, Day Two of our Newsplex experience and armed with knowledge from the fist day as well as some additional reporting tools, we received our second assignment. We were to produce multi media coverage of an event occurring across the street from Newsplex on the South Carolina State Fair Grounds.

Just the night before, one of Columbia’s coldest nights thus far this year, 300 high school and college students participated in a community outreach program, “homeless for the homeless.” The young people spent the night sleeping on a dusty field, trading warm homes, hot food, TVs, stereos, and a comfortable place to lay their heads for a blanket, a coat, and few layers of clothing. Their experience did not stop there.

Early Saturday morning, homeless people from downtown Columbia were brought to the site. There they received food, additional clothing, haircuts, foot massages, medical care, and information about numerous veteran and community services. Both the participants and the homeless, some of whom were veterans, allowed us to interview, videotape, and photograph their stories.

It was amazing to see all these volunteers using their gifts and talents to reach out and help Columbia’s homeless. One of the young women volunteers, a licensed hairstylist, was there to offer her services. Stories like hers were touching and personal, lending themselves to different storytelling techniques.

Our third and final day in Newsplex was devoted to assembling the stories we had gathered the two previous days. After more than three hours of editing, we had some amazing stories, which we published on our training websites.

(You can see some of the work at the TYLC Blogger Site)

Watching the finished product was awesome. I am now back in Texas, but I hope to continue to put these new skills to good use. Through programs like Connect and Join, backpack journalism can touch the lives of many and it is my goal to share my new skills with other National Guard youth.