When no news is good news

You know, media gets a lot of criticism these days for what it doesn’t report. That’s true of social media as well. As I was thinking over the posts in recent days, I realized that I haven’t been reporting on the most important part of the trip – what’s happening in the backpack journalism lab. It’s not news if everyone is working hard and we’re making great progress. But that’s what is happening.

We got off to a great start before we came when we selected the current group of student assistants. Andrea Anderson, Jim Burns, Jennifer Solorio and Chris Whitman are a wonderful blend of journalists, technicians and, I think, great teaching potential. Maybe not as classroom teachers, but these four are going to be teaching others their entire lives, both on the job and in life. Their work ethic has enabled us to progress so far that we can have time for the sightseeing we’ve been able to do. It helps that we start our days early and keep going until well into the evening (OK, well into the night). For example, in all the time we’ve been here, I’ve only been able to take time for one short nap.

This workshop follows my personal philosophy of giving students guidance, knowledge, then get back out of their way and letting them go with our help as needed. It’s resulting in some excellent stories, in all mediums but especially in the ones we worry about most – video and photos. Students have been in the lab writing and editing every day since we arrived, including Saturday and Sunday, and generally until we boot them out when we’re all tired. Then they’re here early the next morning. Yesterday, for example, a student came for the lab key while we were eating breakfast more than an hour before the lab “officially” opened.

Another result of this dedication is that four of the six teams are virtually finished as of now, with two days to go. And the other two are well on their way. Sure, I anticipate glitches (I’m still editing their print stories, and videos are still in rough version), but I’m hopeful that we won’t have the extended work into the wee hours as sometimes has happened.

A journalism cliché is to say that it’s not news when dog bites man – and that’s why I haven’t written much about the classroom. It’s just business as usual, students doing great work. It’s why I love this business