The reporter-as-multimedia-multitasker continues to gain momentum.

At Eastwick, we’ve explored this journalistic concept before. Basically, the backpack journalist is a reporter who reports, writes, shoots (video), edits, and then converts his or her story into print, online and various other formats. 

And this just in: ABC News  is now sending its digital reporters abroad (read more here). The network has announced that it will dispatch digital reporters to seven foreign cities, with the goal being to give ABC ”broader global presence” minus the cost of managing fully-staffed international bureaus.

These reporters will be their own producers, bookers and assistants. Two people will be posted in India, and one each in South Korea, Indonesia, Brazil, United Arab Emirates and Kenya.

Is this the end of the “bricks and mortar” newsroom bureau? Are four-person network news crews a thing of the past? Apparently, one reporter will cover the entire continent of Africa. As a side note, can you imagine one person covering North America from a bureau in Chicago? But then again, perhaps if budgets benefit, the network bosses will deploy more reporters armed with laptops to MORE cities around the globe. Or is the reporter wearing 10 hats just another way to rationalize more cost-cutting, layoffs and downsizing, as fewer producers, editors and photogs are needed. I have mixed feelings about all of this.

I consider myself an EARLY version of the backpack journalist (Backpack Journalist 1.0), as I was a reporter-photographer-anchor-writer-producer at my first station, KHSL-TV in Chico-Redding, CA. This was back in 1997, and I worked in a two-person bureau in Redding with another reporter named Lisa Amin. She and I both were responsible for covering breaking news in multiple counties, as we took turns being on call. I’d get paged at 3 A.M., put my camera in my car trunk, and drive out to the scene of a murder, car accident or fire, shoot video, write a script, edit tape and feed the video and text down to our main station in Chico. Lisa was a hard worker and we made a great team. We’d produce, between the two of us, about 8-9 stories a day - some short Vo/SOTs, others larger package pieces. And did I mention, we also shot high school football for the sports department on Fridays? To get some extra help (keep in mind, these were 3/4 cameras… a huge audio deck I carried over my shoulder connected by a long cord to the actual camera…. and don’t forget the 20-pound metal tripod), I recruited a couple of interns from the local junior college, who worked countless hours with us (but got some great hands-on experience along with class credit).

When I got to a larger station (next stop: Salinas - Monterey, CA) and worked as weekend anchor, I had an assigned photog. No longer did I need to split my attention among looking for the best camera angle, loading the tape, worrying about my audio levels, etc. - and somewhere in here managing to come up with some intelligent interview questions. In looking at my old stories, those that were shot and edited by a professional staff photog just looked stronger, as I was working with folks who had been shooting video for decades. I was also able to take a more active, focused role in my reporting, grabbing additional sources, angles, etc. I remember doing interviews, writing stories on the back of napkins and handing a script to my photog (and to this day, one of my best friends, Jim Foster), who could edit a 1:30 piece in 12 minutes while I made some last minute phone calls… all before we went live from Santa Cruz at 10.

That said, I think there is something to be said for letting people FOCUS on what they do well - let reporters report, photogs shoot, editors edit, etc. However, with news department cost cuts, this may not be realistic.

I know that today’s lighter cameras and laptops make it so much easier to point, shoot and upload video than the equipment I was dealing with. This new breed of TV reporter will need to learn how to do it all, do it well and do it fast… and hopefully the quality of reports will not be diluted.

ABC, backpack journalism, Broadcast Journalism, TV news